Congratulations to the yeah write #116 weekly writing challenge crowd favourite
Another first-time winner! This week Shanique of Adventures of a Willow Wimp takes crowd favourite with Selfishness V. Sanity. Shanique recently wrote about how being a third world blogger makes her feel that she can’t relate to most other bloggers, but in her essay about taking care of her siblings, she shows that the guilt, demand and love of family is universal. It’s a heartbreaking post, by a young woman wounded in her struggle for balance between what is best for her and what is best for her loved ones. If you haven’t yet, go leave her a supportive comment.
Shanique, your badge awaits you in the sidebar, ready to boast your win on your entry.
Where are the invitational grid and editor picks?
We try to host an additional challenge grid each week called the invitational. To unlock it, the grid has to hit 30 entries and each yeah write editor selects two or three of her favourite essays. From this prestigious pool of talent, a jury prize winner is chosen. You can increase the chances of our reaching at least 30 entries next week by spreading the good word of yeah write.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to continue with or jump into of our version of ProBlogger’s 31 days to build a better blog. We’ve more than 40 signed up for 31dbbb. If you are making new friends that you haven’t seen on the challenge grid yet, invite them to give it a try for the sake of increased exposure, which is the “so what” of this entire month, right?
Dear All You Guys,
On day three of our yeah write 31 dbbb series, the great Cindy R. recommended emailing higher profile bloggers (when applicable) to promote your post. Today, our activity is to write and appreciate a current reader from your blog. I’m writing to all of you now because you’re all appreciated around here.
It used to be that personal mail delivered to my home was the adult equivalent to the ice cream truck making an unexpected visit into my neighbourhood when I was a kid. The sudden appearance of an envelope inscribed with my name in cursive was magical. I’d tear that sucker open and devour every word. Twice.
It’s become rare for anything fun to come in the mail anymore unless I’ve bought it myself. These days, I check and double-check my email inbox for bits of joy – did anyone think of me today? Does anyone need my help? Does anyone care?
Everybody loves mail
Building community around a blog can feel lonely. Just like buying your own fun snail mail, you have to put in some effort to get a decent response from your audience. Time invested in readers, not just your posts, will provide greater returns to your blog and perhaps also a friend or two.
Yeah write editor Erica M and I met when we were new bloggers. I left a comment on an entry at her place and she sent me an email that made me fall in love with her right away. I added her to my sidebar blogroll, quoted her in my posts, visited her daily and followed the people she followed. It eventually lead to a job reviewing Canadian crime fiction for me, networking her blog, but there were sincere, organic connections being made. Seven years later I’m still thrilled when she emails me.
Prepare to engage
When you take on today’s 31 dbbb challenge, think about what you want to get out of the exercise. Use this opportunity to turn a reader into a relationship. If you don’t have readers yet, write to a fellow yeah writer that you admire. Be specific about what you find compelling and be genuine. Ask questions to invite conversation. Be yourself.
A word to the wise
Don’t overdo it. Yes, collecting and responding to 60 comments on your entries is nice, but quality will always trump quantity. Nothing will make you want shut your blog down faster than daily artificial banter with people you don’t care about. Don’t feel like you have to be best buds with everyone who crosses your path. If you don’t think of something sincere to write right now, wait until you do. Sometimes “Thanks for taking the time to comment,” is enough.
The time and effort you put into your blog should be pleasant. Short of ice cream, it’s the only way you’ll get the very best out of yourself and your audience.
Yours ‘til the kitchen sinks,
Flood G.
P.S.: Tomorrow Erica M examines how to make your blog mobile-friendly for day 6 of our 31dbbb. It’s easier than you think and definitely worth it.
Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time!
Yeah write is open on the weekends—no editors, no voting, no writer’s block—just hanging out in the clearing among the trees and discarded moonshine jugs. Use this chance to show the yeah write community the other side of your blog—your top 10 lists, your stream-of-consciousness posts, that hilarious text message exchange with your brother. No commercial or sponsored posts allowed, but this will be a good space for letting us all know when you have a cool blog event coming up.
Hosted by yeah write veteran and regular contributor Michelle Longo, the moonshine grid opens at 6 p.m. eastern time each Friday and will close by 12:01 a.m. each Monday. Grab the badge from the sidebar and go find the perfect post to share!
Win-win
The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most votes to the least. In the case of a tie, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Part of the top row five? Please grab a winners’ badge from the sidebar and display it proudly on your own blog. Congrats!
Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.
Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for accepting the weekly writing challenge. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.
Wait. Before you go
Congratulate this week’s winners in comments. It’s not only etiquette, but good comments often get good comments, you know? Yeah write #117 opens Tuesday.
Today I emailed the first person to ever comment on my new blog. I wrote an entry called “Why I Will Miss Smash” (http://awakewithjake.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/reasons-why-i-will-miss-smash/) – at this time I wasn’t even sure what I was doing with my blog. I was just writing my feelings and thoughts in no particular order and just writing for the sake of writing. I posted that entry and I received a random comment from someone I had never heard of before – I’m still not sure how they found my blog. But I’m glad they did. I just emailed her, thanking her for her comment and being the first one to find my new blog, and then I sparked a conversation about the show with her. I actually think that this idea is kinda awesome – I would love to receive emails from other bloggers. I love commenting on their entries, but there’s something special about receiving an email from them. It shows they took the time to actually think about you. It’s kind of nice.
A round of applause to Shanique and the Top Row 5! And thanks to y’all for the comments and suggestions all week long. What a great community!
I will attempt the e-mailing a reader this evening. I’ve never even considered it, but it sounds worthwhile. I have a handful of my readers who I’ve built relationships just from commenting back and forth on their blog. Maybe I’ll pick a reader I’ve seen pop up here and there, but not as regularly as other readers. Good luck to all with your own e-mailings of appreciation!
So my problem is that not all my readers have public email addresses or mailing addresses…:/
That’s true, Katie Jane, but with a little sleuthing, you may find addresses. The alternative task from today’s 31dbbb: Spend 10 minutes visiting other blogs on your topic and leave relevant, helpful, genuine comments on these blogs. The more helpful your comments, the better; making an impression with quality comments raises your profile and can potentially drive traffic back to your blog.
I despise email so I took somewhat of a different angle on this one, hope that’s cool:
http://breakingmoulds.com/2013/07/06/blog-love-postcard-promo/
While you won’t get the same result as an email, it’s a pretty cool offer. I like to mail fellow photographers from my online community during holidays and I get mail in return, which is awesome. I actually clap on the way to the mailbox.
Still, emailing a reader to thank them for their support has potential to benefit your blog. Of course, there’s no obligation to do all of the 31dbbb as assigned, but when you pay personal attention to a reader it significantly increases the chances of them not only returning to your blog, but also spreading the news of your blog through their network. Reading this chapter in your 31dbbb workbook might change your mind about email, if not today, perhaps sometime over the coming month. But real mail is delightful and I think it’s great that you’re sending out postcards.
I left my address. You don’t have to destroy it in a fire, just reassure me it didn’t publish on your actual blog page.
Oh wow thanks for all the love.. It took a lot for me to actually put that out there. I am finding that the more I get into blogging the more that I connect with wonderful people who understand what I am going through and who just empathize and that helps a lot. This is my second Yeah Write entry and I’m always left blown away by all the entries so it is a great honor to have been chosen. Thanks everyone
I echo all the congrats to Shanique. It was a post that couldn’t help touch the reader’s emotions and make you root for her. My favorite kind. And I e-mailed readers early on but stopped because I never heard back and thought I must have freaked the out. But I agree, a sincere e-mail to a devoted reader is fun to send and receive. So I’m going to try again.
This is no jab at turning 50, but now that you’re old hat at blogging, I’m sure you’ll get a reply when you write about a reader’s value to you. And it can be a numbers game, too. If you cast a wide, but earnest, net, you’ll get some warm responses.
Congratulations Shanique for your first win! Your post about tore my heart out with its rawness. And to the rest of the top row 5 – Renee, Kirsten, Alisa & FN2BB! I read everything this week but I’m sorry I couldn’t comment — I was on my Nook hiding out from fireworks in the basement with 3 terrified dogs and I’m terrible at the touchscreen keyboard.
Also – someone needs to make me a t-shirt that says “The Great Cindy R.” stat. I just checked my stats and found my top 3 commenters – two yeah writers and a woman I “met” when I struck up a Twitter conversation with her after The Bloggess retweeted one of her hilarious tweets. Her blog is one of my favorites and we’ve connected through email since then. I’m thanking all 3 for supporting my l’il Reedster Speaks community for over a year now 🙂 ~ The Great Cindy R.
Be sure to sign your emails as The Great Cindy R.
Congrats Shanique, and congrats to the rest of the top row!
I have never emailed a blog reader. I try to always leave comments back on my blog, but I don’t have people’s email addresses. I wonder if that’s a blogger problem or a Michelle is dumb problem. I know some blogs through blogger do not send me emails when the blogger replies to my comment. I think I set mine up to do that and I hope it’s working. If someone doesn’t think it is, please let me know.
Sometimes comment forms require an email address to submit a comment, but I don’t think that’s the case at your place. I often go from the comment, to the writer’s blog and look for an email address or ‘contact me’ form, or scour Twitter for contact info. Erica likely knows any easier way.
Ah, sounds like a Michelle is dumb problem (too dumb to go to the poster’s page and find an email). I think I’m going to try logging out of everything and going to my blog to see how it works. Like I probably should have done 2 years ago.
Thanks for the reply!
Erica is behind on moving Michelle to WordPress. All of her Blogger-related problems will go away as soon as Erica gets her shit together.
Stop it.
A proactive person, which I often am not, would solve her own problems.
It’s all good. In the meantime, several years into being on it, maybe I’ll figure out how blogger and the general internets work.
Congratulations, Shanique!
Love this suggestion, in part because…I’ve done this already! Looka me, already building a better blog & didn’t even know it. Emailed with Erica (anyone who has admired my super-fantastic & beautiful blog header with the two cityscapes…that’s Erica & Q), with some of the writers in World Moms Blog, with fabulous list-maker & photographer Stasha at northwestmommy.com & with a few others. It feels good – as if we’re almost IRL except that, you know, I haven’t had to brush my teeth or anything in order to socialize.
Any relationship that doesn’t require oral hygiene, make-up or a bra should be treasured always.
Yay! Congrats to Shanique on the win. Happy to be up there with great posts from this week!