Blogger Recognition

I was nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award by one of my favorite bloggers, Kittyp0p. This is a fun award because it’s all about blogging.

Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
2. Write a post about your nomination.
3. Explain how your blog started.
4. Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
5. Select 15 bloggers to give this award to.
6. Comment on their blogs to let them know you nominated them.

How my blog started:
I’m going to take it way back to my very first blog/site, in 2004. It was called Poison Paradise and was a combination of blogging and a place to showcase graphics that I made. In 2005, I purchased my first (and only) domain, Unfoolish-Miracles.net. It remained my home until 2009. Blogging was a great outlet for me all through my teenage years. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without it. Aside from that, I met quite a few blogger friends that I’m still in touch with to this day.

I was able to track down a few screenshots of my old blog. The layouts were designed by myself using Photoshop. It’s so weird looking back on things I did and said as a teenager. It almost feels like another world!

I eventually got tired of paying for the domain and designing layouts, so I closed it down and just opened a wordpress blog with a pre-made theme. I called that blog Enchanted. At that point, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were really taking off, and I didn’t feel much of a need to blog anymore. There was always a part of me that missed it though. Even social media sites can’t replicate the blog scene. So six years later, and here I am again. Now that I’ve started blogging again, I’m wondering how I went so long without it. It almost feels like I never left.

My advice for new bloggers:
Don’t settle for a particular theme or type of posts just because a bunch of other bloggers are doing it. You need to post about things you truly care about, and that will shine through to your readers. I would much rather follow a blog that is passionate about their site and what they’re writing about rather than someone who just seems like they’re in it for the popularity.

Be open to posting about different topics. If you post about the same things all the time, it’s likely going to get boring. Posting about a variety of different topics can also help attract a wider audience.

Create a visual platform. Reading is fun, but blogs are even better when they have pictures to go with it. This doesn’t mean you have to post pictures in every single blog post, but pictures really do help draw people in. It’s even better some of the pictures feature yourself, so your audience recognizes the face behind the posts.

Be interactive with your readers. I hate when I read and comment on a blog numerous times and don’t get any sort of acknowledgment. Even if I really like your posts, if I feel like you think you’re better than me and my blog, I likely won’t continue to follow you. Part of the fun of blogging is the community aspect to it. Reply to some comments and take the time to check out your readers blogs and comment on what they have to say as well. It’s a great way to get to know other people and makes them open to want to get to know you more as well.

My nominees:
I just nominated a bunch of blogs for the Liebster award, and with me still being somewhat new to the current blog scene, I don’t know of too many other bloggers yet. So I hope this isn’t cheating, but I would like to nominate anyone who would like to participate to also answer these questions on their blog. All bloggers deserve recognition.