Here and Now ( #AtoZChallenge )

Thoughts on blogging in the present...







The team decided our theme for this month's posts here would be a take "2020 visions of blogging." This week posts focus on:

 Blogging in the Present

Here and Now

           Periodically we see the statement made that "Blogging is Dead (or dying).  I don't think so.  Since blogging is often a very personal and individualistic enterprise I think it is inevitable that some bloggers burn out, give up, or let their blogs languish on hold as a blogger waits for inspiration or ambition to rekindle. 

              What I've observed in my 10 1/2 years of blogging is that while bloggers may come and go or some seem to vanish and then reappear sometime later with their personal reason for doing so, the totality of the world of blogging remains consistent as bloggers either blog like they always have or their blogs transition and grow with the times.

              Perhaps there is an illusion of a death or diminishing of blogging on the whole because we as bloggers fall into communities where we have our circles of blogging friends that we try to visit as much as possible or who we see commenting on our blogs with a certain regularity.  The complacent blogger is limited to the world they know best and as they settle into their routine of blogging they may rarely if ever seek out new blogs.  As bloggers within a community fade away, there is a sense that the entire realm of blogging is disappearing.

            Those new blogs are out there I'm sure--I no longer dig up the new ones like I used to because I too have become a complacent lazy blogger.  If it were not for the annual A to Z Challenge, I as well as you might never encounter a blog that has been previously unknown to us.   Though I have no quantitative data to back up my claim, I think blogging remains strong in the here and now.  You might have to look outside the community in which you have become ensconced to find those new-to-you blogs.  Blogging after all involves some action on the part of you the blogger to keep finding more blogs.   As always, there are more than you will ever be able to read or explore.

         From your experience, what is the best way to find "new" bloggers?  How has your blogging community changed since you first started blogging?   Do you think blogging is dead or dying?




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#AtoZchallenge Good Vibes

The team decided our theme for this month's posts here would be a take "2020 visions of blogging." This set of weekday posts focuses on:

Blogging in the Present

Good Vibes

As we think about blogging in the present, I feel one big issue we face is negativity. Let's put on our "2020 vision" glasses and talk about how we can get more good vibes.🤓😎

How can we abstain from the negative sides of blogging? What do you do if you encounter posts or comments that are mean-spirited, angry, greedy, self-centered, or unforgiving toward a situation that probably has more than one side? We want to protect the precious freedom of speech and expression that blogging offers our world. Yet it's the negative aspects that so often drives people away. Many bloggers have told me they shut-down their site because there were "too many negative comments."

The old adage is "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me."
🤔 Actually, words have an enormous and lasting impact. Thanks to the Internet, that's truer now than in any era before. Blogging and commenting have the potential to cause glee... or to take it away.


Get glittery! Give gratitude! Get in our comment box with some good vibes. 😁


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Feasibility #AtoZChallenge

The team decided our theme for this month's posts here would be a take "2020 visions of blogging." This set of weekday posts focuses on:

Memories from Blogging in the Past

Feasibility of Blogging

When I first heard of the A to Z Blog Challenge, I thought it would be insane for me to try to participate in such an activity. It was not feasible! Not in the least!

Why?

Because I didn’t have a blog.

So on March 5^th, 2015, I created a blog. I made three posts, and then dove headfirst into the A to Z Blog Challenge. I have made some internet friends who have been an incredible inspiration through blogging. And now, five years later, my blog still gets the most hits during the A to Z Blog Challenge.

See those tall lines? That's April.

I will be forever grateful for the interaction with other bloggers, and I am awed that I get to be part of the team to help bring it out to all of you. Without this community, it would not be feasible for me to keep blogging year around.

What makes blogging feasible for you?

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

Enthusiasm #atozchallenge

The team decided our theme for this month's posts here would be "2020 visions of blogging." This set of weekday posts focuses on:

Memories from Blogging in the Past

I started my blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, in 2012 so that I could participate in this challenge. I had been reading about it on other people's blogs for almost a year and finally decided to bite the bullet and start my own blog so that I could participate. I had a great deal of fun participating, so much so that when May rolled around I didn't know what to do with myself. Now I had this blog and a few readers, and I knew I had to keep going with it, lest I lose those readers and the enthusiasm I had for blogging. I tried writing about my nascent career as a fiction writer, but the more I wrote about it, the less I believed that I had a nascent career as a fiction writer, finally realizing that it's awful hard to be a fiction writer if you don't even like reading fiction.

So I started blogging about music, because I love music and I'm enthusiastic about it. I started writing stories about my youth, because the stories were funny and occasionally heartwarming and I liked telling them. I started participating in blog hops that gave me a prompt every week that I would have to write about (or, in my case, find a way not to write about while still using the prompt, which is often more fun). Now I was writing and posting every day, and having more fun than an adult should have with his clothes on.

My blog has taught me that I can be myself and still get people to read it. That's what has kept me going for 8+ years.

What about you? What got you started in blogging, and what keeps you doing it?

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

Delightful! Jeremy Tribute Day ( #AtoZChallenge )

Celebrate Jeremy Day
 
         Today we want to take a pause to honor one of our long term behind the scenes members of the A to Z Team--Jeremy.

           If the name isn't familiar with you then his artwork surely is.  Jeremy Hawkins has been designing all of the badges and other graphics for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge since 2013.   All the way from the yearly badge to the daily letter badges as well as headers and even T-shirt designs, Jeremy has been the creative genius behind those ubiquitous graphics that appear on numerous blogs throughout April and beyond

           Where can you find more about Jeremy?  He has an extensive social media and internet presence that covers a wide range of his interests and endeavors.   I encourage you to visit his blog or his other sites to say thank you and hello to him and to get a better idea of exactly what his talents encompass. 

             And I want to say to Jeremy, "Thank you my friend for being there when we need you!"

             Here are some of the places where you can find out more about Jeremy and his work:

Jeremy Hawkins

(Promotions/Design)

For Hire:
Graphics/Design

Art Available:
Animal Art/Design
Cheap Movie Art/Design

Visit: Being Retro

Being Retro

http://www.beingretro.com/

For A to Z T-Shirts as well as a lot of other cool designs:
https://www.neatoshop.com/artist/Jeremy-Hawkins

Music Label:
Howlin' Wolf Records
http://howlinwolfrecords.com/
Executive Producer/PR

Sites:
Six Strings: Magazine
http://www.jmhdigital.com/


HBA [HORROR SITES]
http://horrorbloggeralliance.blogspot.com/

Social Media:
Instagram
@notplayingaround

Facebook
Six Strings: Magazine @jmhdigital68

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HOWLIN' WOLF RECORDS: SIX STRINGS l HOLLYWOOD NUTS! l HORROR BLOGGER ALLIANCE

JMH Digital [2020]

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