Although The Blog Challenge claims to be a 10 day program, in fact, it calls for 20 days of work, since on day seven you start a fourteen day process of posting comments on related blogs. As a result, I felt like the three week mark is a better time to write a summary than the end of the "ten days" of the Challenge.

So, does the Challenge live up to it's promises? NO. There were three areas where the Challenge didn't live up to it's promises – Profitability, Ease Of Use, and Availability of Assistance.

PROFITABILITY

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Our 10 Day Blog Challenge will make ANY Blog profitable in 10 Days or Less.. GUARANTEED!

FAQ

Question: Do I really make money in 10 Days?There are no guarantees on the amount of money you can make with The Blog Challenge. No company can advertise money-making guarantees, and our challenge works for many, but we understand that there may be a LOW percentage who will not catch on.

Note that they even contradict themselves!

My Experience

No. After 10 Days, I had a loss of $18.54. Even without the cost of the Challenge, I had one dollar in expenses and 45 cents in income, for a loss of 55 cents. After 3 weeks, I had a loss of $11.58, a total of $7.41 in real income (not counting the "affiliate income" of purchasing the Challenge through my own ClickBank affiliate account.) Of that $6.00 was from submitting the article I wrote as part of the article marketing step to Associated Content (this was my idea, not part of the Challenge.) I guess one could claim that I didn't "catch on", but if not, I'd say that was due to poor directions.

EASE Of USE (Directions)

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The Blog Challenge walks you step-by-step [SIC]

FAQ

Question: Do I need to have programming skills?Absolutely not. The Blog Challenge walks you step by step through ALL of the day's challenges. It's designed for the beginner as well as the advanced blogger.

My experience

Many of the directions were wrong. A number of these changes could be attributed to changes in the Blogger interface since Google took over, but other resources had changed as well – some of them so they were no longer usable at all. Other resources now had a cost-associated with them, leaving me with a choice between doing without, spending money (further jeopardizing attempts at profitability), or attempting to find a replacement resource on my own. Also, while some days did include in-depth beginner level instructions, others did not. For instance, there was no information on where or how to submit articles to article directories – I just had to figure it out for myself. There were also no suggestions or guidance for what to do after the Challenge is over (other than the suggestion on Day 7 to post to 3 related blogs everyday for 14 days.) If you were to look at the Challenge's blog – you might think that you can just do a few posts and then quit and still be read and profitable (well, I have my doubts on the profitiability of that blog, even as advertising) – but generally blogs that aren't updated aren't read either.

SUPPORT

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If you get stuck, we have created a support forum for you, and we'll be happy to answer any questions.

My Experience

The forum given is not specific to this program, nor run or as far as I can tell monitored by, the Challenge authors. It is a general purpose forum for people interested in niche marketing (primarily web niche marketing.) I asked two questions related to the Challenge on the forum. In one case, I got no answers. Unfortunately, I also was not able to help myself with this one. In the second case, I did get some useful feedback, but I'm not sure it was any better than what I'd found on Google. I sent the question which I was not able to solve with the assistance of the forum and Google on to the help address given in the introduction to the Challenge. I also sent email to the help address for the website I was attempting to use per the Challenge's directions. I did not hear back from either one. I can't expect free services to also provide free customer support, but I did expect to hear back from the Challenge support.

So, do I think it was entirely bad? – No, not at all. I think that the Challenge makes promises it can't and doesn't deliver on, which has left me disappointed and unhappy. Aside from some of the information being outdated, the Challenge does provide a good introduction to starting a blog aimed at public consumption and potential profit. It also provides a schedule and writing ideas, which many writers, especially beginning writers, find invaluable. I certainly found it to be useful, even if I didn't always like their ideas. With a little work, the Challenge could actually be a very good resource – even publishable as a print book. Unfortunately, rather than put that effort in, the author seems to be promoting it with inflated promises. That said, I would recommend that rather than spend your money on The Blog Challenge, a complete beginner to blogging could start with Elizabeth Castro's Publishing a Blog with Blogger, which covers all the blogging information and a little more that the Challenge does – plus it covers the current Blogger interface. (BTW the author's website includes an extras section with some great tips for anyone who uses Blogger.) As for the marketing and advertising - so far, I've only read a few chapters of Harold Davis's Google Advertising Tools, but those few chapters covered adding advertising, affiliate programs, and a number of excellent suggestions for marketing your blog or website. Between these two books (which BTW have a combined cover price approximately equal to the list price of the Challenge), you'd have most of the information and more provided by the Challenge. The main thing that you'd be missing is information on how to pick a good niche topic and NicheBot provides that information to members. (And remember, I had to buy a trial NicheBot membership for the Challenge anyway.)

So, I'm definitely finished with the Challenge (except for asking for a refund!), but I'm not finished with my new blog, nor with writing for the Internet.