Now that the April Challenge has concluded, I can reflect on what I knew on April 1 and what I now know on May 1.
I needed to be better prepared. (Note to self: when you sign up for things like this, Carole, ensure that you are aware of all the parameters.)
I was disciplined enough to maintain a regular blog posting regime each day (except Sunday). It helped to just list the A to Z Challenge at the top of each page in my desk diary.
I learned how to structure and create the posts using the help of AI. Claude Sonnet was particularly helpful, providing suggested titles, outlines, and case studies on my theme of AI in Genealogy.
I began to prepare each post the night before and then continued to refine and weave my genealogy research case studies into the post each morning.
I grew in confidence in posting about my favourite theme and knowing that others found the posts interesting, enlightening, intriguing, and inspiring. Now that all are in place, I look back with pride on a job well done - challenge completed.
And now for some stats:
During April, my Substack blog series, I gained:
77 new subscribers (75 free and 2 paid)
many new followers (now up to 1.08K)
a big jump in subscribers and followers from 22 April (popular posts were S-Structure Storytelling, T-Time Travelling)
a total of 612 subscribers (thanks to all subscribers)
But wait, there is more! I am encouraged to include answers to the following questions. Thanks to Anne Young for this advice.
Has the #AtoZChallenge 2025 helped you to feel like a successful blogger?
Yes! A resounding yes to this question. For the first time in a long time with blogging, I was getting multiple likes and comments on my blog posts every day. I felt that the content, format, and context of my posts improved over the month. My theme was the ‘A to Z of AI in Genealogy’, which I thought would prove to be engaging given the chatter about AI in Genealogy in many social media spheres.
Naturally, I needed to focus on a myriad of topics within that theme, and I opted to set up a conversation thread with Claude Sonnet - my favourite creative writing assistant. The very first prompt was:
Claude responded with a list of 27 titles from which I could pick and choose. Here’s a sample of those.
I stuck to the first 5 titles, and from then on, I made some decisions about changing the topics for the others. I needed to feel confident that I could talk about each topic and include some of my own case studies.
Now I have 26 posts, each of considerable length and rich with educational and entertaining content. Tips and case studies were used throughout the series, and later in the month, I matched the case studies to actual research projects I was working on. This enabled me to focus on getting forward momentum with my research whilst providing candid case studies for the posts.
Did you support other #AtoZChallenge 2025 bloggers?
Yes, I found a few of my genealogy friends were also engaged in the challenge, so I made it a daily plan to like and comment as often as I could in their Substack posts. This process kept it manageable for the month and did not overwhelm, leading me to finish the challenge with ease.
I watched, listened, and learned as I read the other blog posts on genealogy topics. My main followers on Substack may have liked my posts, however, it was a discreet group of commenters who provided me with the feedback I was looking for. Therefore, I chose to support just five or six of these challenge participants - this cemented our growing acknowledgment of each other’s posts. An encouragement in itself.
Is the #AtoZChallenge neighborhood blogging community good for your mental health?
To be honest, I had not delved into the community and was not aware of how that might be good for my mental health. Today, I went over to the #AtoZChallenge website and saw that it was frequented by a myriad of bloggers on a myriad of themes.
I found the experience to be a steep learning curve, even from an experienced blogger, as there were many facets to the challenge that I had not really understood. But, that is only causing some negative thoughts today as I realise my errors and naivete.
But the good thing is I now have a greater awareness of the #AtoZChallenge and will be more prepared next time round.
As for my mental health, it is still intact!
How could the team make this blog hop better for next year?
Did they have a mailing list that I could have signed up for? Not sure, I do know that when I filled in the participation form, I had put in my regular blog page, instead of my new Substack blog page. Oh No! Doh! Now I realise that the rest of the 172 people on that list had not been able to access my A to Z posts. So I guess, a lesson learned for me to get more followers, make sure I have the correct URL listed. (I had forgotten about the Master List, so I did not go back to that to find links to others in the 2025 challenge. Now that I look again, I have found others who were blogging about genealogy - fabulous. Perhaps I can focus on their April posts during May.)
PS. The link to nextgengenealogy.substack.com has now been amended. Thanks to the quick work from the team at AtoZ.
In hindsight, I found this blog post from the team on N-Neighbourhood Community to be most helpful. (And now, as I dig deeper, I find the AtoZ Challenge Facebook Community where all of their April A to Z posts are displayed. Must bookmark this site and plan to frequent it in 2016.)
Could the team prepare a printable Overview Guide that would describe the tasks, the community, and the commenting, and place it in the Facebook Community?
What would entice you to visit and comment on the A to Z site every month?
I would need to have reminders sent to my email, otherwise I would forget to visit.
Now that I see this notice on the community website, I can see that there were/are several components of the challenge.
Now I am getting the bigger picture! It has just taken me a while! Doh! Never mind, all is not lost. The Road-trip component will give me an opportunity to a) send participants to my April posts and b) visit their posts. I just need to make a note in my diary about May 10.
Looking Ahead!
Planning now for my participation in the challenge for 2026, I see these important dates for my diary. These will now be included in my 90-day Schedule that I create in January each year.
Special thanks to Genealogists Anne, Carmel, Dianne, Jennifer, Jane, Xanthe, and the team at AtoZ Challenge.
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Carole I think you did a wonderful Job and also congratulations on completing the challenge. It's not easy when you are preparing posts during the month. I did that in my first month and really felt the pain. My advice would be to have all posts ready to go and scheduled on April 1. It's a good idea, but not always possible, I know. The trick is to start early. I loved reading your AtoZ posts and as I said during the challenge, I plan to go through them from the start, now there will be more time up my sleeve.
I really en joyed reading your challenge posts - it was great to see how you used AI to contribute to the challenge each day. I even highlighted some of your posts on my weekly Best Of the Genea-Blogs curation.