Are Challenges Good for Everyone?

Photo by Ed Yourdan

Challenges can be motivating, but they can also be a detriment if you take on more than you should.  Are you guilty of the latter?

Meeting a goal is a big deal, but if the carrot dangling in front of you isn't worth the effort expended, why are you doing it?  

If your goal is health and fitness, any step in the right direction is worth it, but don't set your goals too high right out of the gate or you risk disappointment and losing whatever ground you've gained right from the start.  

Taking on a challenge just for the sake of a challenge is fine for some who need the push to do a particular thing, and if you have lots of extra time on your hands, knock yourself out.  But if your challenge doesn't benefit you monetarily, physically, or psychologically, why are you doing it?

What prompted this post is the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  I did it one year with four blogs (including this one) and it about killed me. I did it because I wanted to be able to say I did.  Big deal.  It brought me no extra income, no long-term increase in readership, nothing tangible.  I got to display a badge on my blog.  Wow.  The challenge is designed to get people posting to their blog on a more consistent basis, and that works well for some, but it did nothing for me (but of course that doesn't mean it won't work for you).  All four of those blogs got 26 posts in the 30 days in April (every day except  Sunday), but have been all but dormant since.  

This year I signed up with just one blog, but decided last night that I was going to pull myself out of the challenge this morning.  I write articles for pay, and that's where my time needs to be devoted.  I only have so much in me each day to get things done, so I need to use that time wisely.

I am, however, going to be using the challenge in a different way.  My goal for April will be to write and publish an article each day for either Examiner or YCN, like I mentioned in this post.  I try to publish every day anyway, but some days it doesn't happen, whereas other days I might post two or more articles.  Taking up the A-Z Challenge for article writing just puts a different spin on it, striving to come up with an article topic that corresponds with a particular letter, rather than any old thing I pull out of the sky. My goal of writing every day really hasn't changed, but this small challenge will actually put money in my pocket.  Article writing is what pays the bills, so that's where I need to put my attention.  I won't get a shiny badge to display anywhere upon completion, but I will get the same satisfaction of having met a goal, and earn a few bucks to boot.

So don't give up on goals and challenges, but do look at why you're doing them and what you will gain from taking them on, and, more importantly, what you stand to lose.

~ Marie Anne

The AtoZ Challenge Can Benefit All Writers, Not Just Bloggers

(Photo by Muffet)

The AtoZ Blogging Challenge is set to kick off again on April 1, 2103 as a way to get bloggers everywhere thinking outside of the box by posting every day of the month (except Sunday) on a topic that corresponds with the letter of the day.  The challenge can take up a lot of time and you'll have to determine if it's worth it to you, but what if you're a writer, but not a blogger?  Can the AtoZ Challenge still be of benefit to you?


Yes!

Depending on how you tackle the challenge, it can still give you the nudge you need, no matter the writing venue.

If you're a writer who publishes on Examiner, YCN, or any one of the many other sites, use the basic idea of the challenge to get the creative juices flowing for article topics in the same manner.  You can't sign up for the official challenge if you don't have a blog, so just challenge yourself for the sheer benefit of seeing if you can do it, or work with a group of other writers and ask them to come along for the ride.  You might not get a special badge to display upon completion, but it can still be rewarding in other ways, either monetarily, or by helping you develop good writing habits.

I'm a member of a Facebook group for Examiners and I've thrown down the gauntlet there, and many of us will be trying to come up with an article topic to write about that corresponds to the daily A-Z Challenge.  There are no hard and fast rules and there will be no prize for those who complete, but we're using it as an exercise to help us publish more frequently.  The challenge can be adapted to other writing scenarios as well.

If you write content for other clients -- for their web site, pamphlets, etc. -- you can still use the A-Z idea when your list of ideas runs dry.

Do you write fiction?  Try to fit every letter of the alphabet into your novel or eBook in some way.  You don't have to devote an entire chapter to every letter, but it should be easy enough to incorporate the words apple, baby, and cat somewhere in your work.  Your main character could be seeking some quiet solitude on Q  day, washing their hands on W  day, have an X-ray on X  day, wearing a yellow shirt on Y  day, taking the kids to the zoo on Z  day.  Again, the modified challenge is just a tool to get the writing juices flowing, and who knows where M  day might take you?

So even if you don't have a blog, you can still enlist others to join you in a modified version that fits your particular scenario. Think of it as a sort of writing prompt and toss the idea out there to your writing group and see who bites.

Or simply go fishing alone.  On F day, of course.


~ Marie Anne

Is the AtoZ Challenge Worth Your Time as a Blogger?

If you've been blogging for any time at all, no doubt you've heard of the annual AtoZ Blogging Challenge that goes on every April, with the 2013 challenge starting on Monday, April 1.  The idea is to make a blog post every day (except Sunday), crafting your post on a topic that corresponds with the letter of the day.  It's a lot of work and can also be fun, but is it worth it for the amount of time and effort involved?

(Photo by juliejordanscott)

Whether it's worth it to you as a blogger to take up the challenge or not will depend on your personal goals.  The AtoZ Challenge can help you increase your readership to an extent, but people aren't likely to come back when the challenge is over unless you give them content that they find interesting.  It's ok to post a photo with a short blurb occasionally during the month-long challenge, but if that's all you do for 30 days, you aren't likely to retain the readers once April comes to a close.  If you just want to say that you completed the challenge, then it doesn't really matter what you post, I suppose.

If you're blogging to make a buck, you should be a bit more discerning in what you post each day in order to give your readers something meaningful, a reason to come back.   Get ahead of the game well before the start date by writing down the letters A-Z on a calendar, in a notebook, or a file on your computer and start thinking of topic ideas now.  You can take it even further by writing blog posts ahead of time and scheduling them to post on the appropriate day.

Remember, though, that it's unlikely you'll earn any money from people clicking ads on your blog during the challenge, as many entrants will click on the blogs just to comment in the hope that you'll follow it back to their blog.  Most won't do more than skim your post, much less click an advertisement.  If you have a compelling title and first few lines of your post that can draw your read in, it can still be beneficial in the long run.

The AtoZ Blogging Challenge is good for bloggers who need a push to publish more often as there is a certain degree of accountability in joining such a large group.  Posting frequently keeps your blog fresh in the eyes of the search engines, and the challenge may be just the push that some people need to be more consistent.  If you can make yourself blog daily throughout the challenge, you'll likely pick up good habits that can continue long after it's over.

If you already write full-time and can't squeeze in even an extra few minutes each day for something without a guaranteed return of the time invested, the challenge might not be for you.

I did my first challenge with four blogs, this one included.  It was fun, and while very challenging, I did make it through the entire month on all four of them.  Will I do it again?  No, not with four blogs.  I have a hard enough time keeping up with the paid writing that I need to do without throwing in more distractions throughout my day.  I've decided that I will do it this year with just my newest blog --- Gettin' Fit in My Fifties, because it's a blog that is important to me personally, and I think I'll have some things worth sharing.

Whatever you decide about the A-Z Challenge --- happy writing!

~ Marie Anne

Setting Writing Goals and Meeting Them

Do you set goals for your writing?  Is there a dollar figure you strive to earn each month, a word count total, or number of articles each day or week that you hope to attain?

Setting goals can help you be more productive, but make sure they're realistic.  You want to stretch yourself, but you also don't want to set yourself up for failure right out of the gate.  Setting the bar too high is a recipe for disappointment, so take a look at your past performance and adjust from there.  If you currently write an article each day, you might stretch that to 10 articles a week.  If you find you're able to do that easily enough, you can always up the ante.

I’m a Millionaire – Now What?

I finally made my first million page views on YCN last Thursday.  I didn’t think I’d ever get there but now that I have, what next? I’ve kept track of my progress daily in a spreadsheet and it seems funny to no longer be fussing with the calculations every day.

Ok, new goal.

I started publishing on AC in June 2008 but only wrote a few articles before going into hiding for about a year, so I figure it took me just over two years for my first million page views (PVs).