Building Communities: Corinne Rodrigues and the A2Zeders

        In this year's A to Z Reflections Posts I kept seeing the name of Corinne Rodrigues mentioned in regard to the bloggers she had encouraged to join A to Z and the blogging community she had developed.  Since one of the goals of the A to Z Challenge is to build community, what she was doing was right in line with what I'd been working toward.  Corinne was so successful at this community building that I've invited her to the A to Z Blog to tell us more about this topic.   I think what she has done is part of the future of what the A to Z Challenge will become.


Although I've been blogging regularly for six years now, it was only in 2011 that my blog really took off. That was largely due to the fact that I was invited to join a Blogging Group on Facebook.   This was a group in which we share our links, have a lot of fun and laughter, discussed issues and yes, even got into arguments at times.  We  sent each other messages when we knew someone was not feeling good, wished each other for birthdays and anniversaries and even condoled the passing of family members. But most of all, we visited and commented on each other's blogs.  Now I knew that each time I posted, I could share my link in the group and have at a couple of visits and comments on my blog. This was so different, from putting my posts out in the blog world and hoping some random blogger would come along and be nice enough to read and comment.

Some people say that they don't blog to be read, and don't need assurance from their readers.  My question to such folk would be, 'Why blog, then. Why not keep your blog private?'  If we're honest, every visit, every comment, every 'award' does make us feel that someone is 'listening' to us.  I can quite frankly say that the moment I knew I had serious and committed readers, the quality of my posts improved. Now I knew for certain that people were 'listening' and caring enough to tell me so.

It was with this experience in mind that I decided to take on the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge for the first time.

 I'm part of a group of Indian women bloggers - but it's a blogging group with a difference. We don't share our links - we share our thoughts and opinions on a variety of subjects. So while I interact with a lot of bloggers there, I don't actually visit all their blogs and neither does everyone of them visit mine! When I read about the Challenge, I shared the link with this group.  Someone in this group asked me if I was participating and told me that she would too if I was.  I decided to take up the Challenge on the blog that I share with my husband (and dog!) so as to get it really started.  By then the number of bloggers taking up the challenge was a staggering 1500. How was I going to be able to post, visit and get visitors to my blog, I wondered.  That's when I had  the idea of creating a Facebook group for specifically for Challenge. I invited some bloggers there, and they in turn invited others and soon we had a group about about 15 bloggers.

A2Zeders was born. We read and shared all we could about the Challenge. A few of us had undertaken the challenge before and shared their experiences.  Our guidelines were simple - write, read and comment. Every day I would pin a post for the Alphabet at the top of the group page. The members would then add their links to the thread and start to visit and comment on as many other blogs on the thread as they could. Many members even shared all the links on Twitter.

It's summer in India, and many members were scheduled to go on vacation. So that was going to be a challenge. We found a way around that too. These members scheduled their posts and someone in the group religiously shared them on the relevant thread and made sure they got comments.  There were a few members who seriously considered dropping out because of difficult work routines. Did we let them do that? No!

Soon people were chatting to each other on other threads - asking for suggestions and ideas,  praising someone's post for the day, inquiring why someone hadn't posted that day, motivating,  pushing and just being community.  The power of community using social media was on display the entire month of the Challenge.

As with all groups, there were some members who just shared their and didn't bother to visit other blogs or really interact in the group. Thankfully they were a very small minority. And it was completely their loss.

I'm happy to report that some members got so hooked on to this experience, that they've taken on another challenge for May.  Even better, we've created a new Facebook group - restricted to some of those who took part in the challenge.  We've begun visit each others' blogs, take on group prompts, undertake blog critiques. It's still in the early stages, but I'm confident the experience and euphoria of the A-Z Challenge can be converted into a sustainable group of bloggers committed to improving the quality of their writing and motivating other members to do the same.

I'm grateful to Arlee Bird and all the members of the A-Z organizing team who through their creativity have encouraged other bloggers to be creative and innovative.

Do you think that being part of Blogging Group on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or any other platform, can help improve your blogging/writing experience?

Corinne Rodrigues is a Mumbai-based blogger who can be found here.

Marketing Through A to Z

By Julie Flanders

I know I’m not alone among writers when I say that marketing and promotion does not come naturally or easily to me. But as we all know, our books don’t sell themselves and our work doesn’t end when our books are released. Marketing is a continuous and essential part of the publishing process.

Fortunately for writers like me, the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is a wonderful tool for marketing and promotion. I’ve known since my first A-Z in 2011 that the challenge was a great way to network with other bloggers, make new friends, and increase traffic to my site. This year, I learned that it can also be an invaluable resource for marketing a book.

From the time I knew that my debut novel Polar Night would be released in February of this year, I knew that I was going to tie the book in with my challenge posts in some way. But I didn’t want to come off as one of those writers (we’ve all seen them, I’m sure) who post or tweet nothing but declarations about the greatness of their books and tell us all to buy them, over and over (and over!) again.

The A to Z April Challenge gave me a great opportunity to showcase my book without even posting that much about the book itself. As Polar Night takes place in Alaska, I wrote an A to Z of Alaska and shared interesting and fun tidbits I had learned about the state. I had a good time researching and writing the posts and the visitors to my blog seemed to enjoy reading them.

I know of other writers who used this year’s challenge to market their books in interesting and creative ways. My friend Carol Kilgore of Under the Tiki Hut wrote several of her A to Z posts using the voices of the characters from her latest novel Solomon’s Compass, thus introducing readers to the world of her novel and the people who populate it. And my new friend Sheena-kay Graham, who I was fortunate to get to know through this year’s challenge, shared tantalizing hints and tidbits about The Sacrifice Series, her series of novellas which will be released beginning in the fall of 2013. These are just two of many great examples.

I’ve said many times that joining the A to Z in April Challenge for the first time in 2011 was the best blogging decision I’ve ever made. There’s no question that it was also one of the best writing decisions I’ve ever made. If I am fortunate enough to have another book published, I know one of the first things I will start thinking about is how I can work that book into a challenge theme, just as I did with Polar Night.

The opportunities that come along with participating in the challenge are limited only by our own imaginations, and I will always encourage any writers I meet to sign up and participate. I don’t believe anyone will regret it.

About the Author: Julie Flanders is a writer and a librarian who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Julie shares her home with her dog and cat and, when not writing fiction, she loves to write about animals and animal-related issues. Her debut novel, the paranormal suspense thriller Polar Night, is now available from Ink Smith Publishing. Find Julie online at http://julieflanders.blogspot.com. 

Evaluation of A to Z based on Reflections

     Did you get your Reflections Post done and on the list?  We ended up with 382 links on this year's list.  Not a bad showing I'd say.   Like in the Challenge itself, there were some outstanding posts presenting thoughts on the 2013 Challenge.

        I'm still wending my way through the list and leaving comments at each one I visit.  I hope that more of you will do the same in order to show appreciation to the A to Z participants who took the time to add their thoughts and experiences.

        For the most part the Challenge reviews have been glowing or at least positive.  The usual negatives are there--word verification, commenting difficulties, lack of visits or comments, and not as many new followers as in previous years.   We had less of a problem with non-participant blogs thanks to our teams of helpers.  A big thank you to all of you who were part of that effort.

Here are a few specifics that some mentioned:

Adult Content Labeling:   Nagzilla and a few others expressed concern about the labeling on the list.  Some thought we were practicing censorship, but I emphatically disagree with this charge.   The AC labeling is a warning in the same way the film industry labels films with content adviseries.  And even FCC blocking of such content from public airwaves is probably not considered censorship.  Offhand I'm not sure what you call that, but A to Z is not unique in calling for some sort of screening for content that some find offensive.  We will continue to study this issue and hopefully come to a satisfactory solution.  We welcome your thoughts about this and ask that you try to understand our position on this.   I don't see that we are unreasonable in any way.

Topic Labeling:   Many of you liked having the opportunity to have blog categorizations to make it easier to find blogs that interested you most.   This is still in the experimental stage.  I agree that all of the different labels were difficult to remember.   Many suggestions have been offered on how to improve this.  I will stand by my suggestion from previous years of having a flexible programmable list that requires a few more registration steps.   The Linky List is fine for smaller blog networking events, but somewhat impractical and labor intensive for an event that has become as large as A to Z.   Any expert programmers out there who would like to contact me about this?   Since A to Z is an all volunteer project, we can't afford to pay for a programmed list, but I'm willing to listen to your ideas.

  Creating subgroups and communities:  I was interested in what Corinne Rodrigues organized from her site From 7Eight.   You might want to check out her post.   This may be part of the future of A to Z and the idea of creating communities is something we've encouraged since the event began growing as it did in the second year.  Corinne Rodrigues will be visiting the A to Z Blog on May 20th with more information.

 Comment complications:   My Rite of Passage provided a good overview of the problems some blogs have in their commenting systems or even tracking back to the blog of whoever commented in the first place.   You might want to read this for your year round blogging activities.  Not getting as many comments as you'd like?  This post explains some possible reasons for that.

Highlighting other bloggers:     Rosie Amber is among several bloggers who added lists of other blogs to her posts.   It's a nice touch to feature others and make friends in the process.

Watching stats and recording blog performance:  Katie at Adventuringathome was into stats.  You can check out how she did during April and read about her thoughts on the Challenge.  How was your month?  Did you keep an eye on blog stats?

        Please continue to visit the links on the Reflections Post list.  That list will be accessible all year.  And join us on the A to Z Ultimate Road Trip.  That list will be open all year so you can join us any time, but now is the best time so you can stay caught up.

         Do you have any observations about the A to Z Challenge that you would like to add here?   What do think about some of the points made in this post?

Related articles

• Courage Under Fire - My 2013 A to Z Challenge Reflections #atozchallenge
• A to Z Challenge Reflections, Ninja News, Celebrating Small Things
• A to Z Challenge Reflections and The Spirit of Nimue
• Challenge Reflections Post Linky List Opens