This post is Day 28 of the 28 Day Blogging Breakthrough Challenge. You can chat about the challenge on social media using the hashtag #BloggingBreakthrough. Click here to view all of the challenge prompts.

How to Put It All into Action to Get a Blogging Breakthrough

We made it – today officially marks the final day of the Blogging Breakthrough Challenge. Can you believe it? I really hope you’ve found this series as worthwhile as I’ve found creating it. But it’s not over yet. We've still got the final day to go…

Over the past 28 days we've covered a lot. We've talked content. We've talked social media. We've talked organisation. We've talked inspiration. We've talked about all the main things you need to get a breakthrough with your blog.

Really, there’s only one thing left to do. So to wrap up the 28 Day Blogging Breakthrough Challenge, it only seems right to talk about how we can put everything into action. It’s all well and good doing these tasks for 28 days. But you want to keep on doing them. Some are tasks you can do every day – some are ones you can do every month. So on Day 28, we’re going to go through all the tasks we've done and block out when they need to be done so you can achieve a constant breakthrough with your blog.

I figured that the easiest way to do this would be to split these into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and one-off tasks. That way, you’ve got this to come back to or you can make notes in your own planner to remind you. I'm going to put the number of the task by each point so you know exactly what day of the challenge you need to refer to. Here we go!

Every day

Plan your day (9)

Find something that inspires you (11)

Snapchat away! (20)

Interact on social media (21)

Every week

Write a list (8)

Find your optimal social media posting times (17)

Do something on Periscope (22)

Every month

Create your editorial calendar (4)

Sort out your blog files (7)

Write a list (8)

Plan your images (13)

Create and review your social media plan (18)

Plan content for your mailing list (23)

Take a break (27)

Plan content ideas (26)

Every few months

Introduce something new (5)

Publish content every day for one week (12)

Find some image inspiration (13)

Tidy up your social channels (15)

Create and review your Twitter lists (19)

Find places to guest post/ask for guest bloggers (24)

Buy a book (25)

Every 6 months

Set goals and review (3)

Write your brand statement (6)

Write and review your image style guidelines (13)

Tidy up your blog menu and sidebar (14)

Update your About page and profile pictures (16)

Yearly

Get your blog ready (1)

Get reader feedback (2)

Create and review your blogging space (10)

So the way the lists have turned out just goes to show how ongoing these things are. They’re all pretty equal and believe it or not, all the tasks from the past 27 days are there.

Before you start to put everything into action, I just want to leave you with a few more words of inspiration.

It Won't Happen Overnight

Something you’ve heard before, right? But it’s true. These things take time. It’ll be so much more fulfilling for you to focus on long-term, organic growth rather than instant gratification. I’ve been there.

When I first started putting more effort into my Instagram a few months ago, I purely focused on the numbers. The main thing I was bothered about was how many likes each photo got. When they came flooding in, I was over the moon! But that feeling soon went away – until I uploaded my next image. And when one image didn't get the same amount of likes as another? Well I tossed and turned with wondering what had gone wrong.

Months later, I think differently. I can see not only the growth in my Instagram community and engagement, but also in my growth as an Instagram user. Sure, all those likes rolled in overnight. But the satisfaction I have now at seeing how much of a difference my patience has made doesn’t even compare.

You’ll feel even more proud of yourself when you look at things over a longer length of time. Trust me.

It Also Won't Happen Straight Away

Another sometimes frustrating point, but again, also really true. Just because you plan an amazing editorial calendar doesn’t mean your pageviews are automatically going to increase. Just because you start to interact with new people on social media doesn’t mean you’re going to see hundreds more people wanting to be in your community. Remember this saying that my mum always tells me: “Good things take time.”

But I can assure you – once you’ve been doing these things for a certain amount of time, you’ll start to notice a difference. You’ll start to notice that your engagement is increasing on Twitter and your followers are increasing on Instagram. You’ll start to notice that you’re building a community of readers that want to hear from you. You’ll start to push yourself more, come up with new ideas and exceed what you thought you were capable of. You’ll start to get that breakthrough.

For me it’s happened little by little over the past six months and I'm still not there yet. But it’s happening. Different things will all add up to create that breakthrough.

You'll Always Have the Support of OTHER People

When we first start out as bloggers, there’s always a time where we feel as if we’re talking to no one. It’s a chapter we all go through, no matter whether we've been blogging now for 6 months or 6 years. But what’s really important to remember is that even if you’ve only got one reader, that still counts as one. And sometimes, all you need is one.

You’ll always have the support of your readers. I remember last July when my Grandma died, I reached out to my email subscribers just to talk about how I was feeling. That’s what I felt like doing at that time. I had more responses to that email I sent than any other.

How much does that tell you?

So as you’re going through the parts of this challenge and you think “I’ve been doing this for weeks and it isn't working” – because you will think this (I know I did) – just carry on for a little bit longer. When you feel like that, it’s usually the point when you’re going to start to see that breakthrough.

To finish off, I just want to quickly thank you for all your support over the past month during this challenge. Your amazing feedback and kind words have meant so much to me, and to see that it’s been making a positive difference for you is more than I could hope for.

Feel free to come back to this challenge whenever you want. And stay tuned on Monday 8th February when you’ll officially be able to get the challenge all in one place with the launch of the Blogging Breakthrough eBook!

I can’t wait to see what you create. So how about getting that breakthrough?

Remember – I believe in you.

Today's Task

You know the score - get ready to put it all into action. Good luck!

Remember, if you’ve got any questions, reach out to me on Twitter at @abranchofholly or leave a comment. And if you take any pictures of your progress be sure to use the#BloggingBreakthrough hashtag!