NaBloPoMo November 2009 - I Made It!

At the very last minute of the last day possible, I decided to join in on National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), November 2009. I didn't have a plan, nothing outlined at all - but I thought it would be a terrific challenge, and surely I would take something away from it. Today's the last day of the challenge and I thought I'd spend my last post summarizing the month, how it went, what I learned, who I met, and how it's changed my thoughts about community.

I'm a pretty active blogger, NaBloPoMo or not. I think that's because as of late I've been half-employed and I've been cooking, baking and writing a lot. In fact, I'd just come off a baking marathon that took me through Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies, and 46 recipes later (and several hundred cookies), I still felt like I had a lot more in my head. I had a rough plan for the month to post many of the Medrich recipes, but I also had Thanksgiving to consider, a monthly Daring Bakers Challenge, and whatever else landed on our dinner table.

But I didn't want NaBloPoMo to be just about my blog. There were hundreds of other bloggers who were participating and we all needed each others' support. This was the bigger part of my monthly challenge. I decided on day one that I would try to be a good community member too. I did a quick review of the NaBloPoMo bloggers who classified their blogs as food related, and from those I picked all that looked interesting to me. I was going to try to comment as much as I could, or at least as much as I thought might not sound like stalking. I added 105 new blogs to Bloglines, and as the month progressed, I added more non-NaBloPoMo blogs that I'd discovered through those blogs and through Twitter. In all, I'm following over 200 blogs every day. Except for Thanksgiving weekend, I tried to comment on 10 - 15 every day (I read every one of them), and I tended to comment on the same blogs every time.

Commenting was catchy. The more I did it, the more others did it for me - and the more readership I got across the board, the more questions and advice I got, and the more it felt like community. I know this is a no-brainer, but it helps in establishing presence. You have to speak in order to be heard. Folks who have well-read blogs (many were the non-NaBloPoMos I'd added) almost never bothered to respond to my comments or comment back. It's not sour grapes, it's just evolution of the medium, I think. Land a book deal or open a restaurant because of your blog, and your focus just shifts, naturally. There's still an audience out there watching and reading, though.

But back to NaBloPoMo. The drop-off rate was about what I expected. There were some folks who didn't make it past the first week, and others who dropped out due to extenuating circumstances (I saw a baby was born to one person who kept blogging up until about a week ago!). I saw an increase in 'sorry this post is lame' posts about halfway through the month, and many wordless posts appeared after long nights of drinking and working. Of the 100 or so self-classified 'food' blogs, only about 35% really were about food. Most of the rest were about kids, the family pet, or in one case, what looked like grief. That one was poignant and tough to read every day, but I didn't want to cut anyone out that I had initially chosen to follow, even if I thought the topic was difficult as heck.

I discovered some terrific blogs and bloggers, and I hope to one day have a drink with each of them to celebrate what we've done this month. Some I've added to my own blogroll, others I just haven't gotten to yet. But here are some folks who made it through the month and also have compelling writing, mostly about food:

HungryHomo
Food on the Brain
Kahakai Kitchen
Little Blue Hen
Always Order Dessert
Brownies for Dinner
Cookie Love
Brown Eyed Baker

Thanks to everyone who followed along this month, and to those who made it through the challenge (successful or not), here's to you! I'll be seeing you on the comment section on your blog soon, or on Twitter. Best wishes this holiday season!

Jenny

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