A to Z Reflections 2026
Now that the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge has ended, it's time for some reflections and the Reflections Post.
These questions come for the co-hosts, my responses, my reflections, are in blue. Although I participated with two blogs I am only posting my reflections here.
Our team theme this year was: A is for Aspirations: Blogging hopes, dreams, and goals.
Do you feel like our team's posts from this month met your expectations for that theme? Yes, I do.
How do you feel about the Theme Reveal? (Especially if this is not your first year doing the Challenge.) I like that there is a Theme Reveal. It’s like a preliminary thing before the main event!
In what ways does the reflection post help you? Writing one helps me look back over the month and see what went right, and what I could have done better. Or, at least, if not better, differently. It also gives me a chance to address ongoing problems with commenting! Which is actually one of the questions below.
What experiences have you had in the past, or hope to have this year, with the Road Trip? I haven’t participated in the Road Trip before. I do visit some of the participants (and learned about the Challenge from one of them) daily, and don’t think I have time to add more blogs to my regulars list.
Does the HTML on the badges/ graphics page help you? No, I don’t use them. I just save the image.
Did you meet your blogging goals in April? Yes, but then, my goals were to post daily, and I had my posts all prepared ahead of time. Although, if one of my goals was to have more visits, I didn’t meet that for one of my blogs.
What were your top five favorite blogs from the challenge to visit in April this year?
It’s probably not a “fair” top five, as three of them are ones I regularly read year-round. I enjoyed Janet’s Smiles a lot this year as her theme was the A to Z of Democracy, a very timely subject.
Did a co-host (J Lenni Dorner, Arlee Bird, Zalka Csenge Virág, John Holton, Jayden R Vincente, or Ronel Janse van Vuuren) comment on your blog during the challenge? Yes.
Is there a comment you received on your blog in April that is your favorite? Of course! It was J. Lenni Dorner’s letting me know I’d won a guest post spot!
Who were your top comment-leavers this challenge, and did they do the challenge? I blog several times a week year round, and the top comment-leavers were my regular readers who always comment, plus a few new ones.
Is your blog open to comments from everyone, or only comments from those who "sign in" to the platform? My comments are open to everyone, but I need to approve them before they get posted. I get notified by email that there is a pending comment. There is not much delay as I check my email often.
Do you feel this helps or hurts your blogging comment goals? Allowing anyone to leave a comment helps, as otherwise one might not bother. As far as goals in commenting, I have to voice my frustration about the blogs where I was unable to comment. There were more this year than previously. Some required me to register and sign in, which I will not do to an unknown site. Then, too many were set to only accept sign-ins from Wordpress, sometimes using an email. My problem there is I used to have a Wordpress account, I deleted it, but Wordpress pops up a form to sign in with that email, which I can’t. So, while I visited every blog, there is no proof, as in comments, I did!
Are there any other blog hops you regularly take part in? Many! Sunday Stamps. Thursday Postcard Hunt. Skywatch Friday. Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. I host Shadow Shot Sunday. Sometimes The Weekend in Black and White. Those are for my general blog, https://thisandthatablog.blogspot.com. For my poetry blog, https://theversesmith.blogspot.com I participate in Friday Writings at Poets and Storytellers United, and dVerse.Did you discover anything interesting because of the Challenge? I learned about quite a few “Notable Women” I was not familiar with on https://marinaowens.com/
Will you plan to do the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge in 2027, and why (or why not)? Not with my poetry blog. It’s a lot of work, a lot of time, and too many posts had not only zero comments, but zero views. I expect I will participate on https://theversesmith.blogspot.com
Will you recommend this blog hop to others? Yes!
If RoadTrippers only visit one of your Challenge posts, which would you suggest and why? (This question is also the prompt if you create a RoadTrip post.) This is a hard one to answer! My posts were all images of artwork I own, and for one blog poetry to go with the art. So, I’m hard-pressed to pick one piece of art. I guess it would be my N post, as it’s a fabulous work.
Do you plan to visit the A to Z site every month? I will try, but I often forget. Then, a few months later notice there was something going on and I missed it!
The site gets many hits, even in the off-season!
Did you refer someone to hope to win a guest post spot? No, it didn’t enter my mind to do it for that reason. I wrote about it several times with links because I enjoy it and want others to give it a try.
What else could the team offer you to persuade you to encourage others to join the challenge? Nothing I can think of. I do it without encouragement, because I like doing it myself!
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