Reflections of The A-Z April Blog Challenge

WHEW!  This traveling suitcase has been out and about alot this past month.  April's A-Z blog challenged challenged us to write a post everyday, except Sunday during the month in Alphabetically order.  It also challenged us to make at least 5 visits to other blogs daily and to leave comments on said blogs.

• Made the 26 posts
• Made a total of 251 blog visits and comments (an average of 9.6 visits and comments daily)
• Received 136 comments back, for an average of only 54% return, pretty disappointing, had expected more then that.  136 total divided by 26 days (though we didn't write on Sunday's people did visits on Sundays, so the number of days is perhaps skewed a bit) averages 5.2 visits back daily.  
• I did gain some followers, though how many I don't now, as I forgot to notice what my numbers where before hand
• When I signed up Traveling Suitcase for the challenge I was #1888, very close to the bottom, as I signed it up with less then a day left.  I ended up at #1581, a jump of 307 spots on the linky.  That shows you how many folks either dropped out, or were removed from the linky for various reasons.

All in all, I don't know if it was worth it.  It takes alot of time to write, visit, read, and comment; and clearly I put much more into it then lots of folks.  I don't know how representative my results are compared to others.  But it seemed daily I hit one after another of folks who signed up with very one sided ideas in mind.  There comments were closed, so they wanted the visits, but had no intention of returning the blog traffic.  They weren't really blogging, or participating; but still wanted the blog traffic.

However, I did enjoy most of my visits and have increased my blog log for my future visits.  I've added everyone who visited here more then once to my list and hope the back and forth continues.

Will I do this again next year?  Jury's still out on that, only time will tell.


I think there are things that might improve the challenge if it comes round again next year.

• I think a mandatory deleting captcha vs a strong suggestion is in order.
• I think requiring all sign ups to be the actual blog url vs google + profile, circles profile etc, where you have to click multiple times to even find the blog registered
• No blogs that require signing in or joining something, like the Disgus blogs that want you to join Disgus or sign in with your facebook or twitter profile
• No one with comments turned off should be permitted
• Requiring the logo and or A-Z post D etc to be very visible, like the first line of every post, vs scrolling around the blog to see if the badge is even there when you're not sure if they are really participating
• A separate linky for adult content (AC), hit too many that had a disclaimer of adult content in the text of the blog that weren't so marked on the linky.
• Is is possible to have the linky be alphabetized?  So you can more easily see where you left off on the list.  
• Maybe it would be a good idea to have separate linky's for each category?  Though it appeared most didn't choose a category and I enjoyed visiting all categories, just wondered if it would be helpful?  

I think visiting all those who've signed before hand to make certain they are lined up to play fairly and appropriately would save lots of folks time later on, trying to report blogs daily as they waste their time making the rounds.

Thank you to all who visited and took time to post comments:

Christine Rains
Maggie Winter
Linda Ann Nickerson
Annis Cassells
corallevang
A month of Blog
anothercleanslate
Liz
Joe Richardson
Brandy
godhasnoproblems
Jennifer Solo Travel Girl
 Aidl Weoh
Threesia
Kaye Draper
Amanda Dollak
anya Padyam
Talya Tate Boerner
Tami Van Zalez
Beth
Naila Moon
Bonnie Gwyn
DayDreamer
Karen Michelle Nut
C.Kirk
Julie Flanders
Katka Lapelosova
Jo
Carol Kilgore
Rosanna
Betty Taylor
myguiltypleasure
raisingthecurtain
TaMara Sloan
Lucy
Donna Sexton
Megan
Beverly
Pat Hatt
Margaret Spain
Jan
Clarissa Draper
Tronster
Elizabeth Seckman
Jana Grissom
John Wiswell
Katka Lapelosova
Denise Flynn
Colbymarshall
Archana
Lisa
Sylvia Ney
Stephsco

Your visits and comments were appreciated.  Thank you!

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