The 2012 A to Z Challenge Reflections Post

This week is the time when all A to Z blogging participants get to reflect on how they thought their challenge month went. 

 For anyone still unsure on what this challenge was, it was a challenge, set by Lee at Tossing It Out, where we post every day but on a Sunday during the month of April, and the posts have to be topic related alphabetical. A great challenge to meet new bloggers as this particular challenge had well over 1,000 participants. 

The key to what this involves is in the word - challenge. And for me this year, it was just that. I managed only 15 posts. I'm not sure whether that entitles me to reflect or not. I had some health issues halfway through and had to take care of myself and stop. I wasn't happy about it as I really quite enjoy the experience of meeting new bloggers and finding new and interesting blogs to follow. 

 One thing I did take out of the experience is that I need to start planning for this well in advance. The main idea is to visit new blogs and boost fellow bloggers followers numbers. If you're busy writing posts during the month, then you lose the interaction time. I would fully suggest if you intend to take part next year, that you write all 26 posts before the month starts. I know that sounds like a feat in itself, but I think it would be well worth it. You would/I will, get more out of the month. 

 The other thing I would say on the challenge, is in relation to a comment I read on Laura Marcella's blog, Wavy Lines, about having categories in the list of participants. I think this is a great idea. I want to connect with fellow writers, readers and generally chatty people. I'd be less interested in a knitting blog, car blog or snake blog for instance and with this challenge, you get many and all joining as it's such a great thing to engage in. Having categories would make it easier to get through, comment and follow more blogs. You can also check out new area's of blogs if you want to. 

 All in all I do love the month of April and the A to Z and I hope I haven't broken any rules by reflecting on only half a month!

New Commenting Feature

I'm not sure how far behind I am with this posts title, or how "New" the feature actually is. Maybe I should have the title as New to me, commenting feature.

The reason I now know about this new feature is I found a great "How to" post on Pearson Report blog, on Monday. The post not only informed me about the new feature - Yes we're still going with new, no matter how old it actually is -but it has a great step by step image guide for dummies. Yep, that's the category I fall into with blogs.

What is this great new feature? - you are all probably using by now. Well previously when replying to comments, I had to make a whole list in one comment box and hope someone may be interested in searching through it for a specific response to themselves. Now though, Google Blogger have added the ability to reply to bloggers individual comments. I love this! It's something I've been envious of Wordpress bloggers for, for some time.

So, if like me, you didn't know this new feature existed and you want to know how to add it to your own blog, I suggest you go take a peek at this Pearson Report post, where the very quick steps are explained.

Did you already know this existed and do you/will you use it?

Holiday Cleanup.

It's that time of year when the Christmas festivities start to die down and everything heads to the one last night of the year and a new page is turned, or so we are led to believe. I think we actually do the page turning ourselves and I hope to make my 2012 a great year. More of that though later in the week when I look at past ambitions from last years list of what I wanted 2011 to be and what I want the next year to look like.

Now though, it's time to tidy up. Make room and create a clean page from which to work. So what am I talking about? Right here, right now, I'm talking about blogging. I had a great year on my blog this year. I took part in several blogging challenges and blogfests and built myself up a huge reading list of blogs. I can now see that the reading list is too noisy and unlike Twitter, there is no way to siphon the blogs into lists, so it is just a noise of words. I don't look at it often enough, so find I'm missing posts I'd have liked to have participated in and seeing posts that I do respond to but the blogger has no idea who I am or why I suddenly popped up and there's no return comment. This I'm afraid annoys me. I take the time to comment on someones blog, I'd like to be acknowledged, either by a responsive comment on the same thread or a look over Life in Clarity and a comment left here. Often there's neither.

So what is my plan and how will I create a clean page? I'm unfollowing. It may sound harsh, but I read something on a blog this week, and I apologise because I can't link to the blog because my list is so big I can't remember where I saw it, but the gist was about blogging and community. The blog talked about blogging being a community and not worrying about the size of readership, the interactions are what are important. It's no good having hundreds or thousands of readers if they don't read or interact. This struck a chord with me.

I believe that the blogosphere is a community and I want to know that community and not just blend in with the noise. So by unfollowing blogs I probably followed during a massive blog hop and neither they or I have visited the respective blogs again, and blogs I feel have too many followers and they no longer have the capacity to respond, I make that space for people I can talk with and share things with. So if you're here now, reading this, it's likely you are still being followed by me and we do know each others blogs. I still have a large list of blogs I follow, but I have managed to cut some of it down. There will still be blogs I don't have chance to visit on a regular basis, but when I checked them out, I liked their content and voice of the blog so they stayed.

I want to visit your blog and I want to interact with your blog. It's not a numbers game. It's a place to talk and share and I hope by having a bit of a clear out, I can become a better blogger. If you are reading this and believe I have unfollowed you by mistake, then please let me know.

What are your thoughts, idea's and expectations of blogging and where do you want to take your blog in 2012?

Personal

Firstly, I have to apologise for anyone following the A-Z challenge as I know I'm a day behind with it. I haven't been feeling great and as well as not being up to date, I haven't visited many blogs either. I hope to rectify this over the next few days. I hope to catch up.

However, if you are here reading this, then I'm taking it that you enjoy blogging, you enjoy reading the blogs of others and enjoy sharing your own thoughts, experiences and knowledge. If so, then you also want your blog to grow a steady and consistent readership. It's one thing to draw traffic to your blog by participating in blog challenges like this, but getting readers to return and to comment on what you post, requires that little extra and not just the usual advice of consistent blogging and good content.

People return because they like what you say, but they also return because they like you. Providing good content is a given requirement of blogging, but you also have to add yourself into your posts. Be a person, show who you are and when people comment, read what they write. Actually read the comments, not just skim them and count the amount of comments you have. When you read the comments, respond to them. Think about your answers. Direct your responses to the person commenting, it shows you are listening and interacting. The blogosphere as I have learnt, is a social place. Be sociable and put some of yourself into it and be personable. People will return if you respond to what they have to say.

Crazy for Books Blog Hop

 The Crazy for Books blog hosts a weekly Friday blog hop where a question is set, you add your link and away you go, blog hopping and meeting new bloggers. 


Todays question is -  "Do you ever wish you would have named your blog something different?"


Strangely enough this is a question I have been asking myself over the past couple of weeks. When I first set up the blog I didn't have a real focus, I just wanted to blog about my life and see where it took me. It wasn't until October last year that I started seriously considering my writing and doing something about it. That has led me into reading an awful lot more and social networking with others that have shared interests. Now my blog is starting to settle and get comfortable I do wonder if I should consider changing it's name and have even thought about buying my own domain name. 


The answer I have currently come up with, is that I will wait another few months, see how things go and then consider it again. I feel that the blog will take about a year to settle into it's place, at which point I will then give this question further consideration and possibly act on that. I am wanting to change my header though and will look at that over the next couple of weeks. Until then, we are looking at life in clarity. Or trying to anyway.


What are your thoughts on naming your blog?

Blogging Etiquette?

As anyone that stops and reads this blog can see, I am very new to this blogging lark. So much so, I'm wondering about the blogging etiquette.

Lots of questions run through my head when I log in and look at my "dashboard"

How many times can I post in a day? Is it a one post a day rule? What happens if I have a lot to say and about completely different subjects? I can tend to wander in my own head.

Can I blog about absolutely anything? I have done some of my own browsing and found blogs that appear to have a theme, be they, writing, mummy bloggers or Ehlers Danlos bloggers, they all seem to pretty much flow quite nicely. Unfortunately, my head doesn't flow in such a nice organised way and I tend to want to say whatever it is I'm thinking about, regardless of the huge jump in subject matter. Am I likely to just lose those people who accidentally fall into my blogs way because I'm random, or is that just as ok, as having a theme. By the way, I do love the themed blogs I'm following.

This then trips into another issue. My blogroll is again all random, but to be honest, as I'm thinking whilst I'm typing, life is random, it's not a nicely organised themed event. Yes, I do love the themed blogs I follow, but I don't think I have enough to say about one subject so I'm just going to go with what is me and what I'm comfortable with.

I'm enjoying the little I have done so far, so regardless of making myself popular or not, I think I'm going to just ramble. Some advice on blog etiquette would be greatly appreciated however, to stop me making a complete and utter hash of it all and allow me to maybe build up some followers to converse with on subjects that may interest someone somewhere....