Dec 18, 2012 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Focus On: Blogs for 365 Days, 52 Weeks, and More

We discover bloggers on WordPress.com exploring different passions and interests, immersed in unique industries, fields, and worlds. At the Daily Post, we’ll highlight these niche blogs and the various communities within WordPress.com. We hope these spotlights introduce you to new communities and ideas, and inspire you to find — and create — your own cozy corner in the blogging world.

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At the end of November, we gave virtual high-fives to writers and artists who participated in month-long projects like NaBloPoMo and NaNoDrawMo. We also want to highlight bloggers who challenge themselves all year — who post each day, each week, or have established an ongoing project. Check out these blogs:

A Year of Reading the World

In 2012, writer and editor Ann Morgan planned to read her way around as many of the globe’s 196 independent countries as she could, sampling one book from every nation. The result? Her thoughtful, sophisticated blog, A Year of Reading the World. In each post, she focuses on a particular book and digs into the country’s history and culture. Recent places included Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, and the Maldives.

Jump For Joy!

Jump For Joy!

JUMP FOR JOY! Photo Project

An inspiring international project focused on play, fun, and the positive in our lives, JUMP FOR JOY! presents Eyoälha Baker’s vision of a world united by our expression of joy. Eyoälha has taken nearly all the images on her blog — with the exception of the photos of her. Her jumping subjects are captured in locations around the world: at the beach in Kauai, at a park in Vancouver, or even between city skyscrapers . . . while holding a ninja sword! We love how she showcases the beauty of the human spirit — in mid-air.

Hope Street

Kurt Blumenau’s grandfather kept month-to-month calendars — 15 years’ worth! — on which he recorded significant events that affected him, such as the flight of Apollo 17. These calendars remain in Kurt’s family, and each Monday on his blog, Hope Street, Kurt picks an interesting calendar entry and writes something about it. “It might be a reflection on my grandfather’s life,” writes Kurt, “or my family’s history and tradition . . . or American life of the 1960s and 1970s . . . or my own life today.” The blog celebrates his grandfather and family and is a unique, thoughtful project of personal and American history.

Sketches From Memory

We admire the sketch-a-day regimen of comic artist Chuck Cottrell. Chuck posts simple sketches to mini comic strips, mostly in black and white (with some random yet effective bursts of color). We recommend you dive in, as he lets readers in to his personal world — including sharing stories of married life — in a fun, candid way.

Ian Spagnolo Photography

Outdoor landscapes. Dramatic long exposure shots of the sea. Light painting sessions. Follow photographer Ian Spagnolo‘s “365 Project” to sample his work, especially if you enjoy seeing a photographer play around with exposure, light, and other elements. Ian is from Coffs Harbour, a coastal city in New South Wales, Australia, which means he certainly won’t run out of stunning subject matter to shoot.

52 Brand New

52 Brand New

52 Brand New

For 2012, the personable blogger behind 52 Brand New promised to try 52 new experiences with her children, from tasting new cuisines to attending a family yoga class to collecting rocks. In each “new experience,” she includes playful Polaroid-style images and links to other experiences her family has undertaken, as well as external resources offering ideas for family activities. 52 Brand New is a fresh, creative take on a parenting blog.

Instamatic Gratification

A daily photoblog, Instamatic Gratification succeeds because of its simple and focused approach: one image per day. (We also love the daily quotes that accompany each photograph.) In January 2010, Caryn launched the blog and successfully posted 365 images in that first year. In 2011, she wasn’t quite as diligent, so this year, she decided to challenge herself once again. She writes: “I’ve come to realize that, for me anyway, quantity (or rather the consistency of daily practice) is the surest and most direct route to quality.” We totally agree!

Dar’s 52 Mondays Blog

Dar’s “52 Mondays” project compiles photographs as well as her thoughts on nature, art, education, creativity, and more — a space in which she can share her ideas in one place. We appreciate her weekly dedication to “make Mondays more marvelous,” and think her approach is inspiring.

Since 2013 is just around the corner, we encourage you to start your own 365-day or 52-week project at the beginning of the year. If you have plans, let us know in the comments! Or, if you already maintain a similar project on your blog, or follow another blog that does the same, share it below as well.

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  1. I am hoping to move into a more regular blogging routine. I started a 365 photo project last year and am hoping to combine that with my current food blog…http://food4five.wordpress.com. I do love composing food still lifes.. Thanks for all these new wonderful sites to follow!

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    1. Glad to see these posts! I started a blog July 23, 2012, not knowing exactly where I was heading with it. I’ve been blogging daily and usually post photos on Thursdays and Saturdays. I write a lot about teaching and just the process of trying to stay creative while still working full time. I’m not sure, but hope that by July 23, 2013 I’ll have a clearer vision of what I need to blog about. Right now, disciplining myself to post daily is part of the writing commitment I’ve made to myself. My next promise is to read and follow more blogs.

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  2. I started my blog in 2010 as a post-a-day site focused on documenting one fun, kind, or otherwise uplifting thing that happened to me each day. After my first 365 days were completed, the site evolved into a “101 in 1001” space (i.e., complete 101 new-to-me tasks in 1001 days [similar to the “52 Brand New” site referenced in the post]). I also started a new/different 365 day site (which I started earlier this year) where I document 3 delights every day.

    Interested people can find the two sites here:
    http://smilekiddo.wordpress.com/
    http://threedailydelights.wordpress.com/

    🙂

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  3. I have a suitcase of letters my father wrote to my mother starting when he met my mom in 1937 through training for World War II, them getting married and him being sent overseas to fight for his country. Every Thursday I post another chapter of his journey. I am 42 weeks in and he has just been sent overseas. For me Thursdays are “World War II Thursday’s” on my blog.

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  4. I am going to try to write a series on the Saints titled A Saint A day. I am not Catholic but I admire their lives and think they would make a good role model on how to draw closer to God. I just don’t know if I can do it because I am only on the second saint. It seems to take hours to research each of the saints and figure out what part of their life jumps out at me as something that I want to imitate if I can, of course.

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  7. I’ve visited a couple of these (the jumping one, in particular) before! As I’m learning this blogging thing, I’m finding lots of great writers and photographers, and oodles of inspiration!! On my “Don’t Carry the Donkey!” blog, I decided to start a weekly post called Our Sunday Best, based on the week’s message at our church. I never would have been willing to attempt a regular writing schedule if I hadn’t been reading other people’s blogs and learning from them. So – thanks for sharing these!!
    I just posted this one, if anyone would like to read it: http://carrymelord.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/the-word-did-it-go-in-your-out-ear/

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  8. Wow thanks for pointing out these truly mazing project blogs. My blog – Project Momentarily- is a little like these ones as I am releasing each chapter of what will be a novel and my blog allows readers to post their thoughts on the plot and the characters. It’s a crowd-sourcing kind of project as the comments then inspire me to write more.

    The blog is only two months old, but here’s a recent post that explains it all:http://justmomentarily.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/project-update-momentary-madness/

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  9. projects are fun & help keep you blogging 🙂
    next week i complete my black & white 52 week photo project .. it’s been a fun year

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  10. I’ve just been pointed here by a Blogging chum, and I’m so glad I have been. What a wealth of ideas and creativity you shpwcase. I don’t know if I would ever have come across these Blogs without your help. Thankyou again

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  11. Well this may sound crazy, but for nearly two years now I have posted a different picture of a British burglar alarm every single day on my WordPress blog Burglar Alarm Britain. Following the dictum that “an Englishman’s home is his castle”, these have a medley of weird and wonderful designs ranging from squirrels to knights on horseback, and I’ve broken them all down into categories. I plan to continue for at least another year. Thank you WordPress for being so excellent to use and making this possible for me. You can find it here: http://www.burglaralarmbritain.wordpress.com

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  13. I started blogging September 2011 only weekly. Since April I have posted daily; each day a particular theme around books, libraries and life. Each day I have at least one image and narrative; It is like a patch work quilt … and without WordPress this would not have happen Thank you

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  14. I’ve posted daily since Nov 1, 2011. When I reached the end of October, I decided to continue daily posting through 12/31/12. Originally, I thought that my blog would be like “morning pages”, but I didn’t like the unedited feel to those. So, when I didn’t have a finished piece to post, I started posting photographs. At the end of January, I realized that I had taken a photo a day for the month, so I continued. My posts almost always include a photograph, but I don’t know that my blog is a photoblog. Sometimes, when I’ve just posted an image only, I think it is a lazy, get something on the blog, thing for me to do. I don’t know that I’ll post daily in 2013, but I do intend to post regularly and I hope to include more writing to accompany by photographs which have improved tremendously since I began — or rather just sort of fell into — this project. It’s been fun, I’ve learned much, and met many wonderful bloggers who have given me insight into different ways of looking at the world.

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  17. I so wish I had something meaningful to post every day for 365 days, but I don’t know if my talents in either photography or drawing to want to do that to myself. Hell, even I bore myself with the writing everyday, but it doesn’t have to be prize-winning, right, or should I say …write? har har har

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  19. That is why I am on WordPress! My project this year was a 365 day Bucket List for 2012. Considering what kind of 365 project to do for 2013. I did the Photo a Day for 2011. I need some inspiration for what to do in 2013!

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  21. I current try and will make a stronger commitment to post daily to one of my three blogs….either Heart & Sight; What Amiga Knows; or Constellation.

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  22. Ahh. I used to do postaday so diligently. Then we had horrendous drought, helped daughter move six hours away, helped son get married, hubs began additional employment . . . life. Cannot put a stop to life, but must carve time out to do this other thing I so need to do. Thanks, WordPress, for the nudge. Thanks so much.

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