Adventures In Freelancing

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. I'm convinced he must have read my last post here at Adventures in Freelancing about how scattered I was feeling regarding this blog and its direction. The reason I think this is because just the other day I found in my inbox an email from Darren inviting me to join him for his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog series. Okay, so I'm a subscriber to his newsletter, and he sent that email out to thousands of others, but I choose to think I received it just at the right time for a reason. It sure seemed serendipitous to me!

For 31 days, Darren will be discussing a different blogging lesson. He's also set up forums for participants so that it can be an interactive experience for everyone. I truly think this is just the spark I need to find and refine my blogging direction. Darren encourages participants to enlist friends to join with them, and that really makes sense to me. Accountability is the key when you're working on a goal. My goal is to find my focus with all of my blogs, to be productive, and to really feel satisfied with my blogging progress. Will you join me?

Here's what Darren recommends in preparing for the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, which begins this Monday, April 6th:

3 Things to Do Today to Prepare for #31DBBB

While the start of the challenge has gone back just under a week - there are a few things that will be helpful for you to do today to prepare for the challenge.

1. Install a Metrics Program - To help us with a couple of the tasks in the challenge and to help you track the success of your blog please make sure you have some kind of statistics/metrics package installed on your blog.

I use and recommend Google Analytics (it's free and comprehensive) but there are plenty of others on the market.

2. Invite a Friend to Join You - this sounds like a selfish request (and there is an element of me wanting to see this grow for sure) but there are two reasons for it - accountability and the power of working together.

If you're anything like me, telling someone that you're doing this challenge and having them join you will both give you someone to keep you accountable to the task and will give you someone to debrief with and work with.

A SWOT analysis actually something that you can spend a lot of time on but even putting aside 30 minutes to work through it can be beneficial. It'll also bring some clarity for you as we head towards the start of the challenge next week.

So what do you think? Will you join me in the journey to a better blog? Sign up at ProBlogger to get details sent to your inbox. Then come back here to check in, as I'll be posting my progress periodically throughout the 31 days. Look for me in the forums!