Retrospect

What I learned from A to Z...

Whilst I was convalescing, I missed a deadline. To be honest, I missed the assignment, so I am completely self-forgiven for having missed the deadline. A bit over a week ago all the troops from the Blogging A to Z Challenge were supposed to put up a summary of sorts to let the audience know what all of their suffering reading support lead to in terms of blog results. Let’s not do that exactly.

You all know my penchant for numbers and statistics, so let’s do have a brief recap of numbers.

19% increase in traffic

This was only partly due to quite a few new visitors from the Challenge. Mostly, it was due to the faithful M3 Readers who were curious what in the world I had for the next letter. The last bit was for all the M3 Readers who went to the page to find out what they had missed. Oh, there was one more reason, but that is to come…

K is for Keirsey took the top prize for most hits, followed closely by I is for Illusion and O is for Observant.

1,320 comments

We had some of the most amazing conversations! Which leads to a winner… post with the most comments: K is for Keirsey.

The field trip was fun. There were quite a few Aha! moments and some speculation as to the results between readers.

283% Increase in Hatemail

By far, some of the best fun we had was laughing at the ne’er-do-wells in the stupidest inbox in the blogosphere. By far, your favorite, judging by hits, likes, the love button, stars and shares with your friends… Alphabet Challenged. Quinna made us all scratch our heads.

100% Survival Rate

We all came through with flying colors and quite a bit of discovery, even some extra-sensory perception. So, amidst the psychology, what did I learn from A to Z?

1. I have the best audience in the blogosphere…bar none. The proctors of the A to Z challenge came by more of the posts than I ever expected and commented…and not just canned comments, either.

2. Some of the bloggers in the challenge could not read the rules. To give them a little credit, perhaps they just thought the rules did not apply to them.

We made through 26 posts in 30 days!

  • The majority of the challenge blogs I visited were on Blogger. They employ the use of captchas to keep away spam (not the best way, I feel compelled to add). What it kept away was my comments. There was no ease in comment, like the M3 Readers enjoy with merely a tick box to prove they are anti-spambots.
  • The blogs on the list did not reciprocate visits nor did they follow the Challenge suggestion of visiting the next five blogs on the list.
  • The suggested schedule was not followed by the majority of the blogs I visited. In fact, more than half I visited never completed the challenge. Many fizzled by the time they reached G, only arriving there a week late. Many skipped letters throughout and only posted the letter for the days they usually blog.
  • While the word limit suggestion was great for those trying to reach all the blogs, I hated the bloggers who put up 100 words per day about nothing whatsoever. Not the flash fictioneers, who did a fabbo job. The bloggers who talked about what they ate for lunch or the colleague they cannot stand.
  • The word limit was hobbling for M3, but left so much unsaid we will revisit a lot of the topics for further exploration.

3. Themes rule. The blogs which had themes showed the best commitment to the Challenge and kept up. My guess? Like me, they were interested in their subjects.

4. Break the rules. No, not the Challenge rules. The I can only blog about things in my niche rules. Diversification is a good thing. My long term fallout is the rise of Yerkes-Dodson Law as a search term. It is hit every single day.

5. Play it again, Sam. I never dreamed one, much less EIGHT of you, would suggest M3 do A to Z every month. Somewhere, I see this change in attitude a phenomenal improvement over the laments I post entirely too much, entirely too often. Perhaps, fixing the subscriptions to only one per day (max) did the trick.

Bottom Line

Based on the Psychology theme, the A to Z was a true challenge. The research was fun. The writing was even more fun. The stream of subjects for exploration over the next months means a long line of topics without ever mentioning writer’s block.

Biggest drawback to all the great subjects? Which one should we explode first?

One lament: I missed some of the regular features which were sacrificed to dedicating a post a day to something other than the M3 Readers’ favorites. I am so glad to have the Saturday Evening Post back.

It is all about YOU!

There is no way I could have done it without your constant support. For that, I have a gift to give you, which the lovely Deb of Debbie Adams Art bestowed upon me in the midst of all the alphabet madness. This one is for you, my darling M3 Readers.

For Every Single M3 Reader

I am imposing no silly nominate six bloggers/blog readers for the award. Please, take the award to post on your site with M3’s compliments. Without you, I would be scrawling in a diary the million words. Thank you for all you do to support me and M3.

Red. <3

~~~~~~~~~~

I asked you which was your favorite post, so this time I want to know what your favorite hatemail was from the A to Z Challenge. Did you miss any of the posts? Did you enjoy our journey? (Most important to Red?) Did you learn something about the psychology of everyday living and identity?


(c) Ann Marie Dwyer 2012
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28 Comments

  1. Awesome post!
    The Hook recently posted..The Hook Faces An Old Enemy….My Profile

    Reply
  2. Hello.
    Visiting from the Post A-Z Road Trip.

    I actually combined the A-Z Challenge & NaPoWriMo, so in total, I wrote 30 poems instead of 26 or 56 if I had done them separately. I did find it hard going near the end what with visiting and keeping up with my regular readers. Even today, what I find the most irritating is word verification/captcha. The first 20 blogs I came across today had it on. Drives me nuts! I’m glad you got so much out of the challenge. It was my first time participating in both. Next year, I’ll definitely prepare my posts in advance rather than write everyday. I enjoyed reading this post. Thanks for sharing.
    Andy recently posted..MOONLIGHT ZEPHYRMy Profile

    Reply
    • Red

       /  May 17, 2012

      Glad to meet you, Andy. This was my first year as well. While I may prep some of my posts, I preferred to write as I went along. My audience does a great deal of the steering around here, so they determine where we go. I would hate to drive my regulars bats with what *I* want to write, as opposed to what they want to read.

      Stop by the Green Room and leave a link to your blog. You will find many others there very much worth the visit. Red.

      Reply
  1. Saturday Evening Post | The M3 Blog

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