April A-Z Blogging Challenge: Reflections Post

[aldersprig]

The Meme Master Post

I do plan on finishing T-Z; you guys left me some wonderful prompts to play with. In the meantime, however, here's my Reflections post, as asked for by the Blogging A-Z People.

First impression: I really like doing A-Z challenges, and I really don't think I'll officially do Blogging A-Z again.

I've talked about this with a few of my readers, but for anyone else who's interested, here are my reasons. It's a bit cranky, so I've put it behind a cut.

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I signed up for Blogging A-Z because I thought it would be a fun way to blog about some new topics and to meet some new people.

I got some good topics, and had a blast writing to all of my readers' prompts. I'll probably do that again - or another A-Z Giraffe Call.

But I didn't find that it got me much outside traffic - I get more from Friday Flash or Three Word Wednesday - and I didn't find it got me much interesting feedback at all. I get more readers from the Giraffe Calls, and those are about the same amount of writing as a blog post a day for 26 days.

So far, I have gotten three comments from A-Z bloggers, 2 from mods, and one of those has spurred me to consider actually posting my "comments policy."

(The short version of my comments policy: pls. always be polite to others. In addition, please don't post criticism or critique, typo catches or things unrelated to the post you're commenting on UNLESS you've already commented on the story/blog post in question).

In addition, looking over the blog posts by mods and on A-Z in general gives me the impression it's really not for me. I'm not a professional blogger. This is a writing blog, where I sometimes talk about my life, too. I have no interest in being hard-core about posting every day, because my hard-core writing is, ah, not this. And I refuse to take my inability to write an A-Z in 30 days as a negative judgement on myself.

I find the idea very intriguing, but don't really need a "hurry finish this in xx days" sort of challenge, not unless I'm willing to let everything else fall by the wayside for that xx days. Like Nano, probably not for me again.

And that's okay. There are plenty of other ways to play with other people on the internet!

Comments

Refelctions

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure about the lack of comments, but it could be because most bloggers in the Challenge aren't used to the appearance of your blog or the way your commenting platform is set up. That's a guess on my part, but I'm not sure. People are sometimes put off by things that seem different or confuse them.

A to Z is not for everyone. It is a "challenge" and not everyone likes a challenge of this nature so no disparagement of you, but it's just a matter of different strokes.

By all means though if you have a change of heart about it do join us again. I'm glad you tried this time. A to Z is always a learning experience about many things

Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host

Tossing It Out (http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/2015/05/battle-of-bands-je-crois-entendre-encore.html)

[butterflydreaming]

A bloghop could be better for traffic. You mention of Wednesday brought to mind Jamie Morrow's What's Up Wednesday.

[aldersprig]

I'll have to look into it. Thanks!