06 May, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge Follow up



This was my first attempt at this challenge – whew!
Congratulations to Red!
Yay me!

When I set out, it was simply with the goal to get back into the habit of writing regularly. I was very active in my blog a few years ago, but it had fallen by the way-side.  I know some use this challenge to explore new styles of writing or to increase their audience and make connections. That was not my goal.
I’m happy to say that I am back in the swing of daily writing, although I will probably not post *every* day from here on. I am back in the habit. Success!
I’m also pleased to say that I have made some new connections – found new blogs to follow, and a few bloggers who regularly check back in with me, too. That’s pretty cool. I’d forgotten about the community within the blogosphere. I also reconnected with some of the ones I was following back when I was at it more frequently. 
I’m already considering topics for next year.

Notes to Self

I'm glad I planned my posts. I was still true to the "write every day" goal, but kept myself ahead of the game until one crazy week. I will definitely do the same next year.

I did not visit a ton of blogs. I'm happy that I spent the time nurturing the few connections I did make, though. Which is better? Visit hundreds of blogs, or visit fewer, but repeatedly visit new gems? I'll have to consider my priority for next year.

I'm not going to stress over comments. I reply to every comment on my blog, and visit blogs of commenters. I may comment on that blog, or I may not - what if I have nothing to say? (It happens) If I do comment, I may return to check for a reply, but don't usually subscribe to comments because it just clutters my inbox. If there's no reply - no worries; if I like your writing, I'll return to read your stuff anyway. 

Next Steps

When I was blogging before, I was fully immersed in the blogosphere and loved it, but got thrown off by uprooting my life and moving in with my parents, where I slowed down, then stopped, because it was hard to ensure anonymity in their house. I then married a fellow blogger, and we both kind of stopped because LIFE IS SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER!   

Most of the blogs I interacted with five years ago are not blogging anymore. :-(
So, for my new blogging friends, I may need to do a re-introduction post sometime soon. I should also organize my posts and clean up my page. This challenge was great for seeing how a blog's layout can be inviting or confusing, easy to read or difficult. 
 
Moral of the Story: Challenge accepted – Challenge won!

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your A to Z! You said it beautifully! I blog and comment for the connections I make. I am happy to have found you! Yes, do a re-introduction post! So much fun!! Now I'm off to visit with your hubby!!

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    1. Yay! You'll love him. After I started reading him regularly, I backtracked and read all his posts. I thought he was funny, but CLEAN (no cussing) and in his intro post he talked about being a Christian means knowing we're flawed.
      I set up a page (above) for my posts about "us" but it needs some updating, for sure!

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  2. Cheers to a successful A to Z! As for the whole how many blogs to follow thing, we'd rather read the blogs of people we like than stress out over reading a ton of blogs just for the sake of comments, so we read way fewer blogs now, but the quality of the comments and the people that stop by ours are always high. None of that "good post!" crap.

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    1. I agree. This is for fun, not work. (well, not work for ME.)

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  3. I let blogging take a back seat to other things for quite awhile too and when I came back I was pretty sad to see SO many of those I really enjoyed keeping up with were no longer. I still wonder how they're doing. My opinion is quality over quantity. There are so many crap blogs out there sometimes it feels like a waste of time trying to find a genuine fellow blogger.

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    1. Funny thing is, some of the now-obsolete blogs I used to follow, I still follow the bloggers on twitter, so we're kinda-sorta in touch.

      ...and I just realized I un-linked my twitter feed from this blog. I need to fix that.

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  4. I'm writing my reflection post now. My purpose was so different this time than last time, I got a totally different vibe from it.

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    1. Getting re-started with your blog does put a different perspective on things!

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