I had a lovely surprise earlier this year when I was put up for a Blogger Recognition Award form my lovely friend and talented blogger Cheryl Fassett.

As with a lot of these so-called ‘awards,’ this is a bloggers prompt or tag, in which participating bloggers write a post based on the prompt, answering certain questions and connecting with other like-minded and/or slightly insane people.

What I love about this particular award is that it has just so happened to come about at the same time that I am re-launching this blog, and for those of you who have been following me from day one, you will know that my first blog post ever was another one of these awards. If however, you are new here, please do check out Nominated for a Liebster Award. This is a special post for me, not only that it was my first but that it was tagged to me by another very special lady and wonderful writer, Bee Halton.

Please do go and visit both Bee and Cheryl over at their blogs, they are fantastic writers and well worth a follow. Their sites are linked below.

Now let’s get on with it….

A little bit of back story

With this award, the nominee is supposed to divulge some background information on how their blog came into the world.

Well in truth I have always wanted to be a writer, and for me, creating my own blog seemed like a good starting point. I love to connect with other people and enjoy reading blogs and articles, so I thought “What have I got to loose?”

It’s not been the smoothest start, admittedly. In my first year on-line I have published a measly amount of posts, though I have accrued a horrific number in draft form and an entire A4 notebook of ideas, so not all doom and gloom there. On the positive side, today in the day I re-launch my blog, giving it a face-lift and uploading some long over due posts, so all of that half-finished content will be on its way soon.

Advice for New Bloggers

1. Did you think this through?

This may sound like negative advice, but building from my own struggle over the past year, I will freely admit that starting my blog when I did may not have been the smartest idea. As it happened I was dealing with a number of health issues, massive stress, a major workload at the day job and frankly my hair was falling out.

Adding to that my desire to finish my book, studying my degree alongside full-time employment, running a household and planning a wedding – then you could say I was pretty far up the coo coo’s nest.

So my first nugget of advice is to think this through. Really! Don’t get swept away in the ‘glamour’ of blogging or your thousands of ideas for posts. It is a massive time commitment, filled with research, drafting, editing, finding images and networking. Make sure blogging will fit into your life and that you really want it before you make the leap.

And if you love writing, then nothing will stop you.

2. Don’t loose faith

Something more positive!

Please whatever you do, never lose faith in yourself or your writing.

I am pleased to say that despite everything I am still here, ready and willing to carry on, more determined then ever. And believe me when I say that there will be a lot of times along the blogging road when you feel like you can’t go on, that its not worth it, or the nay-sayers will find a way of putting you down.

Don’t listen!

If you enjoy writing, want to write, or just even have something to say, then do not let anything stop you. Carve out that precious writing time and enjoy! There is no better reward than being able to say you did it.

Nominations

Unfortunately, all of the people that I would have wanted to nominate for this award have already done it, so instead I am going to give an open house offer, so to speak. If you have yet to receive a nomination and you would like to give it a go then please comment with a link to your blog below as I would love to hear from you.

The Rules of the Game

Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog. (Do it! Share the awesome!)

1. Write a post to show your award.

2. Give a brief story of how your blog started.

3. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.

4. Select 5 other bloggers for this award.

5. Comment on each blog to let them know you nominated them and link to the post you created.

6. Add Blogger Recognition Award to your post

Thank you once again, Cheryl and Bee, for your awesome support and of course, amazing blogs. And also I would like to give a hat tip to Mandy Eve-Barnett whom nominated Cheryl originally, there is a link below to her site via her name. Go check it out, it’s fantastic.