Making the Sign-up List Work

With the sign-up for the A to Z Challenge starting on Monday, some of you may have questions and concerns. There were almost thirteen hundred participants last year and some people felt overwhelmed. Some signed up but never posted. A few sites were nothing but advertisement.

This year, we are prepared!

The sign-up list will be monitored by all thirteen hosts. We will check every link before the Challenge begins. This should eliminate advertisement and ghost sites.

Once the Challenge is underway, non-participating blogs will be removed. Now, we will give people a chance to get started and benefit of the doubt if they miss a post or two. No problem! But those who fail to post over a long stretch or at all will be removed as soon as they are discovered. Wasting time visiting sites that weren’t participating was a complaint we heard often in 2011, and we want to maximize everyone’s time this year.

Looking at a list of over a thousand blogs is daunting! Here’s the plan for avoiding feelings of hopelessness:

In order for everyone to benefit from the Challenge, we ask that you start with the blog immediately following yours and move towards the end of the list. (Looping back around to the beginning if you ARE the end of the list!)

Don’t overwhelm yourself trying to visit everyone. Can you visit just five a day? Start with the one after yours and visit five each day –  after twenty-six days, that’s a hundred and thirty blogs. Everyone on the list has time to visit five new blogs a day!

By implementing all of this, we hope that everyone will have a great time during the Challenge.

Because if you don’t have fun, we don’t have fun!

And for me, that is cause for Epic Ninja Fail….

A Whirlwind Romance: Guest Post from Mish, Writer-in-Transit

        Today, January 26th, marks a first year anniversary for Mish's blog Writer-in-Transit.  As part of her celebration of blogging she is here to tell about her love affair with the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

                                         A Whirlwind Romance

No matter what people say or how much you read about a whirlwind romance, nothing can prepare you for the experience!

Last year, I had a holiday romance. My very first! You know the one where you live in the moment; steal away to connect at every available spare moment; experience that heady anticipation; constantly think ahead to the next tryst; you know it cannot last forever but you can’t help yourself anyway… you are sucked in by this entire episode.

The daily rendezvous was exciting… magical… and just three days short of the end, life threw me a curve ball and – BOOM!! It was over! Just like that! I mean, I knew that it wouldn’t last forever, but to have the “rug pulled from under my feet” was a major anti-climax…

And that, dear bloggers, describes my 2011 A-Z experience. Despite the curve ball (of a technical nature), I DID complete the challenge but failed to do so within the specified time-frame (I posted X, Y & Z two days late…)

Sadly, there was no one to greet me at the end of my Zip-a-dee-doo-dah post. I even re-worked the lyrics of that rather infectious, happy-go-lucky-not-a-care-in-the-world styled song, to suit the mood of that moment.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-ay

My oh my what a sense of dismay

Total deflation at the end of the day

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-ay !!

I didn’t get to collect the wonderful “I survived” button or even write a Reflection post (well that’s a whole different story…)

Now to the good news!! This whirlwind romance will resume in about 2 months time. I can’t wait for it… the anticipation… the trysts… the frenzy… the feeling of being swept away on a sea of emotions… and I will be there, wearing my heart on my sleeve!

        Some steamy fun ahead for the participants of Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  Sign-ups begin on Monday January 30th.  Are you ready to be "swept away on a sea of emotions".   Now hop on over to Writer-in-Transit and say hello to Mish and a bon voyage for her journey into another year of blogging and a new A to Z Challenge.  Thank you, Mish,  for visiting us today.

Related articles

• A Real Challenge for the Moody Ones: guest jnana from Spill Beans (a-to-zchallenge.com)
• The Retired Knitter Is Not a Quitter: Elaine Shanks (a-to-zchallenge.com)

Don't Forget the Audience You Already Have

With all the frenetic buzzing around A-to-Z preparation, it struck me that I was forgetting one important factor: my current followers. Last year when I participated in the A-to-Z, I had two followers (no idea how they'd found me), so it wasn't an issue. I hadn't really established what I was even blogging about from day-to-day. I think I had three posts, total. This year, however, I'm approaching the A-to-Z with some actual followers and a fairly regular schedule.

While many of those followers were gained during last year's A-to-Z, not all of them were, which means putting my regular blogging schedule on hold isn't necessarily feasible (or the best thing to do). I'm in the A-to-Z to meet other bloggers and writers, as well as to challenge myself and have a good time; I'm not in it to lose the followers I currently have! As such, my plans have changed a bit on what I'll be posting during the A-to-Z. I can't forget the readers I already have, while reaching out to those who are new to me. My regular schedule will be worked into the theme of my A-to-Z posts to insure everyone is included.

So, as you plan (or not) what you'll be posting during the A-to-Z, consider taking a moment to figure out how to keep your current followers happy, as well, especially if there is a theme or meme that draws a lot of readers your way on any given day. You want to include them in the fun!

May you find your Muse.

Shannon Lawrence
The Warrior Muse