Welcome to ThanksBlogging! We had great feedback regarding our BLOGtober Fest Blogging Challenge and have decided to make blogging challenges a regular part of what we do here at Arkansas Women Bloggers. We wont have a challenge EVERY month but we have quite a few planned out for 2013. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves because it is Day 1 of ThanksBlogging! (If you missed the info and sign up for ThanksBlogging you can read more about it here.)
Great photography is an important part of any blog no matter what you blog about. Great photos can make great writing even better. Today we want to challenge you to take a great photo of something you are thankful for and share it with your readers.
If your still new to taking photos you might want to check out a few of the photography posts we have offered in the past.
So, step away from your computer and pick up that DLSR, that point and shoot digital or your cell phone (cause it takes pretty great pics, too) and go take some pictures! Play around with your settings, your photo editing apps and even PicMonkey, post your favorites on your blog and then link up below so others can see your great work.
Share your post and share the love!
Thanks for playing along! Leave the link to your post below. Then, don’t forget to visit 2-3 other blogs and leave a comment! Share the love! LinkyTools will close Tuesday, November 2oth at 11:59 pm.
BLOGtober Fest was such fun so we’re at it again with another Blogging and Social Media Challenge. The blogging portion of the challenge will be pretty similar to BLOGtober Fest but we’re throwing in a few Social Media challenges this time. We hope you will join us for six days of ThanksBlogging!
(Imagine a super cool ThanksBlogging Graphic right here! I’m only human and haven’t gotten it done yet but knew you wanted to see the challenge topics. The graphic will be released on Sunday along with a grab code so you may use it in your posts!)
Why should you participate in a blogging challenge?
We provide the daily ideas for you! No thinking about WHAT to write, you just have to write it.
The LinkyTool will make your blog post visible to other participants and site visitors hopefully generating a bit more traffic.
You will have the opportunity to visit other blogs and leave comments and hopefully find a new friend or two!
Involvement in the community of Arkansas Women Bloggers can lead to lots of great opportunities! We have several Arkansas businesses watching our site and looking for people who stand out and are involved in AWB.
Prizes! We can’t tell you what the prizes are yet but there WILL be prizes awarded to a few lucky participants!
Each day of the Blogging Challenge we will have a reminder post for the daily topic and a link up tool where you can submit your post. In addition to entering your own post we want to encourage you to visit 2-3 other bloggers that have also linked up and leave a comment on their blog. Hopefully you will find a new favorite blog while you are looking around! Each post is meant to be broad so that you can be creative on how you address the prompt or how you fit it into your blogging niche. We can’t wait to read all of the wonderful things you write!
Here is a sneak peak at the prompts for each day of ThanksBlogging:
Monday, November 12 – Outside the Walls – Take a photo of something you are thankful for. Edit your photo using PicMonkey. (Check out our tutorial if you need help.) Tuesday, November 13 – Thanksgiving Memories Wednesday, November 14– I am thankful for… Thursday, November 15 – Facebook Linkup – Link your blogs Facebook Fan Page and promote two fellow bloggers to your fans. (If you don’t have a Facebook Fan Page this is a grreat excuse to finally make one!) Friday, November 16 – {Foodie Friday} Share your best way to use ham or turkey leftovers or your favorite pie recipe. Saturday, November 17 – Twitter Linkup – Link your twitter feed and promote two fellow bloggers on your Twitter Feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I have to participate in EVERY day of the challenge?
A: No, but…you must do at least three of the challenges to be eligible for prizes. Remember you can write your posts ahead of time and schedule them. Then you just have to enter your linky info.
Q: Is there an official hashtag?
A: Please use #AWBChallenge and @arwomenbloggers.
Q: Can you give us more space to write in the LinkyTool?
A: Yes! I have increased the space from 15 to 25 characters.
Q: What if I forget to link my post?
A: No problem! All LinkyTools will be open until Tuesday, November 20th.
Interested in joining? Please sign up below. You must be signed up here to be eligible for any prizes and must be a registered member of AWB. (You can register for AWB here. Not sure if you are registered? Check our blogger directory to see if your blog is listed.)
WOW! BLOGtober Fest was such a fun week! We are thrilled that so many of you participated! We got so much positive feedback from you ladies and we definitely have some similar events planned and some events with a few twists too! (Check out What’s Coming Soon down below for more information!)
Yes, I ended every sentence in the previous paragraph with an exclamation point but you ladies deserve it because of all your hard work last week. Over the course of the five days we had 59 registered participants and there were 178 posts written, posted and linked up! WOW!
Here are a few highlights from the week of BLOGtober Fest:
What a variety of talented bloggers we have! We had some tutorials, some interesting collections of decor and a lot of beautiful fall inspired clothing and accessories.
Kellee Mayfield of Delta Moxie wrote a two-part post. First she discusses the importance of Flu Shots, “blings” her band-aid and calls it this fall’s Hottest Accessory. In her second post, Fall Fashion Buzz from Southeast Arkansas, she discusses some tips and tricks for fitting in with the fashionable belles of the Delta.
Although most of you started of saying you didn’t really have any fall traditions, you sure did share a wide variety of wonderful memories and fun!
Nikki of Just Lovely has a young family that is just beginning to build traditions. She loves traditions and the fact that they inspire a sense of “home”. You can see what her sweet family is up to here.
Carving Pumpkins is an ART, especially in the home of Lisa Mullis of Frenetic Fitness. Her family does some pretty amazing things with pumpkins! And remember…Pumpkins don’t let pumpkins drink and trick-or-treat!
Today was all about linking to a post from the past. One of our goals as bloggers should be to get our readers to go deeper into our blog than just what is on the front page. A great way to do this is to re-invite your readers to visit a past post. If you are interested in seeing how the AWB members handled this challenge check out our Day 4 post by clicking here! (Do you see what I did there?)
I was so pleased to see how many of you that aren’t food bloggers took this challenge and ran with it! What a wonderful collection of fall inspired recipes that you must check out!
Jeanetta of Splendid Things share her take of a found recipe for stew in her post, Stewing! What a beautiful pot full of fall vegetables! YUM!
Note: The “highlighted” bloggers shown above were chosen VERY scientifically! Julie counted the total number of entries for each day and asked her wonderful husband, Richie, to choose a number within the range. Richie doesn’t accept bribes or payments unless they come in the form of 100$ bills or brownies!
Winners
To show how much we appreciate you participating in this event we are giving away 2 prizes (described below) to two lucky BLOGtober Fest participants! Winners were chosen using the random number generator on Random.org and their participation in the blogging challenge was verified.
And the winners are…
Nikki B. of Just Lovely! Nikki will be receiving a prize pack containing a some Ziplock items, an AWB T-shirt and a copy of Lela Davidson’s book!
and…
Jessica B. of Life with the Bauer Boys! Jessica will be receiving a free blog consultation from Porch Swing Marketing. They will look at her blog with a “fresh set of eyes” and help her to formulate a growth plan for 2013.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who joined up and played along! The next blog challenge will be November 12 – 16th. We hope you will join us!
You ladies have been working hard and writing some amazing stuff this week! Today’s post should be a little less work because you’ll be promoting a post from the past!
BLOGtober Fest Day 1: Fall Back (Promote a post from the past!)
A trick to generating more traffic on your blog is to invite readers to check out some of the things you’ve written in the past by linking to them in current posts. Sure, a year ago you may not have been as talented a writer or perhaps you hadn’t narrowed your niche but the posts you wrote in the past are still important. Your past posts give your readers insight into who you are, where you came from and where you are headed.
For today’s challenge write a brief post inviting readers to visit one of your past posts. How can you do this?
Write a brief excerpt about a past post with a link back.
Include a picture that shows something you wrote about in the past.
Write a new story and include links to past posts.
Make a ‘most popular’ posts post.
Regardless of how you answer today’s challenge, inviting readers to get more involved in your blog is always a good thing!
Share Your Post and Share the Love
Thanks for playing along! Leave the link to your post below. Then, don’t forget to visit 2-3 other blogs and leave a comment! Share the love! LinkyTools will close Monday, October 22nd at 11:59 pm.
Can you believe we are already on day 3 of our challenge? Your Halloween Memories were wonderful! Some of you were pretty cute kids! What happened? (Just Kidding!)
It’s hump day but don’t let it be a blogging slump day! Today is all about fall traditions.
BLOGtober Fest Day 3: Fall Traditions
Family, holidays and seasons seem to be full of traditions. Some are fun, some are quirky and some are downright strange but they are what make you you and what helps to bind your family together.
Whether your fall tradition dates back for generations or you just started it today doesn’t matter. Write it out, show us pictures, BE CREATIVE!
Share Your Post and Share the Love
Thanks for playing along! Leave the link to your post below. Then, don’t forget to visit 2-3 other blogs and leave a comment! Share the love! LinkyTools will close Monday, October 22nd at 11:59 pm.
Today’s challenge is all about the past! We want you to conjure up a favorite Halloween memory to share.
BLOGtober Fest Day 2: Halloween Memories
Did your parents dress you up in elaborate costumes? Did you tour the country visiting the scariest haunted houses? Did you make out with your high school boyfriend in a corn maze? We bet there is a story there somewhere and we would LOVE to hear it!
Don’t celebrate Halloween? No problem! Share with us a favorite fall memory instead!
Share Your Post and Share the Love
Thanks for playing along! Leave the link to your post below. Then, don’t forget to visit 2-3 other blogs and leave a comment! Share the love! LinkyTools will close Monday, October 22nd at 11:59 pm.
Guess what? It’s DAY ONE of the BLOGtober Fest Blogging Challenge! As we mentioned about a week ago, we will be introducing a variety of AWB blogging challenges over the next few months. Our goal is to get you thinking creatively, writing blog posts and to get you involved in the Arkansas Women Bloggers community. We hope you find these challenges inspiring and motivational.
BLOGtober Fest Day 1: Fall Fashion and Decorating
Do you get excited about the warm earthy colors of fall? Do you have pumpkins, ghosts and goblins all over your yard? Have you been dying to pull on that old comfy sweater or itching to buy a new fall wardrobe?
Maybe you’re a Pinterest junkie and you have been hoarding pictures of cute fall decorations. Now is the time to break out the glue gun and scissors and actually make something.
Perhaps you’ve been perusing the latest issues of Glamour and Cosmo and you want to put together your own fashion board using Polyvore. Do it! Inspire a new trend!
It’s also possible that Fashion and Decorating have NOTHING to do with your blog! That’s fine too! We are not the fashion and decorating police and we will NOT be arresting you if you don’t follow the prompt exactly! Remember these are meant to inspire creativity. Take today’s topic and put your own spin on it! The goal is plainly and simply to blog!
Share Your Post and Share the Love
Thanks for playing along! Leave the link to your post below. Then, don’t forget to visit 2-3 other blogs and leave a comment! Share the love! LinkyTools will close Monday, October 22nd at 11:59 pm.
BLOGtober Fest starts on Monday! We are so excited and hope you are too! If you would like to participate and have missed the signups, it’s not too late! Check out this BLOGtober Fest information post for all the juicy details and to register for prizes.
Here is one more reminder about the weeks topics! Don’t forget to stop by on Monday to link up your first post.
Moday, October 15 – Fall Fashion and Decorating
Tuesday, October 16 – Halloween Memories
Wednesday, October 17 – Fall Traditions
Thursday, October 18 – Promote a Post from the Past
Friday, October 19 – {Foodie Friday} Favorite Fall Recipes
Blogging can be a challenge for even the most successful blogger. Staring at that ‘blank page’ and trying to decide what to write can be totally overwhelming at times. And while most of us claim that we just write because we love to, the truth is we often really just want to know that someone out there is reading it. One of the goals of Arkansas Women Bloggers is to help YOU become a better blogger. Another goal is to bring traffic to your blog. We have listened to your feedback, taken your ideas and formulated some new approaches to achieving these two goals. Today I want to invite you to join us on a really fun blogging challenge.
Why should you participate in a blogging challenge?
We provide the daily ideas for you! No thinking about WHAT to write, you just have to write it.
The LinkyTool will make your blog post visible to other participants and site visitors hopefully generating a bit more traffic.
You will have the opportunity to visit other blogs and leave comments and hopefully find a new friend or two!
Involvement in the community of Arkansas Women Bloggers can lead to lots of great opportunities! We have several Arkansas businesses watching our site and looking for people who stand out and are involved in AWB.
Prizes! We can’t tell you what the prizes are yet but there WILL be prizes awarded to a few lucky participants!
Each day of the Blogging Challenge we will have a reminder post for the daily topic and a link up tool where you can submit your post. In addition to entering your own post we want to encourage you to visit 2-3 other bloggers that have also linked up and leave a comment on their blog. Hopefully you will find a new favorite blog while you are looking around! Each post is meant to be broad so that you can be creative on how you address the prompt or how you fit it into your blogging niche. We can’t wait to read all of the wonderful things you write!
Here is a sneak peak at the prompts for each day of BLOGtober Fest:
Moday, October 15 – Fall Fashion and Decorating
Tuesday, October 16 – Halloween Memories
Wednesday, October 17 – Fall Traditions
Thursday, October 18 – Promote a Post from the Past
Friday, October 19 – {Foodie Friday} Favorite Fall Recipes
Interested in joining? Please sign up below. You must be signed up here to be eligible for any prizes. Grab a button for your blog!
