I know that many of you are signed up to do this year’s Blogathon, a fantastic way to raise money for charities, get publicity for your blog, and to do a generous and good thing. It’s a brave and noble thing you do.
It is also exhausting, frustrating, and a bit overwhelming. Having done similar things in the past, here are a few tips and resources to help you get through the long haul.
- The only competition is with yourself, not others.
- While you have to blog “non-stop”, you don’t have to post great doctoral dissertations. Think short and sweet.
- You can blog about anything or blog about something. You will attract more interest and readers if you blog about something.
- The most popular blogs during a blogathon (and otherwise) leaves the reader wanting more. They want to come back. They can’t wait for the next installment. Think serial blogging.
- Expect long hours of nothing in between high traffic levels. Non-blogathoners sleep. You won’t.
- Prepare an outline of topics to blog about in advance. Make it more than a list but a sentence or two or combinations of keywords to trigger your brain even during the latest, tiredest hours.
- Write about something you are passionate about.
- Write with passion.
- Monitor feeds related to your blogging topic for new information and ideas.
- Avoid eating or drinking high carbs. Carbs and sugars are a fast energy high, but a fast burn out. Stick to water, veggies, and meat and your brain will handle the long haul much better and healthier.
My article, Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog, lists hundreds of feeds, websites, and sources for monitoring information on a wide variety of subjects. Go through that and gather up all the feeds and sites related to your Blogathon topic. Put them all in one easy place to find. Group your bookmarks or favorites together in a single folder. Put all feed links in a single folder or category in your feed reader for fast viewing and monitoring.
I recommend you use the power of the Firefox Web Browser for your blogathon so you can have multiple windows open in tabs. This makes it easy to click back and forth as you gather information to write about. I also highly recommend installing the Tab Mix Plus Firefox Extension which gives you greater control over your tabs, including having them sit on multiple rows.
Keep one tab open for your blog’s Write Post panel and another for just viewing your blog.
If your blog allows viewing and replying to comment from the Administration Panels, great. Keep a tabbed window open just to monitor your comments.
If you have to view the website in order to respond to comments, like WordPress does, then keep a tabbed window open with just the comments page so you can keep track of them, and another open with your blog so you can quickly click to the post and respond rather than go through the Administration Panels to reply.
If you will be including a lot of blockquotes in your blog posts, keep open Notepad or a small text editor and copy and paste and write your post in there and then copy and paste it into your blog. Switching back and forth between browser windows can take time. It’s often hard to figure out which tab is which when there are a lot open. Switching back and forth between a web page and text editor is typically faster. Shrink the window of the text editor down to 1/2 or 1/4 the screen and you can have it open on top of the web page you are viewing so you can write about what it says and still see it. Like taking an open-book test.
There are a lot more tips that will help make the Blogathon process easier via your web browser on Power Blogging: Web Browser Blogging Tips.
I applaud you all for taking this on. It’s hard work, Personally, I’m very proud of you and what you are about to endure. It’s for a very worthy cause. We’ll be there with you, as long as we can stay awake. So your last tip is to make sure you keep us awake. 😉
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- Using Your Feeds for Story Ideas
- Big Business – Listen to Bloggers, Please
- Fortune Cookie Blogging
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
Lorelle on WordPress 
12 Comments
Thanks for the suggestions, I have already scheduled my posts. So it will automatically Post once in 30 Min 😉
Should I blog even If no one is sponsoring me ?.
Thilak: According to the Blogathon FAQ, you can’t automate your blog post. That kinda goes against the rules of it.
Serial posts…now there is something that completely slipped my mind altogether. Now all I have to do is actually come up with a topic that makes sense over the long run. Short and sweet…hope I actually remember that one.
Awe shucks. I always find out about these things too late.
Glad to see such a great blogger taking part in this great campaign 🙂
Blah. Didn’t finish my sentence.
… at least noticing it. Almost nobody I know actually talked about this on their blog. Thanks for the tips!
bah, I think I would of done it. I wish I would of known. Doing a blogathon with Space Photos would of been interesting
If one can’t automate blog post, but I’m sure you can pre write posts and set alarm clock to wake you up every 30 minutes – provided I do wake up in time to hit the publish button. =)
I am not automating the posts, I am just writting articles in advance and scheduling it to post on 29 th.
What if no one is sponsoring me ? Should i still post 48 articles ?
Lorelle: We are just one in hundreds and hundreds. Welcome to the Lorelle club. I also used to think I was the only Lorelle, until someone took “lorelle.com” and I realized I wasn’t alone. Then I found out that Lorelle is a fairly common last name in France. We’re not alone. Nice to meet you.
Thilak: I believe that writing articles in advance is a fine line, but scheduling them to post on the 29th is the same as automating the posts. That is what it means.
Check the rules of the Blogathon. If you signed up for the Blogathon, blog. The idea is to not sleep but work your ass off for the full time. Auto-posts implies less effort. Considering earning back some good faith and work very hard between now and then to get sponsors.
Oh my god… thank you so much for the tips
I’m one of those newbies on the verge of dying cos’ I’m really clueless… lost… which may be a good thing… keeps me awake 🙂
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[…] Blogathon Tips and Help Lorelle lays out some tips and tricks to help those signed up for this years (and really any years) Blogathon. It is also exhausting, frustrating, and a bit overwhelming. Having done similar things in the past, here are a few tips and resources to help you get through the long haul. […]
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