Guest Post On Aha!NOW & GEMS Of The ABC – April 2015

Do you like change? Do you appreciate when changes happen or are you apprehensive about making changes?

I personally consider change as a constant. That means change happens all the time.

In fact, if you do not change with time, you fall behind time.

So, you should keep checking on what’s working or not, sniffing on what’s new or promising, and re-orienting your strategy for success.

You must be like Sniff and Scurry, or it is not bad if you even be like Haw.

Are you familiar with these names? If not, then you should read the book “Who moved my cheese?” by Spencer Johnson.

Harleena and I, keep making changes at Aha!NOW as per the need of the time.

It is our constant endeavor to move the “Cheese Station” near you, so you are always content and happy.

(If you are getting bugged by the names and terms I am using, you better open up that Wikipedia link and read it! 🙂 )

This GEMS post is mostly about the changes that we are making at Aha!NOW and the ABC (Aha!NOW Blog Community).

After you read through, I would love to have your feedback in the comments section. Believe me; they are so crucial for us to make the changes as per your expectations and liking.

Opening The Doors To Guest Posting For All

Surprised?

This is the biggest change we have made since we started this blog, more than four years back. But we thought it is time to give back and share the love with everyone.

Now, we are opening the doors to all interested people (for a limited period), and it does not matter if they are regular visitors of Aha!NOW or not, or even, whether they are bloggers or not!

Isn’t this good news? Click this link to learn all about it.

You too can now write for Aha!NOW without having to top the leaderboard or earn any required number of reward points.

In short, you are welcome to write for us, with no strings attached!

I know you must be wondering why these changes, so let me explain about it all.

Why We Believe In Giving Back

Frankly, in the initial years Aha!NOW had few fans and followers. Moreover, the blog did not have an impressive rank. After all, it was new, and things take the time to grow.

But we had some bloggers who were regular visitors, and we wanted to reward them. So, they were sent special invitations to write for us and we had guest posts once a month.

Gradually, the blog started to rank better, and we had more visitors. But we did not want to have too many guest posts on Aha!NOW, as we considered it as our personal blog. Therefore, we were very selective.

When we started the ABC a bit more than six months back, we rewarded the most active community members with guest posts.

However, things have changed now.

Thankfully, the ABC is flourishing and Aha!NOW is ranked much better and becoming popular.

This is all because of your love and support in all these years. We feel grateful to you.

Honestly, we felt bad to deny guest post opportunities to regular Aha!NOW visitors and ABC members, who kept requesting us to allow them to guest post.

In the previous GEMS post, we announced opening the guest posts for all but with a condition of earning a fixed number of reward points.

With time, we realized that not every well-wisher and community member can remain active in the blog or community, as per our earlier guest posting conditions.

Even if the community members earned the guest opportunity, what about the Aha!NOW regulars?

What about the ardent social media followers, the blogging buddies, the non-blogging lots, and the countless guest blogging requests, which we receive every day?

We felt bad denying these requests and guest blogging opportunity to all of them. It certainly wasn’t being fair and probably made us appear to be arrogant.

So, we decided to go for the BIG change.

This decision was fueled by the generosity of Harleena, who now considers Aha!NOW not as her personal blog, but more as the blog of all its well-wishers.

You have a right to guest post on Aha!NOW because you are one of the reasons for its success!

The Results of Giving Guest Post Opportunities To All

Actually, we loved coming to this conclusion as it liberated us.

It feels good within because now we are not holding on to something that people want and denying them happiness. Now, we can give something that can make you happy.

Not to mention that we do have our selfish interests, as we will receive immense happiness, since giving is caring and loving. These are the roots of happiness, aren’t they?

The Aha!NOW blog audience will receive more quality posts from bloggers and non-bloggers from all over the world, presenting their varied views and experiences.

You will have a lot to read at Aha!NOW – probably it may become your daily stopover! 🙂

One consequence that we are aware of is that we will have to work more, as we will now be posting thrice a week, which means working round the clock.

But that is okay, as we look at the brighter side of things and focus on the positives.

To make things better, there are more changes on the ABC.

Equality, Fraternity, Liberty – Making The ABC More Awesome

All are equal on the ABC. Every member is free. We are all bonded in love and care for each other.

This is certainly what makes the ABC different from the other blog and blogging communities.

Aha!NOW and the ABC are founded on the human principles and values of compassion, care, and concern.

That is why we have such awesome community members, who shower their love and support to the old, as well as new members.

In a step towards making everyone equal and free, we are abolishing the system of awarding reward points too, after the removal of the leaderboard.

No points. No badges. No discrimination. No restrictions.

Sounds good?

Read the forthcoming announcement post on the ABC for details.

One thing I can tell you now is that we are closing the Community Groups along with the group forums.

The Best Of The Gems

Before the community groups become a thing of the past, I would take this opportunity to honor the two gems of the ABC, who had helped us in moderating the community groups on the ABC.

They are Rohan Chaubey from RohanChaubey.Blogspot.in and Ikechi Awazie from AwazieIkechi.com.

Though Rohan had the responsibility of managing and moderating his “Tech Tricks” community group only, he volunteered to assist in maintaining the other community groups as well, which the other group admins couldn’t keep up with, due to their own personal reasons.

Ikechi did a good job of maintaining and managing the “Be An Inspiration” community group very regularly.

We could not have kept up the groups without the help of these two splendid gems of the ABC.

So, congratulations Rohan and Ikechi for doing such a wonderful job with the groups – sheer gratitude from the ABC.

The Commenting Gems

Aha!NOW receives many comments, and that is all because of the real relationships build with bloggers over time.

We are truly grateful to these wonderful commenters, who are the special gems of Aha!NOW.

Here are the top 30 commenting gems of Aha!NOW for the month of March, 2015.

There are more commenting gems, who are not featured here, but they are all important as well. They have all received a special thank you mail from us.

We also want to thank the “invisible” gems, who visit the blog, read the posts and then share them on the social media. Thank you for promoting Aha!NOW to your fans and followers!

The ABC Mentions

We love the posts that mention and feature the ABC. That is why we feature them in this special section.

In the previous month, the following bloggers helped spread the awareness of the ABC.

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Naveen Kumar posted the interview of Ahaian Rohan Chaubey “Interview With Young Talented Blogger Rohan Chaubey – A Man Behind Learning With TeamSR” on his blog, where Rohan mentioned the ABC.

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Hadharm Hiidee posted “Why Duplicating Content Will Make You A Laughingstock” on his blog, where he talked about the Aha!NOW Blog Community (ABC).

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Luana Spinetti included the ABC in her post “9 Untapped Online Content Promotion Channels” on her blog.

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Let me know if I have missed your post where you mentioned the ABC. I will surely include that in the next month’s GEMS post.

Do visit these posts and check out the entire blogs – you never know it may contain some hidden treasure that you were looking for!

Are You Ready For The Boom

On a different note, I am happy to announce that Aha!NOW is mobile-friendly as per Google’s mobile-friendly test. Are you also doing what it takes to do to make your blog mobile-friendly?

The last date is approaching near, as its set for April 21, 2015.

In the meantime, the mobile traffic at Aha!NOW has already increased by about 25%! I am sure it is going to make a big difference if you make your blog mobile and tablet ready.

With more posts, visitors, community activities, and changes, we are all set to make Aha!NOW and the ABC boom!

Are you with us?

If you have not registered with the ABC, you can register here.

If you too want to avail guest blogging opportunity on Aha!NOW, then click here.

We will give preference to the long-time Aha!NOW regular visitors and followers, and even the ABC members. We will accept only quality guest posts.

However, we still have space for non-ABC members and those who are not regular visitors of Aha!NOW. Not to forget, even the people who are not bloggers.

Wishing you all a great weekend! Happy Easter to those celebrating it! 🙂

Over To You –

What are your thoughts about change in general, and the changes on Aha!NOW and the ABC? Are you happy with them? Do you want to avail the guest blogging opportunity on Aha!NOW? Share in the comments.