It's National Blog Posting Month

NaBloPoMo. Try saying that five times fast.

November marks National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo for short.

This month-long challenge started in 2006, when blogger Eden Kennedy took the idea of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMon), a 30-day novel writing project, and applied it to blogging.

If there’s one thing creative people agree on it’s that the more you do something, the better you get at it. If you want to be a better writer, you have to write; if you want to be a better blogger, you have to post. And one way to break down the barriers between thinking about writing and actually doing it is by posting every day for a month. – Eden Kennedy

NaBloPoMo is all about encouraging experts and novices alike to exercise their writing muscles and make a commitment to creating content every day.The rules are simple. 30 days. 30 posts. You do not have to write a masterfully crafted blog post, but you do have to commit to posting something. That something can be a blog, a picture, a recipe, an interview or a video.

Why should you participate? Because you can win prizes! And the slightly more boring answer is because writing is just like anything else. The more you practice, the better you get.

You will find many blogging communities host NaBloPoMo. My personal favorite is BlogHer, which successfully holds NaBloPoMo year round through a community commitment to writing. To sign up for their big NaBloPoMo November challenge and to be entered into their weekly iPad Mini drawings, sign up on their official blogroll.

WordPress.com is another great NaBloPoMo community. The Daily Post at WordPress offers inspiration, motivation and prompts to bloggers, along with weekly writing and photography challenges. In need of some help? Head to The Daily Post Community Pool where you can toss around your ideas and get feedback from other writers. 

This post is the first of a two-part series about blogging. Look out for upcoming blogging tips in honor of National Blog Posting Month. 

—

Adrian Finch is a current marketing associate with Startup Institute Boston. Say hello to her on Twitter @anfinch1.