30-Day Blog Post Challenge – Day 1: The 30-Day Blogging Challenge Rules

Hi everyone.

I just had this idea this morning about launching a 30-day blogging challenge. But first, let me tell you a short story.

When I was a child I had a very vivid imagination. I liked to watch movies about adventures and used to read lots of science fiction books. We did not have computers back then, so TV and books were the major sources of information about distant countries and events. At some point, probably in middle school, I took a pen in my hand and started writing a science fiction story. I did it for some time and then other things captured my attention.

Many years have passed. Last month my parents flew to the United States from Eastern Europe to see me and their grandchildren. They brought that old notebook with them that contained the stories about adventures I had written when I was in middle school. Browsing through the pages of the notebook I could not stop wondering how many words I had written and how much time I had committed.

You might have a question: why did I tell you this story? There are a few reasons. Stories create connections between people. Also, stories attract attention. We grow up listening to stories our parents tell us. I really want your attention, because I have a goal. My ultimate goal is to get you more clients, and in order to do that, I need to earn your attention first. I need your attention now in order to be able to tell you about the exact method later. In the blogging challenge, we going to be talking about I recommend you to do the same.

I think it’s a great idea and there are multiple benefits of doing that. And here is why:

1. At the end of 30 day period, you will end up with 30 articles, and around 30000 words of content. Some of these articles will be crappy, others will be great. Some of them will attract organic traffic. Because of the consistency of posting (1 new post every day), and freshness of your content, your site should start getting crawled pretty frequently and you should start seeing more visitors to your website (and some of them will become your clients). I predict that the traffic should double or even triple in 30 days and so should your leads if you own a business and this is your business website. I’d also recommend amplifying your posts by using Instagram and hashtags.
2. Your writing skills will improve significantly in 30 days. This will have lifetime benefits on your career.
3. You will save money on content production costs. You won’t have to pay the content writers, because you gonna be doing that yourself.
4. Consistency will give you more discipline. Writing one post per day is quite a commitment, I get that. There are ways to facilitate that process. Keep reading, I will provide more details below.
5. You are going to build not just content but content assets. Please, treat your content that way. After the challenge is over you will be able to repurpose that content whatever way you want.

Also, I encourage you to tweet your progress and/or post the screenshots of your fresh-out-of-the-oven content on Instagram. Use hashtag #30dayblogpostchallenge

Questions and Answers about this Blogging Challenge:

Question: How long should my posts be?

For SEO purposes it’s a good rule of thumb to make your content longer than your competitors’. For this challenge, I think 1000 words per post or close to that is good. The more words per post you produce the better.

Question: But what should I be writing about?

I believe you are an expert in your niche. Or at least you know how to do something really well. If you have dedicated many hours to something you have a competitive advantage and you can teach other people how to do that. So just pick some aspect of your craft and cover it in as many details as possible. For example, if your website is a Shopify store where you sell fishing equipment, then you can write about:

• types of bait
• types of tackle
• types of fish people can catch in your region
• reasons why people go fishing
• compare different fishing rods
• compile and describe various interesting cases (biggest fish ever caught, interesting things that happened when people went fishing, etc)
• etc, use your creativity

Or for example, if you are a dentist, you can write about:

• pros and cons of dental veneers
• root canals – describe how YOU do them at your clinic (do you have a specific method? tell the world about it)
• what kinds of implants exist, what materials are used etc – why would you recommend one type over the other
• importance of preventative care, tell a couple of stories about your patients without telling names
• etc

Or if you build outdoor kitchens and do landscaping work:

• write about the types of pavers, how they differ from one another, and why one type is better than the other.
• why pool safety is important and what to do if consider remodeling your pool
• what types of patios exist
• what are the pros and cons of having an outdoor fireplace
• etc

As you can see, you can get really creative and go really deep into certain topics. Just write about what you like to do or about the field you are an expert in. The most important thing is to understand that today, unlike 20 years ago we have too much choice on what to read and what to spend our attention on. That’s why in order to get heard you want to show the world YOUR way of doing things that everyone else does. There are hundreds of thousands of plumbers in the world, but every plumber has their own way of doing plumbing, know certain tricks they’ve learned along the way and had unique experiences working with their clients.

Question: How long will it take me to write one blog post?

I think it should take you about an hour or so, if you write about the subject you know really well and you just flow writing. Use Grammarly to correct any errors as you go. I use Grammarly, it’s free, and it makes your writing more correct.

Question: So how do I find time to write an article per day? I don’t have that one hour!

Write as if you are writing for 5 graders, avoid using complex terms. If you have to use industry-specific terms, I recommend to explain them in detail (“explain like I am 3 years old” principle). The more detailed the explanation is, the better for your SEO and organic traffic.

Question: Should I be posting articles on my blog or on LinkedIn/Medium/somewhere else?

I can provide you my recommendations from the SEO standpoint. When you post something on LinkedIn first, it’s LinkedIn who gets the credit for putting your great content on the Web and exposing it to the world. If you post it on your website first, and this content has never been found anywhere else on the Web prior to that moment, then your website will get the credit and you will have increased chances on ranking for certain keywords. Then you can extract some highlighs of your content and post them on LinkedIn.

I hope to inspire you with this challenge, and I want your business to get more clients.

So please, allow me to start the challenge with this post.

#30dayblogpostchallenge

Continue reading: Day 2 of 30: Focus on Your Customer