The Blogger Recognition Award Tag

I was really happy to be tagged in the Blogger Recognition Award by the lovely Julz from The Redhead Diaries. Thank you for the nomination Julz.

It came at a great time for me as I realised I had no idea what I was going to write about for today’s post. The plan was a round up of my favourite scary movies to watch over Halloween, but when I looked back over the post I wrote about that last year, I realised none had changed.

So here goes:

The Rules

• Take the time to thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
• Write a post to show your award
• Give a brief story about how your blog started
• Give some advice to new bloggers
• Select 10-15 other bloggers you want to give this award to
• Comment on each blog to let them know you have nominated them, and provide the link to the post you created (Actually, I wouldn’t recommend doing this, it’s likely to get your comment marked as spam. Maybe tweet the people instead).

How My Blog Started

As regular readers will know, my blog started out as a short term project to get me back into writing as I wanted to write a novel and I hadn’t wrote a thing in years (shopping lists don’t count right?).

I planned on blogging for a couple of weeks, but by the time those couple of weeks were over, I had well and truly caught the blogging bug and I kept blogging and started to take it more seriously.

I went self hosted nine months after starting my blog, and here I am, two and a half years later still blogging with no intention of stopping.

Some Advice for New Bloggers

This one sounds a bit contradictory, but don’t pay too much attention to all of the blogging advice you will read. There are so many posts out there telling you the magic formula for traffic and followers etc. The truth is, there is no magic formula. It’s all about hard work and finding what works for you.

In the beginning, concentrate on good, useful content that people will relate to and enjoy. Write in your own voice and don’t be afraid to put a little personality into.

Decide why you are blogging: is it to promote a business? To be seen as an authority voice? As a hobby? Once you can answer this questions, the rest will fall into place a lot easier. For example, if your blog is to promote your business, then you already know your niche and target reader. If it’s more of a hobby, don’t be afraid to start blogging before you have a definite niche nailed down. Standard niches are over rated – your voice is your niche.

And the biggest one? Enjoy it – immerse yourself in the community and make connections. Talk to people, and be social. Have fun and enjoy your blogging journey.

My Nominations

I’m going to cheat a bit here. If you would like to take part in the tag, consider yourself nominated.

Thanks again to Julz for the tag.

What advice would you offer new bloggers? Let me know in the comments.

You can find me here: Twitter Facebook Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!