Reflections on A to Z Challenge

As a first-timer this year, I was psyched at the beginning--ready to read and comment like a mad fiend. Forget visiting the suggested five blogs, I was going to blast through twenty! At least. Then I got caught in the polite commenter trap: several people would comment on my blog, I'd comment back, and then be too pooped to visit more blogs. Repeated the next day, and the next.

Despite the trap, I did find new blogs to follow and gained new followers. In addition, I gained some valuable information. I love it when a blogger tells me my virtual pants are unzipped. Here's two prime examples:

1. Turn off word verification.

I've always been impressed with blogs that use word verification. Like, whoa dude, I wonder how they set that up? Those folks must be computer whiz kids. I felt kind of slackerdly for not setting it up for my blog, so when the warning to turn if off for the blogfest came around, I felt all smug. Don't have to do that!

Then someone commented that I'd get more comments if I turned word verification off. Do wah? The joke was on me. Blogger had word verification as a default and I had no clue, because whenever I commented on my own blog, word verification didn't show up.

2. Set up your follower picture to link to your blog.

When you follow another blog, a little picture of your choice gets added to their 'followers' grid. Like duh, you know that. I love getting new followers and always make a point of clicking on their little picture so I can follow back. Except sometimes the window that pops up has no link to the new follower's blog.

At first I thought, "Hmmm, that's weird. I guess they don't have a blog. Oh well." I mean, you can get onto blog sites without having your own, right? Then I wised up a bit and tried googling the person's name plus 'blog' to find them. This works sometimes, but if the follower uses the name "Katie" then forgettaboutit. A google search ain't gonna cut it. So peeps, go to a site where you can find your little picture and click on it. If there's no link to your blog, fix it!



Image courtesy: tuppus

So, thank you to the bloggers who pointed out these little problems with my blog.  And remember, X, Y, Z, pdq because some people may want to follow you too!