As I think a lot of you know by now, I recently completed the April A to Z blogging challenge. However, I didn’t sign up officially, because I didn’t have a Twitter account when it started and that’s how I heard about it.
It was already underway by then so it was too late to register officially, but rather than wait a full year for the next one, I decided to take part unofficially. So I did my challenge mid April to mid May.
Unbeknown to me at the time, part of the challenge was visiting at least 5 other blogs who were taking part per day. Obviously, I didn’t do this because I didn’t know about it!
To make up for not doing the social part, I signed up for the post challenge road trip, which is basically a linky for all the people who want to visit each other. I completed visiting the 150+ blogs on the list, and commented to say I had finished.
I then got a reply to the comment off Arlee Bird, the challenge founder, basically telling me (in a nice way) that this is just the warm up. The real road trip is visiting all 1509 blogs that completed the challenge! That’s going to be some mission, but I’m going to attempt it. I have until next April to complete it.
In the meantime, this is my reflections on the mini road trip:
I’ll start with the good!
– I found it very interesting seeing what others had chosen for their themes and what they had written about for each of the letters.
– I found some blogs that I will definitely be revisiting in the future.
– I found quite a few of the people I visited returned the favour, and from this I gained some new followers. Thank you to the people who are now following or reading my posts!
And now the not so good!
And finally, I would like to mention my 5 of my favourite themes I found so far!
5. Paranormal/spooky theme – JH Moncrieff
I will check back in with my reflections of the full road trip when I complete it (part 2). I must warn you though that that could take some time!
You can find me here: Twitter Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!
You've stated the case of positive and negative very well. Loved some of the blogs you also chose to return to. Great to meet you. Here's to a fab road trip.
Thank you! Great to meet you too 🙂
Good grief, that's a big commitment. Good luck to you! I hate when you have to do loads of stuff to leave a comment. Recaptcha drives me bonkers. If it doesn't work the first time I usually just give up.
I don't know if I'll get through them all but I'm going to give it my best shot 🙂 Same here hate captcha with a passion! 🙂
Good day to you RM! Like you, I am doing the Road Trip (badly I might add–just not enough time!) and I too have had some of the same difficulties as you. For starters, finding some participants A2Z posts. I usually look for a calendar or preferably an archives section on the blog. If I cannot find either of those, and there is nothing suggesting where their A2Z is, I just leave a polite message in About or the latest post. Next, I agree with you about the hoops to leave comments. I am on WordPress and Blogger (your platform) doesn't always accept my WordPress sign-in. So instead, I have to use my Google sign-in which is linked to a defunct Blogger blog. I wrestled the entire Challenge to leave comments before just finally resolving to use my Google account name and leaving the URLs of my A2Z challenge blog and my new blog. After the Challenge was over, I moved my blog, which only complicates things for others I am sure. When I signed up for the Challenge, Arlee didn't say anything about leaving the URL to your category or page for the challenge, just your blog's URL. Maybe it would be too complicated for some bloggers to start a new category or page just for the challenge, I honestly don't know. I've met some really talented bloggers and some not too savvy ones, so I don't know if that would cut down on the number of participants or not. I agree, this is a daunting task to make it through all 1509 on the main challenge page. I am only on #30 and I've been at it since mid-May. I just need to carve out more time for it I suppose. Have a blessed weekend, RM! ~Lori~ @ The Rattling Bones
I tend to sign in via Twitter on Word Press blogs – I don't know if that would work for you when commenting on blogger blogs, but might be worth a try! I don't think grouping the posts is an official rule, it just makes it easier for people specifically looking for A-Z posts, and I can't sit and complain about not being able to find them when my own where getting pushed further and further from the top lol
Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
oh! one more thing… if you cannot find a comment spot on some blogs.. some of them have their comments set to CLOSE after 30 days… I learned this the hard way. I just leave a comment then in their latest post.
Thank you, I didn't know that. Will save me a lot of time in future looking around for them! 🙂
Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed my theme. I hope it helps.
You're welcome. It will definitely help, I picked up lots of interesting tips 🙂
Oh wow that was some undertaking. Well done!! Visiting from #TheList x
I didn't realise quite what I was getting myself into when I signed up, but I'm going to give it my best shot 🙂 x
Linkys take up so much time don't they?! It drives me mad when I can find posts or their twitter handle. Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList x
It must be a nightmare for you going through so many from The List if they aren't in any sort of order! Thanks for hosting 🙂