A-Z Reflections Post & Christine's Promo Adventures

Monday, May 6, 2013




My participation in the Blogging from A-Z Challenge was a bit different this year. I was in the Ninja Captain’s army, one of a group of people who checked on a specific number of bloggers to see if they were posting, or were just ad sites. 

I think that was a good move by the organizers in that it stopped A-Zers from wasting time at sites where owners signed up to advertise things that were no way related to the Challenge. 


I met bloggers with some interesting concepts, including the kid’s learning site that tracks Flat Stanley’s activities and a series of short stories by Fictitious Amo with a little character by the name of Lizzy. Loved C. LeeMcKenzie’s sometimes funny foray into words and their meanings and Lexa Cain’s blog that has some super-interesting information on Egypt. (Can you tell I’m fascinated by the land of Eygpt?) There were others, of course, way too many to list, but I hope to keep the links going. 

If I was disappointed with anything it’s that some blogs didn’t get a lot of comments or follows, which makes me wonder if they were visiting and/or whether people weren’t making reciprocal visits. The Captcha sites slowed me down a bit. Some of that stuff is hard to read and takes multiple attempts to get the words right. 

Each year, I try to write as many of my posts beforehand as possible, but never get them all done. Next year, God willing, I’ll get those suckers done in a timely manner. 

I’m happy the Challenge is at an end. My tail feathers were dragging near the end. Once more, I proved to myself that I can get stuff written if I concentrate, but more than that, the Challenge always brings me some wonderful people I eventually get to call friends. 
Many thanks to Arlee Bird and his team for putting on the internet’s biggest and best blogfest




Thanks to those who shared tweets during my WLC promotion yesterday. Christine’s Odyssey is now at #4 on an Amazon list. I hope the momentum continues. Thanks so much for your help!  







Stay with me, I’m not done yet.


Make sure you enter Christine’s month-long giveaway below for a $10.00 Gift Card. 


If you manage to read Christine’s book in the next month or so, you’re eligible to win a $20.00 Gift Card. Feel free to enter that as well.

Have a great week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

16 comments:

  1. Having minions was a great idea - thanks again for being a Ninja Minion!
    I think you're right that some sites didn't get a lot of comments because the owners weren't out visiting other blogs.

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  2. Alex,

    Glad to have helped. I guess those bloggers must realize that visiting is part of the Challenging.

    Thanks, Evalina.

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  3. I enjoyed visiting your blog during the challenge-- you shared great tips and insights from your learning curve!

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  4. Nice you were a part of the Ninja Army. Thanks for refection and while CAPTCHA is annoying it can't take away the wonder of such a great challenge.

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  5. Julie, thanks, I learned a bit myself from the experience.

    True, Sheena. I think I sometimes miss leaving comments because I don't realize the site has captcha. I tend to leave the comment and move on. Next time at the site is when I notice it has captcha and that my last comment probably didn't stick. :(

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  6. Hi, visiting from the reflections list. The first year I have taken part in this challenge. I did visit a lot of blogs, but had few comments returned. I did forget to add a code to show what kind of blog I have, and think that may have had some impact.
    Suzanne @ Suzannes Tribe

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  7. Here's to keeping those tail feathers out of the dust!

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  8. Thanks for visiting, Suzanne. Hope you've made a few firm friends from the Challenge.

    Hi, Lee. Yeah, I need to keep going at a steady pace.

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  9. Fab job finishing, JL. I think it would be really hard to write all the blog posts beforehand, but I can see why you'd want to. Once the A to Z starts, it'd be hard to find time between all the blogging!

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  10. Hi, Emily,
    The greatest deterrent to writing the posts before was finding the time to write them and yes, it's challenging to write them between all the visits and such. It does teach the value of time though.

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  11. Glad to see you survived the AZ! Loved the idea of having minions to help out.
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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  12. Yes, it's over, and time to try and get back to normal. It was a great experience. I did feel the way you did about those who didn't get many comments. I think some probably didn't follow, because I know quite a few of those never returned to my blog.

    Well, it was still good, and I wish I was able to visit more blogs than I did. Writer’s Mark

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  13. The minions seemed to do an excellent job this year. I agree, it was a great addition to the challenge.

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  14. I was pretty glad when April ended as well. ;) Still, it's always worth the challenge!

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  15. I really enjoyed your challenge posts Joy. Really got me thinking hard...
    I'm glad the challenge is over. I really love A to Z, but it does suck an enormous amount of energy... but I'd do it again...

    Writer In Transit

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  16. Joy it is great to see that you took part again this year. I am stopping by on the road trip to catch up on some of the blogs I missed. Looking forward to reading your posts. I have been taking some time out, the challenge does take it out of you, but roll on next year. Blessings.

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