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| Artwork by Ada Z from Collagepodge.com |
As we enter into the final week of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge some of you might be wondering What Next?
The frenzy of daily blogging and rushing around to visit as many of the other blogs as you can may have worn some of you to a frazzle. You might be looking forward to a blogging break. While others of you may be having such a great time with the Challenge that you might experience A to Z withdrawal come April 30th.
Whichever the case may be, we hope that you will stick around in May for one more big event--the Blogging from A to Z Reflections Post 2012 Edition. Those of you who have participated or followed the previous Challenges will probably remember what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, I will explain.
The A to Z Reflections Postings will begin on Monday May 7th. These posts will be your personal thoughts about the A to Z Challenge and, like the A to Z posts, you can do them anyway you want--in prose, verse, images, or whatever suits you best. We want you to tell us about your A to Z experience.
You can tell us what you thought were the highlights of your April Challenge, what you learned, what changes you might make next time, or what surprised you most. Let us know about special bloggers you met in your A to Z journey or about a post or posts that especially moved or impressed you. There are no limits as to what your Challenge experience might have been so tell us in your best way how you felt about the April A to Z Challenge of 2012.
We do ask that you keep your posts no more than a thousand words. There will probably be a lot of blogs to read so we don't want to bog anyone down with exceedingly long posts.
As I've said, the Blogging from A to Z Challenge Reflections Posts of 2012 will start on Monday May 7th. The Linky list will go up on that day so you can enter the link for that post on the list. For those who already have blogfests or something else planned for that day, don't worry--the list will be open for the entire week so you can publish your Reflections post anytime that week and still participate. That list should also be accessible until the end of the year along with the A to Z Master List.
A to Z 2012 Evaluation Posts
Last May on Tossing It Out I had a series of A to Z evaluation posts where we looked at the good and the bad in the Challenge of 2011. This proved to be such a popular and helpful series of posts that we will be doing this again, this time on this A to Z Challenge Blog.
Watch for these posts in May and be sure to let us know what changes you would like to see in the next Challenge. Tell us what you would improve, keep the same, or get rid of in 2013. Give us your thoughts on the A to Z Video contest and any other ideas that might add an extra special dimension to the A to Z Challenge.
Since we will be having the evaluation posts, you might want to save any thoughts along those lines for those posts and not the reflections posts. But by all means feel free to add your evaluations to the Reflections if you'd rather do it that way. The evaluations will delve deeper into the specifics and offer more suggestions for your consideration.
Post Challenge Challenge
I'm sure not many of you got through the entire list and I've heard many say that they will be continuing to go through the list after the April Challenge has ended. It is a great way to discover new blogs so I'd encourage this.
Last year our co-hosts Shannon Lawrence and Tina Downey hosted a Post Challenge Challenge. Be watching for more details concerning this in the next week or so.
The A to Z Challenge Blog
This blog will stay open for business! This has proved to be a rather popular site and we want to keep it active. No after Challenge schedule has been determined yet, but we're open to suggestions. What we will be doing however is accepting guest posts for the upcoming months. These posts will be about blogging and writing in general and whatever else you want to read here. We will be featuring your blogs and providing the blogging news that seems most appropriate to appear on these pages. Let us know your thoughts.
Let's Spike the Blog Numbers!
I'd like to make one last request today. In these final days of this Challenge, let's boost follower numbers on all the blogs that need it. My goal is to see every blog leave this Challenge with at least 100 followers on their sidebar widget.
This week, whenever you come to a blog that has less than 100 followers showing and you're not following them already, click that button and follow that blog. I think most of you feel pretty good when you get a new follower so spread the love. Become a follower and let that blogger know in the comments that you've done so. You might even get a new follower by doing this.
To start you off, go to the blog A Few Words and become a follower there and leave a note in the comments that you've done so. Now I know this is a shameless plug since this is my blog, but I'd like to end up with 100 followers there at the end of the month. And actually I'm making a point with my plug.
If other bloggers don't know you're there you won't get followers very quickly. In order for you to receive comments and followers you are going to have to get out there and leave some comments on other blogs and follow them as well. It works and I know this from experience as do most of you.
So, if you currently have less than 100 followers, note this in the comment section on today's post here. And then get out and visit some blogs that you haven't been to before and encourage visitors to come to yours. Increased visitors and followers will increase your odds of gaining readers and getting comments. Try it and let us know if it works.
Enjoy the upcoming week of blogging and make it the best one yet. Some of the toughest letters are still to come and I'd say we are going to see some interesting posts full of creativity.
