Goody! Goody! We've got a week behind us! ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

The team's theme of the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge this year is:
ACCOMPLISHING YOUR DREAMS, AND THE DUALITY OF 22

       Great!  If you've made it this far then you're off to a good start.  We've got a week behind us and now there's only three more to go.  We know you can manage that.  After all you're a blogging pro.  Or at least you're a pretty good blogger. 

       Getting to the end will take persistence, patience, and a lot of self-assurance.  We're all cheering you on to make it to the end.  You don't want to give up and at this point why should you?   Take things a day at a time, but if you find some extra time then go on ahead and work on future posts if you haven't done them already.  And most importantly, please visit other blogs and leave them comments.

       Growing your blog and your blogging community is what this Challenge is really about.  You want others to read your blog and the same applies to everyone else.  We want to make friends and support others in their blogging endeavors.  So comment with encouragement or start a conversation.  Successfully complete the Challenge with your own posts and commenting on other bloggers' posts and you will find this all to be rewarding experience.  Who knows what friends you will make this April.

       Go get 'em!

    Is anything in particular stressing you out this year in regard to keeping up with the April A to Z?   How do you balance your personal time with blogging?  What advice would you give to others in regard to finishing the Challenge successfully.  

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Sign up for the 2022 challenge? Click this:
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https://tinyurl.com/AtoZ22

Be sure your copy is updated with everyone who signed up for the challenge. Hopping to other blogs to leave comments is half of the challenge!

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H is for saying Hello (#AtoZChallenge)

We're celebrating our Tenth Anniversary here at the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

We are in the second week of the challenge! Have people been stopping by at your blog, saying hello? One of my favorite parts of the Challenge is the visiting. A to Z really brings people together. For our tenth year, here are ten things that make visiting even better:

1. Make sure to say hi! If you stop by on a blog, leave a comment, even if it is a short one. 

2. Make sure people can say hi on your blog! Check your comment settings to make it as easy as possible.

3. Make sure to leave a link to your own blog. It is sometimes hard to track you through your Google profile, so it makes visiting back a lot easier if you leave an address!

4. However, don't just leave an address. Say something nice first. No one wants a guest who just yells "come see my stuff!" through the window without saying anything about yours.

5. Venture outside your own category! It is fun to visit like-minded people, but it is also fun to discover topics you have never really read about before. 

6. Visit back those who visit you. 

7. Try to visit a few new blogs every day! Even if just one or two, keep returning to the master list, and see what you can find. You can make new friends in unexpected places!

8. Save your favorites for beyond A to Z. Bookmark them, Follow them, or sign up for their updates. A to Z comes around once a year, but good blogging relatinships are fun all year round :)

9. Sometimes I see people sharing my posts on Twitter or Facebook, and it warms my heart. You can make someone happy by sharing something they wrote that you loved!

10. Put your creativity into your comments. We are all dedicated writers (of posts), we can brighten each other's day by leaving lovely messages!

Everybody say hi! :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nZ7UupzB78MvJnraN9khkLJT3jM6uOP1LTDc8gaQluY

That's the link to the Master List. You can find, and hop to, all the blogs officially participating on that sheet.

Grab your A to Z gear, and other cool goodies from our graphics guy, here: NeatoShop.com/artist/Jeremy-Hawkins

Personal Challenges and Light Bulb Moments (#atozchallenge)

       This guest post comes courtesy of writer/blogger Lissa Johnston.   If you would be interested in contributing your guest post to the A to Z Challenge Blog please contact us. 

Personal Challenges and Light Bulb Moments

2016 is my first year participating in the A to Z Challenge, though not my first blog challenge and definitely not my first writing challenge. I’m familiar with deadline pressure - what writer isn’t? - but the A to Z presented a couple of different types of pressure, for different reasons. As I progressed through the challenge, and even afterward, my opinions on some blog-related issues have been swinging back and forth like a West Texas weather vane, to wit:

To Theme Or Not To Theme

When I started the challenge, I didn’t realize what was going on with the ‘theme’. I thought ‘A to Z’ was the theme. Once I figured it out, I thought, Whew! So glad theme is optional. Themes are stupid. Themes tie me down and restrict my writing. I’ll write whatever the heck I feel like. And of course after the hundredth random theme-less blog I visited, I was so thankful to stumble across blogs that had such narrowly focused themes I marveled in their ability to find 6 topics to write about, much less 26. I became a believer. Themes are the bomb. Themes are like fences. They may seem restrictive and unsightly, but in addition to keeping good things in, they also keep bad things out.

Categories and Comments

After the challenge concluded, we were encouraged to post a recap of our experiences. Of 1300+ bloggers who completed most of the challenge, less than a third shared a recap. Still, that’s over 300 opinions, and I’ve worked my way through nearly half.

Two areas were mentioned repeatedly: requests for tweaks to the blog category codes; and hand-wringing over the low percentage of participants who visited and commented at other blogs. My flip-flop on these two issues is intertwined.

First, to the categories: When we registered for the challenge, we were asked to describe our blogs using a two-letter code. The idea was to give other bloggers some idea of what your blog was about before they clicked. Many participants thought there should be more categories added. Some also suggested they should describe the theme, rather than the blog, since the two could vary wildly. My initial reaction to the category idea was, Categories? I don’t need no stinking categories! I assigned myself one. But I basically ignored other people’s blog categories because I wanted to visit ALL of them, regardless of topic.I will also admit my initial reaction to blogs being categorized is that it had the potential to hurt some blogs that might be at a disadvantage if ghetto-ized into a category with a very small niche.  

Secondly, the comments: Some participants said they didn’t leave comments because they couldn’t think of anything to say. And I’m like, What? Most bloggers are writers, for crying out loud. Surely you can come up with 10 words on the fly, like that old Toastmasters improv exercise. If you can’t come up with a few words for a token comment, blog comments are the least of your worries.

That’s how I felt about categories and comments - until I had my light bulb moment.

I’ve been listening to several writing podcasts recently. One in particular really solved a problem I’ve been having with a current WIP. I couldn’t wait to get to the keyboard and type up a comment. And that’s when I realized: If I’m not that excited about every comment I leave, I shouldn’t be leaving it. I shouldn’t be wasting my time on meaningless ‘hey, just dropping by from the A to Z’ comments in a likely fruitless attempt to increase my page rank.

After my light bulb moment, I now understand why people want the categories to be clear, unambiguous, and definitive of both blog and theme if possible.The bloggers who are asking for this have already had the light bulb moment. They know what they are interested in and where they will have the best chance of finding blogs they will want to comment on organically. Otherwise, they’re wasting their time as well as yours.

I like to think I have an open mind. I’m willing to change my opinion when I’m wrong, especially when learning through personal experience. The 2016 A to Z Challenge was full of those experiences for me. What were some of your light bulb moments this year?

Lissa Johnston is a writer. Her latest book, The Dala Horse, is a middle grade adventure available now at Amazon. She blogs at www.lissajohnston.com.

Lissa Johnston Writer  www.lissajohnston.com

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How to Hyper Blog Like a Pro!

The best way to increase your chances for having a great Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge experience is by actively working specific areas of this blogathon to meet goals you have (whether formal or informal) for your blog in April. Even among bloggers who do not have solid long or short-term goals for blogging through the 26 letters of the alphabet; chances are that when you sign-up, you do so with a set of expectations or hopes for what you want to get out of your participation in the Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge.

On Monday, Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out filled us in on the secret to this challenge – it’s about the letters, but it’s also about the numbers. 

"Hyper Blogging" is what he calls it; a kind of blogging on steroids that is necessary action for participants who aim to see any real significant increase in your number of subscribers, fans, friends, followers, visitors and comments – or whatever area you are seeking a boost in for your blog. As founder and ruler-of-them-all when it comes to the Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge, Arlee has a great point when he emphasizes that you have to put in the work to see results.

I’ve participated in this challenge long enough to understand how its mere size can be enough to overwhelm even the most seasoned bloggers. Since we cannot be everywhere all of the time, while trying to visit nearly two thousand blogs in 26 days, it’s beneficial to use those A-to-Z goals, expectations and/or hopes as a foundation for your plan of attack on this April blogathon. Focus on activities that lead toward what you want and do less of the online stuff that doesn’t move in that same direction. Here are some ways that you can get your numbers up during the Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge without returning to your blog empty-handed by the time May rolls around.

The Key to Playing the Numbers Game

Locate the objective that most matches what you want out of the Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge and then focus on doing the activities listed for those particular goals during April. You don’t have to ignore all of the other activities altogether; just make sure to pay close attention to the actions that directly serve you, your blogging interests and your reasons for participating in the challenge.

Want more comments on your blog? Do these activities:

• End your blog post with a question
• Leave a comment on every blog that you visit. 
• Blog about a controversial topic (Tread lightly here when swimming in controversial waters, and choose topics at your own risk.)
• Reply to comments on your own blog.
• Write a blog post comparing something such as baby names, products, people, services, situations, songs, movies, etc.
• Reciprocate comments by visiting and commenting on the blogs of those who left a comment on your blog.

Want more people to visit your blog? Do these activities:

• Visit additional blogs on Sundays when we have the day off from blogging in the A-to-Z Challenge, and then leave comments on these blogs.
• Use the #atozchallenge hashtag on Twitter when mentioning your blog posts that are related to the challenge.
• Add your blog URL below every comment you leave on other blogs. You do not need to know HTML to do this. Writing out the URL address (www.yourblog.com) will suffice.
• Become a minion for one of the Co-Hosts. (It’s a lot of work in addition to what you already have in store as a challenge participant, but being a minion also comes with various perks such as having your blog featured on in A-to-Z Blog posts as well as on the blogs of Co-Hosts.)
• Make your blog posts shareable by adding a “Share this” button or related social media links to your A-to-Z Challenge posts, allowing readers to share them on their blogs or among their social networks.
• Link to other blogs that are participating in the challenge and/or feature another blogger in one of your blog posts. He or she will likely announce the news – either on his or her own blog or in their respective online social circles.
• Swap guest posts with another blogger who is participating in the challenge. (For example, you can write a guest post for letter L or N on another blog and that blogger can give you a guest post for Letter M or O. This can be an effective way to increase readership outside of your own circle of visitors.)

Want more subscribers/followers/fans, etc. of your blog? Do these activities:

• Place subscribe buttons and/or forms in your sidebar above the fold (near the top of the sidebar, positioned high enough that visitors do not have to scroll down the page to find it).
• Add your social media handle (FB, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google + or whatever your pimping) to your signature at the end of your blog post or in your comments when visiting other blogs. (Don’t go crazy here, or else people will be quick to consider you a self-serving spammer. Pick a social profile...or two but I really wouldn’t recommend listing more than two...that is most important to you and use that one and that only. Notice I did not mention your blog URL. That’s because if you’re interested in followers, then it isn’t necessary for your blog URL to be listed in your comments because your blog address should already be prominently featured somewhere on your social media profile and easy for your social network to access. Duh!)
• Make hybrid content for your blog posts, that can double as content for your social media websites and/or vice versa. (Meaning....If you are active on Instagram, write a blog post about one of the photos that you posted there, add the proper tags such as #Instagram, etc. and then share the blog post URL on FB or other social networks that you belong to. Grab a quotable section from one of your blog posts such as a short blurb that could stand on its own and Tweet it or Pin it or Tumblr it, all while making sure to add/embed a permalink back to your original blog post.)

Happy Blogging!

What are the reasons why YOU participate in the Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge?

Do YOU get the results that you hope for when it’s all said and done?

Nicole Ayers at The Madlab Post

Google + and Google Profiles

By M. J. Joachim

There’s almost nothing worse than receiving a comment from someone whose blog you can’t find, so you can return the favor. Since Google launched its Google + feature, this happens quite a lot to me, especially since a lot of blogger profiles switched to Google + pages.

Google +

Google + is a lot like Facebook. It’s the status room, where you share what’s on your mind, interesting links (yours and others), and photos etc. It’s also the chat room, where you can engage in conversations with people.

It’s easy to link individual blog posts there, but this is not the place to permanently link your blogs, so people know where to find you, especially if you’re sharing other links from all over the web, and updating your status from time to time.

Google Profiles

Google Profiles are where you share permanent information – everything from your birthday, marital status, education history and permanent links to your blogs, websites, what have you.

People get to your Google Profile by clicking on your Google +. Once on your Google +, they have the option to click on your “About” section, which is where your blog links and other information is shared.

So be sure and fill out your Google Profile, complete with all your blog links, so people can easily find your blog, and thus be able to comment on it! You never know, it might be you who needs to return the favor if they do.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on A – Z Blog today! We look forward to seeing you again real soon!

The A – Z Blogging Team

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Photo credit: Google, Google + (does not meet threshold of originality - Wikicommons), Public Domain