Wow, what an amazing start we got off to yesterday! You guys totally blew away my expectations in our discussion of yesterday’s post 31DBBB Day 1: The Elevator Pitch
There are also a number of lessons learned and observations I’d like to pass along to you. So, because today’s assignment is to write a list post, I thought I’d share those things in the form of a list post.
1) This is an amazing group. I have done several previous group blog projects, all of them very good, but this group will probably blog all the rest away. Not only did you introduce yourselves and your blog’s elevator pitch, but many of you went the extra mile of replying and giving feedback on other blogger’s elevator pitches. This has the makings of a real community where it’s not just each person out to make their own blog better, but everyone helping each other.
2) We shattered the record for most comments on a post. As I write this there are 171 comments on the Day. The previous record was 91 on the post Why Willow Creek and Saddleback are Losing Influence While North Point and LifeChurch.tv are Gaining Influence
3) Threaded comments are… awesome! It was only about 6 months ago that I installed the IntenseDebate commenting plugin, which gives us the ability to comment on comments (rather than one big long list of comments) WordPress itself now supports threaded commenting, but wow Day 1’s conversation would have been completely impossible without this.
4) IntenseDebate screws up links. I noticed a lot of broken links in yesterday’s comments. This was not the fault of those posting the links, but the fault of the commenting system. It doesn’t like any characters before or after links. When you post in the future, don’t put parentheses around links or periods after them. Make sure there’s at least one space on either side of a link. Or better yet, put a link on its own line.
5) Read all of our blogs in one place. William Dicks has taken (and will keep adding) all available blogs with RSS/atom feeds and added them all into one feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/31dbbb so that all you have to do is use this feed to see what the other bloggers on 31DBBB are blogging about. There is also a web page available to read the posts of our 31DBBB bloggers at http://bit.ly/31dbbb-cwt if you do not want to make use of a feed reader.
There is a quirky thing where when a new blog is added to the feed all the posts from that blog appear at the top, but over time this will settle out all new posts will be displaced chronologically. Way to go, William!!!
6) Conversations happen where they happen. The plan was that any questions about blogging you might have that were unrelated to the days specific lesson and assignment would be posted in the forums. I noticed there were quite a few questions unrelated to elevator pitches posted in that post’s comments. Those tangents didn’t seem to create any problems and most people’s questions got answered. So, as long as it’s working, there’s no reason to change it.
What did you learn from Day 1?
P.S. This is not the Day 2 post. You can find that here.
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
29 Comments
Great stuff. Nothing better than a Community project where the Community is involved 🙂
The big thing that I learned from Day 1 is that Elevator Pitch's evolve. As you find your focus and your niche/place you begin to clarify where you are going and how you are going to get there.
I agree. Having a community that is supportive and active is great. It creates a level of excitement to see what will be going on the next day.
I learned the same thing Phillip did! As I'm learning more about myself and my writing, my elevator pitch is changing! By the time we finish this project, I may have to change it or have already changed it to reflect my journey!
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I think that I learned more about the importance of HAVING a statement, and how that statement should drive the type of content that you deliver. EVERY post should ultimately live up to that 'elevator pitch' statement.
Great start to this project!
Day 1 taught me to sometimes just to sit down and think about where I want to go with my blog. Doing this inspired quite a few ideas that I am now digesting for future blog posts.
Good challenge to us. The blog "pitch" helps me formlate my purpose. And if I don't have a purpose, then I can't really complain about not having an audience.
Of course, some blogs are purposeless…and that's fine. They ebb. They flow. They are just places for people to express. And bless them for that.
But for me, the pitch makes it centered.
David <a href="http://www.RedLetterBelievers.com,” target=”_blank”>www.RedLetterBelievers.com, "Salt and Light"
Good challenge to us. The blog "pitch" helps me formlate my purpose. And if I don't have a purpose, then I can't really complain about not having an audience.
Of course, some blogs are purposeless…and that's fine. They ebb. They flow. They are just places for people to express. And bless them for that.
But for me, the pitch makes it centered.
David http://www.RedLetterBelievers.com, "Salt and Light"
Good challenge to us. The blog "pitch" helps me formlate my purpose. And if I don't have a purpose, then I can't really complain about not having an audience.
Of course, some blogs are purposeless…and that's fine. They ebb. They flow. They are just places for people to express. And bless them for that.
But for me, the pitch makes it centered.
David http://www.RedLetterBelievers.com, "Salt and Light"
I agree.. My likes and dislikes change so often I imagine my elevator pitch will as well.. Was a fun first day.. Not sure I got any real work done though!
I'm with you David! Well said!