Prompt: Theme Reveal and Blog Hops

A few weeks ago I prompted bloggers to sign up to the April A to Z Challenge 2014. This week I would also like to encourage you to: sign up for the A to Z Theme Reveal Blog Hop on 21st March 2014 (I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to this year). If the A to Z is not for you why not still consider taking part in a Blog Hop that is more up your street: read our other favourite blog hops on the A to Z site to get you started.

As promised the BRAND NEW Organisational Notebook for the 2014  A to Z challenge is now available (and Prompts for Bloggers Premium Subscribers will get the PDF copy to download for free).

If you are not already a subscriber grab a 2014 subscription now.

Prompt: 10 Minutes a Day

Yesterday, the blog post: How to spend only 10 minutes per day on Twitter on mashable seemed to gain momentum – it was everywhere.

Lately everything I read online seems to be about getting things done quicker, more efficiently or generally trying to cut down on procrastination.

Personally, I manage procrastination by using checklists and scheduling my time. This can include my social media activity and although I do enjoy relaxing and using social media as ‘downtime’ sometimes I do think it is worth thinking about how to do 10 minutes a day for your chosen social media channels.

So this week why not build on your current schedule and revise your social media usage.

This week Prompts for Bloggers Premium Subscribers can download our Social Media 10 minutes a day checklists. Now available for Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. An example of which is shown below.

Prompt: Boost your Calendar with Seasonal Marketing

Holidays and events are the perfect time to do a targeted blog post, competition or even social media campaign. So why not update your calendar by including some of these holidays and seasonal events to make sure you plan ahead with plenty of time. Seasonal content does not have to be about sales, but rather you should be thinking about time-based needs and interests of your readers, clients or customers. This does not have to be limited to holidays, but could include key seasonal interests that affect your customers. To make the most of it seasonal content and marketing should be part of your regular editorial calendar and blog plan. Not as an afterthought when you notice the early bird promotions starting to pop up.

This week Prompts for Bloggers Premium subscribers can download our holiday calendar sheet (which has space to add your own seasonal content relevant to your niche). Alternatively just complete your own in the blank version and then get planning.

Got any plans for Valentines’s day?

Prompt: Sign up for the #atozchallenge

The Sign-Up list opened last week for the A to Z Challenge. The daily blogging challenge takes place in April each year (but the community is active all year round). I am now all signed up. Once again I will be tackling the challenge with both of my blogs: PlanningwithPrintedPortal (which shall once again host free inserts) and DIY Career Development. If you are a blogger and have not already signed up why not take a closer look – over 500 blogs have signed up already.

The Challenge is to write 26 daily blog posts one for each letter of the alphabet during the month of April (Sundays are a day of rest). The second part of the challenge is to visit as many of the blogs taking part in the challenge as possible. I always find this part much more challenging. (There are blogs that I never got round to reading despite taking part in the post-challenge road trip).

Why sign up for the Challenge?

I originally signed up to revitalise my blogging, create a daily writing habit and to meet new people. I successfully did all this but I also found some fantastic blogs (and bloggers) that I would never have stumbled across without the challenge and curated a lot of content for the blog. Last year by doing inserts for the challenge it both motivated me to do inserts that I needed for my Filofax but had not got round to creating AND built up my collection of free inserts.  Creating Free Inserts is a habit that has continued post-challenge (although it has its peaks and troughs).

I won’t lie, it is a hard challenge (particularly with multiple blogs) and plenty of people drop out along the way – but it is a great experience which is why I am doing it again for the 3rd year running.

Sign up now!

The Organisational Notebook: A to Z Challenge 2014

To help ORGANISE such a mammoth challenge I designed an organisational notebooks JUST for planning the challenge. The notebook kept EVERYTHING I needed for the challenge in one place and you can read more about how I designed and used it in the posts listed below:

• The A to Z Challenge Notebook 2013 
• Planning My A to Z Challenge – an update
• A to Z Challenge – Reflections Post
• Post Challenge Road Trip

Once again I am designing an organisational notebook for the challenge (with some tweaks). The BRAND NEW Notebook for 2014 will be available before the end of February (and Prompts for Bloggers Premium Subscribers will get the PDF copy to download for free). If you are not already a subscriber grab a 2014 subscription now.