I’m Declaring April Amateur "Improve your Blog Month!"

Why? Because I can! And because I need a good swift kick in the posterior to get my blog into shape

Honestly, I am hoping that we can all encourage each other to try some new skills, commiserate when it goes poorly, share tips and resources when it goes well, and generally learn a lot and have a fun time.

Here is the way it will run:

First, of course, copy this nifty coffee mug* and post an article on your blog about the “contest”** with a link back here so other folks can join in. You can also place this lovely icon in your sidebar (make sure you back link the picture to these rules):

The contest starts on April 1, and runs the entire month, but feel free to join in at any time-participation for all phases or the whole month is not necessarily required. After the contest closes on April 30th, voting will commence for 2 weeks (method to be determined based on number of applicants-either by poll or email entry)

There are two categories: Most Improved Amateur Blog and Best New Amateur Blog.

Now on to how the contest will actually RUN:

When a blog decides to enter, they will go to the contest entry post (on April 1st) and add the link to their initial contest post to the “Mr. Linky” I will have set up. This post should be in the month of April and contain some of their ideas for what they will be improving during the contest.

Each contestant also needs to take some “screen shots” of their blog in it’s current state of disarray to be used for comparison in their final post. Here is a quick tutorial on how to do a screen shot. (Once you have the screen shot saved as a .jpg then you can upload it into your blog as a picture later.)

Next the contestants will proceed to go about improving, or in the case of a new one-starting, their blog. Each week I will be attacking various aspects of my blog, and you are welcome (but not required) to play along and work on each of those projects with me.

They will be “Improve Template”, “Reorganize Sidebars”, “Create FAQ page” and “Bloggers Choice”. I will start each week with a post about the project, some links to articles and free resources, and provide a Mr. Linky where folks can link to their own posts about their progress.

Between April 27th and April 30th (final cutoff Midnight April 30th) we will all post a final wrap-up with a description of what we changed, the “before” screenshots (no “after” needed-everyone should be looking at them!) and any lessons that we learned from the whole thing.

Shortly afterwards I’ll open the polls to the blogosphere at large for voting and we shall see what happens! May the Best Blog Win!

*Here is the first neat tip/trick/site. I made this mug picture at a site called “Image Chef”. They have tons of FREE customizable signs and graphics! Check it out.

*Remember, I use the title of “contest” loosely because all you’ll be getting out of this one is honor, glory and bragging rights. Oh, and I’ll make you a cheesy little button that you can post in your sidebar forever proclaiming your general awesomeness! (That is unless there is some cool graphic-y design-y person out there who would like to volunteer something better in the way of prizes)