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Creating Content: Earn PDUs Through Blogging and Newsletters
Writing and sharing content is one of the most flexible ways to earn Giving Back PDUs. Whether you're blogging for your company or creating a personal newsletter, you can earn 1 PDU for every hour you spend creating educational content.
1 Hour = 1 PDU
What Counts as "Creating Content"?
Writing and sharing content is another method of earning Giving Back PDUs. This could involve:
- Writing blog posts
- Creating email newsletters
- Maintaining a shared knowledge base within your company
- Writing articles for industry publications
- Creating educational materials or courses
The key requirement is that your content must be educational and related to project management. You'll need to provide copies of your publications or sample educational materials when claiming PDUs.
Writing a Blog
If you have an interest in writing or sharing knowledge—either within your company or as a personal side project—then writing a blog is a great option for earning PDUs.
When my company was first making the transition to Agile, there was a lot of effort put into training staff on Agile methodologies. Having been newly trained as a Scrum Master, I was interested in all things "Agile" and offered to create an Agile blog on our corporate intranet to help inform staff on best practices, tools, and advice.
Create a Company Blog
If your company uses tools like Confluence or SharePoint for their corporate intranet, they have built-in tools for creating blogs and related content. Speak to someone in your IT department about setting up a Blog space and providing you with permission to create blog posts.
Benefits: Built-in audience, company support, professional platform
Create a Personal Blog
There are numerous free tools available for creating and hosting your own personal blogs such as Blogger, WordPress, or Medium. As long as you have an idea, you can get started posting in minutes.
Benefits: Full control, portfolio building, potential monetization
Tools to Get Started with Blogging
WordPress Hosting
For a personal blog, WordPress is the most popular platform. You'll need hosting and a domain name to get started.
Get started with WordPress hosting →Domain Name
Register your own domain name to create a professional blog presence.
Register your domain →Sample Topics for Your Blog
There is no shortage of Project Management topics that can be covered in a personal or company blog. To get you started, here are some examples:
- What is Agile Estimating?
- Top 5 ideas for fun Sprint Retrospectives
- How to create a "Definition of Done" with your team
- The difference between Waterfall and Agile methodologies
- How to assess risk in a project
- Using the MOSCOW approach to requirements gathering (must have, should have, could have, won't have)
- How to write user stories
- Best practices for stakeholder management
- Creating effective project charters
- Agile vs. Scrum: What's the difference?
Time Investment
Sending Email Newsletters
If you have a company blog on Agile or Project Management-related topics, then an email newsletter with links back to the blog is a great way to share that information with other staff in your department.
And even if you don't have a blog, creating a newsletter with links to online articles, external blogs, tools, or templates can still be of benefit to others in your organization.
Real-World Example
At my company, a bi-weekly newsletter would be emailed to all staff with short summaries and links to Agile-related articles as well as blog content we created internally. This newsletter helped keep the team informed and earned PDUs for the time spent curating and writing it.
Tools for Creating Newsletters
To create professional email newsletters, you'll need an email marketing platform. Here are some options:
Start your newsletter with email marketing tools →Resources for Newsletter Content
Here are several sites that provide valuable articles on Agile and Project Management-related topics. You can easily pull together a few articles each week and compile them in an email newsletter:
- Mountain Goat Software Blog
- ProjectManagement.com – Business Analysis / Requirements Management
- ProjectManagement.com – Scrum
- Harvard Business Review
- Reddit – Project Management
- The Digital Project Manager
- Project Bliss
- Agile Advice
Documentation Requirements
To claim Creating Content PDUs, you'll need to provide documentation that proves your content creation activities. Acceptable documentation includes:
- Copies of publications: Links to blog posts, PDFs of newsletters, or screenshots
- Sample educational materials: Examples of your content that demonstrate educational value
- Time logs: Documentation of hours spent creating content (spreadsheet or time-tracking tool)
- Publication dates: Evidence of when content was published
Documentation Tip
How to Claim Creating Content PDUs
Step 1: Track Your Time
Keep a log of hours spent creating content. Include time for research, writing, editing, and publishing.
Step 2: Save Your Content
Keep copies of all your blog posts, newsletters, or other content. Save links, PDFs, or screenshots for easy access later.
Step 3: Log into PMI.org
Access your PMI account and navigate to the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) section.
Step 4: Submit Your Claim
Select "Giving Back to the Profession" → "Creating Content" and enter the number of hours (1 hour = 1 PDU). Upload your documentation.
Step 5: Continue Creating
Unlike Working as a Practitioner PDUs, you can claim Creating Content PDUs multiple times throughout your cycle. Keep creating and claiming!
Ready to Start Creating?
Creating content is one of the most flexible ways to earn PDUs. Whether you choose blogging or newsletters, you can start earning PDUs today.