I said when I began The Ultimate Blog Challenge I wouldn’t include review posts in my “post every day” requirements. I noticed many others do, and I figured, why not? After all, reviews aren’t just a copy and paste post. Although in a review we share factual information about a product or service, we also share our experience with the product(s) or service(s). It isn’t just informational, it’s personal.
In reviews I often share something about myself or my family as well, and it is written from my unique perspective. I also focus on not only being personal in my reviews but thorough as well. They generally take a considerable amount of time to compose and often include personal pictures as well, which means editing photos, too!
So, although I originally said I wasn’t going to include reviews in my one post every day requirement, I changed my mind – particularly now. I was up the entire night before we left for our trip to Houston not only getting things together for the trip but mostly trying to schedule posts for when I would be away. I scheduled the reviews (one with a giveaway! Yay!) I wanted to complete, but despite remaining up all night I was unable to schedule personal posts. Then, I came to the realization I mentioned above. My reviews are personal content as well!
So, here is my post for today! Yesterday’s was a review. Tomorrow’s is a review – and giveaway. I am still striving for more personal content outside of reviews this month, so I might change my mind back once we return from this little vacation. We’ll see! I can’t wait to share our trip with you! We’ve been having a blast!
Ultimate Blog Challenge
I have joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge! I knew it would be a great way to encourage myself to write more personal posts, which is something I have been wanting to do. For the Ultimate Blog Challenge I have to write a post every day. I do also have the option of doubling up one day if I happen to miss a day. To be honest, I’m not sure if the challenge excludes reviews, but for the sake of wanting to have more personal content I have taken this challenge to write personal content every day, so I am not including any reviews, giveaways, and/or sponsored posts in the challenge. I do have A LOT of reviews coming up as well as our trip to Houston that I mentioned in my Weekly Wrap-Up. It’s going to be a busy month, but I’m going to try my best!
Depending on my week (particularly when we’re out of town) some of the posts may be shorter than others, but I’m determined to stick to the goal of writing a post every day for the month of July – or at the very least writing two on one day if I did happen to miss a day. There have been times I feel discouraged to write more often because there isn’t much engagement (such as comments) on my personal posts, so when I have a busy week where I have reviews to post and maybe some sponsored posts, etc. it’s hard to find the motivation to squeeze in that extra time to type up a personal post knowing it may just get overlooked. Well, I’ve decided to get over that mindset. Something I’ve been thinking about is even if the post itself doesn’t have interaction on it I still have a potential to reach people, but if the post doesn’t exist I have the potential to reach nobody.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post called If you Want to Steal my Blog, and I felt very moved to write that post, and I meant everything I said. Then, I let my self doubts get in the way and let myself feel discouraged. I’m not going to do that anymore. I can’t. If I keep feeding my doubts then everything I said in that post is lost. So I’m using this challenge to move forward as well.
So, here it is! This is my first post – to introduce the challenge to you and let you know of my intents. I expect you to keep me accountable! 😉 If you’re a blogger I encourage you to join me as well!