Blogging A to Z

Today, those of us who participated in the Blogging A to Z Challenge have been asked to reflect back on the challenge and offer our thoughts. I’ll bullet point the highlights and lowlights for me.

The Good

I never missed a day, always went live at 12:01 AM
Blogging every day exposed me to a huge number of new blog visitors
I visited many blogs I probably never would have otherwise visited–blogs on genealogy, the 80’s, children’s books, short story and poetry authors, writing and reading enthusiasts, knitting and quilting, wine-tasting, etc.
Never satisfied with my own blog, I loved looking at the artistic and functional aspects of others’ blogs. Those credits bloggers often have at the bottom of their blog pages? I click on those and visit the design geniuses behind them.
Many of my visitors subscribed to my blog, something I never pushed but was extremely thankful for.
The challenge coincided with my debut novel’s release so I was able to marry info about the book and its release with the challenge in what I hope wasn’t too obnoxious a manner (see cons section for the flip side of this).
The discipline of regular posting was reinforced.
My blog traffic was off the charts–more than double the traffic than in my previous highest month.
I met some wonderful new bloggers!!
WordPress’s (and Blogger’s) ability to schedule posts is awesome!
That widget that sent visitors to a new, random blog next was a fantastic idea…too bad WordPress dot com doesn’t allow javascript widgets or I’d have had one too.
Several bloggers really impressed me with their master plans for the month, posts that followed a uniform theme, vs. my hodge-podge approach.

The Less Good / Not Good

I was on vacation or out of town on business for a week and a half of April on two separate trips. I prepped ahead of time where I could but sometimes it was pretty hectic writing and prepping against a looming deadline.
I had manuscript edits unexpectedly arrive in my inbox, and they commanded time I’d have rather spent visiting blogs.
I did not visit nearly as many blogs as I’d have hoped or what was suggested.
Many of my blog posts were piggybacks of blog tour stops, basically reroutes of my traffic to others’ blogs.
I was sad whenever I clicked on a few links in the first few days only to find no A to Z posts at all. I guess they changed their minds about participating.
Sometimes the current day’s A to Z post was difficult to find on very busy blogs. (Suggest a separate A to Z blog page / tab with an index to the posts.)
Commenting on Blogger (vs. WordPress) posts has always challenging for this WordPress gal, and unfortunately, most of the A to Z’ers had Blogger blogs. I finally gave up and commented using my google account and a dummy Blogger blog I set up. This made commenting easier (Re-Captcha / Captcha issues aside which is a whole ‘nother gripe) but made linking back to my blog very indirect. Many I visited and read but didn’t bother commenting because of the hassle of it.
I wished there had been some sort of index categorizing the blogs. I’d hit one and think, “Oh, I think I’ll revisit that one again.” Only I never subscribed or wrote down the name. I usually only remembered the nature of the post I read and liked. I’d have sought out a few that were different from what I was used to reading if there had been some sort of guide like when we first signed up.
Because my debut novel released during the A to Z window (April 16th), I feel in my heart like I was a very selfish blogger, though in my head I know I did the best I could with the hours I had. I really did try to at least pay a return visit to all my visitors.
I wished I’d visited the A to Z Challenge blog more often than I did to read more about the goings on of the whole.

Would I do the Blogging A to Z Challenge again and more specifically, next year?

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Thank you to everyone who visited me either by landing here or via subscription (RSS or email or Networked blogs).

Since You Asked by Dawn Sticklen
A to Z reflections #atozchallenge (notesinabook.wordpress.com)
A to Z reflections (randomsays.com)
A to Z: Reflections Post from The Other Side blog (timbrannan.blogspot.com)

I don’t know about my fellow A to Z bloggers, but I’m tired, as in I need some serious ZZZZZ’s.

Blogging six days a week for the A to Z Challenge plus Sundays for either myself or my alter ego for Six Sentence Sunday AND plugging my newly released book, The P.U.R.E. plus prepping for two anthologies and a novella between now and early June…oy! It’s a good kind of tired though, so I’m definitely counting my blessings and being tongue-in-cheek here.

But as Madeleine Kahn sang in Blazing Saddles:

But at least there’s cake:

And that’s a wrap ladies and germs!

Thank you to all the wonderful bloggers and readers who visited me during April, whether you commented or not. Even though I’m tired, the experience was so very worth the effort to get to meet all of you. I didn’t get to visit as many blogs as I’d hoped, but I did try to at least repay a visit for a visit.

Please, please be sure to visit more A to Z Blog Challenge participants for their final bows today! What an amazing group of bloggers I’m proud to have participated with in this year’s challenge. I will definitely do this again next year.

Also, my wonderful writer friend, Sandra Bunino, has an interview with yours truly today on her blog as part of her “All Things Girl” Monday series. Give it a look-see if you’re interested in delving under the covers of the various inspirations behind my novel, The P.U.R.E.

Don’t be a stranger! Cheers.