Blogathon 2010: Wrap-Up

[elionwyr]

This past weekend was Blogathon.

Over $500 was raised for [Bad username or site: http://www.livestrong.org @ livejournal.com]LiveStrong. We had about 20 people donate, and varied people who followed along, reading, responding, cheering the bloggers on (which was a fantastic gift). I was hit by a virus (Antivir Solution Pro) on two separate laptops, had some sick kitty drama, and managed to post roughly 80 blogs.

If you'd like to see what you missed, check the following tag links:
http://elionwyr.livejournal.com/tag/blogathon
http://elionwyr.livejournal.com/tag/cancer
http://elionwyr.livejournal.com/tag/zookeeper%20tales
http://elionwyr.livejournal.com/tag/haunting%20tales


I definitely had the benefit of having read along when others have tackled Blogathon. Insomnia was my friend for a change - staying awake without getting too fried wasn't a problem until the last 1-1/2 hours, when my brain and I hit the wall hard.

My advice for others?
* Have several subjects to write about.
* Prewrite when you can. (I started out with about 12 posts mostly ready to go, which won me some time when I had the virus near-disaster hit. Ultimately, this meant about three days' worth of writing and I was still writing consistently throughout the Blogathon period.)
* Give yourself a buffer of posts. (By the last few hours, I was able to have two posts ready to go at any given time. Having that hour buffer did wonders for my anxiety, and when I hit the wall at 8AM, all I had to was hit 'send' at the appropriate time for those last two entries.)
* Definitely stretch, graze, etc.
* Advertise your fundraiser! (This I learned from the Blogathon community. It's obvious but..I missed it.)
* Arrange it so you don't really have far to go to get food and drink. (That buffer of posts helps here, too; you have built-in time to go use the bathroom or go find something to eat/drink AND - just as important - to go throw support in text form to some of my fellow blogathoners.)
* If you want to have people with you, choose wisely and keep it small. (At least if you're like me. I was very lucky in that elfowls_nest and sealgair mesh with me pretty well. I think had there been a party going on or lots of videos or music or whatever, my at-times-vague concentration would have been shattered. I mostly stayed off the phone, except when I was trying to fix my computer issues.)

My goals for myself were straight-forward: Post things I'd want to read and would feel good about people "tipping" with donations. If I didn't feel a post was worth anyone's time? I didn't put a donation link on it.

So I don't think Blogathon was that difficult, in and of itself. I'm very lucky in having a brain that works as fast as it does, and in being able to type as fast as I do, and in having wicked bad insomnia. And also, I overthought my approach to Blogathon a LOT. *grin* I also have a lot of really great friends around me who were able to support me when things started to go badly with the computer and with Lurk.

Obviously, YMMV with all of the above.


contrary74 is doing part two of this fundraiser - the Philadelphia LiveStrong Walkathon - on Saturday, August 21st. We'll be taking donations up until then, if you'd like to contribute to this cause.

Because cancer can bite my shiny metal ass.


Click Here to Donate

RAWR!