#atozchallenge: Sunday Summary April 8, 2012

Artwork by Ada Z from Collagepodge.com

On Behalf of the A to Z Team:

         Hello-- Arlee Bird here from the A to Z Team.  Over the past many weeks leading up to the Challenge I've been putting together a Sunday Summary in which I've recognized some of the blogs that the A to Z Team had come across during the previous week.  I had every intent of doing another one this Sunday.  Then, something happened.

         As soon as the Challenge started we became overwhelmed, deluged, and inundated, not to mention very busy.  In other words, there is so much going on that none of us had the time to assemble a list of blogs that had mentioned the A to Z.  And add to that the fact that hundreds of you participants had special  A to Z announcement posts prior to the Challenge opening day and had special posts that talked about themes and discussed other Challenge related topics.

         So rather than make up a giant list of links let me extend a huge thank-you for all of the shout outs and promos that so many of you put on your own blogs prior to the opening day. Also thanks for the tremendous back up we got from many of you on Twitter, Facebook, and other places.  The success of this year's Challenge is due to all of you participants and our top notch A to Z Team of dedicated bloggers.

What's Happened So Far:

          We've got some hard working bloggers out there as you have surely noticed.  There are more blog posts than any of us can humanly keep up with, but I'm seeing amazing efforts by most of you.  We all appreciate the comments and we encourage all of you to keep commenting as much as you are able to.  Try to find a few new blogs each day and leave comments.  Don't forget to follow the ones that interest you.  No blog should leave the Challenge with less than 100 followers.

           Some of you may have noticed that the list has seemed like it's gotten smaller.  It did.  The Linky list topped out at 1936 blog sign ups at the Monday night closing.  As of the time I write this the list has gone down to 1851 and it will get still a bit smaller.

            The reason for the shrinking list is that there were some duplicate links and bad links that led nowhere.  Likewise, as we promised from the start, in order to keep this year's list of the time wasting sites (as far as our Challenge is concerned) we have been culling the blatant advertising sites or any other sites that have no intent of actually being a part of the A to Z Challenge and apparently were added only to get the attention this event provides.  We want this Challenge to be fun for the participants and not just a place to get a link noticed while doing nothing pertaining to the A to Z event.

          As links are removed from the list, all numbers below that are moved up.  If you no longer see your blog at its original number on the list, be sure to follow up the list at least 100 numbers and you will probably find it.  If for some reason your blog link has disappeared from the list and you have been a daily participant please let us know and we'll try to help.  The A to Z Team is trying to be very careful to keep the list intact with participants, but cleaned of those who are not participating.

A Cheer for the Team!

        All of the A to Z Team members have their own blogs entered in the Challenge.   The team member blog links can be found in the sidebar about a quarter of a way down the page.  Please show your appreciation to these hard-working team members by click on the links to find each of their blogs to say hello and follow them.  The A to Z Team members have done an incredible job organizing this event and continue to do an incredible job visiting blogs and leaving comments.

          Another thing the Team has been doing is maintaining this A to Z Blog during the Challenge.  We wanted to keep the blog active throughout April, but we had no idea that so many of you would keep things buzzing in the way it is been.  Your comments on this blog have been better than ever and we are about to reach 1200 followers.  If you like the Blogging from A to Z Challenge be sure to become a follower of this blog as it will remain active even after the Challenge of 2012.

          Our A to Z Team deserves a round of applause for the great posts on the A to Z Blog so far and for the posts to come throughout the Challenge.   The A to Z Challenge Blog is your place for Challenge news and announcements.

For Those Who Didn't Make the List On Time:

         The official list is closed but that doesn't mean you still can't participate.  You can do it but off the list.  Actually that's not as bad as it might seem because since the list is so big that after a few days a lot of people stop using it.

         Our advice if you want to be a part of the A to Z is to post the daily letter posts like you're supposed to.   Then leave a comment at a-to-zchallenge.com that you have posted for that day's letter and leave a link to your post.  

       Then, using the list which can be found on the A to Z Blog, visit as many of the participating bloggers as you can, leaving a comment and your link so they can visit you back.  Follow blogs whenever you see one you like and let them know you've followed in case they'd like to follow you back.

       Finally, announce your link on any social media sites you are involved with, such as Facebook or Twitter, etc,  You can also put your link up at the A to Z Facebook page.

       With enough networking, not being on the list won't matter that much.  In other words it's network blogging as usual.

       Good luck and happy to have you join in.  Be sure to send us your link to your blog with a request for us to add it to the Sunday Summary at the A to Z Blog.  If you know other bloggers that would like to participate in this same way let them know--you can forward this same information to them--and we can likewise announce their blogs as unlisted participants.   We had several last year who went on without being listed and they had a great time with it.

Here are of few of our latecomers:

http://www.swindlersonthebridge.blogspot.com/

http://outsideperception.wordpress.com/

       I know there are more, but in all of the chaos of this opening week I've lost track of them.  Please, if you are one of those blogging from A to Z without being on the list, leave your link in the comment section so we can find you.

Now a few final notes:

        Some of you may be lamenting a lack of visitors and comments.  I assure you that if your blog is inviting and interesting the comments will come.   Make sure that your comment section is open and easy to use.  If you have some complex system, visitors may turn around and exit before leaving a comment.  

       But rather than wait for the comments to come, you can speed up the process by visiting others and leaving comments on those blogs.  After all one of the main goals of the A to Z is to network with other bloggers.  Your chances of receiving comments are greatly increased by visiting and commenting on other blogs.

       If you have a very specialized niche or are "not for everybody" you may have to wait for a while for those who are looking for your type of blog to show up.  And if they don't, well that's life in the blog lane I guess.  You may have to rethink what you are doing with your blog and reach out to a different demographic.  It's not often that I can't think of something to say when I visit a blog, but I have dropped in on a few where I didn't know what to say and sometimes just didn't want to say anything.

        There are a lot of different blogs out there with a lot of different topics and blogger personalities.  Some you will love, some will be okay, and some you may disagree with or even loathe.  If you don't like what you see you have the choice to turn around and leave.  The A to Z Team is not responsible for what people write on their blogs and we don't want to be in the business of censorship.

          The last word here is to keep having a good time.  Make friends and become a better blogger.  The A to Z Challenge is intended to be a positive and memorable experience.

          Now back to the business of having fun Blogging from A to Z!




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