#atozchallenge: Community & the A-to-Z

When I took on the A-to-Z Challenge last year, one of the most rewarding things I experienced was the warmth of the blogging community. Before the A-to-Z I'd been trundling along, randomly talking to myself on my blog. I wasn't really visiting other blogs, and I certainly wasn't commenting on them. Yet I yearned to have people comment on my own posts; I just had no idea how to make that happen.

What I learned was that talking to myself meant I wasn't embracing the full glory of the blogging community. You see, we get to know each other, we comment on each other's blogs, we support each other. And this is no clique, no closed community. Anyone can take part in it by jumping in with both feet and putting yourself out there.

How do I do that?

Visit other blogs. Leave comments. Follow other blogs. If a blogger recommends another blog, check it out; you may just like it!

On your own blog, you can respond to any comments left to you. There are a number of ways to do this, either by email or by posting your reply in the same comments section. You can also carry the conversation back their blog, as long as it is done respectfully. I make it a point to not only respond to the comment, but to then also visit the other blog back and leave a genuine comment.

You will find that as you do this more people may wander by your blog. They may even follow you and/or leave comments. Speak to them, not to yourself, and you will go a long way.

How does the A-to-Z help me with this?

The A-to-Z gives you an easy means to connect with similar bloggers, as well as bloggers who may not be similar but still interest you. It gives you a list of blogs, a virtual cornucopia of reading material and connections, right there on the linky list.

In addition, it provides inspiration for what to post about. The possibilities are endless, yet a prompt can help get you ideas you might not have had otherwise. You have a built in audience coming by to see what you have to say.

On top of that, you get energy and excitement. Everyone has something to prove. Engines are revving, and there's nowhere to go but out into the blogging community.

The A-to-Z gives us all the opportunity to step outside our cocoons and stretch beyond our comfort levels. There is a good chance you'll find that this is exactly what you've been waiting for, and what you've needed all along.

May you find your Muse.

Shannon
The Warrior Muse

How to Make a Hyperlink Signature: Guest Sue Travers

       You can find Sue Travers at Traverslife among other sites.  Today's guest article is a reprint which offers a how-to explanation on leaving a link to your blog in the signature you leave on comments.  Here Sue explains why it's a good idea to do this and how you go about creating the link.

Hyperlink signature for the A-Z Blogging Challenge

Non technical, non threatening instructions for making a hyperlink signature!

Why do you want a hyperlink signature?
• You've signed up for the A-Z April Blogging Challenge
• You plan to comment on other bloggers posts in a caring and sharing way after The Challenge has finished
• You hope the person for whom you crafted a kindly word, will come tovisit your blog in return
• You want to make it easy to visit your blog. You don't want them to have go to your profile page, scroll down, find you have 3 or even 8 blogs, and wonder which one to look at first
• Sadly, people give up in frustration if it's not easy to work out which is the relevant blog
• The nifty signature will take them to the specific blog (or post) you'd like them to visit. Easy!

How to do it:
The letters and symbols below are what the computer needs to navigate to your blog or post, (and you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a blog title that hadn't been taken!) I've colour coded it for ease, normally it's all in black, and appears more or less in one line. It's only broken up like this because I put it on a powerpoint slide so you can see it. (Otherwise it goes straight into a hyperlink signature which wouldn't help you at all.)

All you do is copy those letters and symbols out - the whole lot up there, exactly the same (but of course with your personal, relevant information) - including the space after the a - into a Word document or equivalent. Don't add anything else. Save it where you can refer to it easily.

Next. Where it's red is where you put your blog address (what you originally called your blog - if you can't remember click on the title of your blog and check in the address bar at the top of your page.) But of course you do it in black, not red.

Now choose your signature. Are you going to use your real name, the name of your blog, a nom de plume or what? Type that in where I've used blue. That will become your hyperlink or 'clicky' signature, and is what I should see in the comments section when you copy/paste from your saved word document.

That's all! It should work.

Please, please, please, feel free to give it a go here. I was nervous the first time I tried it in public, thinking I'd stuff it up (which I did about 4 million times before I got it right). I won't be critical if you get it wrong...honest! Please ask for help if you get stuck.

Related articles

• How To Create a Hyperlink in Your Blog Post (misadventuresinlamosquitia.wordpress.com)
• With Regards To Building Website Links For Your Site There's A Lot Of Ways To Do This (leccoworkshop.com)
• Amazing Alzheimer's Videos via a Hyperlink (asourparentsage.net)
• How Do I Blog Thee? Better Blogging Tips - 2/3 (seekersportal.wordpress.com)

Keep Track of #atozchallenge via The #atozchallenge Daily!

Last April, the A to Z challenge had about 1300 participants.This year, more than 600 bloggers

 have already signed up . Who knows how long the list would grow by the third of April?

I have to admit I was a little lost last year--so many blogs to visit, so little time! Plus, I had my 

own posts to think of, which according to my leave-everything-till-the-last-minute personality, 

I had left unscheduled, writing each day as it came. By the time I came to the list, I was 

horrified. Which link had I visited last? Then, when I clicked on a link, it sometimes turned out

 the blogger hadn't posted in a week. Which pissed me off, of course. 

This is when I discovered the #atozchallenge tag which our host Lee helpfully added to all his

 comments. I went on Twitter and discovered fresh A-Z posts by bloggers on this hashtag. No 

worrying over whether the link was valid, and I also got to make new Twitter buddies, and 

agonize with them about the number of posts to be written or visited! (For explanation of hashtag 

for those new to Twitter go here.)

So I basically went and created Twitter newspaper, The #atozchallenge Daily, one which 

automatically collects all the links posted with the  #atozchallenge tag. Even if you're not 

on twitter, all you have to do is bookmark this newspaper. Opening it everyday is a 

great way of finding links to fresh A to Z posts. You'll also find it embedded here in 

this blog, on the sidebar to the right! Embedding it on your own blog is as easy as clicking on 

this link, clicking on the "Embed" tab to the right on the page that opens, and copying the

resultant code into your blog.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow us for updates on @AprilA2Z, and use #atozchallenge 

for any posts you make about A to Z, now, or during the challenge in April. This would make 

it very easy for us and others to find you---adding tons of exposure to your blog. Also, we can

 be twitter buddies and obsess over A to Z building up to the challenge, and also when it 

begins to make us dizzy with all the comment love and discussions!

Of the host team, (besides the main @AprilA2Z) you could follow these folks on Twitter :

Alex J. Cavanaugh :                                              @AlexJCavanaugh

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs :            @StephenTremp

Matthew MacNish at The QQQE  :                       @MatthewMacNish

Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie:                      @iZombieJMH

DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude :                    @DL_H

Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse :         @thewarriormuse

Elizabeth Mueller :                                                @ElizbethMueller

Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain : @KarenGowen

Damyanti (that is, moi) at Amlokiblogs:               @damyantig

So if you're on Twitter, follow @AprilA2Z and let us know you're participating--and spread the word via the #atozchallenge 

The more we are, the louder the noise we'll make, the more the people we'll make friends with, and the more fun we'll have. (Not to mention additional twitter and blog follows!)

If you don't like Twitter, keep your finger on the pulse by bookmarking The #atozchallenge Daily...either way, have fun and win new fans this April by participating in the A to Z Challenge!


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Damyanti Biswas, co host of the #atozchallenge.