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A look back on #vDM30in30 and blogging

So the #vDM30in30 challenge is over, which was started off by the guys from Virtual Design Master, and the challenge was to write 30 blog posts in 30 days. That’s all.

Why I took the challenge

I took up the challenge, because it was that, a challenge, I started the blog in April 2014, but only really started to post stuff on a regular basis in July 2014. With around 30 blog posts on the site, taking the 30 posts in 30 days doubles my content, and also my exposure.

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Theres been a few posts about undertaking this challenge, and we have all come to the same conclusion, its god damn hard!

Finding meaningful subjects in which to write quality content is hard. I tried to concentrate on the things I was doing day-to-day, which worked out well for around 20 of the posts. Two posts were rehashed from that which I wrote originally for my employer, and some others were more my comments around things, such as the job market as I see it.

So what happened?

Well I realised, my site views went up, winner!

I enjoyed writing the content, picking things from my day to reproduce issues for screenshots etc, and get it out there.

Producing 30 blog posts whilst revising for the CCNP exams is such a squeeze, I was literally getting my posts done and up 1 minute to midnight (GMT).

There are people out there who write some fantastic content, which I’m still getting through reading now! Anyone who hasn’t checked it out, needs to go to twitter and search #vDM30in30

LinkedIn groups are used for technical help more than I realised. One day after writing a blog post, and having it automatically stuck on LinkedIn, I decided to post in one of the groups, from that I seen another burst of website visits, but also comments on LinkedIn regarding my content, from people who either found it useful, or wanted to discuss further.

I also found myself spending time going through some of the groups and answering people s queries, until now I hadn’t realised that people had turned to LinkedIn groups as an extension of IT based forums, looking for help.

And finally provided content for a guest blog spot over on #vBrownbag site. And I’ll be doing another soon.

So what’s next?

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  • I’ve just moved to a better host for my wordpress blog, which caused some downtime, but thanks to Nathan over at vmtechy.com for helping me to get it sorted.
  • I need to change the design of the website slightly, to ensure you can get to older content easily. I’ve already added a dedicate “All Posts” page, which lists links to every post by post heading. But it could be better.
  • I need to pass my CCNP TSHOOT exam.
  • I’ll be hopefully blogging for Cisco.com

At the moment though, I’m enjoying having some evenings back to myself, and a better balance to revise in, (i.e play lots of destiny and no revision so far).

But in the new year I’ll be back on it, providing more tech info and insights, for all of those who listen.

 

Regards

Dean

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