Saloca in Wonderland

OK, so technically speaking, the challenge isn’t over for a few more days but I’m calling it a day.

Call me a cop out, a quitter, a flop, whatever you will, but for me, the challenge is over. I’ve loved the challenge, I’ve loved posting more frequently and I’ve loved being able to share what I know and learn along side with you about all things skincare.

BUT

You knew this was coming, there’s always a but.

I thought setting myself a theme would make the challenge easier than last year and would give it a bit of consistency, which it did in the beginning but by the half way point, it was starting to bore me. I started to have all these new post ideas that were totally unrelated to skincare and I couldn’t work on them…because I had to work on alphabetised skincare posts.

Fail.

5 things the April A to Z Challenge has taught me:

Sometimes, having a theme isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It did make the planning easier but I felt so restricted to what I could and couldn’t write about it, I missed the freedom and spontaneity.

Scheduling posts in advance is the way to go! I try to schedule most of my posts each week but I’m used to only putting up 3 - 4 posts. Trying to get 6 posts ready in advance was ok when I was on top of it, but as soon as I fell behind that was it, all the dominoes came crashing down on top of my head and it’s been a headache ever since!

Daily posting is fun. I’ve actually really enjoyed putting up a post most days, probably because I haven’t done so for a while. I’m not saying it’s going to become a thing around here anytime soon (unless you all beg haha), but if the hamster keeps running and churning out ideas, I might do something about them!

Social media tools are my new best friend. I’ve been using HootSuite on and off for a while to schedule tweets but I wasn’t using it half as much as I’ve been doing during April. Now that I’m using it more and starting to dive into all its nooks and crannies, I’ve seen a huge rise in traffic! 

I will be back next year! I feel as though I missed out a little this year with the A to Z Challenge. I missed the sign up, I didn’t get to visit half as many other challengers blogs as I would have liked, and bowing out early is niggling at me. This is the second time I’ve attempted the challenge and I’ve failed both times. I did make it to the end of the challenge last year but I did miss out a few letters. Next year will be my year! 

Did you take part in the April 2015 A to Z Challenge? How did you find it? 

Until next time,

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