Apr 4, 2014 / Beginner

New Blog Challenges Start April 15!

NOTE: The sign-up form is now closed, but all Blogging U. assignments are published publicly here on The Daily Post — feel free to jump in!

If you’re just getting your blog off the ground, or saw our Zero to Hero challenge in January and wished you’d thrown your hat into the ring, today’s your lucky day: another round of Blogging 101: Zero to Hero gets started on Tuesday, April 15th.

Looking for something more advanced? Blogging 201: Branding, Growth and Traffic starts the same day (201-level challenges on writing/photography and theme tailoring start in early summer)!

Read on to learn more about each challenge and sign up to participate.

Blogging 101: Zero to Hero

What is Zero to Hero? Thirty days of digestible blogging assignments that get you from “What’s a blog?” to a blog that you’re excited to publish — and others are excited to read. At the end of Day 30, you’ll have:

  • A half-dozen (or more) published posts, and a handful of draft posts to get you through your next 30 days.
  • A customized theme, with widgets to draw new readers in and highlight your favorite reads.
  • A (small but growing) audience.
  • An understanding of the blogging community, blog etiquette, and how to build a readership of your own.

We can’t guarantee instant viral mayhem (if only!), but you’ll have a jump-start on all the basics for successful blogging.

Blogging 201: Branding, Growth, and Traffic

Branding, Growth, and Traffic assumes a few things about your blog: you know what you want your blog to be, you’ve got a handle on publishing basics, and you’re ready to take your site to the masses. This is a 14-day challenge that will help you:

  • Define your blog’s brand and make sure it’s effective and consistent.
  • Build your audience both within WordPress.com, and without.
  • Understand and use your blog’s stats to grow your traffic.
  • Make the most of your existing posts, to bring them ongoing attention.

We’ll help you focus your brand and explore different ways to boost your internet infamy. At the end of the two weeks, you’ll have some new readers, new tools, and a to-do list you’re excited to attack.

If you’re participating in either challenge, you’ll also have access to The Commons, a private, conversation-focused site where you can chat with other participants, share works-in-progress for feedback, and more (there will be separate sites for 101 and 201 bloggers). Staff will be on hand there to answer questions, give feedback, direct you to more resources, and keep the conversation flowing.

Get ready to blog!

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  3. I didn’t do the 101 in January, but my blog is looking decent and I know my way around it — would you still recommend I take 101, or can I bypass it and take 201 (because I really need help with branding/marketing)?

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    1. As I mentioned to someone upthread, there are a lot of community-building pieces in 101 that are really helpful for creating/growing your readership, along with assignments focused on your blog. They might be helpful (or you might already be doing them naturally).

      If it helps, head to the forums and search for “Zero to Hero” — you’ll be able to see the comment threads from the first challenge and the types of assignments we did. That may help you decide.

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  5. A totally random snippet of information on this but April 15th is an eclipse day, it’s ominous that I will be starting the Blogging 101 updates on that very day – looking forward to the info 🙂

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  6. Starting a challenge… first time for me… I don’t really have a topic for my blog or nothing, just writing whatever I have an issue with at that particular time. I still think it is going to be interesting. Thanks for the opportunity!

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  7. This is exciting and slightly intimidating because its my first ever challenge venture and I will have to shape up and write no matter what craziness is going on around the house.. I LOVE it! Signing up for Blogging 101!

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  9. This is my first ever challenge, and I’m so excited to start! Sounds really interesting and beneficial, and I’ve just started blogging again on a new platform after /years/ so I really think this will help – yay!

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  15. Thank you for the opportunity to learn! It is my 9th day of blogging …I am very excited to navigate with ease all of the many ways to share and expand in blogging 101

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  17. Do you send a message so we know what time it starts? Or does the information stay posted all day? Also, do we come to this site? I’ve never done one of these, as you can probably tell 🙂 It sounds like a lot of fun, though, can’t wait.

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    1. Each task will be posted a noon US Eastern Time, so you can either come here to find it, or follow The Daily Post to get new post notifications. Once they’re posted, they’ll stay up, so if you miss any you can go back and find them. We’ll circulate full details closer to the start date.

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    2. I have the same questions as you. I have a hard time scheduling my time between making art and normal life. But I definitely want to get more involved in the blog world.

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  18. Reblogged this on Murder Blog and commented:
    For anyone needing help driving traffic to their blog or other blog issues, there’s a blog challenge that will help you with everything you need to know starting April 15th. It looks like fun.

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  23. I want to attract traffic…and keep writing…Thank you so much for all this exercise to push couch potatoes like me .

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  25. I do hope that if I’m tardy I don’t get sent outside … do we get extra points for slipping a nice apple to the teacher?

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  27. This is great! A visited a blog recently and was impressed. I assumed that the blogger had been a veteran but she told me she’d only been blogging for about 3 months. She recommended “Zero to Hero” but wasn’t sure when it would be available. I’m so glad it begins in about 2 weeks!!! WordPress really has awesome resources that’ll help bloggers, especially newcomers like myself, be more confident in our efforts to create blogs we’ll be proud of.

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