The Blogger Recognition award

Posted on by Casey smurph

The Lovely Lauren from  Wonderlessreviews and the equally awesome Louise from Geniereads both tagged me for the Blogger Recognition award a while ago. Thank you so much guys, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to complete this *drowns under all my drafts*

Okay so rules:blogger-recognition-award.jpg

  • Write a post to show your award
  • Give a brief story of how your blog started.
  • Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
  • Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
  • Select other blogs you want to give the award to.

How my blog started 

*Cue ominous music and dim the lights* One cold night there was a Casey at home reading alone, wondering where are all my fellow fangirls at?

No but seriously my blog started from Goodreads and writing reviews on there. I only joined Goodreads last year in June and I started to write and read reviews. I just enjoyed it so much. From there I went on to create a bookstgram which I LOVE.

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The bookstagram community welcomed me with open arms and unlimited book recommendations. After making a heap of friends on there and yelling about all the books I loved I decided to investigate a blog so I could yell about books with even MORE people. So first I started a Blogger site, completely confused myself and decided to try wordpress instead.

I found WordPress easier to format and navigate and wouldn’t think of changing platforms at this point in time. From there its history I guess, I wrote reviews, I met a lot of fantastic friends and this blog has really bettered my life.

I’ve met Authors, spoken with publishes, interview book boxes, reviewed horrible books, reviewed amazing pieces of art, ranted and raved with people from all around the world and I just love everyone. If I could send you all books I would, and hey maybe I’ll win the lottery and do it one day.

My two pieces of Advice would be this:

Advice number one:

Do your best to create a schedule for posting and keep up to date with your reviews. I am still flailing around the place because I have no schedual and post whatever whenever BUT I am trying harder to get my reviews up in time and not do tagged posts to late *cough*raw.gif this is 3 months late *cough*

Believe me those with schedules have a much easier time then the rest of us who are just flailing and drowning under all the social media.

Advice number two:

Have fun! Yes I sound like a sports mum now, I know, I know. Seriously though enjoy it, if blogging starts getting stressful or you really don’t want to review something then just DON’T  do it. I read a lot more books than I review just because I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I have a full-time job, a Blog, a goodreads, a Bookstagram, a Twitter account, a sort of social life and sometimes it’s just to much to post about every book and thought I had so I just skip some and keep my sanity, I suggest you do the same because you can get burnt out and that’s not what readings for it’s for fun, it’s a hobby, enjoy it.

 

Some other mini tid bits I wish I new

  • If you’re linking to someones blog link to their about page NOT their homepage, they won’t get a notification if you link to the home page
  • Stats aren’t important, whats important is having conversations with people
  • Spam comments get you no where fast
  • Twitter is fantastic for staying up to date with your fellow bloggers and I wish I started an account earlier then I did
  • Don’t be fancy, write however you want and your ‘voice’ will come out
  • Don’t apologise for not posting for a week or not its your blog, just do you
  • Play around with your design as much as you like until your happy with the way it looks
  • Read all the books and chat with all the people and share all the Gifs

 

So that was my Advice and start story! If you’ve been blogging for a while leave a comment about what you wish you knew before you started blogging and hopefully people can learn even more from the comments!

I tag these amazing humans:

If you’ve already done this award let me know so I can check it out 😀

 

 

24 thoughts on “The Blogger Recognition award”

  1. Great advice! I definitely agree with you about just being yourself on your own blog because your voice will show. I also agree with not looking at the stats and just communicating with other people in the blog. What’s the point of having so many followers and not carrying a conversation with them? Lol. Thanks for tagging me!

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    1. Exactly how I feel 🙂 at one stage I was just stressing myself out with trying to talk to too many new people, and it’s not like I don’t talk to new blogs but I also spend a lot more time just keeping up with the people I follow and have developed great friendships with. I don’t know how the big blogs keep up with comments and posts, it must be crazy!

      I hope you enjoy doing it 🙂

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  2. Great advice! At some point, blogging felt like a job because I put too much pressure on myself but I managed to turn it back into a fun hobby 🙂 Stats will go up and down, it’s definitely not the most important thing. If you have numbers in my when you blog, chances are you won’t last long. It’s all about sharing and chatting 🙂

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    1. Sharing and chatting is the best part! I’ve nearly felt that way a few times, having to many reviews and drafts pile up but I’ve just taken a step back like you’ve said and stopped being to hard on myself if I don’t post anything 😀

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  3. ❤ Thanks lovely! I did this one already, but it's so fun reading these answers. I agree with your tips, especially the one about stats and connecting with others. I don't have many visits, but other bloggers comment and that's the only thing I care about ^^

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    1. I shall go and search your one 😀 Thank you! Its so awesome to talk to other bloggers and discuss why you liked or disliked a book 😀 It’s my fave thing about blogging and why I’m still doing it and loving it I think 😀

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  5. Ahh always love it to read how people start their blogs! 😀 I found it hard to keep up with schedules especially during busy weeks but ironically, schedules are what safe my blog from crumbling :’) it’s always super handy to have posts scheduled (or even better drafted) whenever we’re busy or just don’t feel like writing a new post! But don’t worry you’re not the only one who’s always behind on tags. There’s ME, and also all other bloggers with the same problmes lol

    AND YES TO HAVE FUN! I mean, let’s get real, even if blogging is just a hobby, it’s like having a second job especially because we take it way too seriously hahaha but it’s always important to know when to take a break 🙂 Great answers!

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    1. Thank you! Draft posts save me ALL THE TIME and I don’t schedule as often as should but I do want to try and get a week in front because it gives me more time to read other peoples posts 😀

      Haha it is like a second job but also really fun so I don’t count it as one, the amount of time we blog could definitely be put into a work week though!

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  8. “Believe me those with schedules have a much easier time then the rest of us who are just flailing and drowning under all the social media.”

    I’m with you on this one sister! I read about bloggers who have the entire month of blog posts scheduled and I’m over here like… “hmmmm what shall I post today?”

    “I read a lot more books than I review just because I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself… I suggest you do the same because you can get burnt out and that’s not what readings for it’s for fun, it’s a hobby, enjoy it.”

    I am starting to learn this one for myself. I am 10 book reviews behind right now and something has to give. I’m either going to do some “mini-reviews” or just accept the fact that I probably won’t be able to keep up if I review EVERY book I read.

    Great post and advice Casey 🙂 Thanks for the tag!

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  11. So lovely to hear how you got started (and I realised I wasn’t following you on the ‘gram–a grievous oversight, which I’ve obviously fixed). I’m totally with you that there’s no need to apologise for not posting. Life happens. I feel as though every month is going to be THE month when I finally catch up with all the reviews I’ve been meaning to write and generally get on top of things. I’ll just keep chasing that rainbow… 🙂

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    1. I wasn’t following you either! I’m glad that has been fixed now your feed is awesome 😀 I’m glad you agree with me and yes I think we’ll be forever chasing the rainbow when it comes to all the reviews and posts I’d like to post XD hey at least we won’t run out of content ;0

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