That event changed me forever.

May we never forget that we are all beggars.

5 things I learned from my BAD ‘08 work:

1. Scalability is crucial to virality.

If you can’t scale, you can’t spread. Your idea may spread somewhat on its own. But if you can’t handle huge spikes of incoming information, you won’t be able to give your meme the constant attention it needs in order to achieve maximum reach and effect.

Blog Action Day 2008 was highly scalable in structure. The organizing team did a fantastic job preparing this event to spread virally. We had a solid strategy for contacting high-profile blogs and non-profit organizations. We had a website that made it easy and appealing to register for the event. We had a viral video.

But we all wished we had a few more members on our team. Especially when the big day came and I found myself hosting a live 12-hour-long radio show, manning the event Twitter and email and social media accounts, and fielding last-minute phone calls.

2. There is an unspeakable amount of needless suffering in this world.

The thousands of wonderful blog posts, photos, podcasts and videos published for Blog Action Day 2008 made my heart deeply feel what my mind already knew – that you and I have millions upon millions of brothers and sisters on this planet who are suffering needlessly at this very moment.

There is suffering and then there is needless suffering.

None of us can afford to ignore the monstrous magnitude of worldwide poverty.

We should do all we can, always, to rid poverty from the earth.

As I wrote for The Blog Herald:

“Last Friday, Chris Garrett asked what you are doing for Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty. If every blogger involved in the annual October 15 event would have left a comment at Chris’s post, there would be well over 10,000 of them. And yet, if every person living in poverty were to comment, there would be more than 3 BILLION comments. Can you fathom it?”

3. There is an astounding amount of love in this world.

We just need to spread it.

No sooner had the Blog Action Day team launched our 2008 campaign than we began to receive emails and phone calls from people who wanted to help the event. Dozens of volunteers showed up at our doorstep, translating our website into at least 25 languages and promoting our event in dozens of countries all over the world. More than 80 companies and organizations willingly partnered with us, some of them offering their space, resources or tools for free.

Not to mention the incredible acts of kindness and selflessness manifested by thousands of people on Blog Action Day itself. Just look at the event website for a glimpse. People gave money to charity. They taught each other about poverty in their neighborhoods. They pledged to be more caring from that day on.

I was overwhelmed at the responsiveness and generosity of the Blog Action Day community.

4. Keep track of everything.

I sent hundreds of emails in my capacity as an offical Blog Action Day 2008 team member and read thousands more. I also created and maintained dozens of social media accounts and other online accounts for the event.

The only way I was able to do this without going bonkers was to keep track of everything I possibly could.

Spreadsheets, email filters and RSS alerts became my best friends. Without them, I never would have been able to remember who needed what by when, or who was saying what about Blog Action Day where.

At first I had to force myself to stay organized. But a little truly went a long way and the event went much more smoothly as a result.

5. Flow quality is much more valuable than flow quantity.

On the Web, you’ve got to give people a clear path to follow. This is especially true of events like Blog Action Day that have a central hub online and revolve around a single point in time.

We generated more buzz by doing and being and offering less. We were one day. One topic. Two officially supported ways to give money. One page with all the images/banners/widgets to embed on your blog. Etc.

More than once, I fell behind on answering emails for Blog Action Day. There was just so much coming in. What finally conquered the pile-up was attacking it with a system for directing flow. I made several template emails to save typing time. I filtered incoming messages extensively. I made each response as complete as possible to reduce the number of follow-up questions.

Give people clear instructions and simple choices all the time and you (and they) are bound to get more of what you want and less of what you don’t out of an event or a business.

And just for fun, here’s a bonus lesson I learned.

6. Sleep is wonderful. Try to get enough of it.

I came to cherish sleep while working for Blog Action Day 2008. During the last few days, I came to absolutely crave it.

I spent 40 hours or so in a row on October 14-15 working feverishly for Blog Action Day. Zero sleep in that span. The last 12 hours of that was the BlogTalkRadio talkathon. When I finally got to bed on the night of the 15th, I fell asleep within seconds and remained motionless on my back until morning. My wife had to check to make sure I was actually breathing at several points throughout the night because I never moved. There was no prying the precious prize of slumber from my exhausted body and brain.

So I resolved that, barring life-threatening emergencies, I will never again do that to myself.

If I could do it over again, I would have at least taken a catnap or two during that final 40-hour stretch. And every day I would have tried to grab a few more winks of sleep. It probably would have made my work more effective and less stressful.

Thank You to the Blog Action Day 2008 Team

To Collis Ta’eed for inviting me to contribute to this year’s extraordinary event; to Fuad Ta’eed for helping me see the vision of the event; to Cyan Ta’eed for adding an incredible amount of cheerfulness and energy; to John Barton for his tireless development and tech support work; to Leo Babauta for picking poverty as this year’s theme; to the dozens of volunteers who translated Blog Action Day materials and helped us promote our event worldwide; and to everyone who participated in any way, I say THANK YOU. You made Blog Action Day 2008 unforgettable for me and for many, many others. I hope that someone in this world will be less poor as a result.

What Did You Learn from Blog Action Day 2008?

I’m interested to know what lessons you have to share. Please leave a comment below. Or if you have any questions for me about Blog Action Day, please feel free to share them as well!

If you liked this post, please subscribe to Visionary Blogging. I focus on honing the blog improvement process and using blogs with a sense of vision and strategy to make your business and your life more effective.

And please share this article with your friends!

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Why your blog? Why is it special?

Why your blog? Why did you choose the blog format?

Can a new visitor tell me “why your blog” within 10 seconds?

Can you?

Why your blog?

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Welcome to Part 2 of a 5-part series on the elements of the Visionary Blogging method, which will help you improve yourself as a blogger and make your blog better faster.

In this article, we’ll focus on … focus. I’ll tell you what focus is, why you must have focus in order to become a visionary blogger, and how to sharpen your blogging focus.
The 5 Elements of Visionary Blogging

• Part 1: Awareness
• Part 2: Focus
• Part 3: Discernment
• Part 4: Imagination
• Part 5: Diligence

What is Focus?

Focus is the ability to look. It requires awareness (the ability to see) plus concentrated attention.

For example, you’re aware of many things right now – the temperature of the air around you, the movement of objects in your peripheral vision, the need to call back that one guy about the thing, etc. – but your focus is on these typed words. (I hope.)

Focus brings exactness and clarity to otherwise blurry blogging.

What do you look at when you are blogging? What commands your attention and what do you ignore?

How Focus Affects Blogger and Blog Improvement

Without focus, wisdom is lost in knowledge and knowledge is lost in information. You see much but look at little. The Web becomes a trap instead of a treasure chest.

Focus enables you to dredge oceans of information, capture oysters of knowledge and extract pearls of wisdom in spite of danger, distraction or fatigue.

Focus aids meta-improvement by training your mind’s eye on the aspects of your blog or blogging that matter most to your success. It acts as a mental filter, whetting your appetite for superb blogging tips and screening out the irrelevant, the unimportant and the mediocre.

No wonder focus seems to contain magical power. Nothing else improves poor vision so quickly or drastically.

How to Sharpen Your Focus for Faster Blogger Self-Improvement

Here are 3 simple yet challenging exercises you can do to hone your focus and make yourself a better blogger. Try these or create your own assignments.

1. For one day, keep a detailed log of your blog-related activities and their purposes. This can be a list on paper or in an electronic document. Be as thorough as possible in noting what you do, for how long and why. Afterwards, evaluate your level of focus during the day. When was it strong? When was it weak? What factors influenced your ability to focus? What will you do to focus better tomorrow?

2. For 5 minutes, write all the things you can think of that you would love to accomplish through your blogging efforts. Then take 5-10 minutes to sort the accomplishments on your list in order of priority. What would be the most important thing you could accomplish? The next most important thing? The least important thing?

3. Take a few minutes to create a list of activities that, while enjoyable, tend to prevent you from reaching your blogging goals. For each activity, decide how to make sure you do not waste any time on it. For example, Twitter can be a valuable networking and communication tool that adds to the success of a blog. But if you sometimes find yourself wandering too far down Twitterpated Lane and forsaking more urgent and important activities, consider setting a few personal rules to maximize your use of Twitter. e.g. no Twitter until I have cleared out my email inbox each day; no more than 30 minutes on Twitter; I will shut off Twitter when I’m not at work on blog-related things; etc.

Your homework this time is to do one or more of the above exercises within 2 days of the time you read this article and tell me how it went in a comment below. I will do it too. Let’s help each other improve our blogging focus.

What’s Next?

In Part 3, we’ll discuss the third element of visionary blogging: discernment, or the ability to evaluate.

If You Just Want Some Personal Blogging Help

Ask me for free blog help at any time. I’ll come running.

What Do You Think?

How important is focus to blogging success? Can you think of a time when your level of focus influenced your performance? What are the biggest enemies of focus for a blogger? I would love to hear what you think about these questions or anything else that we’ve covered in this brief article.

Photo: Eye For Detail by d70focus

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Related Articles

1. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 3: Hone Your Discernment
2. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 1: Increase Your Awareness
3. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence

Visionary blogging is blogging with vision, of course!

Ah, but what is vision?

When it comes to using blogs and social media, I think vision consists of these five things:

The 5 Elements of Strategic Vision

1. Awareness - the ability to see.
2. Focus - the ability to look.
3. Discernment – the ability to evaluate.
4. Imagination – the ability to create.
5. Diligence - the ability to endure.

Vision is not money, power or success – but it will help you become richer, more powerful and more successful.

In fact, you must improve your vision in order to achieve maximum blogging and professional success.

Without vision, you damn yourself to blogging hell. You kill your ability to improve and progress. You shut off and shut out the light.

As you learn about and hone your “visionary blogging” skills – your powers of awareness, focus, discernment, imagination and diligence – your blog will improve and you will become a better blogger. And that improvement will come faster and more naturally than ever as you practice this method.

The Visionary Blogging Method: The 5 Steps

1. Increase Your Awareness
2. Sharpen Your Focus
3. Hone Your Discernment
4. Excite Your Imagination
5. Strengthen Your Diligence

Using the Visionary Blogging method, you can improve your blogging vision and reach your ultimate potential as a blogger and professional.

Your company or organization deserves to know what it’s really accomplishing with blogs and why. This step-by-step strategic approach will help you through every part of the blogging process, from planning to launch to promotion.

I can help you do it. Learn about my blog consulting services.

Please join me in the quest to become a visionary blogger.

I promise you that it will be worth the effort.

Any questions?

Photo by vshioshvili

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Related Articles

1. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 1: Increase Your Awareness
2. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 2: Sharpen Your Focus
3. Elements of Visionary Blogging, Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence