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How does a 30-day blog challenge sound?
Hey you, welcome to Bringing Up Business a one-stop hub on tips for new bloggers and the blogging basics.
Don’t forget to bookmark this post. It’s nice to have an epic and actionable guide like this when you’re starting out. So I hope you find this helpful towards your blogging journey.
The 30-day blog challenge aims to:
- Enhance your skills in SEO writing
- Create content that’s relevant to your target audience and your business
- Build momentum on creating content consistently
This 30-day challenge is ideal for:
- New bloggers who have had trouble to consistently create content every week
- Freelance writers who want to build their portfolio and enhance their skills in SEO writing
- Freelance writers and/or bloggers who have no idea how to sell and market their services by creating content
- Coaches who want to create engaging and FAQ blog posts to prospect clients
- E-commerce owners who feel that their websites need a little oomph to stand out.
Related Post: High-paying freelance services new bloggers can offer
To join the free 30-day blog challenge, you will need:
- A WordPress website – The free plan works fine. But if you have FINALLY decided to blog like a pro, get a domain name and a reliable web host. Then, install wordpress.org. Don’t stress on your web design yet. We’ll get to that. Right now, focus on your content.
- Facebook page
This 30-day blog challenge is NOT for you if:
- You hate writing
- You don’t have the time
- You want to learn how to start a blog, but you won’t take action
- You’re afraid to put your work out in the world
- You can’t commit
For this 30-day blog challenge, your ultimate goal is to publish 1 blog post every Friday.
To achieve this, here are daily prompts to help you achieve your weekly goal.
Let’s get started.
Saturdays
Conduct keyword research and hunt for blog post ideas
Welcome to day 1, yass.
Today, you will brainstorm on what blog post to publish on Friday.
Let’s get started.
Assuming you are a blogger or freelance writer in the financial niche and want to write about how to manage your finances during the quarantine.
So, go to Google and type
how to manage your finances while in quarantine
Go over the blog post titles and the meta description which appears in the search results. Explore up to 5 page results until you come up with 1 blog post idea to publish on Friday.
Don’t stress out on your blog title yet. Right now, what’s important is to have a working blog post idea and focus keywords.
Take note of the meta description. There are words in bold which mean it matches your search results. From there, you can tell what focus keywords you can use for your blog post.
Aside from Google, you can utilize free keyword research tools which I also mentioned in a previous blog post. However, they’re not as reliable as paid tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.
So for our example, you will find keywords like
- money
- manage
- your finances
- management
- manage your money
- quarantine
- how to manage
Choose which of these keywords will make your blog post “optimized”.
Just a quick note. To have a successful SEO strategy for your new blog, you need more thorough keyword research than this. This is only an overview of how Google search works.
The Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide is an excellent reference, too.
Sundays
Take a break
You might be thinking,
“Wait, what? We’re just getting started. How can we take a break already?”
On average, a person can focus for up to two hours and needs a 20-30 minute break.
Moreover, excessive focus can lead to bad decisions and poor results.
Since we’ve already established a goal to publish every Friday, you need to give yourself enough time to break your goals into actionable daily tasks to avoid being overwhelmed.
So, take the day off and see you tomorrow.
Mondays
Create a blog post outline and Pinterest pins
Let’s start with your blog post outline.
Don’t stress out on the number of words yet. Right now, our concern is to create a blog post that is meaty, structured, and well-written.
First, let’s talk about headings.
We have H1, H2, H3, H4.
By default, your blog post title is Heading 1 or H1.
To expand the topics you can discuss in the blog post, you need sub-headings and these are your H2, H3, and H4.
For example, your blog post title is:
My New Quarantine Morning Routine
This is your Heading 1 (H1).
For your subheadings, you can search in Google and look at
“People Also Ask”
Use can use the questions as your subheadings.
For this blog post, the People Also Ask search results are:
How do I start a morning routine?
What is the best daily routine?
Is a morning routine important?
Use can use these for your H2 headings.
Now, if you want to expand on these topics, those will be your H3.
In my blog posts, I commonly use H2, and H3 for my outline or subheadings. I never use H4.
This is going to be the foundation of your blog post.
Now, Pinterest.
You need to create 5 pins for this blog post.
Why?
Because organic reach (Google SEO) is different from Pinterest SEO. Your blog post may be optimized as per Google guidelines but it doesn’t mean it works the same with Pinterest.
For example:
Your blog post title is
My new quarantine morning routine
This is enough for Google. Simple and straightforward. But that’s not the case with Pinterest. Pinterest users want juicy titles. So you need to come up with a variety of pins and titles to know which will give you the best results.
You can use:
How to wake up early and not go back to bed again
10 morning habits you need while in quarantine
How to have a productive and stress-free morning
How I create a healthy morning routine
10 things to do before 8 AM
For your pins, we have our old friend, Canva. There are templates available for free that you can use.
If you want to take your designs to the next level, you can search for templates and font styles in Creative Market. P.S. They offer freebies every Monday.
But do not spend more than an hour to create your pins.
If you think your pins aren’t “pretty enough” it’s alright.
We’re not aiming for perfection here.
The goal is to get it done.
That’s it for today.
Tuesdays
Write the blog post
Todays task is to write the blog post.
For me, this is the most important and most difficult part of the challenge.
We have surpassed the “I don’t have anything to write” mentality with our keyword research and blog post outline.
Now, the challenge is to ACTUALLY put it in writing.
The biggest problem I hear from aspiring and new bloggers is how difficult it is to focus.
Well, I have a solution.
The Pomodoro Technique.
How does it work?
First, set your alarm to 25 minutes and WRITE LIKE CRAZY.
Do not pause. DON’T STOP.
After 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and set the alarm again for another 25 minutes.
Again that’s
25 minutes to write nonstop > 5-minute break > 25 minutes to write nonstop
Two rounds of the Pomodoro technique and you’ll be surprised how much content you made. Do not proofread or edit yet. That’s your task on Thursday. Right now, all you need to do is write.
Related Posts: The Best How-To Guide in Writing Blog Posts
That’s it. Looking forward to seeing your work.
Wednesdays
Promote your blog post on Facebook and Instagram
Why now when your blog post is not yet published until Friday?
Here me out.
Do you like the Star Wars movies?
Remember The Rise of Skywalker?
The final trailer was published on YouTube on October 22, 2019.
The movie was showing in theaters December 20.
Therefore, the last leg of the movie promotion was held over 2 months before the movie was released?
Why?
Two things
1. For die hard fans to be excited as hell.
2. To prolong and attract interest to moviegoers, fans or not.
Another example
Suicide squad
The official trailer was released January 20, 2016
It was shown in theaters August 5th.
Aaand another one.
Marvel Avengers: Endgame
How many trailers did you watch before it was shown in theaters in April 26?
Me? All of them 🙂
But when it comes to self-promoting, I think it has ethics involved.
Do you receive DM’s or tags about “liking” a post or page as a “favor?”
How do you feel about it?
Do you feel obliged because it’s from a friend or family member?
Or are you happy to do so because you like the content, and you want it on your feed because it makes you “cool’?
Simply put, it’s easy to promote yourself and your work if you will tell people what you’re promoting, and how they will benefit from it.
Is it likeable?
Shareable?
Relatable?
Will it attract clients, or brands for sponsored posts?
Moreover, we want people to appreciate us and our work and not because they did it as a “favor.”
We want genuine appreciation. The kind that will motivate us to keep going.
So today, create an image and description about your blog post on Friday.
Tell people what is it about.
Why do they have to read it?
What will they get from reading it?
Thursdays
Proofreading and editing
Roll up your sleeves because this is going to be a long one.
Today, let’s polish your work.
1. Grammar
For this, Grammarly is your BFF.
The free version works wonders. Just install it in your browser and it will correct spelling, verb tenses, and punctuation mistakes.
If you take advantage of the premium plan, some of the added features are readability, vocabulary suggestions, and style checks. But the most important feature you can get from the premium plan is the plagiarism detector.
2. Readability
Remember the book reports, research papers, and theses we wrote in school?
Forget long sentences and bulky paragraphs.
Blog posts must be skimmable and scannable.
Skimming and scanning are two types of reading skills.
Skimming is quick reading to get a general idea.
Scanning is to search a long-form blog post for a piece of particular information.
For example, if you want to know more about how to protect your blog and business legally, you go over my previous blog post to get the gist.
That’s skimming.
But, if you want to know the 3 legal templates you need to protect your blog, you search the blog post to find the information I’m referring to.
That’s scanning.
To achieve this, write short paragraphs and utilize your subheadings.
Remember the blog outline you made last Monday?
Our sample blog post title is
My New Quarantine Morning Routine
Assuming this is your first H2 heading
Is a morning routine important?
You can write a short paragraph to answer with a yes or no, and why. Three to 5 sentences will do.
Then, your second H2 will be
What is the best daily routine?
Again, you can answer this with a short paragraph. About 3 sentences.
Lastly, your third H2 will be
How do I start a morning routine?
Instead of short paragraphs, you can use bullet points instead.
Furthermore, your explanations of your H2 headings might get attention from Google. How does a Google snippet sound?
A snippet is a portion of a Google search listing. Simply put, Google is giving you the best search results it can find based on the keywords you entered.
In fact, I shared mine on Instagram that I got one from my YouTube channel, yey.
Therefore, a snippet means your content is the best search result Google has found, yass.
3. Images and Videos
Is there a rule of thumb when it comes to using images and videos to enhance the reader experience of your blog post?
I have no idea.
But my rule is this;
A blog post section is text-heavy when you scrolled twice and, you didn’t see any visuals.”
4. Call to Action (CTA)
A blog post is more than just reading. You want your visitors to get the best experience on your website, and of course, convince them to come back soon and/or buy your products and services.
Show me the money (wink).
This is where the call to action buttons come in.
On my blog, my CTA’s are
- Pinterest pins for blog post sharing
- Image to join our Facebook group
- Get my free content calendar by subscribing to my email list
- My sidebar widgets for affiliate products
- Links to my previous blog posts
In fact, you can find these CTA’s in this blog post, too.
More CTA’s coming soon. 🙂
This is how we define blog posts that “convert”.
Again, we don’t want our users to read our blog post and exit immediately.
Our blog posts need to engage, educate, and build trust.
Now, you’re ready to upload your blog post on WordPress, yey.
Here’s a virtual power hug.
Don’t forget to have the Rank Math Plugin installed. This will guide you to optimize your blog post even more.
Related Post: 5 SEO Tips for Bloggers To Rank #1 on Google
Fridays
Publish your blog post
You made it, yasss.
Here’s a virtual power hug for you.
As a thank you for accepting this 30-day blog challenge, all participants will have links to their works below. This will increase your chances to reach a wider audience, and of course, get backlinks.
The Results
Below is a list of our Facebook group members who stood triumphant in this 30-day blog challenge, yey.
I’m a proud momma. 🙂
The Power and Value of Literary Magazines by Mayumi Cruz
Conclusion
That’s it for this 30-day blog challenge.
How many hours did you spend every day to finish it?
How did you feel after hitting the publish button?
Did the thrill and excitement to start a blog and monetize it fade?
Or is it stronger than ever?
If you didn’t finish, don’t panic.
This isn’t the time to give up. Let’s do another round.
