IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The 2024 OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Monday, October 22, 2018

Upcoming Schedule of Events! #AtoZChallenge Please Share This!

Upcoming Guest Posts

The following are date ranges. Exact dates in those ranges are up to the winners.
  • October (5 to 18) Debbie Stott [already posted]
  • October (19 to 31) Laura Roberts of Buttontapper Press
  • November (1 to 15) J-Dub
  • November (16 to 30) Sonia Chatterjee
  • December (1 to 15) Janet Miles of A Smile 4 U from Janet
  • December (16 to 31) Tupeak Hope
  • January (1 to 15) 2019 Wendy of Wendy's Waffle
  • January (16 to 31) 2019 Shalzmojo
  • February (1 to 14) 2019 Camille Flores
  • February (15 to 28) 2019 Tom of true north bricks [Has not responded yet, but this was the only unclaimed date.]


JANUARY 7-18 2019


First Annual #AtoZChallenge Book Reviews, Tour, and Blog Hop SIGN UP

WEEKDAYS in February 4 to 28 2019


First Annual #AtoZChallenge Book Reviews, Tour, and Blog Hop
19 days total

March 1 2019


A to Z Sign Ups OPEN
(Closes on April 6.)

March 18 2019


THEME REVEAL
(Closes on March 28.)

APRIL 1 2019


THE TENTH BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE in April begins


Our tenth anniversary! Celebrate with us.

May 3 2019


A to Z Challenge after survey OPENS
(Closes on May 17)

May 6 2019

Reflections OPENS
(Closes on May 17)

May 20 2019

Road trip 2019 OPENS

It would be great if you could share this post to help us spread the word. Thanks!

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Delight in this Guest Post by Debbie from Dibzzen

Hello, fellow 2018 A to Z Challenge bloggers!

I'm Debbie from Everyday Delights (dibzzen.com). I was delighted to be one of the survey respondents who won the chance to write a guest post for the A to Z Challenge. The brief for the post was open. I thought it would be good if I could find a way to link it to my A to Z challenge and the alphabet whilst hopefully making it interesting! I also wanted to give readers a sense of what my blog is all about. Not as easy as you would think!

2018 was my first A to Z challenge. My little Lego friend Dabelle went on a quest to understand South African English and she did very well. She found at least one word for each letter but was completely exhausted at the end of it. She discovered that she needed to fall back on her Feel Good List to help her feel less frazzled. All her A to Z adventures are available from one post. Click on the image to access it.

Dabelle A to Z 2018 © Deborah Ann Stott 2018
Dabelle A to Z 2018 © Deborah Ann Stott 2018

Dabelle tends to get all the fun adventures, so I decided to go on a quest of my own. We all need adventure at some point or other, right? My quest would be to come up with a Feel Good List based on the letters of the alphabet. I've talked about my Feel Good List on my blog before. I have a list already, but not one that uses all letters of the alphabet! The list reflects the small things that I do often that bring me joy, make me feel better when I need a boost in energy or to find some balance in the hectic-ness of life.

Some background

For readers who don't follow my blog, let me give you a little background. A few weeks ago I had an epiphany about joy in my life. I decided that rather than fighting it or waiting for some arbitrary time in the future for my life to be joyous and/or happy, I could really just start living joyfully! Right now! I plan to document when and how these moments occur on my blog of course. I suppose you could call it research into Living Joyfully. My research is not limited to my own experiences either and I am eager to hear other views about what brings joy to your life and how it happens for different people.

A to Z Feel Good List

Ta da! So here's the list. It took me a few days to come up with ideas for E, K, V and X, but I got there. I hope you enjoy it. I'd love to see / hear about your Feel Good List if you care to share it!A to Z feel good list © Deborah Ann Stott 2018

I'm looking forward to next year's A to Z challenge, although I don't have the faintest idea of what I will do! I read in the survey feedback, that some people plan way ahead and even write the posts way ahead. Aikona, eish - I'm super impressed, that's organisation for you!

Debbie blog sign off 2018
If you want to know more about me or my blog, click on my signature.

Friday, September 21, 2018

Revealing WINNERS and Wrapping Up the #AtoZChallenge 2018 Event Feedback DAY FIVE

After the A to Z challenge 2018, there was an Event Feedback survey.


The last of the potatoes!
Potato Photo by Benjamin Manley https://unsplash.com/photos/pAxU2_st5jo


33. Anything else you need to say here?

Please double-check the time-zones.

I appreciated your daily posts.

Please make the t-shirts available internationally.

I assumed some people weren't participating because they didn't clearly display the logo on their blog.

"I like the traditional logo because it makes me think of a passport stamp and traveling (which you kind of are doing as you travel from post to post)." -- Kelsey Ketch of kelseyketch.com

We Need Weekly Twitter Chats

It is always worth the time spent!

I just didn't feel the same excitement this time around.

I appreciate the time Jeremy took to make the logos for us.

Sort blog names alphabetically. Encourage commenting/ visiting blogs on those alphabet day.

I wonder if a minimum word count be encouraged?

T-shirts are nice, but so are mugs and other stuff.
"Put photographs of ALL those who participated with the blogger link in FB and offer more discounts for the T shirt."-- Ravi Shivram of slogansmith

Some people write posts that are too long. When a post is too long, I just comment that I was there.

"Nothing wrong with the list if you've got a computer that allows you to see it and use it." -- LynneInPborough of lynnelives.wordpress

"I stopped visting bloggers who did not respond to the comments I left on their site, or not commenting on mine."

"I get the idea about sharing comments ... that is kind of the point. But to me, commenting just to get noticed or simply because someone else did is kind of insincere. I comment when I feel I have something to say, not out of obligation. Granted I am not a prolific READER of blogs, but I will visit when someone visits me." Steve Kramer of taochild

There should be more bloggers in my category!

I did not like pre-scheduled links on the daily sheets. They went to non-existent blogs.

"I would have liked some of the organizers to check out my blog. I was also really surprised by how few bloggers joined this year. My second year, I think there were over 1,600. Why such a drastic drop off?" -- Stuart Nager of StuartNager.wordpress

"All of these lists creates confusion and dilutes the impact the challenge may have. I'm hoping that at some point in this reflection you ask people if they are Full Time bloggers because I am not. I don't have time every day to go searching for blog posts on Twitter, FB, the Wordpress blog, the whatever the other blog is, and whatever other link lists you have. The master list gave me context for what kinds of content I could find. I sorted by category first and started browsing around from there to see what I thought looked interesting. Having as many options as you do for sharing content means people either need to participate in every channel, which may be doable for a FT blogger, or your blog doesn't get noticed because people get lost in the digital weeds. I think that piece of data would be helpful in determining how active people can be during one month. Also, maybe ask people to rate themselves on their ability to use technology and social media, separate ratings. I know some people are vested in the way things used to be and hate change, but hello, you're a blogger. Things are going to change. If you don't keep up with the tech and social media, you're going to be left behind. Having an idea of how proficient people feel they are with the challenge might help in terms of preparation. And neither logo is easy to read or attractive." -- Declined to be named.

"There were a few times I would like to have been able to search the Master List for a specific blog / blogger."
"I kept looking for a search option on the spreadsheet and never found it - was it there and I just missed it?"
~~ Edit-- Find and Replace. Be sure you've made a copy first, as per the instructions.

And there were a lot of people who said thank you to the team!
Thank you Photo by rawpixel Unsplash - Revealing WINNERS and Wrapping Up the #AtoZChallenge 2018 Event Feedback DAY FIVE


34. Did you see that there's an official shirt? It's made by our volunteer graphics guy, Jeremy Hawkins. Blogging From A to Z April 2018 Challenge Shirt-- https://buff.ly/2JsbQxT

Only 22% didn't know about the shirts.

35. Which of Jeremy's awesome A to Z 2018 logos is your favorite?

Announcing #AtoZChallenge 2018 Remarkable Event Feedback and Revealing WINNERS

The new logo won.

36. We are giving away guest post spots on the A to Z blog.

Those who won, please comment here.
Or contact @JLenniDorner on Twitter.
Or atozteam2018 @ gmail .com

Two guest spots a month from October thru February.

WINNERS




Way to go! Please contact us soon. First come, first serve for the dates.

"I really don't understand twitter." -- Several people mentioned this. If anyone is interested in writing a Twitter tutorial for bloggers, let us know!

Double potato heart sorry