Sunday 17 March 2013

April A - Z Blogging Challenge

Well, I've been a busy old bee over the past couple of weeks or so, getting my posts prepared for the A to Z blogging challenge, which will be taking place through the month of April.  It's a blog-hop which is designed to give people the opportunity to view blogs they probably wouldn't normally come across, and by doing that they can promote themselves as well as the giving publicity to the blogs they visit.  It's like a big online community builder.

Every day (apart from Sundays) throughout April, we have to write a daily blog post starting with a different letter of the alphabet.  You can choose a theme, or just do random posts; whatever suits you and your blog.  I've decided to pick a theme (which I won't tell you about just yet) and base my posts around that, to give my blogging some sort of order and organisation.  I've written most of my posts in preparation, but I'm still struggling with Z.  I've still got over a month until the Z post goes live so I've got time to think about it.

There's a huge sign up list (so if you're a blogger and you haven't signed up, you should go and do it now, go on, off you pop) with 1,103 participants (I'm number 634).  At the top of the page we are informed of what we are supposed to do during the blog-hop.
"You are encouraged to visit blogs on the list, starting with the one right after yours. If you can manage five (5) a day - great; more than five - even better! Have fun and get to know your blogging neighbours." 
We have also been encouraged by the people at A - Z to start visiting blogs on the list now, just to get an idea of what's out there and to start building up our little community.  I have spent quite a bit of time visiting other blogs, and leaving messages on their A - Z posts in the hope that the favour would be returned.  I'm saddened to say that it hasn't.

I understand that people are busy, or they may not have noticed my comments, but I just hope when the challenge starts in April, I'll start to see a bit more traffic through my blog

I know I won't be able to get through over a thousand blogs during the blog-hop, but I'm going to try and visit as many as I can, in order to give support to my fellow blogger as well as hopefully finding something new to pique my interest.

So if you're interested in firstly being challenged, and secondly meeting new bloggers, then the A - Z is for you.

You can find out more about the whole thing at their website, on facebook, and on twitter

I will be collecting all of my posts for this challenge here, so if you feel like having a read and leaving me a message, I would be eternally grateful.  

12 comments:

  1. Hi,thanks for your comment on my blog. I think having a theme makes the challenge easier than doing random posts. I read that you also have chosen a theme. Do you think having a theme makes the challenge easier?

    MM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is my first year doing this, so I thought I'd do a theme just to make my posts a bit more organised. I think it's also nice for the reader to follow a set of posts connected by a theme. And it also means that I can plan for the challenge rather than writing on the hop.

      Delete
  2. Saw your heartfelt plea over on the Twitter and thought I'd nip by. Lovely to meet you and see you around the hop! :-)
    Some Dark Romantic

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for visiting. Good luck with the challenge :)

      Delete
  3. Hi Rebeccah!

    Thanks so much for popping by my blog! I hear you on the leaving comments thing... I'm going to do my very best to get to as many blogs as I can, but with well over 1000 participants, I'm pretty sure I won't get to everyone! This is my third year, and for the past two I did limericks, which mostly worked out GREAT because they were quick to write, and fast for readers to get through. I'm at #1003 and #1008 this year -I was crazy and signed up both of my blogs.

    Good luck, and I'll do my best to get back to you! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, you're brave doing two blogs! I'm struggling with just one! Ha! I'd love to get around everyone and visit all the blogs, but I'm sure I'll need to eat and sleep at some point during April! I'll do my best though :)

      Good luck to you too!

      Delete
  4. Hi Rebeccah, thanks for the wave, much appreciate it. Please use name and url vs the copy and paste in the text part of y our comment, then your link is clickable. I too hope people are better at following each other and returning comments this time round. Some other meme's I'm in I sometimes even keep track of the number of visits and comments I made and what the return is...sometimes it's pretty lopsided. You're doing better with list so far then I am. I still have about 10 more posts to write. Been working on them and getting them scheduled. Thought being then I can really spend time visiting the blogs during the month vs writing the posts then. You got on board quicker then I did, think I'm 924. I have a strange work schedule so I never know how my time is going to fair out. I have on some occassions visited 50 blogs and left comments only to get a handful in return....but thought I give this a go in hopes it would be better. Best of luck to you.

    Sorry now I'm leaving you a cut and paste url, because you don't have name and url as an option with signature.

    http://oozingoutmyears.blogspot.com/2013/03/spread-of-little-kindness.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thought I'd also let you know I'm your newest follwer. With this comment I'm not going to use cut and paste url so you can see the difference. With the generic google signature...you'll be taken to my profile page vs the blog. So with those who don't use name and url...you're not going to know which blog is the one the signed up in the challenge, or where their post is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sandy. Thank you for stopping by. I'm really sorry (I'm quite computer stupid) but I don't know how to set up the name/url thing on the comments. Can you possibly point me in the right direction please?

      Delete
    2. Hi Sanday (again). I think I managed to get it sorted *fingers crossed*

      Delete