nablopomo

Every November, writers around the world join together for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an every-day-writing challenge that’s so popular, it’s spread to blogging with National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Today, bloggers of all kinds come together monthly to post daily, whether about business or photography or their family life, sticking to that everyday schedule for an entire month and encouraging each other along the way.

Have you considered joining them and taking the challenge to post every day? Should you? Does it make sense? What does daily blogging have to offer?

To help answer that question, let’s take a look at 10 of the biggest benefits that come from a month of posting every day!

1. Increases Self-Discipline

A common piece of advice given to new bloggers (even if it’s considered overrated advice) is to post every day, at least for a month. Why is this advice so common? Why do many feel daily posts are so important? Perhaps it’s because regular posting, more than anything else, helps establish the blogging habit. “It is said that it takes 10,000 hours to master something,” writes John Rampton. “If that is the case then you need to spend lots of time practicing. “ What better way to practice than through the habit of daily posts?

”Daily practice in developing my voice means that I’ve been able to find words more quickly and say things more effectively, which is always a benefit even when you’re writing an e-mail to a client.” Blogger Dawn Storey, Alphabet Salad

2. Builds Community

Now hosted by blogging mega-community BlogHer, NaBloPoMo is an instant way to connect with other bloggers. Participants link up to their postings on BlogHer’s site, distributing their content amongst others taking part. This gives you a ready audience with whom to share your content, as well as other bloggers to reach out to and form relationships with. What’s more, to encourage participants, BlogHer offers regular inspiration, advice and writing prompts throughout the month to help make it easier for you to stick with the challenge.

3. Forces Creativity

The biggest hindrance that most bloggers who consider a monthly of daily posting find is coming up with daily things to write about. While posting every day may seem intimidating, the truth is, it could also be key in unlocking creativity.

There’s an old saying: “If you want to be a writer, write!” By forcing yourself to blog every day, you gain regular practice in blogging and force regular productivity.  “To be honest, the more you write, the more creative you become,” says David Santistevan, GoinsWriter.com.

Blogger Christopher S. Penn agrees:

”[When you’re blogging every day,] you run into your own limits. Forcing myself to a daily content scheme forces me to be creative, forces me to think outside the box, forces me to look at old things in new ways to see if there are additional avenues to extract value.”

4. Forces Faster Writing

If you’re like a lot of writers, you can easily spend so much time tweaking a project that you never finish. By forcing yourself to blog every day, you practice calling projects done. And as you, every day, have to come up with a new post and hit publish, you get better and faster at creating. This is not only good for blogging but also for all your work, as you push against perfectionism.

”Get the post up fast, not perfect. You can edit if you have to, later. Perfectionism kills good habits.”  Blogger Chris Brogan, ChrisBrogan.com

5. Adds Value to Your Site

When you’re daily posting quality content (and quality is key!), you’re giving readers a solid reason to keep coming back to your site—and this not only boosts SEO but also your value in the minds of your audience.

6. Encourages Comments

More posts mean more opportunities for readers to weigh in. What’s more, sometimes the more real-time nature of daily posts is more conducive to discussion as the posts feel less finished and polished.

7. Builds Website Authority

Daily posting can help boost your website authority, which improves your influence on the Web and sends the message to search engines that you’re an expert. Zemanta CEO Bostjan Spetic saw this firsthand when he decided to post once a day for a full month:

”I’ve learned that my blogging more regularly has brought more visitors to my blog and has raised my profile in the industry; in other words, I am becoming more influential,” said Bostjan Spetic in “One CEO’s Story on the Benefits of Daily Blogging” published on Contently.com.

8. Increases Back-Links

Every new post is a new opportunity to generate back-links—a key factor in search results. The more valuable your site is, the more links you’ll acquire from other sites, too, which is also good for both SEO and referral traffic.

9. Boosts Overall Search Rankings

The combination of greater website authority and more backlinks can lead to higher search rankings. As most SEO experts will tell you, more blog content usually translates to better search results. In fact, “you’ll get the most out of your SEO program if you publish new content as often as possible,” says Brandon Cornett at Austin SEO Guy. Why is this the case? The more you’re posting quality content, the more opportunities you have to draw the attention of readers, the more ways search engines can notice you, the more established your site becomes.

10. Increases Traffic

When blogger Todd Schnick posted every day for a month, he saw unique visitors to his site more than double; the same thing happened to Ryan M. Healy of RyanHealy.com. Why the huge uptick? Most likely the change came partly from better SEO and partly from the new content drawing readers each day. One thing’s certain, though, an idea that doubles traffic is an idea worth considering.

What do you think? November is fast approaching, and along with it, another opportunity to test this strategy yourself. Have you already participated in a NaBloPoMo? Will you? Or does the thought of posting daily leave you scared stiff?

Share your thoughts in the comments!