Writing online articles is much easier if you’re well organized and if you know exactly what you want to write about. This article explains what the 30 Days Challenge is all about, how it can help you as a writer and how to prepare for it to make the most of your time.

What is a 30 Days Challenge?

In the online publishing world, a 30 Days Challenge is an activity started by a member of a 2.0 website such as Seekyt, by which other members of the same community are challenged to write 30 articles in 30 days. Some writers may even challenge you to write a 100 articles in 30 days.

The challenger (who is also challenging himself/herself) posts a forum thread or a journal entry announcing the beginning of the challenge. Participating in the challenge is, of course, optional (arbitrary).Participants are welcome to post links to their 30 Days Challenge articles in the challenge entry and comment on how the challenge is working out for them.

30 Days Challenge vs. 60 Days Challenge

Sometimes, the 30 Days Challenge continues in the following month, but the activities in these two months differ. In the first month participants write and publish articles, and in the next month participants take their time to promote the published articles.

How Can Participating in the 30 Days Challenge Help You?

There are many good reasons to start and/or participate in the 30 Days Challenge. Here’s a list of benefits you can gain if you participate:

1. If you set a goal to write 30 articles in 30 days and you reach that goal, you’ve proven to yourself that you have the ability to come up with interesting topic idea(s) and that you can write on a continuous basis.
2. If you decide to stick to one topic only during the challenge, you’ll be able to establish yourself as an authority writer in the niche that you’ve focused on.
3. Participating in the 30 Days Challenge can help you unlock your writer’s block. If you experience creative problems, feel unable to produce new work or you’ve run out of inspiration, this challenge may motivate you to write and think of new, fresh ideas to write about.
4. You’ll write more and make the most of your time by getting used to write frequently.
5. You have the chance to practice your writing skills and become a better writer.
6. You have the chance to earn more from your articles (if we assume you followed the principle “Content is king“).
7. You can start interesting discussions on your web pages by receiving and answering comments under the articles. Search engines will see this as frequent updating of your pages.
8. You’ll be able to build great internal links – links that are relevant to the content, especially if you use them as anchor links (links containing the topic keywords). These kinds of links may be a great link juice for web crawlers – the secret sauce that helps you gain credibility andbeat your competitors by ranking better in Google SERPs.
9. If readers like your content, they may share it using the sharing buttons on your page. This can help you obtain natural backlinks – the most wanted type of links.
10. A 30 Days Challenge may be a great learning experience – you’ll be able to observe whether such activity can attract more traffic and consequently, more earnings (use Google Analytics to track the performance of the 30 Days Challenge activities).

Can You Complete the 30 Days Challenge Without Losing Quality?

The answer is “yes.” Quality is always better than just quantity, but if you combine quality and quantity together, you’ve created a jackpot for yourself in the world of online publishing.

How to Prepare for the 30 Days Challenge?

To make the most of your time and complete the challenge successfully, you have to plan your 30 Days Challenge activities. To prepare for the challenge, you need a piece of paper (or a notebook), a pen and your computer.

Important steps in planning your 30 Days Challenge activities:

1. Choose the right topic and focus on that topic only.

Creating multiple articles around the same topic will help you establish yourself as an authority writer in the chosen niche and it will be much easier to create internal links. However, if you feel like focusing on one subject only would be too much for you, then think of a few topic ideas, but not more than 6; if you decide to focus on a maximum number of different ideas, six topics would do because you can still write at least five articles on the same topic and interlink them according to content relevance.

* * *

2.Take a piece of paper and write a keyword list based on the topic you’ve chosen.

Collect all the free associations to the word describing the topic of your interest by brainstorming all the possible keywords. Do some research to find out about the search volume and potential CPC value of your keywords.

For keyword research, you can use the Google Keyword Tool, for example.

* * *

3. Categorize your to-do articles

You can arrange your to-do articles in groups by dividing your main topic in a few sub-topics.

For example, let’s say you decided to write articles about Italian Coffee – that’s your main theme.

Look at your keyword list and divide your keywords into no more than six groups or categories.

For example, possible categories for Italian Coffee could be:

• Italian Coffee Bars
• Italian Coffee Brands
• Italian Coffee Machines
• Italian Coffee Paintings
• Italian Coffee Product Reviews
• Italian Coffee Recipes

* * *

3.1. Open a new file in your computer and name it “30 Days Challenge”

Inside this file, open 6 more new files and name them according to your sub-topics (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Organizing your sub-topics in separate files

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4. Write the titles for your articles in each of the sub-categories

Before you start writing your articles, write the titles for each article in each of the groups you’ve arranged. Make sure your titles are SEO optimized – they should contain:

• your main keywords,
• more than 3 and less than 7 words (Long-Tail Keywords),
• less than 65 characters with spaces.

Note!

Your title keywords will be included in the URL of your article and you won’t be able to change it later (on Seekyt); and if you do, the links leading to your article built before the change won’t function properly anymore. Therefore, take your time to write the best titles possible – they are much more important than you may think.

* * *

5. Open Microsoft Word Documents matching the titles and arrange them in files

Writing articles in Word and saving them in your computer is a wise idea, no matter where you write (Seekyt or some other revenue sharing site). During the 30 Days Challenge, you just copy and paste your content into the submitting box on Seekyt.

Open Microsoft Word Documents and name them according to titles.

For example, the file Italian Coffee Brands may contain to-do articles titled:

• A List of Best Italian Coffee Brands
• How to order illy Coffee from Italy
• How to Make Real Italian Coffee
• Best Italian Coffee Brands available on Amazon
• Italian Coffee Lavazza: Crema e Gusto vs. Qualità Rossa
  

Of course, each title/document belongs to its corresponding topic file (see Figure 2).

Figure. 2 Articles in the “Italian Coffee Brands” file

The file “Italian Coffee Machines“ may contain titles such as:

• How to Choose the Best Italian Coffee Machine,
• De’Longhi Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker,
• Saeco Aroma Espresso Machine, etc.

The file “Italian Coffee Product Reviews“ may contain titles based on available online Amazon products, such as:

• Italian coffee cups, Italian coffee mugs, Bialetti espresso maker, etc.

* * *

The next step….

…is writing. Start writing your articles one by one or make drafts for each before you start writing.

You don’t have to finish writing all the articles before the challenge starts. Have a few articles ready and continue writing the others during the month of challenge.

Tips on Writing Great 30 Days Challenge Articles

• Your primary keyword should be based on your main topic and your secondary keyword should be based on the title.
• Include your primary and/or secondary keyword in the title (and URL – address of your webpage).
• Include both your primary and secondary keywords in the first paragraph (preferably in the first sentence), once (at least) in the body of the text, and once in the last paragraph (preferably in the last sentence).
• Include photos and videos if possible.
• Try writing your articles using 800 to 1500 words (or more, but don’t make the article too long).
• Don’t forget to protect yourself from copyright violation.

How to Start a 30 Days Challenge on Seekyt?

You can start a 30 Days Challenge on Seekyt by posting a journal entry which will be shown on the front page of the site. You can also edit your bio and add a link to the live-and-running challenge there. The best title of your journal entry for the challenge could be: 30 Days Challenge – Date.

It would be smart to announce the challenge in a journal entry before the beginning date so that the other fellow writers on the site have the time to prepare.

The next 30 Days Challenge on Seekyt will take place on:

October 1st, 2011,

Feb 15th, 2012,

April 1st, 2013…

Good luck!

If you would like to comment, ask a question or start/participate in the 30 Days Challenge on this site, but you’re not a member:

join Seekyt now and get to know this wonderful community.

© 2011 Jasmine Vitarelli