Since I want to take one day to talk about the A-Z Challenge, I decided to make it work for today.
There have been some positive things about this challenge, and others not so much. It was easy to blog every day and make it fit the alphabet. Since I blog every day, and things could be juggled a bit, that wasn't the challenge for me at all.
However, I took on another personal challenge, and that was to visit all the blogs that were enrolled, and comment. When the month began, there were just over 1900 blogs. After a few days, the organizers had weeded out some of the sites that weren't blogs, etc, and the total ended up at 1722. A little easier, but still daunting.
I still have 72 blogs to visit in the final two days, but I should make it.
Good results:
• Between five and ten bloggers each day have visited this blog for the first time, and commented. I was hoping to get some new people stopping by, so that worked
• A lot of those people chose to become followers, so maybe there will be some new regular readers
• I found a few blogs that I am interested in following as well
Not so good results:
• It took a tremendous amount of time to visit all the blogs
• Many of the bloggers did not turn off word verification, as was requested by the administrators. The corollaries to this are: The absolute worst are some Disqus blogs where you click for the comment box, wait for it to load, enter the comment, then another box opens for your personal info, then another box opens for word verification.
• Despite the efforts of admin, there were quite a few non-blogs, or blogs that were adult content, or even private (why would they even sign up?)
• Some of the blogs entered don't accept comments... why join if you don't want to hear from readers?
• Many of my regular commenters have stopped commenting; I hope they come back
• My stats don't show that it really increased my traffic
The worst result:
• I just couldn't visit all the new blogs, and all my regular favorites. Starting in May, I'll be trying to fix that. I've caught up with a couple of you, and I only hope I haven't lost some of you because of my neglect.
Will I do it again? Probably not.
Well, for better or worse, there is just one day to go! I think I have a really good Z! Here's a hint. It's really interesting that "Y is for yellow" comes between X and Z.
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21 comments:
I for one, am happy that you found my blog and I found yours in return. Like you, some blogs I won't follow once the challenge is over. Others, I definitely will.
My regular, non writing, blogs have also suffered. I had to resort to grouping some in a "must read", while the rest were quickly marked as read (although they weren't).
Will I do the challenge again? Absolutely, with a theme, written at least a week in advance and will still keep it short.
Your visiting every blog is an amazing accomplishment. I have probably visited a couple of hundred and I feel good about that. LOL!
Since my blog was new, I didn't have many regular readers. I just hope some of my new followers will stick around and continue reading.
Hi there:) Well, I'm glad the challenge got you to pop by my blog, because it got me to come over here and I'm loving what I see so far:) I'm amazed at how diligent you've been at visiting the other blogs and posting every day!
Unlike you, it's fair to say that I've failed abysmally at the atozchallenge this year. Serves me right for entering the challenge at the very last minute and then having lots of other stuff come up when I least expected it! Will I take a challenge like this on in the future; probably, but next time I'll plan things out ahead of time so's I'm not swamped.
When all's said and done though, I'm still happy I took part, because I would have missed out on some gorgeous blogs otherwise, yours included:) Cheers and will be back later to explore:)
I think you're commitment to reading all the blogs has been amazing. I confess to not having been even close to keeping up. In fact I'm more likely to look after the challenge is over. As you say, one downside is that regular commenters may simply have been overwhelmed by the daily posts.
I've also managed to visit all the visitable blogs and am glad I did. Some I won't be back to, but I have picked up some wonderful blogs I would have missed otherwise. Yours is on that list.
I also have a rather lengthy list of blogs I want to go back to when this finishes. I think I may have misjudged a lot due to passing through very fast and I feel bad about that.
It has been interesting and I would probably do it again.
Good thoughts on the A-Z challenge. It has been fun, but it has been tough. That's awesome that you are visiting so many of the other blogs. Thanks for stopping by mine.
Wow. I bow down in awe at making it through the list of blogs. Would love to say I achieved it, but 'fraid I can't. I usually blog twice a week, so the daily thing was a bit of a challenge, but I've done it (Z loaded to go, yay).
Love your 'glass-half full' approach to a quality day :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the challenge. I'm not sure if I will join the challenge next year. I found it more stressful than rewarding. Furthermore, I'm not a writer/author and I think that hurt me a little bit.
I appreciate your post and honesty.
Have a good one!
Eat Live Move: Intuitive Eating from A to Z
When I think Y, I think Nora Jones and her song Don't Know Y. It is not only a quality day, but it's quality content each day on this blog. I'm not going away. I'll try to comment more often. Promise.
You haven't loss me! I may not to be able to visit every single post but I always have enjoyed your blog.
that is a lot of blogs to visit. I would find that way too stressful. I have a hard enough time just keeping up with the regular ones that I follow.
Just because you took a little vacation from visiting us regulars does not mean I'll stop coming here. You can't get rid of me that easy...bwahahahahah :)
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog, and I also want to thank you for leaving your URL. I have found one of the things about this A-Z Challenge frustrating in that I have had loads of new commenters and would like to visit them back but they dont leave an URL making it impossible. Sadly I do not have the time to get through all the people taking part. I apologise if I am one of the people with word verification on as well - this is because I am new to Disque and couldnt even set it up right so turing things off proved a bit challenging for me!
Hello.
Thank you for stopping by. I really appreciate it.
I commend you for visiting most of the blogs. I'm new to the challenge & have visited a few hundred already, but I'm finding visiting a challenge with word verification & no comments. Word verification is my nemesis. It's impossible to read some of the words & it serves no purpose except to frustrate me. What's worse is word verification coupled with comment moderation. Why have the verification on if you're going to moderate the comments anyway? (sorry, just had to put that one out there..lol) Anyway, I'm sure you will achieve your goal of visiying everyone. I'm glad the link list will stay up so I can visit some more when I get a chance. Nice to meet you & thanks for sharing.
Day 25 (28): yesterday
I am glad you visited my blog! I agree with you on how time consuming it can be to visit all of them. and word verification is a monster.. i am new to word press so I have no idea if mine is on or not and how to do it. Thanks again.
mukweto.wordpress.com
I think it is a great idea that you visited all of the blogs, and I am not surprised it took so much time. I love your insights into the challenge.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.
On my blog, I do have comment moderation for new commenters, which keeps spam off my blog. Once I've approved a comment from someone though, they can post next time without any moderation.
I recieved 20 new followers on my mine. But I didn't get around to everyone's blog like you. I had one personal crisis after the other during this challenge.
So happy to meet you! New follower here. I’m enjoying reading my fellow “A to Z”ers. I look forward to visiting again.
Sylvia
http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/
I really appreciate you stopping by my blog. I agree with your evaluation about the blog hop. I found it was a great challenge to even view 5 blogs a day.
Your new follower,
Robyn
Hi there, I just want to say that I think it is really cool that you have visited all of the blogs. I haven't even visited a quarter of them. I am also glad that you found it easy to post daily and stick to the A to Z team. I, like you did enjoy doing it, but probably wont be doing it next year.
But I am so glad for the chance to make a lot of new Bloggy friends and read some very good blogs I may have never known existed if it weren't for the challenge.
-Debbie
I think it was wonderful that you planned to visit every blog, so glad you got to mine. I was not nearly as diligent I'm afraid. I did got to lots but certainly not all.
I'm impressed how high you set your blogging bar. Good for you. I've been trying to get to at least five new blogs a day, and keep up with my new follower/commenters. It's been a bit overwhelming, but well worth the efforts. Happy home stretch of the A to Z.
I agree with many of your Not so good results.
I gained several new followers and that's great. I found several new blogs I think I'll enjoy for the long term (including yours).
And I think I'll do it again next year. I found it very energizing to have to post nearly every day - although I won't continue to do that! Three times a week works well for me.
I'll be back here often.
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