500 Post Challenge! I Dare You To Do The Same!
Hello, WA, Family!
Finally, I'm going to talk to you about the challenge I set myself for 2020, but first, please allow me to explain the story and how I decided to create 500 posts in 1 year.
I came up with the idea to push myself this year approximately in November 2019. At first, I thought that I should go for the 1000 post-challenge, and I literally started to create a list of the things I should do in order actually to write 1000 posts in a year. The truth is that when I had a conversation inside my head (I'm not crazy LOL), I realized that the cons of this challenge are too many, and as a result, I decided to write 500 instead of 1000.
The pros that 1000 post had.
1000 post in 1 year will probably scale your website with the possibility to create full-time income (even more than you had in your mind)
Might give you the income to hire writers and create a "somewhat" passive income while you focus on the next business you want to create.
Probably the website will have even more traffic than you expect, and as a result, you will be able to create multiple streams of income from 1 blog/website.
There is no failure. Even if I ended up with 600 posts instead of 1000, I would still have the 600 posts. You can't lose with this challenge!
The Cons
Huge risk to feel tired burned out and potentially quit (if not the blog then the challenge)
You won't have time even for a small break. Let's be real; we are not robots. With 1000 in 1 year it means that you should write more than 3 posts a day. My thoughts on this were even if I wake up at 6 and start writing like crazy; the first post would be easier to write than the second and the second than the third. What I mean with this is:
If the first post takes 2-3 hours to finish it (with no edit, photos, etc. etc.), then the second post will take more, and the third might take 5-8 hours (this is just an example.
If you wonder why it's simple, it's because you will start to feel tired and the brain will stop working at some point. The truth is that writing is not the only part of "writing a blog post." You also need the research part which let's be honest sometimes it can be time-consuming, finding the best variation of the keyword, and as I mentioned above the editing and creating/finding photos might be again, time-consuming)
On average, every post is between 2000-4000+ words, and that means with 3 posts a day, I should write 6000-12000 words every day for 1 year. (In fact somedays I will have to write 4 posts per day)
Lastly, if we remove the "I'm tired, I need a break" part and say that every post takes 6 hours a day, then I should work 18 to even 24 hours and remember all in front of a computer.
With that being said, I realized that not only it might be very hard to accomplish and even with a risk to quit (because if I lose 1 day the anxiety, frustration and all these bad feelings will trouble my mind), but it's also dangerous to stay 18 hours a day in front of your computer screen. (18x365=6570 hours in a year)
The 500 Post Challenge
Now, after this long story, I want to announce the 500 post-challenge. I took the time and created my "weekly plan" from the time I'll wake up till the time I'll go to sleep. I believe that I can do this and write 2 posts every day for a year (with maybe 15 days as a break within the year)
Now, I want to do something different, a few days ago I actually said to myself that maybe others want to do this too. Maybe they want to challenge themselves and want to work hard and make 2020 the year of their success.
So I challenge you to do the same thing. Write a 500+ post this year! Prepare yourself for a week or less (create a plan for every day of the week (Monday-Sunday) and follow your plan.
If you are with me on this, then write it in the comment below, every month I'll create a post and inform you about the progress of this challenge.
Let me give you a few tips that help me so far.
1) Wake up early but sleep well. Instead of spending the last 3 hours of your day to watch TV or whatever you do, go and sleep and wake up as early as possible. Instead of sleeping at midnight, try to sleep earlier. This is the hardest thing for me so far
*Even if you work 9-5 job then if you wake up at 5-6 (with 7-8 hours of sleep) then you can write a post and already complete a task before anyone else*
2) Try to eat well and stay hydrated. Yeah, this might sound stupid, but a healthy meal will give you the energy you need, and in fact, water will help/protect your eyes while you work. (I'm not a doctor I just found that these things help me too)
3) Organize and prepare yourself. When you try to create your daily/weekly plan, try to include every detail that it's useful, for example, don't write 6 - wake up, 7-10 work, 10-11 break.
Instead, try to do something like this (let me show an example my program)
6- Wake up, coffee, breakfast, take a walk with my dog until 7
7:05-9:30 Start preparing and working at the first post
9:30-10:00 If post completed have a 30 minutes break away from the computer
10:05-13:00 Start working at the second post
13:00:14:00 If post completed, take a break.
14:00-15:00 Prepare launch...
...
...
And the list goes on (this is just an example of how I create my plan)
4) Find a day that you won't write anything and just prepare for the week. Let's say that 2 posts per day x 6 days a week = 12 posts per week. Find a day (for example, Sunday) and call it a "relax day," where you will simply find the 12 keywords you want to write, research them, find photos, and everything else you do to write a post. Don't write a post if you don't want to on the same day. Prepare yourself for the whole week. In fact, this is the most important day of your week. It will save you lots of time and will help you "skip" the "boring research, find keywords, and everything else you do in order to write the post."
With that said, I dare you /challenge you do the same and comment down below and say if you will push yourself to do this!
All the best,
John
P.S.
These tools might help you.
Evernote
If you want to create a weekly plan or anything that will help you keep your things organized, I found a program (with a free version) called Evernote - https://evernote.com. This is not an affiliate link or a promotion. It's actually something that will help you. Even if you need the pro version, it's like $7/mo or something like this. I hope that this will help you stay organized.
Grammarly
If you don't know Grammarly, then what are you doing? Grammarly is literally the best tool to help you correct every grammar error and literally helps you create a more engaging post with clarity, and the premium version offers you even more things with a plagiarism checker included. (You can even download it to your mobile phone, computer and basically everywhere.) https://grammarly.com not an affiliate link
Canva
A tool that includes photos helps create anything you can imagine (facebook images, Instagram, featured images, and literally everything.) They even include a logo maker if I'm not mistaken. This program has a free version too and a premium one. https://www.canva.com Again, not an affiliate link
I hope these tools will help you.
Recent Comments
43
Good luck with your challenge. There's no way I could do that, not even daily posts. 2-3 posts a week is enough for me, but I'm interested to see how you progress.
Even to do one high quality post a day is a huge challenge for most people, unless they have help. Remember that Quality is much more important that Quantity. Do as many high quality posts as you can that make sense for your niche, but don't kill yourself in the first year.
Thank you for sharing this with me. You know, I was always a fan of Quality, but in my opinion, I believe that quality and quantity are both important.
What I want to say is that, if you only 1 post in your blog, even if it's the best you probably won't get traffic, ranking, etc.
On the other side if you have 200 quality posts, you will probably do something better, right?
Honestly, I focus a lot on quality and even write 4000+(words) posts, and I can understand what do you mean.
No worries though I'm not going to push myself to the limits.
Thank you,
All the best,
John
I like your idea. Even 500 is a bit much for me. I do think I could do 250 though. Thanks for the idea though. This is certainly something to think about and act on.
250 is still a lot of content. Create a good plan and try to find strategies that will save you time daily! I hope this helps.
Good luck,
John
That is a very good plan! I can put in the effort to write 2 posts a day!
Very inspiring! Thank you!
Alisha
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Those are some great goals. I'm not going to join you on the challenge because it is too much for me but I wish you every success.
ps your post has inspired to develop my own writing goals so that's what I'm going to develop today.
Thank you!
Cheers
Melissa
Thank you for sharing this here. I'm really happy that this post inspired you to create your own writing goals. If I can help somehow, just ask and I'll do my best to help you!
All the best,
John