Welcome to Blogtober 2018 – Tech Edition!
What is Blogtober?
In 2017, Matt Heldstab (Twitter) created Blogtober – Tech Edition as a way to encourage the technology community. By the time October comes around there have been countless tech-industry events (VMworld, Ignite, Grace Hopper, etc.) with all sorts of cool technology or tech-related things having been announced. Blogtober is an easy way to learn about the rigors of blogging while giving back to the community a little bit by providing your unique perspective and experience.
How do I participate in Blogtober?
Blogtober is back again this year! Participation is relatively simple. Follow these quick steps:
- Read through this year’s post on Blogtober
- Add a comment to the post (before October 15th) and include your name and blog details
- Post a minimum of five (5) blog posts between October 1 and October 31 – for ease of locating them it may be worth tagging the post as #BlogtoberTechEdition
- Try to ensure that each of those posts are a minimum of 400 words – add some substance!
- Don’t steal other people’s content as your own. (This one should go without saying…)
My thoughts on participating last year and commitment to Blogtober this year:
I participated in Blogtober last year as a commitment to myself to figure out how to focus on generating blog content. I work in tech – I do technical things every day yet finding the right topic to blog about was challenging. I started this blog to share my experiences and hold myself accountable. Last year, Blogtober gave me the boost that I needed.
In the end, the important part was that I had blogged a little more often that I had in the past. It helped me feel better about blogging and my own frequency. I’ve been just a little more active on the blog this year than I was last year. I anticipate my cadence might speed just a little more as I continue through this round.
It was challenging! I won’t pretend that it was easy for even a second. I thought for sure that I’d have five things to write about but I very quickly ran out of time to write. Topics that I did write about certainly weren’t as technical as I thought they would have been… but I started which was the hardest part. This year, I’ll do better. (Important note: Participating in Blogtober has no judging. No one will tell you that you need to be more technical – this is purely an observation of self.)
What do I get for participating?
Last year, VMUG gave away (3) three $100 gift cards to those completing the Blogtober challenge (winner announcement here). This year VMUG is offering another round of the same $100 gift cards. You could earn $100 just for sharing your experiences with technology!
I really found Blogtober to be helpful for me last year. It provided me some time to reflect on how to blog effectively and gave me a few “why” moments. It’s not about the chance to win so much as it is about the experience. Though, it is always nice to have a chance to win something, too!
Let’s up the ante…
I’m really excited for what Blogtober is going to bring to the community this year…
…enough that I’m going to toss in for the giveaway pool! VMUG is giving away three $100 gift cards to three lucky participants who have completed the Blogtober challenge. I like games of random chance – RNG for the win!
I’m going to offer up one $300 gift card to a randomly selected participant who completes the challenge!
Best of luck and happy Blogtober!