You’re considering signing up for the 2012 Blogathon but aren’t sure you can post 31 days straight.
Don’t worry. I’ve removed some of the pain from the process by doing part of the planning for you.
During the blogathon, you can opt to take part in theme days, a guest post exchange, a haiku day, Wordle day, Twitter chats to open and close the month, a raffle prize drawing and the blogathon Google Group and newsletter.
I’m not introducing any new elements to this year’s contest. I did last year, and based on the results of a blogathon poll that I conducted a couple weeks ago, people are happy with the status quo.
With one exception. During May, I’ll be pinning links to my daily posts onto a Blogathon board I started on Pinterest. I’m still deciding whether to open up that board to anyone in the blogathon. All I’d have to do is input people’s email addresses and they’d be able to “pin” their post for that day to the board. What do you think?
If you haven’t signed up for the blogathon yet, or just heard about it, here’s the registration form. Sign up and you’ll automatically receive a 2012 Blogathon badge for your blog.
Meanwhile, here’s the official Blogathon calendar. Put it in Outlook or iCal. Input it into your WordPress editorial calendar. Commit it to memory. Start finding a partner for the guest post exchange. Whatever you do, get ready, May 1 is almost here.
2012 Blogathon calendar of events
April
April 24 – Read tips from a blogger who’s done previous blogathons on how to post every day without getting burned out.
April 25 – The WordCount Last Wednesday monthly chat is devoted to the blogathon. Worried you can’t come up with blog post ideas? Haven’t ever scheduled posts before and are wondering how? Ask your blogathon questions during this hour-long chat, which starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use#blog2012.
April 30 – See the list of 2102 Blogathon sponsors, and find out what prizes they’ll be giving away in a raffle for bloggers who successfully post 31 days straight.
May
May 1 – The blogathon begins.
May 2 – WordCount publishes a blog roll of participants.
May 5 – This and every Saturday during the blogathon, I recap some of the week’s most interesting posts from participating bloggers.
May 7 – Theme Day #1. Participants are encouraged to write on the same theme: “5 movies that have inspired my blogging.” Theme days don’t fit into everyone’s blogs, so it’s 100 percent up to you whether you play along or not.
May 14 – Guest Post Exchange Day. This blogathon staple encourages writers to trade guest posts with another blogathoner. Past guest post exchanges have led to lasting friendships and regular guest post exchanges throughout the year. The best ways to find a partner: post a message on the Blogathon Google Group or on Twitter, under the blogathon hashtag #blog2012.
May 21 – Haiku Day. Last year’s haiku day was so popular it’s back for an encore. Pick the topic of your choice and write about it in this simple poem form. Find out more about it on this how to write haiku page and read these haiku examples from last year’s blogathon.
May 23 – Theme Post Day #2. Participants are encouraged to write on the same theme: Finish the phrase – “If I started blogging today I would….” If you had it to do over again, what would you do different – use WordPress instead of Blogger.com? Pick a different topic? Share your wisdom to help other bloggers.
May 28 – Wordle Day. Celebrate Memorial Day by using the Wordle word-cloud tool to turn your words into a picture. Then go relax, your blogging work is done. If you’re not sure what Wordle is, read these instructions for using it.
May 30 – My usual last Wednesday of the month chat is rescheduled for June 1 so we can use it for the blogathon wrap party (see below).
May 31 – The Blogathon ends – you did it! Participants who posted all 31 days can collect an “I did it!” badge to display on their blogs.
June
June 1 – The Blogathon wrap party and raffle drawing take place on Twitter at 10 a.m. Pacific time. We’ll share what we liked, what we hated and what we learned from blogging every day in May. The raffle drawing takes place at the end of the hour. Use #blog2012 to participate.
Hey..i like the calendar.. but how will you know that everybody has posted what is supposed to be published on their blogs according to the calendar that day??
or is it a must to repost to the google group after i post on my blog…?
Aron:
It’s up to the individual blogger whether they follow the theme days, etc. Some people do. Some people blog about subjects that don’t easily fit into theme days, so they just blog about what they want to blog about. It’s also up to you whether you want to post links to the daily Google Group thread. The whole idea is you can be as interactive with other bloggers in the blogathon as you want, or do the entire thing on your own, whatever feels right to you. At the end of the month, when we do the random drawing for prize winners, we will verify that anyone who’s name is selected has posted every day by visiting their blogs and looking through all of their posts.
Hope that helps.
Michelle
hi michelle,
where do i find the google group to post my link.. and also.. did you decide to allow people to add to the pinterest account? (i like that idea)…
Daphne: You’ll get added to the Google Group in the next few hours.
I’m still on the fence about the shared Pinterest boards. It’s a great idea, I just don’t know if I have the bandwidth (time)to do the work that’s involved.
Michelle