Why participating in blogging challenges is always a good idea for every blogger and how it helps #myfriendalexa
It has been a year since I started writing. It has been an amazing experience so far. In the last 12 months, I have participated in many blogging challenges and contests which have helped me grow as a blogger. In this post, I have shared my experience of taking part in such challenges and my takeaways from them.
I embarked on my blogging journey in Sept 2017 and Super Blogger Challenge happened in Feb 2018. It was my first ever blogging challenge which hosted by Healthwealthbridge Dr. Amrita and allaboutthewoman.com Dr. Bushra. A 10-weeks challenge and I luckily made till the end and also won the Most Hardworking Blogger Award.
Then, I took part in the Write Tribe Festival of Words 2018 which was a one week challenge where the participants had to write one blog every day for a week, that I completed successfully.
And now the third big challenge that I have participated in is #MyFriendAlexa conducted by Blogchatter. It was challenging to submit 2 blogs per week and engage on all the other blogs but today while posting my last blog, I feel accomplished.
Apart from these, I had also participated in many special occasion contests like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Blog birthday contests etc. Now, the question is why should one participate in such challenges and what value they bring to us.
How these challenges helped me:
Writing discipline:
The first and foremost benefit of taking part in any challenge is writing regularly. As you will have deadlines to submit an article, there will not be any sitting back. For a lazy bone like me challenges always help and act as a motivation to write. So, I try to take part in as many challenges as I can, don my writer’s hat and let my creative juices come out.
Traffic on my blog:
This is an incentive you get while participating in contests. People visit your blog and engage, you get more likes, comments, shares on social media and hits on the blog hence your traffic is boosted resulting in a better DA, Alexa, and other ranks. You get visibility in the blogosphere. It is a perfect way to brand yourself.
Writing on prompts:
There are times when we run out of ideas what to write in our next blog. Many writing challenges share a few writing prompts for the participants. And having these prompts really help in knocking off the writer’s or mental block. There could be picture prompts, title prompts etc. which gives us enough choice to pick a topic of our interest, and mood and pen down our thoughts on it. Isn’t it sound easy? To me, it was. I really enjoyed writing on the prompts given in the various challenges.
New techniques of blogging:
Before I participated in the Super Blogger Challenge, my first blogging challenge, writing meant just venting out my thoughts but after participating in SBC, I got a whole new picture of what blogging is all about. I learned many new terms, how to promote my blog, ways to monetize my blog and how to work and collaborate with the brands. Not just that, I learned how to effectively use social media for promoting my blog. I learned that Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are not only for sharing your musings but also you can generate followers and traffic to your blog through the effective use of social media.
Consistent Reading & learning:
As you read and read many posts of your fellow bloggers, you identify various forms and styles of writing. Every writer has its own way of writing, uniqueness, and strengths. They offer something insightful and valuable in their blog. Regular reading also helps you in generating ideas and seeing life from other perspectives at a different angle.
Experiment with your writing style:
As you discover other forms of writing, you can also experiment on a different style or form like fiction/drama/romance etc. and explore your talent outside your comfort zone and you never know you might do wonders in a new style of work.
Making new friends:
In the last one year, not only I learned a lot about blogging but also earned many amazing writer friends. Challenges bring the like-minded people together and you bond over your common interest. You always learn something or the other as you interact with the hosts and fellow writers and make real connections.
So, these were my takeaways from the blogging challenges, I would love to know about yours too.