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Jul 09 2011
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An update on PostAWeek2011

I’m not entirely sure how many regular readers I have. Encouragingly, I’ve got a good few subscribers and seem to get the odd re-tweet. Therefore, if you’ve been here before and are not my mum, my fiancee, my mate Jeff or me, thanks for coming back.

Right or wrong, clever or stupid, I decided to participate in WordPress’s PostAWeek2011 challenge back in January. The premise for which is simple – write something every week and post it on your blog. Easy, yeah?

Originally, I had a crack at PostADay2011. If you imagine PostAWeek2011 being a kickabout in the local park, its more frequent sibling is akin to playing against the current Barcelona team. On your own. Naked. Tied to an old man.

It’s hard.

So, obviously, I gave up.

Posting something every week has actually turned out to be a little easier than I thought. The briefest of conversations, a second-long glance at a situation… even biscuits. Inspiration is literally everywhere.

For that reason, I recommend that you give this a go. It doesn’t matter how confident you are at writing, or if you’re speling is as bad as mine – trust me, you will feel better for letting it all out occasionally.

As WordPress say – express yourself. Start a blog. The world is a better place with more words.

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Jan 15 2011
4 Comments
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Freshly Impressed

My inbox is rarely bombarded, but it received the hammering of its life yesterday, as I suddenly began to receive what seemed like hundreds of emails from WordPress informing me people had liked or commented on a post. Every device I have connected to my email account (there’s a worrying number) beeped, pinged, vibrated and tinkled all afternoon and evening.

This never happens. Surely I haven’t written anything that interesting? Or offensive?

It was only when I spotted one of the comments congratulating me on becoming Freshly Pressed that I realised what was happening. Somehow, my blog post regarding blogging buddies had made it onto the homepage of WordPress.com.

For those that don’t have a blog, this might seem trivial… dull, even. But for fellow users of WordPress, its quite a bit deal. I just didn’t realise how much of a big deal…

In one day, I received nearly 1200 page views, 37 comments, 28 ‘likes’ and 8 new subscribers. A single day’s activity increased my total page views of all time by around 30%. Now, that might not sound like much in these days of statistical prowess but for TheBoyEllis Blog, it pretty much smashed my admittedly pathetic previous records. I think the busiest day before yesterday was around 26 visits and two comments. I was pretty happy with that.

The post that got pressed was written fairly hurriedly and wasn’t something I wasn’t hugely happy with technically, but it goes to show that it’s the content that interests people. Content is king here and I hope lots more fellow WordPressers get to experience the rush of interest I received (which is showing little sign of abating) as a result of WordPress noticing an interesting post. If you have something you want to put down – just do it. Don’t be afraid to hit that big blue publish button. You never know who’s reading and where it might end up!

Get writing.

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Jan 12 2011
63 Comments
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Blogging Buddy

JazzsequenceA day or so ago, WordPress put this post up.

Having already failed on the postaday challenge, I was instantly drawn to the idea of a ‘blogging buddy’. It’s my mission this year to keep this site fresh and sharing the experience may well help a great deal.

The idea is that you team up with someone who has similar interests and then set about the postaday/postaweek challenge together, inspiring each other with content and, more importantly, inspiring each other to continue doing something which can so easily be dropped.

I did as WordPress suggested and put my name forward, as did literally hundreds of other people. My reply was suddenly lost in a sea of text; fellow bloggers posting their likes, dislikes, preferred topics and gentle requests for someone to help them along. I quickly forgot about it. No one would spot a lone poster wanting to increase the music and tech content on his blog.

Then, within a couple of days, I had an email from a like-minded soul who had spotted my request. He too was into music production, technology and all things geeky. Suddenly, I had my blogging buddy.

That man is Chris, from Salt Lake City, Utah. Take a look at at his blog here.

Our goals seem to have stuck a chord (if you’ll excuse the pun) and I look forward to seeing how both our sites develop in 2011.

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