#teachingisfun

Bloganuary is a blogging challenge from WordPress, run every year. Every day WordPress sends topics to write about. You are supposed to write a blog post about the given topic, publish it on your blog and share it with the Bloganuary community.

Topics

Every day WordPress sent us topics to write about at 14:00 (Kyiv time). They did not send us the whole list of topics. So no one knew the whole list of topics for the whole challenge.

Many topics from Bloganuary were not connected with my work. And as you may know, I blog only about something which is work-related. 

As I understood, every year they have different topics. I will list them at the end of this post.

“When In Doubt, Leave It Out” isn’t about me

“When In Doubt, Leave It Out” isn’t about me this time.

If you follow my Instagram closely, you remember that I was not sure if to participate as I was afraid to spam my followers with daily entries. Plus, I was afraid of weird topics.

There is an amazing Facebook group created by Jessica. I posted my doubts there.

I got some bright ideas from that community. One of them was to participate but keep all my entries as drafts and not publish them because of not-related topics. 

I was thinking a lot about it and decided to give it a try.

My Expectations

Somehow I was sure that WordPress would also send us some tips on writing better.

I’ve taken many courses on writing for the last 16 years. I used to work as a journalist in a newspaper and TV, so it was a huge part of my professional development. That’s why I know that usually (always?), you get tips on writing when you take a course/workshop/webinar whatsoever.

Yet, during the Bloganuary 2023, there were no tips at all.

I was a bit disappointed.

Community

One of the conditions of the Bloganuary challenge was to publish your blog and then share entries in the private group on WordPress. That’s why writing and not publishing my entries was not the best decision for me. 

The Bloganury community was fabulous! I got lots of support from the people, especially when my blog posts included some of my experience living in Kyiv during the war. 

I met a lot of fabulous bloggers from all around the world!

Moreover, I got new followers.

Traffic

Let me tell you that the traffic on my website was incredible.

Typically, my traffic is moderate. Usually, I have 434 views, 128 visitors, 6 likes, and 3 comments on average per month. Plus, some new followers.

Lessons Learned

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is how to quickly write on given topics every day without overthinking. I tend to think a lot and do some research when I write texts. It takes me about 5-7 hours. However, I could not afford to work on my texts that much every day for obvious reasons. 

That is why I had to learn how not to overthink and post my 1st draft. OMG! I can’t believe that I published my 1st drafts! Not even final drafts. Ofiya!

I also learned how to write quickly on the given topics. Writing about what you want is easier, yet it is much harder on the given topics. 

I have a project where I write blog posts for one American educational company – Verbal Bridges. My client gives me topics to write about. But I have more than 24 hours to write one text. 

Висновок:

All in all, I do not regret that I decided to participate in Bloganuary. I’m looking forward to the Bloganuary 2024.

In addition, I got lots of private messages from my subscribers that they love my entries from the challenge and look forward to my next blog posts. That is why I am thinking about writing something which is not work-related once in a while. 

P.S. I have archived most of my Bloganuary entries, and it looks like readers cannot see them, But I am going to figure out what to do so that you can read all my entries.

P.P.S. This is the list of topics:

• What is something you want to achieve this year?,
• How are you brave?,
• What is the earliest memory you have?,
• What is a treasure that’s been lost?,
• What brings you joy in life?,
• Why do you write?,
• Write a short story or poem about rain.,
• How far back in your family tree can you go?,
• What is the most memorable gift you have received?,
• Has a book changed your life?,
• How do you define success?,
• What chore do you find the most challenging to do?,
• If you had a billion US dollars, how would you spend it?,
• What is your preferred mode of travel?,
• What fear have you conquered?,
• Do you have a memory that’s linked to a smell?,
• Describe the happiest day of your life.,
• What’s your favorite meal to cook and/or eat?,
• What color describes your personality and why?,
• What irritates you about the home you live in?,
• Who is your favorite author and why?,
• What was your dream job as a child?, What’s a lie you tell yourself?,
• How do you show love?,
• What is a song or poem that speaks to you and why?,
• What language do you wish you could speak?,
• What are the pros and cons of procrastination?,
• Describe your perfect birthday cake.,
• What is something you learned recently?,
• What would you title the chapters of your autobiography?, and
• Where is the best place to watch the sunset near you?