You’ve started a blog, you visit and comment on others’ sites, you hang around with those cool kids over at The Daily Post — all fantastic ways to find your readers and become a part of the WordPress.com community. If you want to try and speed up the process, though, you can jump-start your site by participating in blogging events.
Blogging events can take lots of forms, but typically, a blogger will issue a challenge or task, you’ll publish your response, and the host blogger will round up all the responses on his/her site so all participants can check ’em out. In essence, it’s kinda like what we do with writing and photo challenges, just initiated by individual bloggers.
There are events out there for everyone — fiction writing, travel photography, cooking and recipe development, poetry challenges, DIY project events, and more — so you can quickly meet other bloggers who care about the same thing you do.
You can find blogging events by skimming the Challenge and Blogging Challenge topics in the Reader. We’ve also rounded up a few examples for you:
- Our own Sara Rosso co-founded World Nutella Day, which invites cooks from all over the world to submit their best recipes using everyone’s favorite chocolate-hazelnut spread.
- Speaking of foodie challenges, Is My Blog Burning? rounds up food blog events from around the web, so you can take your pick.
- Hitch-Hikers’ Handbook organizes a weekly travel photography competition that’s worth a look even if you’re not a shutterbug; the entries are stunning.
- Blogdramedy runs the BlogFestivus writing challenge, asking you to publish one seasonal short story a day for nine days.
- Rochelle Wisoff-Fields hosts the Friday Fictioneers, inviting authors to share 100-word short stories.
- The Trifecta Writing Challenge gives participants a new one-word prompt each Monday and gives bloggers total creative freedom over what they write in response — as long as it’s between 33 and 333 words.
- For you crafty types, Challenge Me Happy posts a new scrapbooking challenge on the first of each month.
Often, blogging events have their own Twitter handles to make following along easier, and many offer badges to show off your participation. In fact, checking out the badges on blogs you already love can be a great way of finding interesting events.
If you have a blogging event you love participating in (or you run one yourself), please leave a link in the comments so others can find you. While we encourage you to keep on participating in Daily Post challenges, get out there and see what else is going on!
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from reverb to resound, now projectreflect12 Help not only bring your 2012 to an end but prep your 2013 to be the best year yet. http://www.estherfox.com/projectreflect12/
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Thanks for the nod.
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We have a global network that’s growing every week. Lots of fun to see how many different stories can be inspired by a single photo prompt.
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The photo prompt is posted on Wednesday morning…at least in the Midwest USA. 😉 Authors post from Wednesday and beyond. The bulk of them follow the original idea of posting Friday. A great challenge to tighten your writing.
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Hi there, I have an ongoing Blogging Challenge on my blog which invites readers to answer thought-provoking questions, often requiring self-reflection. There is also usually one photo challenge as well.
You can find my Blogging Challenge in the Slider on my homepage at Swift Expression: http://tfaswift.wordpress.com/
I also have Awards that can be displayed on your blog if you win the Challenge. These Awards are 100% earned and there is no “chain mail” effect. Come and check it out!
Fair warning: This Challenge is not for the faint-hearted.
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I personally, enthusiastically, and unreservedly recommend Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers! Not only has it multiplied traffic to my blog, it is a whopping ton of fun!
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trifecta is a wonderful site:)
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I am having a virtual Christmas Party on December 15th–come dressed as your favourite author or character in a book; bring an appetizer from the 1970’s; and be ready to hear Margaret Atwood laugh, Rodents and Rebels play, and other bloggers entertain.
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What a wonderful idea! Sounds like great fun!
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come on out
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I participate in Romantic Monday, hosted by EdwardnHotspur at edwardhotspur.WordPress.com. only rule is your post must be about romance
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Here’s a link that will work. Sorry. Stupid smart phones.
http://edwardhotspur.wordpress.com/romantic-mondays/
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I love Ailsa’s weekly travel theme at http://wheresmybackpack.com
I really enjoy all the blogs that host challenges and meeting new bloggers. Thanks for this post. 🙂
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I just started a blog event myself (interesting timing, lol). Details are available here: http://ponderingspawned.com/through-our-eyes-2/
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Thanks for sharing these challenges, I’m looking forward to checking them out! 🙂
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Thanks for the blog nod about BlogFestivus! I hope to see you on the joy train this holiday season. 🙂
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Thank you for blog. Very interesting to me. I am trying to learn something everyday.
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Everyone has a point of view no matter the medium and we would love to see your vision – Please have a look at how to enter the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge at http://acrossthebored.com/two-cents-tuesday-challenge/. This week’s seasonal (or not) theme is Decoration – http://acrossthebored.com/2012/12/04/two-cents-tuesday-challenge-decoration/ So many challenges, so little time!
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I am hosting a weekly challenge called “Wednesday Rewind”. I challenge my readers to take a look back at what they were doing last year on this date. It is always interesting to compare what were doing this year and last year. Personally I love the interation of challenges. Today’s challenge will be posted shortly today.
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Reblogged this on Homepreneurs's Blog and commented:
Become part of the WordPress family!
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What is your most memorable Christmas experience?
I invite you to share your story with me at :
What is Your Most Memorable Christmas Experience?
By using the comment box ont he post—you need not use your real name (but the story should be real).
By emailing it to me at chollandnews at yahoo.com. I will weave the emailed stories into a Christmas post.
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I participate in “Tree Tuesday” on the initiative of Jeff, at http://www.jeffsodphotography.com
We share our love for trees with images, please come and join us.
Tag your post “Tree Tuesday” and it will show in the reader!
The more the merrier! 🙂
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Sorry, this is the right link! http://jsodphotography.com/
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Thank You so much for bringing this idea to us all. I myself enjoy looking at Tree’s, taking photographs of them; so count me in, I’ll be participating! 😀
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This is a great source for me! Thanks for the tips.
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For those of you inspired by music, Lance over at My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog has a weekly “100 Word Song” challenge http://lancemyblogcanbeatupyourblog.wordpress.com/100-word-song/ that is simply a blast to both write for, and read the other entries – I recommend you give it a go!
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Nice!! I’ll be getting my entry in by Tuesday 😉
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thanks for the awesome advice…. I am a new blogger so the support is awesome!!!!
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These are great! Thanks a lot especially now that I’m going to start writing Flash Fiction at My Story Club (website for FF writers). I just entered my 1st comp from your list and received a good response. This couldn’t have come at a more perfect time! Thanks 😀
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