The 2014 Challenge
The A to Z has its detractors and there are some this year who felt that the Challenge does not add anything to their following, viewers, or commenters. There are a number of factors to be taken into consideration and I think it's important to examine them before coming to a negative conclusion about the
Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.
On the whole I have read more raves than boo-hoos about A to Z. I know that most of you continue to be excited. There are always those who enter the Challenge with high expectations and leave feeling let down. I will continue to contend that you get out of the Challenge as much as you put into it. I urge anyone who feels otherwise to take a deep honest look at your own effort and the benefits reaped.
The Community
On the whole the acquisition of new followers may partly be due to the nature of the community each blogger has developed for themselves. April becomes a busy month of moving about and visiting new bloggers. Not all of these bloggers understand blogging like you or I might understand it. Some are in it for themselves and Challenge or not this would be the way they would operate anyway. I'm not sure what else can be done to educate the self-centered bloggers because most likely they are not listening--not even if you say it in a comment on their blogs.
We are each responsible for cultivating our own communities that revolve around each of our blogs. If you are not getting followers and comments then you need to examine your blog content and the way you interact with other bloggers. Just because there's a big list of bloggers signed up to an event like A to Z doesn't necessarily mean you will be guaranteed more visits. You just have a much larger pool of potentially like minded bloggers to tap into.
There is a fault with the way the list is done, but I've discussed this in Reflections posts and Analysis posts in previous years. I won't go into it again, but you might be interested in going back through previous May posts to see what I think. My thoughts remain essentially the same.
Generally speaking I think the A to Z blogging community is a fantastic bunch of people with a wide diversity in blogging styles and interests. The
Blogging from A to Z April Challenge remains a vital event with ever-increasing potential.
If you have any negative thoughts about the Challenge I would encourage you to examine those with intensity and understand why you see it the way you do. I'm inclined to believe the problem is not so much the Challenge itself, but something you may not be doing correctly or a misguided perception about the Challenge. But let's talk about it. You can opt for the comment section on this post or open a dialog on the A to Z Blog or with any of the co-hosts. We want to continually improve on this event.
Tossing It Out and My Blogs
During the A to Z Challenge I gained about 60 new followers at Tossing It Out. This is actually not bad at all in my estimation. If you are still not following this blog please click that "Join This Blog" button at the top of my sidebar. My blog views and comments were fairly consistent with the typical performance of this blog though perhaps down over all. I'll take the blame for that because of my own decrease of activity in networking. Though if I look at my blog's performance according to weekly stats rather than per post then the numbers are up considerably.
I'm pleased with my April content on
Tossing It Out. The theme was
Marketing and Promotion from A to Z. My approach was general information with more intent to inspire and encourage than to provide specific details on how to do things. The posts were fairly pithy and casually delivered. The response I received was favorable. I feel good about this year's content on
Tossing It Out for the A to Z Challenge.
Not to confuse anyone about the blog you are now reading, I still consider
Tossing It Out to be my main blog and will continue to use this blog as the centerpiece of my blogging efforts. However, during this year's Challenge I was trying to generate more attention to my other blogs. These efforts might account for some of the lack of performance at
Tossing It Out, but my efforts didn't especially provide much boost to my other blogs either. Here's where I might share some frustration that others of you might have had concerning your results in regard to numbers and stats.
My Other Blogs
You might have already or will eventually run across the Reflections posts I did for these blogs, but I will still mention them here since I was trying to push these during this year's Challenge.
A Few Words may be the kind of blog that many of you prefer to avoid, but I like to think that occasionally I present some topics that might make readers think. Be forewarned that this is my Bible study blog. I hope this doesn't stop anyone from reading it, but I think it's only fair to tell you the nature of the content before you go there. This blog typically publishes on Sundays.
A Faraway View is what I call my dream blog since it is about the sleep activity of dreaming. My A to Z theme was movies about dreaming or that seem dreamlike. I hope film fans might go back to those posts and check out my film recommendations and let me know your thoughts. This blog normally appears only on Thursdays.
Wrote By Rote is the blog that I was promoting the most. This is my Saturday memoir blog that includes sketches about my own life and articles about the writing of memoir. I encourage guest posts on this blog. Of all the content presented on all of my blogs during April, this is the blog where I wrote most from my heart. I think this was my best effort during the Challenge. I hope I get a few more visitors to those posts.
Here are some endorsements from some of my Wrote By Rote readers:
Well you've made it to 'Z'. I still can't believe that more folks have not found their way to this marvelous blog. It has become your main blog in my mind. A place where you express so much more than the mundane things every third blogger is also chatting about. I sincerely hope you keep up the great writing here and possibly consider moving more of your efforts to this site, where you really shine. Faraway Eyes at Faraway Series
I'm kind of in FAE's camp now...I think I prefer this blog to 'Tossing It Out'.
Stephen T McCarthy at Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Wrote by Rote is a blog I enjoyed every time I visited, and I think it's not just because you've led a varied and interesting life, but that you know how to describe it so vividly that we can picture ourselves there, beside you. Lynda Dietz at Easy Reader
Please don't stop reading Tossing It Out, but I hope you check out Wrote By Rote and at click the "Join This Site" button.
Did you do a Reflections post? Do you have any positives or negatives you want to mention in my comment section? Have you checked out any of my other blogs?
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