105 Ways to Give a Book

Comment Challenge: Finish Line

You made it! As you finish up with your blog reading today, please check in here or with Lee Wind with your totals. We have fun prizes, so leave us your final stats even if you didn’t make it to five comments a day. We’ll be picking winners from among the 100 Comment Club and also winners from everyone who participated — which requires at the very least signing up and then signing out in today's comments.

I hope that the Comment Challenge has helped you connect to the community, find new blogs to read, and increased your comfort with commenting. This year with so many of the SCBWI folks participating, I found myself exposed to new ideas in writing and illustration that gave me a jump start on my own goals, so I thank you. My own comments aren't finished today as I'm making my way through the last blogs on the sign-up list (which were the first blogs, since I started in the middle). During the month, I made some great discoveries of new-to-me blogs and the commenting here has me feeling charged up for a new year of blogging. While the Comment Challenge has finished, I know that it's really just the beginning.

44 comments:

Yellow Brick Reads said...

Hi,
Really enjoyed the challenge. I joined late so didn't make the total but I got a kick out of sticking to the 5 comments daily. It was wondeful too to get comments on my blog from people who would not have known about it before. It's a great way to make bloggers aware of each other and to spread the word about some great titles. Thanks Mother Reader for organising this!

teacherninja said...

I did my five a day plus a few for a total of 107 (not including responses to comments on my own blog). I started off using the signup list but have been focusing this week responding to those nice enough to comment on my blog. Thanks everyone!

Linda B said...

I have found some new and amazing blogs to read. It is a good way to stretch toward different ideas, Thanks to you and Lee!

Playing by the book said...

This is my third year doing the comment challenge, and this year I've enjoyed it the most, and been most consistent - 127 comments in total. Whilst is has been great for community, reconnecting with blogs I know and love but don't visit enough as well as discovering new blogs to enjoy, it's also made me realise that visiting blogs is so helpful in keeping me abreast of so much going on in the kidlitosphere that I would be unaware of if I didn't go visiting. From the latest publications in different parts of the world, to different views on the same books all over the world. I really really do hope I can keep up the good work!

Eric VanRaepenbusch said...

I completed the Comment Challenge with 102 comments. I enjoyed reading the blogs from the list and those that I have been following for a long time (however wasn't making time to read/comment consistently). The comment challenge taught me the importance of visiting other blogs to support the writer's in their efforts. Thanks for this challenge -- I found it very beneficial.

Tasha said...

While I failed spectacularly this year, I love that the challenge always serves to have me look at blogs and commenting in a different way. Thanks again for putting on the challenge!

Kim Van Sickler said...

I think this challenge has underscored the importance of visiting other blogs and commenting on a consistent basis. Thanks for providing the opportunity to meet and connect with some new sites. Swagger kicked butt this week, so we report a total number of 121 comments for the Challenge.

Joanna said...

Thanks for being co-host Pam. I shall certainly join in again next year. I managed over 100 and found some blogs I will most definitely keep following.

Marcie Colleen said...

I loved this challenge! I met 100 comments today! Sticking to 5 a day helped me make commenting and visiting others' blogs a daily routine. I have found so many wonderful new blogs this way and I look forward to continuing with commenting daily. Thank you!

Marcie Colleen said...

I want to add, also, that I started challenging myself to comment on the comments left on my own blog. That is not something I had been doing. But thank you for helping me realize that blogging (both writing and reading) is a conversation. Let the commenting habit continue!

Melissa said...

1. 70 comments. Not 100, but really not bad.

2. The thing I got most out of this was to break my habit of basically just glancing at my google reader and skipping most of it, barely clicking through. I did make an effort to click through and comment on 70 posts in the last two weeks, which is more than I can say for what I'd been doing before this.

3. Thank you, THANK YOU for sending new readers my way. I do hope some of them come back.

Thanks for hosting this every year!

Joy Weese Moll said...

I checked in at Lee Wind's blog, but I wanted to come over here and say thanks to you, too. I just love starting the year with the Comment Challenge!

Blessy Mathew said...

Thank you so much for offering the Comment Challenge. I enjoyed discovering new blogs and connecting with so many creative people. My total count: 95 comments. I'm now a follower of your blog, MotherReader.

Tara said...

Thank you for this cjance to connect to other bloggers - so amazing to come upon such a creative bunch of people who were generous with their comments.

Anonymous said...

This is my first year and I am very thankful to Lee and Mother Reader. I am a work in progress still trying to find my voice and figure out what is the best way for me as a writer. Can I say "oops" on trying to keep track of how many blogs I visited. I will keep visiting and enjoying. Thanks again.

Storied Cities said...

This was my second year and I admit to not doing as well as my first year. After my computer-less first week I never got quite up to speed, but plan making up for my failure by extra comments throughout the year!

JenFW said...

Woot! You know, I really think I made some sort of progress this year. It's not just the quantity (113--and I haven't started today's reading); I think I've learned how to comment in the process. To not feel dumb when I do, even if the comment is fluff.

I'm still not through the list, and I hope to keep working through it even after today.

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog, too. As MotherReader says, it gives me ideas, inspiration, and motivation for my own blogging.

Great event, all!

anniecardi said...

LOVED the comment challenge. It was my first blog challenge and it was so helpful in getting me to check out new blogs and comment even if I thought "oh, that's not good enough." I hit 113 total. I think I'm going to challenge myself to comment at least once a day from now on. There's no lack of awesome content out there!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for hosting this challenge. It's been a great experience! I did 110 comments, so a little over, and found some fantastic new blogs in the process.

As a newbie kidlit blogger, it was great to have lots of comments coming on my blog as well. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and left comments - you were my motivation to keep content fresh, which can be a real challenge.

I feel like my barriers have been broken down by this and I will be less of a lurker in the future. Thanks again!

The Pen and Ink Blogspot said...

Phew! Made it!
Favorite newly discoverely blog:
http://thisisnotthatblog.com/2011/05/31/five-ways-to-improve-your-workplace-with-sharks/

This is Susan from Pen and Ink
We are only counting my comments. I visited all and commented on every blog in the challenge (some more than once) Alltogether I've made 211 comments so far. Visiting Lees Blog will be 212.
I am, of course, not counting comments on my own blog. I learned a lot, got a new TBR list, and found some blogs I want to follow. Thanks. Heading to Lee's to check in. Do check out that link I put here. Using Sharks in the Work Place is a really funny post.

Annie said...

So happy that you and Lee did this! I pondered, learned, made friends, and had a writerly great time! I have a running total of 116. Looking forward to keeping up with my new favorite blogs!

Linda B said...

I really enjoyed every bit of this & meeting new people as well as so many new & creative blogs. Thank you!

Christy Rush-Levine said...

Thank you for hosting and introducing me to so many awesome blogs (including Lee's). I commented 119 times over the past 21 days (121 if you add this and the one I left on Lee's check-in post today). This was the perfect challenge to nudge me to start interacting more with what I read. You rock!

https://booksthoughtsadventures.com said...

I loved it...I met so many amazing bloggers and people actually read my blog...I almost fainted one day...can we do this every month? Please...

Mindy said...

I really enjoyed the challenge, but I didn't quite make it to 100. More like 58. :( Thanks for doing it! I found so many great blogs.

Caryl said...

I just checked in on Lee's blog but wanted to say thank you here, too. I think you've helped me make this commenting thing a habit! I was pretty shy about it before this. According to my tally, I posted 111 comments over the last three weeks.

Bill Kirk said...

This is like eating peanuts. After the first one, it's hard to stop. There were three days where I had to double up with 10 to stay on track. And then I found myself wandering on to other blogs, some not on the list and some that are. On the plus side, besides finding lots of really great blogs to visit, I have had more visits and comments on my blog in the last two weeks than in the last year. I finally declared myself done by stopping at Carrie Pearson's blog as my 116th. Now it's almost sundown and time to throw some grub together. Can't wait to tell my wife when she gets home from work how I spent the day....

Amy L V said...

This has been a great stretch for me, and again, a reminder of how important comments are - for both reader and writer of blogs. I'm not finished yet, but I will be before the clock strikes midnight! Thank you for sponsoring this once more. a.

Lee Wind, M.Ed. said...

MotherReader,
I am so grateful to have once again done this Comment Challenge we dreamed up together... Together! Full disclosure: this is the first time I didn't make it to 100... I'm only at 67, but I am determined to visit all our 150+ participants' blogs, check things out, read a few posts, and comment! This year felt less about the challenge and more about a shift in blog reading style, where I became invigorated by going to new-to-me blogs and kept reading and finding great stuff! I'm grateful as well to everyone who joined in and gave more attention and intent to being a kid lit blog reader... I really see it build community! Thanks again MotherReader, everyone, stay tuned for the announcement of the prize winners, and we'll do it again in 2013! Keep on commenting, Lee

Ed DeCaria said...

As of January 7, 2011, I had never been to 98% of the blogs in the Comment Challenge, and did not have a site of my own. 18 days later, I've visited 75 new blogs, made what I thought were 41 substantive comments (including revisiting to continue the conversation wherever it made sense), and received something close to 50 comments on my poems that I posted to my new website.

Very pleased to be a part of this community. Thank you for opening this event up without qualification -- I have met some great people, gotten some helpful feedback, and have even opened up a few "opportunities" in a very short time.

I intend to become even more active, and interactive, as time goes on.

5 comments/day for 3 weeks was tough, but now I think I'll shoot for at least 1-2 comments/day every day from now on.

Mary Jo Guglielmo said...

Thanks for organizing the challenge.

Beth said...

I had a lot of fun and found some new blogs to follow as well as some new books to read. It was also fun to have more comments on my page, since I'm a fairly low-traffic site.

I made my count of 100 -- every day I made at least five comments and then deliberately didn't count further because I wanted to start fresh each morning. I'll try to keep up with the habit of clicking through to comment on interesting things or posts that make me want to run out and get the books they mention.

Madigan Mirza said...

Whoo-hoo! I did it! Over a hundred different blogs commented on, many of them with multiple (thoughtful, not spammy) comments.

It was tough but doable.

Thanks again for hosting - this has been a lot of fun.

MaryHelen said...

Commenting is the fuel for writing. What a special boost to be visted by many new people. I was inspired by other blogs and am excited to continue reading through more blogs, as I did not get through the entire list. I made 61 comments and learned so much.

Nina Crittenden said...

This was a really fun challenge! Really cool way to find all sorts of new blogs! I didn't realize we were keeping track of the comments, so don't have a tally, but think I kept up for the most part. Thanks so much for organizing this! :)

Ann Summerville said...

Great challenge, I stopped by from Madigan Reads

Ann

Melanie said...

I made it! I posted 100 comments, exactly.

This was great fun. I'm so thankful for the people who took the time to stop by and comment on my blog.

Magdalena Ball said...

I really enjoyed the challenge and am surprised by how much I learned - not only about the bloggers I visited but ideas for my own blog. Getting comments from new visitors was also exciting. I'm not quite finished (didn't make 5 a day I'm afraid!) but I'll keep going until I've commented on every listed blog. Thank you for organising this.

Jill Bergman said...

Thanks for hosting the comment challenge! I wasn't counting and I'm not sure of my total. But I do know that I visited and commented on lots of great blogs. I bookmarked many of them to remember to visit again and I got lots of lovely visitors to my blog. I had a great time! :)

Rachel Schieffelbein said...

I found some great new blogs through this. And I did get more comfortable leaving comments.

Ms. Yingling said...

Visited a lot of new blogs, but am terrible at keeping tabs on things like this. Even if I didn't make 100 comments (an dI have no idea), I certainly was motivated to comment more than usual, so that's a good thing. Thanks for challenging us.

Sherry said...

103 comments as of today. Sorry, I forgot when the end date was. I probably was up to about 90 by the 25th, so I'm pleased with the results. It's good to focus on commenting instead of just clicking away with my thoughts still guarded in my own mind. Giving encouragement to others is both a gift and a discipline to be practiced.

Sylvia Liu said...

Hi. I started late and ended early, but for the middle period of the 21 day challenge, I was quite on fire with my commenting. I made about 80 comments in a span of ten days or so. I made an effort to visit every blog on the list, which was very enjoyable. I am definitely less shy about commenting on others' blogs now. Thanks!

Loni Edwards said...

Thanks so much for the comment challenge. I was able to connect with quite a few creatives. It was also so fun to discover new blogs. Can't wait for next year!