Currently many bloggers are busy participating in a unique challenge where bloggers write about a topic starting with a the letter of the alphabet for that day. Thus, Bloggers are supposed to post every day except weekends for the whole month of April. Started in 2010 by Arlee Bird, it has now been around for twenty years!

For several years I used to join the A to Z challenge. This simple blog hop was a fun way to showcase your own blog and discover other bloggers. I used to enjoy participating in this international Blogathon.

Initial Foray into Blogging

When I first started blogging (which is almost 20 years ago), I was going through the empty nest syndrome and was happy to find a new technology I could learn and a new way to share my news with the world.

Not that I had any earth-shattering news to share but being fond of writing, this was a way to keep in touch with all my friends and relatives in one go.

How wrong I was. None of my friends or relatives were interested in ‘following’ me, so I ended up sending the blog link to them. Anyway, I still persisted and joined a blogging group called “WriteTribe,” started by a blogger called Corinne, whose blog ‘Everyday Gyaan‘ was very popular. (Write Tribe eventually disbanded and Corinne shifted to Substack).

But I plodded on and in an effort to publicise my blog, I actively participated in Indiblogger and Blogadda. I had several interesting experiences with Blogadda like winning an all expenses 4 day trip to Malaysia sponsored by the Malaysian Tourism department. I also won several prizes, like gift vouchers and a Hamilton Sandwich Grill!

Not only did I discover many interesting bloggers but also increased my own following with new bloggers commenting on my blog and eventually signing up as subscribers.

Why Did I Stop?

I also realised that many bloggers seriously planned their posts months in advance and produced very slick posts – unlike mine, which were literally done on the day of. It was not a spontaneous blog post!

I also realised that my comments on many of the blogs went unacknowledged; forget about extending the courtesy of visiting my blog. This was particularly the case with overseas bloggers.

Then there were ‘Indian Editions’ of the A to Z Challenge but again, these were the same bunch of bloggers who were members of the Write Tribe, Blogadda, Indiblogger who I was already interacting with!

So now, this April, I am just following Balaka’s posts on Trina Looks Back : a delightful collection of stories based on Tarasundari and Ruchi.

A for Aam Tales from the Airport

I would strongly recommend a visit to this blog .

Who knows, it may inspire you to come up with 28 stories for the A to Z Challenge next year!

Ciao