Do I have to have a blog?
Short answer: YES
Here’s why: You have to have a place to write up how you’re doing on your goals that you can link to each week on the Check-in Linky so that your fellow ROWers can come visit and leave you encouragement. Tweets, Facebook updates, and the like don’t work well for this purpose.
That being said, nobody said you have to have a popular blog or even one that’s going to show up in search engines. A lot of people resist the notion of having one at all because they don’t want to keep it up. I’ll leave it to Kristen Lamb and her We Are Not Alone: A Writer’s Guide To Social Media to convince you of why it’s never too early to start your platform and why you, as a writer today need a blog (it’s an awesome instructive book and you should read it). I’ll just say that for the purposes of ROW80, there is nothing in the world wrong with starting a free blog at WordPress or Blogger for the express purpose of providing your updates.
What is a linky?
At the end of every sign up, goals, or check-in post is a line that says “Click here to enter your link…” Click it. This will take you to the linky for that post, where you enter the specific link to your goals post or check-in post so that everybody can find you. WordPress does not allow javascript, which is why you must click the link to go to the linky site rather than seeing it embedded directly into the post. It is also set up as a blog hop–this means that if you are so inclined, you can nab the code from the linky page to add to your own post so that people can hop from one blog to the next without having to go back to the ROW80 blog.
I missed the sign up.
Not a problem. We’re a friendly bunch. Just write up your goals and link to them on the most recent check-in linky. Jump in any time.
When is ROW80?
ROW80 runs 4 times a year, beginning the first Monday in January, April, July, and October.
Just a quick comment here – round 4 actually begins the first week in October… Or maybe I am living in the future and have just figured this out?
This comment may be deleted before it self-destructs, after you investigate which month it actually is now……
Will there be a new round starting in January? I’d love to join you all! Please let me know.
Thank you,
Karen McFarland
karen@karenmcfarland.com
Yes, there are 4 rounds a year. The next begins in January.
Oh, my. I think this is brilliant. I run a contest in the summer, but would love to come and join you all during the year. I’m going to put this on my sidebar. 1k a day is a great goal for me to have, which seems like what you are shooting for during row 80. Thanks so much for this great competitive writing scheme!!
I’ve forgotten how to add the pic from the sidebar to my blog. Can you refresh my memory?
That depends entirely on what kind of blog you have. Each type usually has its own image widget or gadget in which you past the link to the image (right click on image, save image location). Or you can look up basic html image code and use that in a text box.
Um…I’m a little unclear (which might have something to do with the sugar overload from the really scrumptious stuffed French Toast I just consumed, bad, Kathi!) do I need to do the linky thing every time I post an update on my blog? Or did I take care of it when I signed up and don’t need to linky again?
Every update is a different link. There is a new linky for every update day, so you put the new link on the new linky for each check in.
How do I get the badge?
Copy image location and then chuck it into your blog’s image widget or use some handy dandy html image code in a text widget.
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Okay, see, this is my third round….. and ummmm….. I just got the update the linky every round memo….. oops… Might do a bit better if I do it right?
Hee hee hee!
Hate to be dense, but I SOO need this kind of nudge. However, when I follow the link to sign up, it says, “This linky is now closed.” I thought we could jump in whenever? Am I just doing something wrong?
Thanks!
You jump in on whatever the current check in linky is.
So, I’m still trying to figure out this linky thing.
I should start now and then something happens on the Wednesday check -in…right? Ummm…what happens on the Wednesday check in?
(I’ve already apologized for being dense, right?)
You write up a post on your blog about your progress (and including your goals if you haven’t linked that somewhere), and link to it in the linky.
Thanks for being so patient! I did go ahead and write up my intent on my blog. My problem was that the first Linky thing I found, said it was closed. So I found the one just before the comments section in the Sunday Check in page (http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/tag/check-in/ ) But it’s not up, so I’m not sure I’m right.
I know I’m probably being ridiculously anal about this, so I will wait and see if it’s all clear when tomorrow’s check in rolls around.
Or if there’s an open Linky URL that I should upload my Intent blogpost to, please just paste it here?
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Instead of a blog, can we use Google+ instead and link to a post in a circle created specifically for #ROW80?
No. The entire point of blogs is that anyone can visit and comment. We are not tying the challenge to any particular social media platform because some people are on none of them and few are on all of them.
Fair enough. I’ll set up a blog.
Thank you.
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