First week of 30 days Blogging Challenge & what is my blog about with some blogging tips

Before I started this 30 day blogging challenge there was absolutely no order in my writing and posting articles on my blog. My readers did not know when to come back to read new post in their favorite category, because I did not know myself what to write about first and when. I am going to tell you about my first week of 30 days blogging challenge and how it change my blogging. I will share few tips with you how I watch statistics on different social media to see what my readers like to read the most.

My first full months of blogging was August. I was just happy to write about something that I love and post on my blog “sometimes.” September was very busy. Me and my kids went back to school and my older son started secondary school. I did not have much time to write. Octobers is very good so far, but not better than August yet. ( When I compare the numbers of views). I have to say that last week is the best week in my blogging so far. My blog got the highest number of views per week, likes and comments per week so far (according  my insights on WordPress). So believe me, it is worth to try the 30 days blogging challenge!

I created list of my posts that I wrote during my first week of 30 days blogging challenge. I chose one picture from each post and add link to the post so you can have a quick access and read it all if you like.

17.10.day 1: a little bit of street photography and travel. 

I am big lover of the nature and I started to enjoy street photography just recently. When I got a trip to Paris as a present I thought that I would make only tourist type photos to document my trip. When I was writing this post and going thru the pictures I realized that I have few good shots for few more posts related to street photography.

Photo with short story #day 1 My trip to Paris

18.10.day 2: for dog lovers, my first photo with my camera. 

At day 2 I wrote article about our dog Gerina and my first photoshoot with my new camera. This photo is nice memory of that day. Gerina was posing for me like a star and enjoying the photoshoot together with me. At this day I was little bit worried how I will manage to write everyday a post something on my blog so I picked few more photos for my future posts. While I was searching I felt in love with a picture of pink flower. I forgot about time and I finished the whole post for the next day. First time I scheduled my post to be published on my blog the next day at 5 am. First time I actually wrote 2 post at the same day.

Photo with short story #day 2

19.10.day 3: flower, “when editing photo feels like painting”

It is amazing feeling to wake up early in the morning, have coffee and breakfast and have a look at the WordPress statistics. It just brighten up my day that there was already some views and likes on my blog in the morning. I am happy that I got some positive feedback from people, I enjoy editing pictures a lot, so I will definitely share some of my little tips for editing in my future posts on my blog.

Photo with short story #day 3 – When editing a photo feels like painting

20.10.day 4: dog lovers, environmental poster. 

My kids asked me to post something little bit funny about our dog and environment. So I created this short and simple post. Since then my little son, 7 years old, started to read my blog. I am so excited about that. It is good that my blog is kids friendly.  Click on the picture or on the link to see what is written on the photo.

Photo with short story #day 4

21.10.day 5 :horses, “Interview with stallion Palavicini” 

I saw that the numbers of view declined a bit so I felt that I should write some good posts. I spent quite a lot of time on editing the pictures, but I enjoyed it a lot. I found new groups on Facebook for horse lovers and shared my articles there.

Photo with short story #day 5 – Interview with Stallion Palavicini

22.10.day 6: flower, “Little change in composition can make difference.” 

I discovered that the fastest way for me to write a blog post is to pick one picture, edit it and write about it. I remember how hard it was for me when I started to use Photoshop. I know that many photographers do not use it at all, some of them don’t edit pictures at all. It is not very hard and it can be fun. So if you are thinking about starting to learn. Come back and read some of my future posts about this topic. Pictures are very important part of every blog.

Photo with a short story #day 6 – Little change in composition can make a difference

23.10.break

Have you ever had a bad day? The worst thing is when many bad things happen in one day or in few days in a raw. I just did not have the power and the mood to do anything creative that day, so I took a break from blogging.

24.10.day 7: flower, happiness, depression. 

I realized that I would love to write some positive posts, create something beautiful to share with people and bring a little bit of happiness, brighten up their day. When I have a bad day I try to do something nice for myself. I also try to do something little for others, little encouragement, few nice positive words or just a smile. This time I bought roses and did lovely photoshoot with one rose. It made me feel much better.  I know how hard is to fight depression, so I would like to write more little tips about how to improve mood, some ideas how to keep your mind occupied and happy. I wrote post Gerina jumping in the mood – mud, which has some idea related to this topic.

Photo with a short story #day 7 – When you feel sad or lonely, give flower to someone or buy one for yourself

25.10.day 8: For dog lovers, Little photoshoot in Fairview park  

It has been long time since I wrote article about a photoshoot of a dog in Fairview park. It usually takes me really long time to do it all : taking pictures, editing the photos and writing about it.  If you like these articles, let me know and I will keep writing. I would love to meet more people with their dogs and take pictures. its my passion.

Very Little photoshoot in Fairview park this time and how your dog can participate

So far I wrote articles about photography, about photoshoots with dogs, horses, flowers and kids. I am lover of anything related to nature, but I am starting to enjoy street photography as well. I am promoting a charity called Save the frogs! and their art contest. I would like to continue writing posts about my paintings especially about my quick painting exercise.

I did not know what to write about first. I did not know what my readers like the most. So I looked at insights on WordPress, Facebook and Twitter to see what people like the most. My first week of 30 days blogging challenge helped me a lot. I compared all 8 posts in the last 9 days. ( I made the first week longer, so the next one is Monday to Sunday) Here are some results:

WordPress by number of views:

1.place: Photo with short story #day 1 (street photography)

2.place: Little photoshoot in Fairview park (dogs)

3.place: Photo with short story #day 3 (flowers)

4.place: Photo with short story #day 5 (horses)

Facebook by post reach:

I.place Photo with short story #day 3 (flowers)

2.place Little photoshoot in Fairview park (dogs)

3.place Photo with short story #day 5 (horses)

4.place Photo with short story #day 1 (street photography)

The Facebook insights on my post reach is not quite right this time for the comparison of my blog posts, because I have done 2 campaigns on Facebook for post  #day 3 and #day 1 . So this 2 post have significant advantage, they were promoting more. It is interesting that the last post about photoshoot in Fairview park is already on 2nd place everywhere and its up online just few hours. On Facebook you can also compare your posts by engagement that people make with the posts.(comments, likes, shares) It will give you nice picture about what your readers like the most.  It is definitely motivating for me to watch all the insights. From the overall reaction of my readers and the insights I can see that I should really continue doing photoshoots of dogs. I still have to figure out some system when I will write about each categories so my readers will know when to come back to read my blog and when they can find new post in their favorite category. At least I achieved one thing: I am writing more often and my readers don’t have to wait that long for new post in their favorite category.

I don’t want to forget to mention Twitter. It shows me the insights per months. The top tweet for October so far is tweet about post #day 3 . It is definitely on the top because I did campaign for this tweet on Twitter. I strongly recommend for you to try to do campaign on Twitter for your blog or your blog post. Click on the link bellow and have a look at Facebook group called Promote your blog. They post interesting threads everyday that you can participate in. The one I like the most is called “Twitter RT (retweet) only.” Bloggers leave links to one of their tweet and retweet each other. It is amazing way how your link to your blog post can be seeing by much bigger audience. Have a look at the group and read the rules and the instructions on each thread carefully. They are very well organized.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PromoteYourBlog1/

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you found something useful for you in this article. Let me know what do you think in a comment. If you have your favorite post or topic that you would like me to write about, just let me now.

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Caroline