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 used to nearly lose my mind over these donuts when I was a child. They were the brass ring of decadent breakfast foods we could only nag my mother to procure from the grocery store on the rarest of occasions. They sold out quickly is one reason. The sugar content pretty much disqualified them as nutritious edibles as far as my mother was concerned (not that that always mattered). We didn’t have a Krispy Kreme store near us; those were all in the NC area. My memory of such was always in a oblong box of about 12 that rarely lasted beyond grocery day to actually be enjoyed for breakfast.

In the late nineties, I got wind that Krispy Kreme was going public. A day after they issued stock, I bought in. Within a few weeks I’d doubled my money. Fearful my joy ride wouldn’t last much longer, I sold my stock about three months after my purchase and made a lovely profit…then watched the price continue to go up, up and up. Clearly the nation wanted sugar in the shape of yeasty circles, and they wanted them hot and fresh from the bakery. Stores opened up all over the country, and when they did they brought long lines and crowds. Enterprising fund-raisers got there early then sold them at local venues. I cursed my hastiness in selling.

Then someone blew the whistle that they were…gulp…not so healthy (probably when the Jareds of the world realized they’d put on a few pounds and it was time to return to Subway). The lines weren’t so long anymore. The stock price plummeted and Krispy Kreme was in trouble. The good news is, I believe they have since recovered and hallelujah for that.

You know, there are some companies you don’t necessarily want to (or shouldn’t) patronize that much, but you always want to know they are around in case you need them. Ben & Jerry’s, Cinnabon’s, Godiva Chocolate and Krispy Kreme are those types of companies. You certainly could live in a world without them…but what fun would that be?

Long Live the Kreme!

Enjoy!