Better Blogging – Day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge

The editorial calendar says I’m supposed to write about “copywriting – editorial vs. promotional.”

I like that topic, and it’s important – but it’s either happening after lunch or getting pushed to tomorrow. (Gee, it’s nice being your own editor!)

Why? Because Day 20 of 31DBBB is about Leaving Comments on Other Blogs.

When I read this through,two ways of commenting occurred to me.

1. Follow the instructions and interact with other blogs. I’ll do this.
2. Expand on the instructions and write a comment post today about the 31DBBB book.

Picking up a copy of 31DBBB was a result of thinking “I need to get more organised about managing my blog.”

To be honest, I had never heard of Darren Rowse and was passingly familiar with ProBlogger. My knowledge was limited to thinking “If I’m going to find something useful to help me, ProBlogger is where I’m going to find it.”

Heck, I didn’t even know enough to type in ProBlogger.net. I used the .com ending. But I ended up in the right spot.

By the way, please let me apologise now for using “I” so much in this post. It doesn’t happen often, and this really is a first-person comment post. Now on with the story…

So I get to ProBlogger.net and type “improve my blog” in the search box. Obviously the result that caught my eye said something about 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

At first I decided to pass on it. After all, how many times have you seen something for 20 bucks, picked it up, and wished you had the 20 bucks back? Yea, me too.

I just figured there had to be a solution – the information I needed had to be out there – without me having to pay for it. (I guess I was feeling a little curmudgeonly that day.)

You can probably guess what happened next.

I started reading the other posts from the search results. A lot of them mentioned the 31DBBB book, and there was a lot of content from the book for me to look at.

It took 2 days for me to finally make the decision about buying 31DBBB.

This is probably where I should find something to say about the book that I don’t like. One of the things Darren suggests about making comments – and you already know this – is to offer a way to improve.

Well, I’m on Day 20 and it took me about 40 days to get here. So you’d pretty much have to think it’s me that needs improving more than the book.

Yes, the book will change. Blogging specifically, and social media in general, is changing. As long as changes are happening, Darren is going to be modifying his book. That’s cool.

What I can tell you is a feature of 31DBBB that might not be so obvious. At least, it didn’t occur to me until I had worked part way through the book.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog gives you a system of hermeneutics for blogging. It means a complete system for understanding and using your blog well. I apologise for the $64 word – it’s just that it has the right precision and strength for what I’m trying to say.

Anybody who gets a copy of 31DBBB, reads it through once then puts it on a shelf is probably better suited for manual labour than for blogging. (Do keep in mind that I spent 20 years working as a carpenter. It’s a comparison that makes sense to me.) It would be like buying a circular saw but still using a hand saw for all your cutting.

I already know this is a book that’s going to stay on my desk. Right next to my goal setting binder, actually.

It’s from 31DBBB that I decided to try writing for Technorati – which is going quite well, by the way. And it has gotten me back on track with writing articles regularly. Not quite daily yet, but I’m getting better.

Okay, I just checked and I’m getting close to 700 words. It’s time to wrap this up.

If you’re casual about blogging and you’re not using it to promote your business, then you don’t need 31DBBB. You can gets lots of information from reading ProBlogger.net and do just fine.

But if you’re serious about blogging, you’re using it as part of your social media marketing, it’s part of how you promote your business, or you plan on asking me to work with you as a coach, consultant or writer…You need a copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

There’s no affiliate jazz for this book, so here’s how you get it.

Go to www.problogger.net. Scroll to the bottom of the page. In the centre column is “Problogging Resources.” The link for 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is the next to last one.

Go get it, and thanks for reading.