Wednesday 6 May 2015

...not April anymore... a post-A-Z Challenge post


Four good mates joined me on the A–Z adventure last month. Massive thanks to each for their daily support. (I figured that getting others to join up with me ensured at least a couple of comments would follow... my sneaky plan worked). If you haven't already dropped in to visit them, I can heartily recommend it...all very different but equally wonderful...
Breathing Life
Edwina's Episodes
The Vinyl Edition
The House at Porter Street

To Theme or Not to Theme? 

My blog is eclectic... which is, of course, the highbrow way of saying random, so sticking with a
theme was both scary and challenging. I chose to write a series of letters with the aim of forcing myself to try out different styles, voices and forms to create variety and be more imaginative than I usually am. It worked... mostly. I wasn't always happy with what I posted, but that in itself was a valuable experience, because visitors' opinions don't always tally with mine.  And not knowing what to expect from me kept some people engaged. It probably annoyed the be-hooey out of others...  But the theme achieved my aim. 
I also had a song of the day and a question of the day... that was probably overkill. My guess is that most visitors didn't spend the time to listen to the song as well as read the post ( with a couple of notable exceptions).

Downside of themes: Some didn't appeal to me, so I didn't revisit or follow, when perhaps what those bloggers usually write would engage me. 

Advice to others: Be sure to choose a theme that allows you to use your authentic voice and tone. 

 

What about the Numbers Game?

Over the month, I visited 199 blogs ( selected purely because of their names) and left comments on most of them. I found that, predominantly, the visitors who left comments for me were people I'd dropped in on. Thirty-four newcomers left comments, many of them more than once. My Blogger stats tell me that the Referring site was A—Z on 41 occasions/ Referring URL on 35 ( as a comparison, the month's facebook stats were 361/379). I'm new to all this number crunching, but that didn't seem like a great result for me and my blog. Anyway, I had an average of 101 pageviews per day in April.... and have no idea how that compares to others.

What was Best?

Apart from my buddies and a few well known writers down here in Australia, I still don't have a long list of other blogs that I visit regularly. So I set myself the extra challenge of connecting with bloggers all over the world, which was easy to achieve. I'm already loving being able to chat with writers in places and cultures and histories and faiths different from mine. Special shout-outs go to:
Ornery's Wife
My Green Nook
Wendy's Waffle
Multicolored Diary/ Mopdog
Vidya Sury — Going a-musing, collecting smiles
A Global Fusionista

And so I Learned that ...

Louis XIV sure had a great decorator...
  1. If a blog is visually hectic... cluttered with different fonts, and capital letters and lots of images... I click on to the next one. I  must be more conservative than I thought.
  2. Very few of the blogs I visited made me laugh, and yet visitors responded well to my humour.
  3.  A surprising number of people didn't bother to respond/reply to the comments I left... so I didn't return.
  4. Whilst I am not a language knob ( See G is for Grammar and  The Pedant, The Precise and the Specific )  I can be a bit of a snob, and if a blog post is littered with errors, (and English is the writer's first language) then I move on...
  5. Very few participants applied the code to designate what type of blog they were writing. I know I didn't. I couldn't decide which category... and labelling my posts as humorous would have given me performance anxiety... plus some were not funny (on purpose). Labelling is a great idea to help find like-minded bloggers... but most of us were hedging our bets.
  6. It's fun getting lost down the blogging rabbit-hole during a blogfest and I'd definitely like to do it again.

And finally... a song for to finish the challenge: Another Aussie classic —If you Leave Me Can I Come Too? Mental as Anything (1981)





27 comments:

  1. I found many similarities to you whilst visiting other blogs participating in the challenge. I have to say many of them were very long pieces of text which i did try to plough through but lost heart with! There were also some very funny ones as well, which I have continued to follow.
    If I get 100 views in a day then i am more than thrilled because my average is 50-60!
    I loved the way you tackled this challenge Wendy, I found your posts to be engaging and some of them educational (I still haven't read Macbeth yet)!
    I didn't label my blog either as I agree, it would create too much panic in stocking to that as well as the theme!
    Thanks so much for encouraging me to sign up for this challenge. I am so glad we did it!

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    Replies
    1. Traffic is a weird thing, isn't it. Thanks for the pat on the back. Much appreciated... and yes... let's do it again.
      XX

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  2. Nice post and thanks for the acknowledgement. I'm not great on looking at the stats but I know mine have improved. Honestly, I didn't listen to the songs, not enough time. I wasn't actually great at responding to questions at the ends of posts either although I do think that's a good idea. Like you I skipped through quite a lot of blogs just by the first visual impression and I can also be quite pedantic. But I definitely enjoyed the whole process :)

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    1. I guess we all make judgements when there are so very many blogs to visit. And yes... next year I probably wouldn't bother with a 3-part response every day.

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  3. Wendy! What an enjoyable "reflections" post. I am shrinking with guilt and am on the verge of swallowing my tongue wondering if I haven't gotten around to replying to some of the comments on my blog. I wasn't very social this year for various reasons.

    But I am so glad to have found your blog! You can count on me to run over each time I receive your latest post....like a breath of fresh air!

    Thanks so much for the mention. ♥ I appreciate it very much!

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    1. You are more than welcome... and please don't swallow your tongue... You have so many more great words right on the tip of it.

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  4. I think your theme worked really well. It was an overall theme, but each letter was different, and I liked that :) A lot of people are commenting on the tags this year, we'll see what happens with them in 2016... About the numbers, my blogs usually got somewhere between 200 and 400 hits a day, but this is my 4th year and I'm also a co-host. I don't know if that helps you or not :)
    Also, thank you for the shout out and the visits! :)

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary
    MopDog

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    1. More than happy to give you a shout out.... I am in total awe of your blogs. You're a treasure ( and I don't mean someone should bury you).

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  5. Okay, first off, the title to the song sounds like pure country to me, not Aussie. ;) I did see an increase in traffic and comments during the challenge, but I believe the main goal of the Challenge is two-fold: to prove to yourself you can post every day. To meet other bloggers with whom you have a rapport so you can follow and be followed. That can lead to awesome friendships.

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    Replies
    1. Well, I certainly achieved that, Barbara. I met some great new blogs along the journey. And although i did enjoy posting almost every day, I couldn't keep that pace up forever.... a challenge here and there will do me fine.

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  6. So you're a picky visitor, only going to blogs with names that appeal to you. ;P I'm kidding. Sometimes I look at the name as I click on it and think it'll interest me, but I found that the ones with bland names are also interesting. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yep... picky to the core...
      But I'm now visiting all the ones I missed, and finding lots of treasures.

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  8. I feel like quite the worst person in the world. Such a bad citizen. I scarcely found the time to write my own post and read two or three other blogs and that was it. My bubble is way too tiny.

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    Replies
    1. But you posted every day and the posts were great... so that's all good.
      XX

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  9. April is over? When did that happen?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thanks for the mention, BTW.

      And thanks for all of your visits and comments on my blog. It always helps.

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    2. Damned annoying how the days keep getting shorter isn't it?

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  10. "Very few of the blogs I visited made me laugh, and yet visitors responded well to my humour."

    I agree. Not nearly enough people have a sense of humour.

    I certainly didn't hit as many blogs as you did, but I tried hard to get to as many as possible, and certainly to visit anyone who dropped by my corner of the internet. I think the A-to-Z is more about networking than true traffic increases. I hardly saw a bump at all, but there were a lot more comments and I met lots of interesting people, which is te real value.

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    1. Yep.. agreed... and as I say, if I labelled my style as "humour' then the pressure would've been on.... anyway, thanks for dropping by the Rock. Hope to catch you again some time.

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  11. I am cruising by on The A to Z Road Trip catching up with blogs I didn't find during the challenge. Congratulations on finishing. I am bookmarking you today and coming back to read your Letters. I did a challenge once and wrote 31 Days of Letters to my recently deceased husband following a word prompt. It was very therapeutic. Yours sounds like it just might teach me a thing for two. I'll be back!! (said with my best Arnold voice)

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    1. Thank you and you are always welcome, Paula. My letters are considerable less meaningful and heartfelt than yours would have been. I must say I'm enjoying reading all the post-challenge reflections and will see you on the Road Trip for sure.

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  12. Just now getting around to visiting the blogs in the challenge. April was a busy month for me. Congrats on completing the A to Z Challenge! Looking forward to next year! See you on the Road Trip!

    Mary
    www.JingleJangleJungle.net

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  13. I didn't have a theme as I like to write about anything and everything I am debating one for next year though!
    Popping by on the A to Z Road Trip
    Debbie
    www.myrandommusings.blogspot.com

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  14. Glad you enjoyed AtoZ and achieved your goal of broadening your writing mind. I enjoy meeting new bloggers through the challenge and I'm trying to keep at it on the Road Trip!
    Brandy from Brandy's Bustlings

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  15. Hello there.
    Congratulations on completing the challenge!
    Being the cat lover I am, I initially went through the list looking for "kitty" type titles. I had to laugh sometimes, because some of those so-called "kitty" blogs had nothing at all to do with cats! (lol) Anyway, I did manage to visit your blog during the month of April. Just popping over again today from the Road Trip.

    Entrepreneurial Goddess

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