First Month - 86.18% Increase!

We have reached the end of the first month of One Million Blogs for Peace. We grew from 217 blogs to 404 blogs in that time, an increase of 86.18%.

This monthly rate of growth sets us on a pace to reach 376,395 blogs by the end of one year. While that number is short of our goal of 1,000,000, it would still be a very impressive number and represent a tremendous outpouring of support for peace in Iraq.

Maintaining that pace, however, may get harder as the movement gets larger, so it is imperative that everyone do all they can to spread the word and get people signed up and on board. This will be the focus of May's challenge, which will be announced soon.

Some have commented that they would like to see OMBFP be more active in doing things rather than building numbers in the movement. I see the role of OMBFP to be to do both: to grow the movement towards one million while being active in trying to accomplish things. However, it makes the most sense to focus on growth at the early stages because of the exponential nature of growth, and then work on accomplishing things once a wider audience is participating. As such, most of the rallies and challenges will continue to focus on building the base for the near future, and then give way to more action-oriented opportunities once the base is built.

Please continue to send your comments, feedback, and especially suggestions for how we can build this movement. I will be out of town for the next few days after tonight, so the list will not be updated until early next week, but please keep signing up and getting involved! (This will also be my last trip away for quite a while, so I appreciate your patience during this time.)

OMBFP Merchandise!

Two designs featuring the OMBFP logo are now available for purchase on nearly 100 products each at CafePress!


Basic OMBFP Logo


I'm One in a Million Logo

All proceeds from these products will go directly toward prizes for the OMBFP Challenges, the first of which will begin May 1st.

Please let me know if there are additional logos you would like to see on merchandise!

Virtual Rally #2

Virtual Rally #2
Site:  digg.com
Goal:  Elevate OMBFP to front page of digg.com.
Mission:  Spread word about OMBFP to a wide audience.
Participant Actions:
(1) Register as a member of digg.com (11-15 April 2007)
[Register]
(2) "Digg" OMBFP article to be linked (Monday, 16 April 2007)
[link available Monday]

We're shooting for a Monday morning effort to catch the week on the upswing and hopefully ride the momentum all week long.

Also, OMBFP merchandise will be available this weekend on CafePress.com. Stay tuned for details! Thanks to the Guerrilla Blogger for a reminder to get going on this.

Long Weekend - Updates on Monday - Blog Carnival

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I will be on a trip to see a friend get married in Atlanta for the next three days. I will have sporadic to no internet access, so there will not be updates until Monday the 9th. My apologies for this brief hiatus, but you should know that we are up to 339 blogs (list not updated yet, but sign-ups received) after a bumper-crop in the wake of our Digg efforts!

While you're waiting for OMBFP updates, why not check out the Blog Carnival that Sholom at Anarcho-Judaism set up?

You can view it here and submit content here!

Have a great weekend!

Update Frequency

I just wanted to post a note about how often the list of blogs will be updated, since 22 blogs have signed up in the last 12 hours or so, since the last update.

I will be aiming to update the overall list roughly every 24 hours. This may not always be possible and is not a guarantee, but that is the goal. It may end up closer to 36 or 48, especially once the volume starts getting higher.

The regional lists will be posted shortly, but may not be updated as frequently, as it takes some time to sort those out.

Updates will tend to be made in the evenings, Pacific time, since that's when I have the most time to spend on them.

I have been enjoying reading your Tuesday Topic responses, both in the comments and on your blogs! Keep up the great work and keep an eye out for similar weekly or one-time projects that may be coming soon...

How to Add a Graphic Button

I should put this on the front page as well. But for now, many have been asking about how to add a graphic link using one of the buttons I've created to the Blogs for Peace website.

Here's the code to paste where you want the button link:
<a href="http://bluepyramid.org/peace"><img src="http://bluepyramid.org/peace/Iraq.png"></a>

This is for the first graphic in the series (the large Iraq/Peace logo). If you want to use a different graphic, find out its name by right-clicking and then selecting "Properties". This will tell you the URL of the graphic you wish to use. Then replace the "img src" URL with that URL.

Need a Blog?

If you're looking to sign up for One Million Blogs for Peace, but don't know where to start a blog, we have a suggestion... Lee at PeaceJournals is offering support for the project and would love to set you up with a free blog!

You can check it out at peacejournals.org.