It was with great enthusiasm and anticipation that I started the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge.
After completing the first 10 days I am filled with even more excitement.  21 days still left to go and look how far I have come!

Day 1:  I wrote my Elevator Pitch.

Day 2:  I wrote a List Post.

Day 3:  I promoted my List Post.

Day 4:  I analyzed a top blog in my niche.

Day 5:  I contacted blog readers.  This challenge was to email a blog reader but since I am getting started, and most of my readers are actually participating in the challenge themselves, I took the opportunity to reply to comments and visit my readers blogs to make comments on them.  I also had a blast visiting various other blogs and leaving comments.

Day 6:  I read through some "Must Read Tips and Tutorials for Bloggers."  This was a wealth of information with helpful links within helpful links.  I will be revisiting this step frequently.

Day 7:  I wrote a Link Post.

Day 8:  I interlinked my old blog posts.  This step was very helpful.  I no longer have to worry when I make a casual reference about something I wrote about before.  I can simply link back to that post so my readers can "catch up" or get the background for my reference.  No need for me to sum up something I have already covered.  It also allows me to easily expand on a topic in the future.  Many times I find myself starting to head of on tangents.  Sometimes I stop myself.  Now I can simply make that tangent a future post and link my previous post to the one that expands upon the same topic.

Day 9:  I spent time participating in the forums I was already a member of.  The task was to join a forum and start participating but I was already a member of several and my participation has fallen off or never really gotten started.  It was nice to be able to spend the time catching up and getting engaged.

Day 10:  I set up alerts to monitor what is happening in my niche.  I admit to being a bit of a Google addict so when I found out I can set alerts and basically auto Google everything . . . well let's just say that blew my mind.  I know I have a lot of tweaking to do with this.  I think I set up at least 50 alerts.  That will be a lot of emails each day.  This week I plan on monitoring my alerts and seeing which ones produce the kind of results I am really looking for.  Then I can weed out the irrelevant ones.

That's just a basic summary of what I have done in my first 10 days of building a better blog.  For me, as a new blogger, this isn't even a challenge to build a better blog.  This is my challenge my journey to build my blog.  There wasn't much here to speak of when I started but I can already see it taking shape.  For me the most beneficial part of following this challenge is not just the daily tasks.  It's learning new skills will take me on past the 31 days.  Each "step" is teaching me a whole new skill.  I will be able to revisit these steps over and over as I grow and improve.  I can't wait to see where I will end up at the end of this road.

I also found out yesterday that Darren Rowse, author of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, is an INFP just like me.  Obviously that proves he is a genius.