The Ultimate Blog Challenge starts again today – 30 posts in 30 days. I participated for the first time in July – and planned to participate each quarter. However at the end of July, I realized the time commitment was definitely more than I expected.
Last week, as I started to receive notifications in my inbox that the challenge was starting up again, I knew I needed to decide if I wanted to participate again.
My first step was to determine WHY.
Why participate?
In July, I wanted to blog more consistently (previously I was posting about 3 – 4 times each month). I also wanted to network with like-minded professionals and increase my sphere of influence.
Did I hit these goals?
- I certainly blogged more consistently! In July I created a post for each day, then in August and September I posted 3 times each week.
- I participated in two networking calls with fabulous professionals that I would never have been introduced to without this challenge.
- But, I’m not sure how much I increased my exposure to potential clients. I didn’t take any “before” stats. In fact, I’m not sure how I was going to measure success in this area!
This month, my WHY is pretty similar.
- I want to connect to more like-minded professionals
- Continue to increase my exposure to potential clients.
My current and former clients have had amazing success designing the lives they want to live – however, if no one knows I exist – the number of people I can be of service to is certainly an itsy, bitsy, teeny amount! But – what does increase my exposure really mean? This certainly isn’t a very concrete goal!
My very measureable and specific goal for this month is to increase my “stats” by 25%.
- Currently 192 have subscribed to the SystemSavvy Consulting newsletter
- 175 have SystemSavvy Consulting on Facebook
- 649 follow SystemSavvy on Twitter
In addition, I want to connect to 8 additional like-minded professionals throughout the month. To provide the best possible service to my clients, I need to have a strong referral network. Since hundreds of people participate in the UBC each month, I’m going to be looking for professionals who service solopreneur and direct sales professionals.
How much time?
However, I don’t want to invest the same amount of time I invested in July. I’d like my time commitment to be similar to what I’ve been spending the last two months when I’ve been writing 3 posts each week. So, how is that possible?
- I’ll utilize the 80/20 rule
- I also have an efficient system for promoting my posts
- I will have guest bloggers post on Thursday
- Friday’s posts will be inspirational quotes instead of posts
- I will use more video
- I will also create more posts in a series, which will allow me to write one post, but break it up into 3
- I will strategically repurpose 4 posts throughout the month
I’m holding the intention to hit my goals this month while investing the same amount of time. What are your goals for October? If you are participating in the UBC, what’s your plan for success? What is your intended outcome? I’m a sponge today ready to learn and implement suggestions, please post below!
Top image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Great goal setting – think I need to figure out why I’m doing this too. Reckon that’s tomorrows blog post taken care of……
I hope you get what you wnat out of this month and look forward to reading more from you x
Debbie –
So glad you can learn from my experience. I’d love to know your goals . . . please stop back and update me!
Lisa
Interesting view points. I wish you luck in this challenge, and reading this exposed me to your system – I found it useful. Look forward to reading more. Nischala
Nischala –
Thanks for wishing me luck! I appreciate it! Sometimes it’s a little “scary” to post your goals out in the world for everyone to see . . . yet . . . how else can you reach them if not with the help of others! I appreciate the comment!
Lisa
So glad I found your blog through UBC. I am taking this challenge to help me write with freedom, to increase my creativity rather than focus on being a “food blogger.” I am also enjoying reading the rest of your site. Maybe next UBC I will finally get a blog going for my consulting business ;-)
Wendy –
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate the comment – and am looking forward to hearing about your success in January when you start your new blog! (See how I took that from “maybe” and turned into “reality”!) :)
Lisa
Lisa I like the way you’ve set your goals at the outset. This is my first time in the challenge. I have a series of post ideas developed but will measure them against your invested time list to ensure I’m realistic in the time spent. Thankyou I always enjoy your tips!
Lorelle –
Yeah! Appreciate the kudos! What are your goals for the UBC? Please share!
Lisa
I wish you the best in this challenge, yours sounds like a great plan. My reason for joining is simply to force myself to write more posts on this one blog that I have which has lots of potential but was left desserted for many months. I have seven blogs, all blogs have topics that I am passionate about. The problem is that I´m too stretched out, overwhelmed, and couldn´t reasonably handle writing regularly for all those blogs. I ended up writing regularly only on one blog, my cash-cow and main source of income. But all the while, I´ve bene guilty for not working on my other blogs. So through this challenge, I hope to publish thirty quality posts on this baby blog within the month.
Glee –
Best of luck! What’s the purpose for each blog? Fun, income, creative outlet, networking . . . ? I’m wondering if you defined the purpose for each of the 7 if you might not be able to eliminate some of the “guilt”?
Lisa
Hi Lisa! All of my seven blogs are for income purposes in the topics that I´m passionate about – fashion for women, fashion for kids, personal style/shopping (the very blog I had), marriage, dating, pets, and self-improvement.
I do have two more blogs as outlet – prose&poetry blog and personal blogs – built in blogspot. They´re the ones that I first had before I decided to leave teaching and officially blog full-time.
I´m not a superwoman though, although my mind sometimes think that I am, so I have a hard-time finding time to produce contents on my other blogs.
Ahhh Glee –
You aren’t superwoman – but you sure do sound passionate and insightful! I wonder if identifying a posting schedule (that takes into account how many hours you WANT to spend blogging) would help?
Lisa
That sounds fun. Though I’m not confident I can join the 30-day blogging challenge. It takes discipline to do so.