It was already 11:30 and I needed to post by midnight. We were on the road driving home but there was no way I’d reach my office computer in time. My plans to post daily during the 2012 Blogathon were about to go up in smoke.
After three times trying, I still couldn’t remember my password. One of the symbols in it is above the 2 or 3 on my computer keyboard, but that didn’t help because I was trying to use my husband’s Iphone.
First, it took me a while to figure out roughly what I wanted to say.
Then the satellites weren’t strong enough to sign into my blog software with the cell phone.
By 11:30, I still couldn’t remember my password exactly and I didn’t know how many chances I’d have before being shut out completely. I gave up.
I turned the phone on again five minutes later and tried signing on again. A second time got me in. I successfully posted. It was one minute to midnight. Yoo hoo!
After that experience, the rest of the month went swimmingly. Not only did I learn that I can write and publish something every day for a month, but I can even do it using a mobile phone.
That’s going to be an accomplishment I’ll be celebrating when I turn 49 in a few months.
Mobile blogging is the best of what I learned by participating in the 2012 Blogathon, but nine more lessons follow.
1) There are at least 250 other bloggers crazy enough to take the plunge to post every day for a month. It was fun seeing what these other writers were doing with their blogs.
2) All my favourite mystery writers are women.
3) Blog posts look a lot nicer if they include words and pictures.
4) Not all types of images can be used well on blogs. It takes a while to figure out which sizes and styles work best.
5) WordPress software doesn’t always function the way it looks like it functions. I still don’t know whether trackbacks actually track to anyone, although I think pingbacks work.
6) Sometimes software doesn’t do what you want it to do.
7) Wordles are fun to make.
8) Planning the month’s posts ahead of time would have made the experience more rewarding than it was, because I would have had a better idea of what I wanted to accomplish in the month writing-wise. That would have enabled me to link the posts for the contests to other career goals. I would also have known to share daily posts on the Google listserve and I could have solicited guest posts and participated more fully in the schedule for the contest.
9) I’m looking forward to participating again next year.
Congrats. I haven’t tried posting with my iPhone yet, either. You really had some challenging moments- I am glad that you persisted. Best of luck in your future blogging. Isn’t it fun?
It is fun!
Congrats on finishing the Blogathon, and cool that you learned how to blog by mobile. I haven’t figured that out yet!
Hi Ariel,
I think this is the first time I’ve visited your blog. I’ll take a look around and see what I’ve missed during the blogathon. Glad you were able to write your blog on the cell phone. I’ve not yet tried that. And congratulations for passing the finish line!
Hi Tracey. I learned about Wordles through the blogathon. I always thought they were – well – I don’t know what I thought they were. I couldn’t quite figure out the point of them. I’m so stuck in my ways sometimes that I wasn’t planning on participating in that theme day.
When I thought about it some more, I thought, “isn’t this blogathon about learning more, about stretching and doing, rather than saying ‘nah, not for me’?” So, I did a Wordle that day. And I enjoyed doing it. I thought, hmm, there is a reason for this. It’s not only fun, it draws your eyes to words that you use but didn’t realize you use. The result? I’m glad I pushed myself.
Now, on to the rest of the year!
Thanks Jackie, Marijke and Van Waffle. It’s great to find a community of so many adventurous people from a lark!