Although I love vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, it didn’t feel right to end the month-long WordCount Blogathon challenge without a post that sums up the experience – and the benefits – that come with blogging every day. (A big thank you to Michelle Rafter from WordCount and Jan Udlock from Imperfect Mom for organizing another successful and fun challenge!)
Other than the Blogathon, the other blogging challenge I’ve heard of is the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April, but I’m sure there are many others out there. If you’re on the fence about joining a challenge, here are four reasons to participate (and benefits that come with participation) to sway you:
1. The chance your posts will be picked up by other media. I’m extremely grateful to The Baltimore Sun, which featured two of my posts – “How to make an herb planter box” and “Presentation’s role in the school lunch battle” – on their home page this month. This brought in new readers, increased my stats, and just plain made my day.
2. The opportunity to meet new blogging friends. This month I loved reading Sheila Callahan’s personal essays on Help! I’m Blogging and Barb Freda’s reflections on food on Babette Feasts. Abra Alani from The Magical Miss takes beautiful photographs that were an inspiration to look at every day. Lisa Carter from Intralingo introduced me to the fascinating life of a literary translator (have you ever thought about what’s involved in translating TV scripts?). Then there’s the bloggers I wrote about in earlier posts, both those who write about topics other than food and those who wrote about their “second acts.” I would have never found any of them if not for the Blogathon.
3. The prospect of gaining new enthusiasm for blogging. This is my third year participating in the Blogathon, and the challenge came much more easily to me this year. I’m proud of my posts. I think I’m starting to find my voice. And I’ve gained new enthusiasm for blogging after taking several months off. I’m hoping to ride this energy into a regular weekly blogging schedule.
4. The chance to increase work and life productivity. This benefit may be more applicable to freelancers, but having a daily deadline and a group that I felt accountable to brought benefits that bled into other areas of my life. Turning in an assignment always gives me confidence, and a Blogthon or other blogging challenge essentially means you’re turning in an assignment – and accomplishing something – every day. This made me feel more productive in my work and in my life.
What benefits does blogging bring you? Have you ever done a blogging challenge? What did you get out of it?
Thanks for this mention, Jen! I’m glad you enjoy learning a little about what I do as a literary translator — and my colleagues do in TV and other types of translation.
My experience is similar to yours with this challenge: it allowed me to “meet” and interact with other bloggers; it helped me to grow as a writer; and it does feel very good to accomplish this challenge. I wasn’t able to post every day, but still there was a great benefit.
“See” you here as the year continues and hopefully again at Blogathon 2013!
I was so glad to get to know you better through last year’s blogathon, and I definitely agree — they are well worth the time! That’s so great that the Baltimore Sun picked up a couple of your posts, awesome! I am so tempted to do more blogathons in the future when I have time — such fun and so many rewards, as you say.
Congratulations on having posts picked up.
That’s sweet the Baltimore Sun picked up a couple of your posts! That’s got to have a pretty large reader-ship, wouldn’t you say? Awesome!
And thanks for the shout out!
I really didn’t know how I was going to fit into the Blogathon crowd, since so many (most, I’d say) of the bloggers have experience and/or goals of professional writing. But I did learn a lot, and I found some awesome blogs to follow and continue learning from, yours included!
Great list. I agree completely. The Blogathon is easily one of the best writing decisions I’ve made yet.
@intralingo, @Julie, @abraalani, @Joan: Congrats on completing the Blogathon too! I hope we’ll all sign up again next year.
@Julia: I was really happy to get to know you too! I hope you’ll sign up for another one. We could exchange posts again.
@Michelle: Thanks so much for visiting and for the mention on your Blogathon success stories page. I’m so proud to be included.
Congrats, I hadn’t read that about the Sun picking up your posts until I started putting together the blogathon success stories post that I’m running today. You’re definitely in it!
Here’ a link to the post that mentions you:
2012 Blogathon success stories: Job offers, a novel idea, and lots more
http://michellerafter.com/2012/06/04/2012-blogathon-success-stories-job-offers-a-novel-idea-and-lots-more/
Thank you for the mention. And wow, how exciting for you for a newspaper to pick up your posts. Congratulations!
congrats! I absolutely agree with the last two points. I love blogging challenges and would love to join another one.
Just checking in on you–how are you doing??
@Barbara: Thanks for checking in! I’m just getting used to life with a newborn. She is six weeks old today. I keep meaning to write a blog post, but then I just decide I’m too tired. Hopefully that will change soon. I hope all is well with you!