Is the 30 Day Blogging Challenge Any Good?

The next challenge issued by Nikki Pilkington was to write an opinon piece and give our thoughts about something topical. After thinking about it I thought ‘why not write a blog about the blog challenge?’

Most people who will/have signed up to the challenge will do so with the aim of improving more traffic to their blog and also to improve the way that the blog. From my point of view I had a blog but a) wasn’t getting an visitors and b) didn’t have a clue what to blog about. I didn’t go into the blog expecting for thousands of people viewing my blog every day; it takes time to build up a following. But I was willing to knuckle down and learn how to blog more effectively.

About Nikki Pilkington

NikkiPilkington.com is a major name in the world of internet marketing. Renowned across Europe for our innovative, experienced team of Internet Marketing experts primarily working with SMEs, we’ve made our name by delivering results

I had heard of Nikki before through web forums and from other people. All said the same thing; you get results. Considering that the 30 Day Blogging Challenge was free, what did I have to loose?

How it works
It’s simple (no really it is). Each day you will receive and e-mail from Nikki giving you instructions/ideas about what your next blog post can be about. It could be a specific topic, and idea, how to encourage comments or how to improve your blog’s SEO. For the record, after applying the guidance on SEO for one of my blog posts I was listed on the first page of google for the search ‘book-keeper in Pontefract’ (I’ve now dropped a few pages). This was achieved by doing 1 simple exercise. Some people pay £000′s to get results like this.

I’ve kept all the emails which have come through from Nikki so that if I am ever struggling in the future I will be able to refer back to them for guidance. All the emails are short and easy to understand so it wont take long to job my memory. You don’t have to blog about your chosen field of work; your blog can be an insight into your personality, which is more likey to attract new clients, visitors etc… than a fancy webstie

Does it Work?

Yes! What more do you need to know? Traffic to my blog has increased massively since taking part in the blogging challenge. So much so that I have decided to re-design my website using WordPress so that I can integrate a blog into it much more easily.

Whilst I’m very happy with the increased traffic and comments on the blog, I am more happy that I have come into contact with some fantastic people via Twitter. Most of the people taking the challenge are tweeting their blog posts using the #30dayblog hashtag. Twitter is great for engaging with other people and this blogging challenge has quickly built up a healthy following. Just to give you an idea of the success; from May 2010 – March 2011 my blog had 420 views. Since I started the blogging challenge in April the blog has had almost 600 views.

It’s simple, it works, it’s fun and it’s free. Sign up to it now.

If you are taking part in the blogging challenge what do you think about it?

Information About Pontefract

Day 23 of the 30 Day Blog and following on from a previous comment I’m going to blog a little bit about the town I live in: Pontefract.

I daresay that Pontefract isn’t a household name, but one of it’s biggest exports will be: Haribo. That’s right, Pontefract is the home to the UK arm of the world famous confectionery producer. Sweets such as Starmix, Tangfastics and Kiddies Supermix are all made in pontefract town centre. Demand for the products is so high that the company as recently been awarded a government grant towards building an additional factory a few miles away in Normanton

Pontefract isn’t just about sweets though. It is also a busy market town and has been since the middle ages. The main market is held on a Wednesday with smaller markets on a Friday and Saturday. Couple market day with good weather and the town centre is heaving with people looking for a bargain.

There is also Pontefract Castle which was the site of the demise of Richard II of England. The castle was constructed (approximately) in 1070 by Ilbert de Lacey on ground which had been given to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his supprt during the Norman conquests. The castle is still a popular tourist attraction and has many events taking place throughout the year.

Just outside the town centre is Pontefract Racecourse which is the longest continuous racing circuit in the country at just over 2 miles. There are numerous race meetings here during the season, and the facilities are very good with modern bars and refreshments in all enclosures. The racecourse is situated in Pontefract Park which is open all year round to the general public. On a warm suumer’s evening it is not unusual to find lots of people running around the racecourse to keep fit. There are also several travelling circuses and fairs which visit the park during the year.

I hope you enjoyed this brief blog about the town where I live…

What do you want?

Whilst I sit here and decide what content to blog about based on my own ideas and what the 30 day blog challenge emails suggest, it could be that no-one is interested in my content!

Book-Keeping & Accountancy isn’t the subject on the tip of everyone’s tongue as they sit around the dinner table or have a drink at the pub, but I am more than what my trade suggests; I am a person with other interests and hobbies.

Each one of us has a different background and interests, is there anything you would like me to blog about to make you want to visit the blog more? Ideas could be:

• Current sport stories/events
• Current affairs
• More about my hobbies
• Something totally random

Of course, you can always suggest ideas to me……

Blog Round-Up

If you’ve not visited the blog for a while, here is a round-up of some of the posts over the last few weeks:

• How did it all begin? a short piece about why I chose this field of work
• Twitter or Facebook? My thoughts on using Twitter and a few tips I’ve picker up
• Can a match mend a door? A bit of DIY advice here
• More Bloggers A selection of some other people taking part in the 30 day blog

Top 5 FAQs

As part of my 30 day blog I have been asked to write a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ post about what I do and how I can help you:

1) What can I claim as a business expense? 

Each and every business is different, but this post: Business Expenses will help to clarify the situation for you. If you are unsure, just give all your receipts to your bookkeeper/accountant to sort through, that is what you pay them to do!

2) When does my tax have to be paid by?

The tax you owe needs to be paid by the 31st January the following year (31/01/12 for the 2010/11 tax year). In some instances you will be required to make a payment on account by the 31st July.

3) When do you need my records by?

My own personal preference is for you to send your records to me as soon as you can, that way any errors/discrepancies can be picked up on quickly, and you will not be left with a nasty surprise if you have a large tax bill. Depending on the size of the business the accounts may need to be done monthly or quarterly. If you are unsure of anything make a note about it so that you do not forget when you go to see your bookkeeper/accountant

4) How much should I put aside for my tax? 

Again, everyone’s circumstances are different with this one. But if you are self employed I would advise to put aside 20-25% of your earnings for the end of year tax bill. Try putting the money into an ISA so that you can gain some tax-free interest on it.

5) Do you charge for phone calls/emails?

I am surprised at how often I am asked this question. The answer is always ‘no’. I only ever charge a fixed fee and that includes everything: phone calls, emails, visits etc…

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me via the blog or email

More 30 Day Bloggers

Whilst I’ve been taking part in the blog challenge I’ve ‘met’ some really nice people who have some interesting blogs that are well worth a read. Below are a small selection of them, to find out more search the #30dayblog hashtag on twitter.

• Top tips for the first time mum from @catdoran

Ranging from hormones to stocking the freezer, read it here

• Top tips for making home bath bombs

A good idea for those first time mums (from @bathbombbiz) who want to relax after a long day, read it here

• A day in the life of Telford Wills and Probate

Most people will put off writing a will, but it’s better to have it sorted well in advance. Have a read about a day in the life of @telfordwills a blogger who writes wills

• How to feel a look amazing

These tips from @rosa_lingerie, well worth a read for any woman or a man wanting to treat his wife/partner

As mentioned above, search for the #30dayblog hashtag and you’ll find lots more bloggers from all walks of life blogging varied and interesting content.

Can a match mend a door?

This may seem like a bizzre topic, but I thought I’d write about it anyway.One of the doors in our house has been progressively coming off it’s hingest to the point where it wouldn’t close as it was catching on the door frame. We’ve endlessley tightened the screws in the hinge which have solved the problem temporarily, but after a couple of days we’re back to square one.Eventually I decided to ring a local tradesman who has done some work for us before and asked if he could find time to come over and see if he could fix the door. He replied ‘well I could, but it I’ll give you a tip; use match sticks, it’s all I’d do if I came over’.

Match Sticks? And then he explained what to do…

Take out the screws and put some match sticks in the hole (take off the head first!) and then put the screws back in. Some may need more than one match stick. The wood from the match sticks gives them something to bite onto and also fills up some of the hole.

10 mintues later and we’ve now got a door that closes better than it has done since we moved in 4 years ago, and it didn’t cost a penny!

Twitter or Facebook; The result is in?

After looking back over my recent blog posts the most popular by a long way was the ‘Twitter or Facebook’ post. Some comments that came through were that ‘Facebook is more inclined towards games’ and ‘I struggled with Twitter at first’. Personally I don’t really like Facebook for business, but for keeping in contact with your friends it’s very useful.

If you are using Twitter for business it can be tricky to get your head around how best to use it for your business (hint, follow @markshaw), but once it clicks it’s really very easy to do.

One of the easiest things to do is build up a massive list of people you are following, which is great to keep up to date with things, but it also has the opposite effect that your timelines become meaningless. If you use something like Tweetdeck the constant audiable alerts drive you crazy if you follow a lot of people. How best can you get around this problem? Simple, build lists!

Lists are easy to create (see here) and offer another alternative to following people. You create lists based on various interests; I have them for the 30 day bloggers, businesses based in Yorkshire, influential people, ‘Dragons’ and people who take part in the #watercoolermoment discussion each day. You can view them publicly by visiting my twitter page.

The advantage of this is 2 fold. First of all you do not have the problem of a massive timeline with lots of tweets, so you can only follow people that will add value to your twitter feed; it might be fantastic to know what Lady Gaga is having for breakfast, but does it add value to your business? Secondly, it’s easy to load up your list and see what is happening/has been happening over the last few hours for that particular list category. It saves a lot of time because you know that if you visit your list titled ’30 day bloggers’ you will be able to see what people taking part in the challenge have been posting.

Another way I have found to keep informed is to create an account at paper.li and create a newspaper. Think it’s hard? It’s not. The intial groundwork takes some time, but once it is going it’s a piece of cake. What does Paper.li do?

Paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter and Facebook into an easy to read newspaper-style format.

Create your account and then you can either create a newspaper based on people you follow, or by lists that you have saved, or by a hashtag or another search. The paper is then published at a time each day that you specify for you to read (and anyone else if you make it public). Why go to the trouble of creating it if you aren’t going to make it public?I have 2 papers which are published each day; one based around my timeline and another based around businesses based in Yorkshire which is generated from one of my lists. These papers are fantastic ways to keep up to date with things and saves you a lot of time going through your timeline as all the best posts are included in the paper. I have mine set to publish around tea time so that I can catch up on what’s been happening after tea, but not waste a lot of time doing so.To go back to the initial question: Facebook or Twitter? In my eyes it’s a no contest, Twitter every time.

What do you think?

How Did It All Begin?

Day 14 of the blog challenge and I’ve been tasked with explaining how I got into doing what I do!

Many years ago I played a lot of sport, but injury forced my to quite. At the time I worked in a job with crazy hours (4am start) so that I could finish at lunctime and head off to the gym in the afternoon. After quitting sport I was left with a huge hole in my day after work, so I decided to make use of the time and give myself some better prospects.

My father ran his own book-keeping/accountancy practice at the time, and I’d always had a head for figures so it seemed like the natural thing to do. I selected a course that seemed best suited to my needs and began to study hard in the afternoons.

Fast forward a few years and I have passed my exams and have a full time job working in a finance department, yet I wanted to use my new skills more so decided to set up my own business alongside my main job. I was open and honest with my employer about what I was doing, and assured them that it wouldn’t interfere with my daytime job. The plan is to eventually work part-time during the day once I have built up my business to a level to allow me to do so. The next logical step is full time self-employment.

Of course there are problems that have been encountered along the way. The two hardest to begin with were staying awake during the afternoon and adjusting back to studying as it had been around 4 or 5 years since I had left school. The main problems I face now are attracting new clients and marketing my business. It’s tough to keep the work/life balance in balance and some evenings I’ll come home from work to find myself working until 10pm. But I enjoy it so it’s worthwhile.

How did you come to be in the industry you are?

Money’s Too Tight to Mention

Day 13 of the blog challenge is to pick a song title and write a blog about it. I thought that Money’s Too Tight to Mention by Simply Red was rather apt considering the current financial climate.

People are finding that their disposable income has dropped considerably over the last few years, despite what the government tell us. There are all kinds of ways people can save money: changing supermarkets (we now shop at Aldi and have halved our food bill), walking instead of driving where-ever possible, don’t ‘eat out’ as much, cut down your mobile phone contract to a sim-only deal. The list goes on…

But how about ways to make more money? I’m not talking about over-time at work but setting up your own back room business. You may have skills to do something yet have never taken the plunge into going it alone. Working for youself alongside your main job is time consuming and your leisure time will decrease, but if you are working at something you enjoy then surely it’s worth it? And the extra money will always be helpful.

A few businesses that you could start up and run from your back room are:

• Artist – Caricatures, sketches, watercolours etc…
• Graphic Design
• Web Designer
• Greeting card design
• Author
• eBay Trader
• Mobile phone applications developer

I’m sure that there are others that you can think of that I’ve not mentioned – if so add them to the blog via a comment.

All of these home businesses could be set up for little or no cost at all. If you’re reading thing blog then I assume that you already have a computer, so you’re halfway there to trading on the internet. If you enjoy drawing or painting, why not try and turn some of your works of art into extra cash for yourself? The extra income may take the place of the bonus or pay rise that you didn’t get from your employer because they are having to save money too.

Don’t forget that you will need to register with HMRC if you do decide to trade self-employed. If you need any help with setting up and your financial affairs RS Book-Keeping can help you every step of the way.

I hope that this post has given you something to think about, there has rarely been a better time that now for small businesses to start up. So if you have the idea and the skills, what are you waiting for?