What the A-Z is that?

About three years ago, I set up my new blog on Blogger so that I could take part in the A-Z Challenge (which I had seen some publicity for) and looked like a way to grow and gain some more traffic to my blog.  My wordpress account was giving me all sorts of problems when I tried linking that up so that's why I changed.

During my first challenge I blogged about educational special needs issues and got such a lot out of the challenge as I said in my reflections post of 2014:

1. It inspired to me to write daily.  
2. It inspired me to have the courage to put some of my "views" out there in the open.
3. It inspired me to leave my comfort zone and go and visit new blogs I would never normally have dared venture towards
4. It inspired me with lots of new ideas and stories I found out there written by some very talented people.
5. It inspired me to get better at learning about technical issues and asking for help.

The following year I combined blogging about special needs with my interests in arts and crafts and set myself the target of visiting at least 10 new blogs on the list each day which I achieved.  I also noted that some blogs on the list were not actually posting and that due to the immense size (over 2000 blogs I think signed up initially) that maybe I should put myself forward to help rather than just moan about the situation!

Fast forward to this year, where I have now joined Heather (a co-host) as one of her helpers or should I say one of Stormy's slaves? ... if you read her post here you'll see what I mean (click on the photo below)!

Which all adds up to why I would suggest this as a challenge for anyone looking for something new to do this April - this is what you do:

You write 26 posts for the month - having Sundays free - with a A to Z format so on the 1st April your post will have a theme beginning with A and then on the 2nd a theme of B and so on and so on.  It can be as long or short as you wish but many say that about 350 words is about the right size for people to read properly as the other challenge is to visit 5 new blogs a day and leave a comment.  Of course during the challenge you will fall in love with some of the blog posts and wish to return to them throughout the challenge so this can take up quite a lot of the reading time :)

This is also why it can be rather annoying to be visiting blogs on the list who have not posted to the challenge or who began and gave up after day 3 which is why helpers are needed to alert the co-hosts who can then rectify the situation.

Not only will you read amazing blog posts but some of those bloggers will become your firm favourites long after the challenge has ended.  You will find you get more followers to your blog too and more comments and feedback which is always useful.  There is also a useful sign up in the challenge which I have used each of the previous years which is for blogs with less than 100 followers so that we can give each other support :)

To end this post I am also signing up today to the

as I have decided upon this year's theme for my blog already - but remember you DO NOT have to have a theme your A - Z blog posts can be entirely random!!

Please go and check out the website for many more details, how to's, blog updates etc etc and get ready to join in and have the most fun this April :)  And if you do sign up remember to leave me a comment with your blog name so I can pop in and see you during April!