Now that I own a smartphone with broadband capabilities, blogging from anywhere and at anytime should be a cinch.

Shouldn’t it?

And yet, this is the second time that I’ve missed my blogging deadline for the PostAWeek challenge.

So here I am, sitting and having my favorite lunch of toast and milk tea (with fried noodles and fish cakes to go), putting my best effort to contemplate where I have gone wrong.

Toast and Tea for lunch

I can give you a million and one reasons why I can’t keep up. Work, home, kids, the Top Commentators widget, distraction, lack of focus, etc. But they are all just excuses.

One thing I clearly am with this challenge is feeling frustrated. I checked my Google Analytics recently and found that my blog readership and bounce rate did not improve; in fact, it got worse.

What?! Even after the hoopla I made about PostADay / PostAWeek, and tweeting about it and joining the Facebook PostADay community? I would think things would be a little different.

Then I remembered my post on how my lack of blog updates led to better visitor retention. And, also the fact that blogging through this WordPress app for Windows Phone is ridiculously tougher than my geek self would like to admit, is making me think twice about my strategy.

So now what? Do I focus on organic traffic by just posting sporadically, or do I post often to feed my blogging interest in the expense of worsening search engine results?

I’ll think about this later.

BTW, here are some blog posts from WebGrrrl.net readers who are taking on the PostAWeek 2011 challenge:

• My history with Unix by LaViaP The Geek

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

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I know that the original challenge is intended for WordPress.com users, but, hey, it doesn’t hurt to join in the fun.

I’ve done a 30-day blog challenge before, so I know how difficult it can be for some of us to keep up. It’s not so much because we’re out of ideas, but rather the fact that we’re pretty much swarmed with so many other commitments in our life that they force you to put your blogging efforts in the back burner.

WebGrrrl.net is a perfect example of that. 2010 has been almost non-existent in terms of posts in this blog. As a comparison:

• 2006: 9 posts
• 2007: 88 posts
• 2008: 114 posts
• 2009: 37 posts
• 2010: 11 posts

Pathetic, isn’t it? As a result, my blog traffic suffered.

OK, so maybe I lied, a little — the traffic wasn’t that bad up until a month or two ago (proof of my SEO prowess *snorts*).

But that’s not the point.

The point is, I need to get my behind off the ground and actually blog again, if I were to live up to my lame tagline (no offence to Asimov).

Therefore, I’m taking the WordPress PostADay challenge, albeit in a slightly modified form. You do notice in that challenge that there’s a weekly version of it called PostAWeek? That’s the one I’m taking. Instead of one post a day, I’ll do a weekly post, type each one in 250 words or more, then tag each post as “postaweek2011″.

You should join me. It’s good for your blog’s SEO, and for sharpening your writing/typing skills.

Or how about this — let me give you an incentive. If you decide to join the WordPress weekly challenge with me, do what I do (post weekly, tag it, write in 250 words or more). Then, comment in my latest weekly post, add your latest weekly post URL in the comment form, and I’ll link back to your article in my next post. Instant PR3 backlink for you!

Deal? Then start typing!

Oh, and have a great 2011!

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Starting today, I’m going on a personal blogging challenge — to post once a day for the next 30 days, and it’s not unlike the challenge I took last year. My reasons for doing this again are:

1. To revive traffic to WebGrrrl.net. Lord knows how much neglect this blog has suffered due to my greed to make money blogging! (Though I gotta tell you, the time spent focusing on just that has been totally worth it!) My previous OPAD challenge managed to bring me a 70% surge in new visitors — I’m not sure about the subscriber conversion rate, but I’ll keep an eye on it this time.
2. To churn out content that could turn out to be gems and traffic generators for this blog. I highlighted a few of these posts when I did a 2008 review of my blog. These topics continue to give me lots of search engine hits till now.
3. To go back to what I love the most — just plain ol’ blogging on matters that don’t matter After all those effort on making money online, it’s time for me to come back as the WebGrrrl that I am and share my Web and online findings with you and anyone else who cares to read this blog.

I actually planned on starting this challenge yesterday, 1 June 2009, but seeing that it was a public holiday in my state, I thought I might as well do it today.

Before I forget, allow me to show off my latest blogging ammunition:

Consisting of a 3G modem, a laser optical wireless mouse, and my handy-dandy netbook the size of my two palms and leopard-skinned to show the Grrrl side of me (thanks, honey!). Two pesky robbers broke into my apartment and stole my old laptop, but the police managed to capture those buggers after almost a month. Sans the old laptop and RM15,000 worth of other stuff, of course.

Any-hoos.

My strategy is to do lots and lots of scheduled postings, as I’ll probably do them during the late nights when I’m not so tired from my work, house chores, kids, more money making activities, Facebook-ing, and MCSE classes. I’ll also take this chance to (honest to goodness this time) launch Blogging Fu and Looking For Niches blogs by spreading some content around there while I’m at this challenge. Who knows — I may even re-launch LornaTimbah.com with a new look and a new focus as well!

Care to join me? Leave a comment if you’re doing a similar challenge, and I might even do a review of your blog or post!

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Update: This challenge has been discontinued.

I’ve been meaning to do this ever since I received an encouraging number of participants for this project through SocialSpark. Take a look at the top of this blog’s sidebar, and you will see a link called Take My Challenge. Read through the requirements before you request for one.

In case you missed my previous post concerning this topic, Take My Challenge is a project I started in SocialSpark as a way to build links to and from WebGrrrl.net. The way this works is that if you blog about and link to a post I made in this blog, I’ll respond in kind. Pretty simple stuff.

In a way, this also prevents me from going through a “writer’s block” — you know, when your brain goes through this weird spasm, and you suddenly don’t have any idea what to blog about? This is a pretty neat way for me to warm up my thoughts and start collecting ideas on topics I’m interested about.

I have tagged my posts as IBlogUBack on those related to this project, so if you’re interested and you like what you see, take my challenge now.

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Wouldn’t you want to blog every day for 29 days and be guaranteed a prize at the end? I would, and that is why I’ve accepted Eric Giguere’s One Page A Day challenge. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on his Uncommon AdSense e-book, and hope to be lucky enough to win his PLRSiteBuilder. I’m curious to see how and whether that tool works on a niche web site I’m planning to put up very soon.

Join in the challenge, and sign up by February 8 — not only does every one win, but it will do good for your blog to have not just daily posts, but quality ones at that.

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