Sunday, May 1, 2011

A-Z April blogging challenge overview





The A-Z April blogging challenge was an ambitious project which I thoroughly enjoyed. Though blogging each day was tough at times, I enjoyed the challenge of posting through the alphabet. I struggled the most with an 'x' post, which I had been worrying over from the start. But it turns out that I came across a great 'x' word just in the knick of time with "xenodocheionology" meaning 'love of hotels.'

I lost count of how many times I hit the 'Next blog' button or the 'Surprise me' button but I'm sure I got through a lot of blogs! It was sad to see that some of the blogs I visited had either not started the challenge or quit mid-way through. But I can totally understand the difficulty of keeping up from day to day.

I did however, come across some great blogs, most of them writing blogs, and made a few friends in the process. I have to mention Paul Joseph. I came across his blog and immediately connected with his style of writing. I made numerous re-visits to his blog, often leaving comments, to which he replied. It helped that I met him on Facebook too.

Rosalind Adam is another person I have got to know better through this challenge. I have also become re-acquainted with my hometown of Leicester, England, where Rosalind lives and blogged about.

I found myself returning to Bish Denham's blog each day of the challenge, for her thoughtful posts about a variety of topics. The fact that she introduced a vocabulary word at the start of each post, like me, was another draw.

Reading Melissa Kline's blog each day was a little delight as she covered five new words beginning with each letter of the alphabet and then proceeded to make sentences with those words. Finally, she combined all of her sentences using words from A-Z to make a story!

A. B. Keuser conducted a fascinating blog writing a paragraph of words, the vast majority beginning with the letter of the day. Such a fascinating read and quite a mouthful too!

English Speaking Zone hosted by Barbara was another one I visited every day. The grammar terms were good for me as I'm an English teacher.

Holly Jones documented an A-Z of London, reminding me of England very nicely indeed!

Finally, Denise wrote a very informative A-Z of places in the world with piles of information about each one.




There were so many other blogs which I loved and commented on, but which I can't mention here in this overview. I'm sure there are yet many blogs which I haven't got round to visiting.

I hope you all enjoyed my A-Z from *Our home called Kuantan* because I certainly had a fun time composing it. Whether or not I'll continue to post on 26 out of 30 or 31 days per month is still unknown. I had to be extremely disciplined in preparing posts and also taking some time to visit others.





I'll finish with a few facts and statistics regarding my blog during the month of April, 2011:


During the month of April, 2011, I :

  • gained 69 followers

  • received 2,244 visits to *Our home called Kuantan*

  • had 9,321 page views

  • had 284 comments to my posts



So It has been an overwhelmingly successful month for me and my blog. Thank you to all of those who contributed to those statistics, but more importantly, for allowing me to get to know you and your passions, and for me to show you my life in Kuantan.









40 comments:

  1. Congratulations on completing and looking at your stats it seems it has been successful in lots of ways !

    RJRdaydreamer

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  2. Well done for successfully completing the challenge. I am still finding new blogs through this challenge. I must have visited hundreds and still there are many more gems out there (such as yours) I am glad you enjoyed the challenge, I did too!

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  3. Thanks John, I love April!

    Mercy, I too am still discovering more blogs each day. I think it will go on for quite some time!

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  4. Goodness, I haven't bumped into any of the blogs you mentioned! and I thought I'd been galavanting around crazily, shows how wrong one can be. congratulations. Sue

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  5. Hi Duncan. I've just noticed that you have become my latest Follower, so that's very nice. Thank you! I thought I would pop along over to visit you and hope that you won't mind if I follow you from here in England! Gosh, you did tremendously well to gain all those new Followers for April! (You sure you're not paying them! LOL!!). And what a tremendous X word you found there, meaning love of hotels! See you soon.

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  6. well done on completing the challenge, and reaching your goals. Pretty good stats there.

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  7. I have found your blog through the reflections linky. It's been a great month and I'm happy to have found your blog.

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  8. Thank you so much for the mention. It's been great getting to know you better. Congratulations on completing the challenge and I look forward to lots more blog chats in the future.

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  9. Congrats on finishing! It's been a hard month, but thoroughly rewarding. Great to meet you via the challenge, and nope I haven't been able to get around to all 1,100 blogs but the one's I've visited have been fab!

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  10. It's great that you had such a nice experience during the challenge. May you continue to have success with your pageviews and other statistics.

    The Madlab Post

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  11. Congrats on completing the Challenge. I managed all the letters, but didn't have enough time to get round to as many blogs as I would have liked, so am catching up now!

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  12. congrats for finishing the challenge! I'm looking forward to going back to my usual 3 days a week posting schedule.

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  13. I didn't make it to your blog during the challenge. The blog hop has given me the opportunity to pop in. Challenging month for me, but I made some new connections, which is great.

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  14. Thanks so much for the mention, my friend. I'm honored. It has been great connecting with you via this challenge and I look forward to reading the thoughts you share now that the challenge is finally behind us.

    Did I say finally? Ouch, where did that come from?!

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  15. i was blog hoping when i came across your blog, the A-Z is really so inviting that i decided to do some of my own dont know though yet what would be my main focus.

    on the other note i like the scenery in this picture...

    following to see more of the place i can only dream of reaching.

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  16. Great post and thanks for the stats. I agree with the points you make about the Challenge, but it is something that I would expect--that's why it's called a Challenge.
    Congratulations for making it to the end and thanks for a great effort.

    Lee

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  17. There are so many rewards that come with this challenge, aren't there? I'm glad I found your blog...thanks for visiting mine.

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  18. Thanks Sue, there are still lots of blogs out there!

    Thisisme, you have a very beautiful blog! Thanks for popping over to mine. See you soon!

    Sam, thanks, I've been to your blog too.

    Rebecca, thanks for coming along!

    Rosalind, you're welcome! I really enjoyed your Leicester A-Z.

    Talei, thanks, it's been a worthwhile challenge :)

    Nicole, thanks for your good wishes! All the best to you too.

    Paula, thanks for dropping by!

    Lynda, I too am looking forward to a lighter schedule again!

    J.L. Campbell, glad you found me now :)

    Paul, it will be interesting to continue reading each other's blogs now this challenge has finished. Thanks my friend!

    strawberry princess, Kuantan is a beautiful place. Every day feels like a holiday here, hope I can bring that feeling to all of my visitors!

    Lee, thanks for the visit and well done for organising such a great challenge!

    Patricia, yes there are. Thanks for the new friendship :)

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  19. I enjoyed your posts, gald to have found you thru the challenge.
    cheers,
    mood

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  20. Hey, Duncan,

    I only made it to you blog a few times, but I did enjoy it when I did.

    Congrats on completing and having such a successful month. I hope to visit more now that I will have more time....

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  21. those are some great stats! congrats on making it through this ambitious challenge

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  22. Very mice site! Very good review.


    Gregg Metcalf
    Colossians 1:28-29

    Gospel-driven Disciples

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  23. Hi Duncan .. I eventually got here .. well done on all your achievements and sharing the stats etc ..

    Thanks for highlighting some of your favourite bloggers .. I'll have to come back and link through with them too ..

    Cheers Hilary

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  24. I'm happy to be able to say I know everyone on the list! :)

    Congratulations on finishing the Challenge!

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  25. Congrats on completing the A to Z and thank you for sharing such lovely bits of you with all of us. I wish you much continued success with your blog and in all you do!

    Cheers! :)

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  26. Congrats on crossing the finish line! I missed out on so many great blogs! I will have to check these links out~ Thank you; nice reflection post~

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  27. Congrats on finishing. It looks like it was very successful for you!!

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  28. Thanks for dropping by Michael!

    baygirl, I didn't do too badly at all! Been to your blog today

    Thanks Gregg

    Hilary, I wish I could have come across your blog sooner! Very nice indeed!

    The Golden Eagle, you sure must have gotten around in April!

    Thank you very much San for your kind comments. You have a nice way of writing :)

    Thanks Ella for coming over!

    Yes Josh, it was, thanks for dropping by!

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  29. Thanks for coming along to Kuantan Karen. Hope you enjoyed your stay. I've been to pay a visit to your blog too :)

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  30. The Challenge may be over, but the fun has just begun for me. Now I can visit all those sites I missed in April. I'm glad to have found yours.

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  31. Hullo, just dropping by to say hi and congrats on finishing! =)

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  32. Well done! You're welcome to the heat;-)

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  33. walk2write, anna and jabblog, thank you all for dropping by!

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  34. Found you on Blog Hop - Looking forward to seeing more!

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  35. Vanilla Mama, thanks for coming on board and joining Kuantan!

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  36. I have only just seen this. Thank you for including my A-Z challenge in your list. I'm so glad you liked it :)

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  37. Congrats on finishing! Shannon @ The Warrior Muse and I are joining forces in another challenge. We're going to visit and comment at each of the participants, starting with the reflections post. We hope you'll join us!
    Tina @ Life is Good

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  38. Thanks Tina, it was a great challenge, and thanks for the offer!

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  39. Holly, you're welcome, your A-Z brought back memories of my home land!

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