The Blogger Recognition Award 2017

Hi everybody,

Welcome back.

Brains & Bodies has received its third nomination for a blogging award this year. In my first two weeks of blogging I was surprised to have received two nominations for ‘The Liebster Award 2017’. It seems that the saying third time lucky is in full swing and this time I am proud to announce I was nominated for ‘The Blogger Recognition Award 2017″ by Preeti at Scenario of Life.

Scenario of Life is a lifestyle blog that lets you into everything in Preeti’s world. She is a credible blogger and so far has received nominations for two blogging awards. If you are interested in health and different aspects of life you should check her blog out.

I launched Brains & Bodies about a month ago and since then I have been astonished by its response. Of course, I am no Z list celebrity, but it’s a great feeling to know people enjoy what you are writing and recognize the importance of health and well-being topics. I want to thank everyone who has read my posts to date across different oceans.

Blogging is one of the best things I have ever done for myself mentally and an an amazing opportunity arose this week. I have been asked to be a guest writer for one semester at Cherwell Blogs.

Cherwell Blogs is a blog from the only independent student newspaper at The University of Oxford. I can’t actually believe I am saying that – I am not even a student there. I attend Oxford Brookes so theoretically I am still in the Early Learning Centre being asked to play with the top dogs. Nonetheless, being a guest writer will be a great addition to the CV – and it also gave me a compliment off my mother – which is a rare commodity.

However, I can’t lie I am not your usual blogger. One of my main illnesses – Ehlers Danlos Syndrome still holds me back somewhat as I cannot write every week due to the pain I endure. I accepted the position on the condition I will be writing bi-weekly for them about chronic illnesses related posts– watch this space!

BACK TO THE BLOGGER RECOGNITION AWARD AND ALL THAT JAZZ

Similar to the Liebster Award, The Blogger Recognition Award is given to bloggers by bloggers. Its purpose is to motivate further writing and acknowledge the effort that is involved in generating posts. The award is great for bloggers to review and reward each other’s work to create a supportive blogging community.

Once, nominated… If you wish to accept the nomination there are a few rules to be followed which are;

Produce a post about the award
Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
Write a brief story about how your blog began
Provide two pieces of advice to newbie bloggers
Select 15 blogs to nominate
Comment on each nominee’s blog and provide a link to the post you made about the award

HOW MY BLOG STARTED

I first was required to create a blog for a University module in the last academic year about Business topics. I didn’t actually receive any likes, comments or shares but I found it was a good way to map out my thoughts more clearly. I didn’t really think about blogging that much more until I became so sick I couldn’t leave bed and I didn’t know how to explain my health problems to others… or whether I should bother anymore. If I tried, I wasn’t able to vocalize it very well. I mean in my mind I was but everyone else would ask me to repeat what I said again which led to frustration and feeling alone.

I own more than one invisible illness – EDS and Depression. On the odd day I left the house I found I was discriminated against on public transport. I was often told to move to let young children sit down on long journeys.

I explained why I needed to sit down but as parents got rowdy I moved yet my nobly knees didn’t thank me for it. I knew I didn’t look sick but I thought once I explained why I needed to sit down people wouldn’t question it. I was wrong. These things combined led a passion to grow in me for raising awareness about disabilities and well-being.

TWO PIECES OF ADVICE FOR NEWBIES

Discover your Writing Style

When you’re a newbie, you will quickly realize you need to find your own voice to stand out in a crowded community. EXPERIMENT with your writing and you will find out what works and what doesn’t. There are many ways to discover your writing style. Play around with words because your posts will need catchy titles to draw people in. Writing in a conversational tone can also help the reader feel connected to you. I suggest you write questions at the end of your posts to engage readers with the contents and don’t worry if you make mistakes. They aren’t really mistakes if you learn from them.

I’ll let you into a secret…

Mistakes are normal if you seek to be a fully pledged citizen of the blogosphere. If you are really stuck then read other blogs. There is no harm in copying the structure of a post as long as you ensure the content IS different.

Raid your Inspiration

What I mean by raid your inspiration, is when inspiration strikes, write! You can always come back to your writing to add more or refine existing content and have several drafts. Proof reading is equally important as writing the original post. It is better to post content you are proud of than writing for the sake of writing because your worried other bloggers are posting every single day and will gain more traffic.

An Extra Tip –Free of charge, of course.

Join a blogging network

Blogging is not an easy ride. Writing is only one half of the process, whilst the other is promotion. My third piece of advice is to join a blogging network. Blogging networks can be hit and miss if they are generic so search for one in your niche. By finding a network you can increase traffic and engagement and gain advice from more experienced bloggers. You can look for a variety of blogging networks on Google but many tend to be on Facebook.

MY NOMINATIONS

Health

Sandra at Forvaerring af symptomer
Jordy and Marjke at Mojo and Friends
Shannon at Little Sea Bear
Rob at Disability 2 Ability
Amber at My Life in Colour
Mohammad at Aarish’s blog
Ali and Scott at Rowdy Gowdy
Pauline at Pauli Ticks (trigger warning: contains strong language)

Lifestyle and Travel

Haylee at Haylee’s Twenty Something Life
Christoph at TrendaBlaze
A.K at The Party Trail
Cassidy at Cassidy’s Adventures
Lily at Richer Insight

Parenting

Danny at Dadoo
Mark at Thoughts of a First Time Dad

Congratulations to all my nominees, you deserve it. I hope you have fun if you choose to take part and I look forward to reading your posts. I would like to thank Preeti again for nominating Brains & Bodies and appreciating my hard work.

READERS… GET INVOLVED
1. What do you think about the award?
2. Do you have any advice new bloggers?
    SHARING IS CARING

I would love if you shared this post to support mine and my nominees’ blogs.

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Thanks for reading,

Peace out.

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