The bad, good and very, very good of the 2011 blogathon

Let’s get the bad part over with first.

Blogging 31 days straight is hard. If you’re not used to writing every day it gets more grueling as the month wears on.

Some people who signed up for the 2011 WordCount Blogathon didn’t make it past the first week. Others got to the second or third week before succumbing to a busy day at work, illness, lack of an idea for a post. Some just plain ran out of gas.

Then there was Blogger.com. A maintenance issue shut it down on May 12, taking posts and comments from dozens of blogathoners with it (most everything was restored a few days later).

But for the bloggers who gutted it out, the annual challenge to post every day in May was a rewarding experience in more ways than one.

On many levels, this year’s blogathon was the most successful ever. More than 200 people signed up, close to double the number who participated last year, though as I said before, not everybody made it to the finish line. Of the people who registered, 83 percent took the challenge for the first time, 13 percent for a second time, 2 percent for a third and only 1 percent had taken part all four years.

A healthy portion used the annual community blogging challenge to launch their first blog, or their second or third. Others turned a blog that had been all over the place into something focused on a specific subject. Some used the time to experiment with widgets, self hosted platforms, RSS feeds, adding links or images to posts and other technical aspects of blogging. They hung out on the blogathon Google Group to talk about how to get more comments and drive more traffic to their sites.

Some bloggers hit the jackpot.

• More.com picked up a post called The Middle Place that Rachael Vidori wrote for her East Coast Musings blog during the blogathon.
• Laura, who blogs at In My Little Town, had a post she originally intended to publish on her own blog accepted by McSweeney’s, the literary magazine and website.
• Pavithra K., a Indian software coder who wants to be a freelance writer landed her first paid gig.
• No less than three professional storytellers noticed and recommended short stories that Florida writer and storyteller Billie Oakes posted on her blog, The Billie Gram, during the month.
• Joan Lambert Bailey’s posts on her Tokyo urban farm blog Popcorn Homestead got her an invitation to blog at a new urban farming website.
• My editor at SecondAct.com asked me to write about people using the blogathon for a life transformation; you can see that post here: Blogging Their Way to a Mid-Life Makeover.

Many others reported huge increases in readership and comments during the month

During the month, bloggers shared their favorite books and places to write. They wrote haiku, exchanged guest posts and experimented with data visualization.

Yesterday, several dozen of them attended a Twitter chat to discuss about what they loved, hated and learned.

Here’s a recap of what they shared. Generally I write chat recaps in article form. But I thought people who missed being there would appreciate seeing replies in their raw state so it’d feel like they were there. To find out more about any of these bloggers, copy and paste their username into Twitter’s search window.

Favorite Parts of This Year’s Blogathon

@Tia_Bach_Author Finding a community of resources to continue to grow my blog (but shockingly also haiku day)

@teachwhatisgood Google Groups, without a doubt. Helpful and very supportive.

@bikelady The opportunity to meet a whole new set of bloggers. So many topics.

@lauranewmanny Sharing tips on better blogging and exchanging guest posts. Expanding audience for Patient POV.

@ClaudineMJ The community was great and I loved reading new blogs. Loved all the tips/tricks too. And the pressure to get it done.

@HarryCMarks Realizing my blog found a voice & actually fell out of the realm of the blogathon’s theme days. I’m different!

@radiatinggnome I appreciated having goal – the drive to write every day forced a lot of creativity.

@pegc Learning from the other blogs and reading how everyone handles issues that come up in blogging.

@jwalkerwrites The guest post exchange, meeting new people & just having a goal, which gave me a new enthusiasm for blogging.

@LaraSalahiABC There were so many times I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to skip a day… but I thought of the blog as a story I had to tell!

Hardest Part of Blogging Every Day

@reellifejane Posting every day was a challenge, but getting in a groove helps. Also seeing the boost in traffic numbers. And I must confess I actually back-posted a few times! So I’m not in the running for any prizes.

@MenaGrazie Finding time to read and comment on all the great content was the hardest thing. I’m sure I missed a ton of stuff.

@intralingo The time it took… loved it but sometimes it distracted me from paying work.

@billienoakes Not being able to read as many of the blogs as I wanted, then seeing comments about those I missed.

@babyhellfire Blogger failure. Posting daily proved tricky some days, goes without saying.

@Gardening4Life The hardest part for me was it took a lot of discipline to think about what to post about daily.

@BooksYALove Getting a blogging routine going during first week for brand new blog.

@Liz_Sheffield Time management with family, full-time job, blog management, deadlines.

@alisonlaw I didn’t realize how much time it took to visit other blogs and comment. Wanted to cast a wider net, but it was impossible.

@teachwhatisgood Keeping my mind focused for blogging besides my normal life…and keeping up with my normal life.

@LaraSalahiABC Hardest part was not having enough hours in the day!

@pegc The hardest part was feeling as though my blog niche was so narrow that it did not relate to many of the other blogs.

@mamahhhjenni Still learning how to use the RSS reader more effectively.

@klgr360degrees Most difficult was not having a robust blog. Our webmaster is doing an overhaul on it so I can add pics, links, etc.

Blogging Lessons Learned

@mamahhhjenni It takes time to build blogging muscle, just like any kind of workout.

@jenwillis I re-learned how important it is to read and comment on other people’s blogs.

@MenaGrazie I’m trying to do the whole news site thing and wow, talk about a learning curve.

@Tia_Bach_Author I learned how very little I knew before 5/1.

@teachwhatisgood That I’m better than I thought. That was very encouraging.

@Liz_Sheffield It’s all about the blogging calendar.

@mamahhhjenni WordPress Editorial Calendar: http://bit.ly/aJMcZ6

@babyhellfire I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of bloggers, and so many different preferences of blogs among them.

@BooksYALove Feeling OK that I had few followers, as I’m building up collection of great YA book reviews. Being able to schedule posts for later release is WONDERFUL.

@billienoakes I didn’t expect to have as much fun with this as I did. The BillieGram is now something I look forward to, no longer work.

@pegc The importance of community and commenting. It really helped get people to visit my blog, even if it was once.

@AnneWainscott I learned that content curation is a survival skill if you write often, especially daily.

@HarryCMarks Curation. It’s all about writing and finding the content you want your readers to come back to each day.

@reellifejane Like the ‘War of Art’ guy says, just get up and do it every day. Never a shortage of ideas in the entertainment world.

@Gardening4Life That blogging under pressure helped me to see what needed to be fixed or added to my blog.

@bikelady Oh, wait! I learned that I should have a “Best of” page, like @MichelleRafter’s 101 list. Looking forward to creating that.

@AnnetteGendler I was also amazed how loyal, generous and steadfast some of my commenters are.

Blogging Apps to Learn More About

@mamahhhjenni Totally need to learn more about Google Analytics. I have a video to watch from Appsumo, but no time yet. And photo editing. That’s a steep learning curve for me. Trying to learn my camera. And mobile blogging. I’m clueless about that! I’d also like to learn more about keywords.

@teachwhatisgood Video blogging. And I’d love video tutorials for some of the basics we discussed this year.

@MenaGrazie It’s not exactly an app but blog directories and affiliate programs (not sales but social networks like SheWrites).

@radiatinggnome Maybe some on deeper and better on social media use.

@JanUdlock I’d like to learn more about growing traffic.

@reellifejane Maybe something on time management, how to fit everything in without going crazy.

@Tia_Bach_Author Me, too (re: learning about growing traffic). I don’t want to go back to my lonely blog world.

@milesaustin Would like to learn more about tools that help conversion into relationships, how to get reader to take action to further the relationship. Landing pages, appointment setting, contact forms. Also mobile-optimized blogs: best practices, plug-ins, tools and strategies to reach the mobile reader.

@chezsven Emphasize importance of comments. Blog need comments. How to get them?