Mar 31, 2011 / News

You’ve now completed 25% of the challenge! Feedback for us?

Congratulations on making it through month three!!

At the end of February, you guys told us about how Post a Day/Week has strengthened your writing abilities, boosted your blog readership, and given you the chance to meet lots of other great bloggers. This month we want to know how we can continue to help you meet your blogging goals.

So tell us, what’s been the hardest part of the challenge? Is it sitting down and getting started with posts? Choosing what to write about? Finding the courage to stop editing and hit publish? Let us know what you struggle with most, and we’ll do our best to help!

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  1. I try to post every morning by 7:00 or 8:00 at the very latest. Most of the time, I write, tag and schedule my posts the night before but sometimes I get too busy… when I come home from work and realize “I’ve got nothin'” is when the daily posting starts to feel a bit like a chore 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I’m easily distracted and spend hours reading my buddies blogs and then run out of time! I’ve been writing a post since 17.00 today and 4 hours later a paper draft and nothing else as I am bloghopping like flicking through the daily newspaper.
    Congrats to all the PAD bloggers what a challenge!
    PiP

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I agree with Kat that sometimes it is hard after work to come up with something fresh and new. That being said, sometimes there’s a like spark that just lights up an idea – I suppose you just have to be ready and open for it. Tonight it was my kid’s questions about the Ganesha statue on my mantle.
    I am happy to have stayed with the program up to now despite 15 days where I either couldn’t get on line or was just flat out too busy.
    I can’t say that your daily tips on blog topics have really helped – they have been encouraging but not particularly topically helpful if that makes any sense.
    Anyway, thanks again for the great initiative – only 9 months to go!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. It would be great to have suggestions for sites with royalty-free images / folks who don’t mind usage as long as their credited. Even if I whip up a post in 20 minutes, I usually search for an appropriate image for equally as long. It’s a real time sucker.

    It would also be awesome to get some suggestions on style and voice – not only for improving methods, but also as an experiment post. Maybe a list of the different kinds of posts – news stories, photo blog post, 1st person narrative, etc.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree about suggestions for image sites, I only use my own images for this reason, unless I happen to find one I know is free to use. And sometimes the link on Google images takes me to a dodgy virus thing rather than what I was expecting, which is scary!

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  6. Leaving the blog alone even after I have published it is my big problem.
    Deciding what to write comes next although one I have made that decision the words just come naturally

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  7. I love this challenge! I do find it difficult to come up with fresh ideas, but I set up one major rule about my blog when I started it a few days before 2011: DON’T TALK ABOUT WORK. My main reason for starting a blog was to let my family, who lives all over the word, know what I’m up to. The problem is, my life isn’t extremely interesting. This challenge has forced me to look outside of work and talk about my life. A a result, it has made my life more interesting.

    My writing has gotten better too; it is more creative and humorous. Just this past week my readers increased 5x! I’m starting to find my niche and I am happy to see others are starting to follow me!

    Challenging? Yes. This was SUPPOSED to be a challenge. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I knew my writing wouldn’t always be good, and sometimes it would be just aweful. It is stretching me and make me look further. I am SO happy I have been loyal to this challenge and I have successfully completed everyday!

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  8. I was at ORD writing on my blog and my computer slipped to the ground and crashed my hard drive. I was out of my e-life for 10 days until I could get to my external hard drive. T-G I had backed everything up before I left. Thankfully, I pack a Mac and with TimeMachine I got everything restored yesterday as good as new including my 9,000+ photos. Now, I’m back to POW (postaweek).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Congratulations on your success. I am glad you are back, obstacles can be a blessing too. 🙂

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  11. Two things would make it easier for me to post. One would be to have the topics up by noon Pacific time or even the night before. They don’t come at specific times which makes it hard to plan. Maybe posting and then re-posting throughout the day would let more of us plan.

    I would like to schedule my posts, but despite lots of suggestions and help nothing seems to work consistently. So this is more for the happiness guys, do a scheduling for dummies post. I have tried every suggestion and nothing works consistently, bah humbug.

    I always try to post on topic as I see it as a challenge. How can I bend the topic to my blog and my thoughts? Makes me think. I also send my regular posts as a post a day. I would like to see all the on-topic posts listed in one place. I like to see what others have done with the topic, although it does seem that few of us post on topic.

    I am also curious as to how many people are trying to post or at least how many posts come through a day. It would help me judge my own effectiveness a bit more accurately.

    I also need some clarification on image posting. We were encouraged to post images which I now do on my blog, for the first six weeks they often showed up on postaday; now they never show. I post some images of my own, and some from free image sites. I give credit and usually a link where I post someone’s image .. It is totally possible I am not picking the right images, but also it might be we are only to post our own or a setting may be interfering. Vain enough to like to see images posted and curious as to the rules.

    Did I tell you I was a blabber blogger?

    Thank you for this experience. It does sometimes get tiring and a few of the topics really sophmorish, otherwise it is great exercise and does have me thinking about posting. Staying strong and hoping for some feedback.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Reply to Katherine G. Levine,

      What kind of images do you need? just curious since I’m a click happy blogger and might be able to help you.

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      1. I do find lots of images, and they vary. I do a post a day called Be With Beauty, but other the others depend on the subject. I was curious, however, about the regulations. Thank you for your response.

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  12. I’m doing postaweek because my blog is a book review blog and I can’t read a book a day. I am trying to post a bit more than reviews though and that’s the bit I find hard, trying to think up other book related content that isn’t just a meme. Most of the time I an get away with just a review as a weekly post but sometimes I can’t finish a book in one week and that makes things harder

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Distraction is definitely my biggest issue. Life is so busy here that it gives me ample to write about but no where near enough time to actually sit down and do it.

    Would be good if you could freeze time. An hour a day should do it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. We are hard at work on the freeze time feature – When you see us post 7000 topics on a single day, you’ll know we have it in beta 🙂

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      1. This whole blogging challenge has made me doubt if it was a good idea to sign up for wp.ORG, and a domain. I’d just done it right before it started.

        The global tags don’t work [of course], I can’t reply to comments by email [only with third party comments].

        My posts will never show up on that page Post A Day 2011 and I can’t make smilies like this 🙄 ha ha!

        Honestly, I think I would have thought twice about it now that I know all this, but now that I have it, I’ll just blog along… 8)

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  14. Usually my biggest struggle is finding a topic since my blog is topic specific….. although it’s on gratitude…. I still find some days hard to come up with something! The next challenge is remembering! I have learned that by not deleting the reminder from Word Press to blog that it helps me remember as I’m checking my email for one last time before I go to bed….. If I see that email still in my box then I know I need to blog! Thanks for that!

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  15. Perhaps there is something wrong with me – I reallly don’t find blogging difficult at all. I post three to four times a week, which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the past three months. I have not really changed anything since the Postaday/week campaign started, except recently I started doing the weeklyl photo challenges. If there is any part that is difficult, it’s when I get an inspiration for a blog and am away from my computer. Some of the best blogs I’ve written in my head have been lost because I didn’t have anything with me to write on or get my thoughts down. I have scraps of paper all over my desk with cryptic notes scribbled – “hot dogs” “NPR” and the like.

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    2. They make a voice recorder and sell it at your friendly neighborhood discount stores that is the size of a cell phone and records for hours. You could dictate to yourself. It even plays back “slow” so you could transcribe . . .

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  16. Being a “newbie” to this computer stuff… I have more trouble with getting things to work on any site I’m on than anything else. I NEVER have trouble thinking of things to write about, I’ve been doing it on paper for years! I am loving WordPress and all it has to offer- thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I have found the WP support to be very helpful when I can’t get soemthing to work. I look at the FAQ and tips first, then send an email if I can’t figure it out after that. I’ve also posed how to questions to my more tech-savy readers.

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  17. Learning how to get the best out of the dashboard and the WP interface has been my biggest hassle, I need really simple hand holding stuff with step by step pictures as I’m technically challenged.

    I still don’t understand what Quick Press is (couldn’t find a tutorial for it either) and the difference between “Subscriptions”, as in people who sign up to my blog every time I make a new post, and “subscriptions” as in the box I click when I leave a comment on another blog to say I’d like to know if they reply to my comment.. it is confusing.

    I’ve love the option to see a reply to my comment question that I maybe left on someone else’s blog but NOT to every “other” reply to that post as all the email notifications start to block up my email inbox.

    I’d like a dedicated simple button to push when a comment on my blog looks like spam but doesn’t get flagged as such by askismet, so that it’s easily routed to someone who can deal with it, delete or let me know if it’s a really ok comment after all.
    The “contact us” route is longer and harder to find than it needs to be…

    I’d love to have a “template” of stuff like a calendar that I could set up in prep for the schedule , it would include all the info I need repeated every post (like my copyright note to add to my photos/ the postaday tag etc).. it would be pre-dated but not published so that I would work on stuff ‘in progress” but still in the calendar (if that makes sense) and if I could work on it in the same WP dashboard format OFF-LINE that would be even more fabulous for when I’m places without internet connection.

    I’d love to learn to make links that look less like computer code and more like pretty words (again couldn’t find tutorial …)

    and I’d like a tutorial on how to add a blog roll but on a “second page” but can’t ind that either.

    I DO fully accept that my techo capabilities ARE limited and that I’m not great when people instantly start talking about technical computer terms, I mean someone in comments else where mentions a “jetpack” and I’m sitting thinking ” um …err a “what”?????”

    … and I know my list is horrendously long but well you did ask what we struggle most with 🙂

    Yep, I know, now you probably regret asking the question LOL.
    I do hope I didn’t ruin your day 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    2. “I’ve love the option to see a reply to my comment question that I maybe left on someone else’s blog but NOT to every “other” reply to that post as all the email notifications start to block up my email inbox.” Totally agree!

      Links are easy – you find the site you want to link to, highlight its web address and press copy. Then in your post, write the word you want to make a link, then highlight it and press the button that looks like a chain. Paste the link into the box and click OK. That’s how I do it anyway! 🙂

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  18. The challenge is like someone else wrote here in the comments section. Getting started especially when getting bogged down at work. I wrote a post about how I am going to whip myself into shape and keeping up with things. Maybe finding a time in the day when I can write without interruptions of any kind. We’ll see how that goes…

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  19. I don’t try to stick to one sector of life about which to write. I’m all over the subject or topic map, so I never want for area in life to tackle.

    I do find it helpful to use javascript:var%20d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f=’https://gadaboutblogalot.wordpress.com/wp-admin/press-this.php’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,u=f+’?u=’+e(l.href)+’&t=’+e(d.title)+’&s=’+e(s)+’&v=4′;a=function(){if(!w.open(u,’t’,’toolbar=0,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,status=1,width=720,height=570′))l.href=u;};if%20(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))%20setTimeout(a,%200);%20else%20a();void(0) and other markers for possibilitie. I usually use Press This as soon as I see something that looks promising. Of course, using Press This is useful for folks base their blogs on social/political commentary.
    Thanks for the great follow-up from the Gurus … I really appreciate you guys.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. My apologies! The above is a shambles and not at all as I intended. I wish there could be an edit function for our comments. Perhaps, I wouldn’t be so inclined to make a fool of myself.

    Anyway, thanks to everyone. I’ve enjoyed the help and the comments.

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  21. Some days are definitely harder than others, but once I learned how to schedule posts so that I can write several on the weekends to be posted automatically throughout the week, it became much easier. I also instituted some theme days – Music Monday, Thankful Thursday, Recipe Friday, and Psalm Sunday – that usually help with the daily posting challenge. Except when I can’t think of a recipe for Friday or a song or band to write about on Monday. Anyway, thanks for the challenge. It has been fun! Peace, Linda

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  22. This has been great…that hardest for me was before this great idea. Since signing up for the Postaweek deal, I have bought those tiny little notebooks to jot down ideas, have started a weekly feature on my blog called “Mindslam Movie Mondays”, & have found many new friends & great blogs to read. Don’t think you guys need to do anything but keep the topics coming (even though I haven’t used one yet) doesn’t mean I won’t….the topics just make me think more & I end up coming up with some on my own. I love it! Thanks!….Jason

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  23. This has been a great challenge – a challenging challenge, that’s for sure. I have posted once per day since we started this and my readership has tripled. Many times I have wanted to wave the white flag, but I just keep going and going and my writing is improving and so I won’t stop now!!
    Continued good fortune to all fellow bloggers….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Andrea, I do notice my readers going up as I write daily…and my job situation is fixing to change so I will be able to blog more. But what are you using to track your hits/readers. I’m using site stats plugin and I’m not so sure it’s accurate. And b/c I don’t have a huge block of time to sit down and figure out where to put the Google analytics code…I still haven’t done it! But I hear it’s the best. Just curious what you use? Thanks!

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      1. Hi Jan, I am so sorry it’s taken me so long to reply… I forgot to come back to check this post…
        Anyway, I use Stat Counter. statcounter.com And I rely on the stats from WordPress, too.
        I am unaware of the capabilities of Google’s analytics…. I’ll definitely check it out.
        I have found that there is little difference between what WordPress stats tell me and what Statcounter tell me. I like statcounter because you can see the part of the country your readers come from, and also it’ll tell you how many are new visitors, or repeat visitors. However, that depends on cookies and not everyone has cookies enabled these days….
        If you find out any more, I’d sure love to know!

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  24. The only thing I find difficult is posting when I don’t want to. I can only blame myself for taking the postaday challenge, and it’s too late now. I have no problem talking for 300 words about how I don’t want to write a post, but there’re only so many of those I can do. I write for work, fun and profit, so a blog is extra work that I don’t always want to do. I hope it gets more interesting when I deploy.

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  25. Between work, kids and all my many to do’s, I have trouble sitting down just to write a post. Once I sit down I need a few extra minutes to “get going”, then I can write forever…if I just had the time. Another time issue I have is that I love to post pics as I’m writing and they seem to take a very long time uploading. This causes some skip in my thoughts. 🙂

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    1. Jan, I write in Word, first, then copy-paste into wp. When I want to remember to add an illustration, I just type
      xxx
      then keep on writing, just as you see here. After I’ve pasted it onto the newpost page, then I replace all the x’s with illustrations. Never miss a beat that way.

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  26. This has been a blast! The most encouraging thing WordPress does for us is the Freshly Pressed feature. I almost quit before my post was Freshly Pressed! Since then, I have friends and a small daily audience that encourages me to continue! Thanks so much, WordPress!

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  28. Haven’t gotten there either and that causes all sorts of questions in my mind about whether I should keep blogging, but I am a stubborn person and also know writing gives me strength whether anyone reads or not and I do get replies from people so at least a few read.

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  29. I have found consistency to be my greatest challenge. Life is a bit on the crazy side here, but I love writing so much, that I am committed to this. Posting daily is tough. I don’t lack ideas, and writer’s block is rare. It’s just sitting down EVERY DAY to untangle all my thoughts that is tough at times.

    I’m getting better, though, even though I’ve missed several days in the last two weeks.

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  30. I don’t want my writing to sound forced and I think that is my biggest barrier right now. I feel like I am writing thinking that “I want this to get Freshly Pressed” every time instead of writing without worry or expectations. Also, I feel like I am neglecting my family, house, etc. and when I sit down to write, my brain is in a fog. I’m also questioning the relavancy of my writing, as in, does anyone really care what I have to say?

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