The ultimate guide to daily blogging challenges

Some people loved the 2011 Blogathon so much that when it ended on May 31, they immediately went out and signed up for another blogging challenge.

Whether that’s inspired or just plain crazy I’ll let you decide.

There are reasons to add new content to a blog on a regular basis – higher readership, more reader interaction and better name recognition to name a few. If you don’t take my word for it, social media/blogging experts Chris Brogan and Gary Smailes, aka Bubble Cow, think so too.

The discipline that comes with participating in a blogging challenge is one way to force yourself to stick to a schedule.

Blogging Challenges

If you need the external motivation, enjoy the camaraderie of a community event or just want as many shiny blogging event badges as you can stuff on your site, consider joining a blogging challenge. Some start soon, others take place at different times throughout the year and yet others are DIY. Dates and other details were current as of today; if you’re reading after June 2011, check in with the event organizer before committing in case anything changed.

Here’s the list of daily blogging challenges:

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge – Post every day in April, hosted on the Toss It Out blog by Arlee Bird.

Heck Yeah Tumblr Challenge – A whole bunch of themed prompts for 10-day, 15-day, 30-day and daily blogging challenges of other lengths on Tumblr blogs. If you’re not familiar with this increasing popular type of blog format, here’s a guest post from blogger Annie Daniel on how to get started on Tumblr.

NaBloPoMo – The popularity of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where writers crank out a novel of 50,000 words or more in a month, begat National Blog Posting Month, hosted on BlogHer. Like NaNoWriMo, NaBlogPoMo started as a November-only event, but now runs year round, allowing people to start and stop any month they choose. Once you sign up, you can elect to post on your own blog and on the official NaBlogPoMo site.

ProBlogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog -A month-long challenge based on Darren Rowse’s book of the same name. Unlike other events, this one isn’t about posting 31 days straight. It’s a day-by-day process for improving a blog, including learning how to write different types of posts, build readership, promote your blog, create editorial calendars and more. Unlike other events, this one’s self-directed, and involves buying the book. Never fear, if you’re looking to do ProBlogger’s 31DBBB in a group setting, check out the SITS Girls (see below).

The SITS Girls – This site run by and for women who blog offers Problogger’s 31DBBB course four times a year. However, the site appears to be experiencing some technical difficulties because none of the pages were loading when I visited (on 6/22/2011).

Student Blogging Challenge – An international blogging challenge started by a teacher for elementary-school students and sponsored by Edublogs. Runs in March and September each year. Read more on the Challenge FAQs page.

The Ultimate Blog Challenge – A blogathon-style challenge to post every day in July. Get this – it’s run by two women named Michelle (well, one spells her name “Michele”) – how weird is that! The free challenge includes a kick-off teleseminar, daily email reminders and copy of their free report, 7 Ways to Get Your Blog in Motion.

WordPress’ The Daily Post – Back on Jan. 1, WordPress.com challenged bloggers who use its free software platform to post once a day or once a week for the entire year, and they started The Daily Post to help them achieve that goal. According to the site, it’s never too late to sign up. If you do, you’ll get a badge, daily prompts and a Twitter account to follow, @postaday.

If you loved the 2011 WordCount Blogathon or missed this year’s event, you’ll be happy to hear I’m running a Baby Blogathon from Nov. 1-10. Save the date – I’ll share more details in coming weeks.

Got another favorite daily blogging challenge? Leave the name, URL and other details in a comment and I’ll add it to the list.