There is nothing like accomplishing a goal or meeting a challenge! For the month of April I took and completed the Ultimate Blog Challenge! 30 posts in 30 days!!! I joined many other bloggers, and committed to doing this along with sharing my posts via Facebook and Twitter, and commenting on the other UBC blogger’s posts. From the beginning I knew it wouldn’t be easy, just as I knew there would be great benefits and lessons learned for me and my readers. As the challenge wraps up today I’d like to share some things that have come as a result of me taking the UBC, share what I learned while taking the UBC, and share what my next steps will be as a result of the UBC.
Ultimate Results
The UBC brought about some expected results, as well as some unexpected results. One of my desired results was to increase my blog readers, site traffic, and my social media followers. I am glad to say that all three of things happened. I also met some pretty interesting bloggers and made some new connections that I’m pretty excited about. One thing I wasn’t necessarily expecting to happen, but did happen, was making some needed adjustments and improvements to my site. When you accept any type of personal or business challenge like this, your journey and the ensuing results, both expected and unexpected, are of great value!
Ultimate Lessons
The lessons I learned from UBC will help me to provide better content for my readers. It became very tough around the middle of the month as I found myself scrambling to post new content on my site. At one point I found myself 6 blog posts behind. During this time I began to realize I was violating one thing that I try to pride myself on. Being proactive. I was struggling and a little frustrated because I was being a reactive blogger. I planned out time to write, but let other things get in the way, so I would end some days pressed to get a post (or 2 or 3) out. I remembered reading some other blogger’s posts about using blog calendars and editorial calendars (I cannot remember where or whose post it was now, but if I do I will link to their page), and I knew I needed to make a change because I could not maintain this reactive form of blogging and still be effective. I now have a draft of a blogging editorial calendar that I am utilizing now, and will share how it’s working in a future post.
The Next Ultimate Challenge(s)
In addition to the great results and lessons learned, the UBC effect will not end here. I look forward to growing relationships with some of the bloggers I met during this challenge, and expect those relationships to produce win/win results for us all. This was my first challenge like this, but it will not be my last. I plan to join more challenges to learn more and continue to grow, so I can be of more value to my family, peers, and readers.
Lastly, I plan to begin putting on challenges myself. I recently learned that May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. I will be challenging myself, and anyone who wants to join me, to completing a physically activity for at least 30 minutes everyday, except Sundays, during the month of May. Look for details soon and let’s GET better physically because as the UBC has shown, anytime you challenge yourself you can expect immediate and long-lasting results.
Question: At the beginning of the month I asked you to select one new habit to do each day. Did you begin to do that? If so, please share.
