The Blogger Recognition Award

This post is going to be short because I have tests this week (You know those things that creep up on you when you never really want to see them? Yeah, that kind). This post has been long overdue. I think I was nominated a month ago. (Time flies!) The special fact about this one is that I’ve been nominated by three of my blogging friends – Surabhi, Jajwalya and Sriraksha. 😀

The Rules for The Blogger Recognition Award

For all the nominees for this award, here are the rules, if you choose to accept (Please do):

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. Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
5. Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.

How It All Began

To be honest, this isn’t the first time I’ve started a blog. My previous three attempts all failed spectacularly; this one seems to have lasted the longest and is probably the only one I’ll be sticking to for quite some time. I’d like to say I learnt a lot from those failures, but that’s just not true. I have gained more out of this blog than I could have ever imagined and now that I’m getting “serious” (i. e. posting regularly) about it, I am thinking of aiming for bigger goals. It all stemmed from my desire to write more. I was always meant to write – I made up stories and poems long before I knew enough words to articulate my thoughts properly. I lost touch with that side during 2011-2013 (that was a dark period). I finally decided to come out of that when college left me with more free time than I could constructively use. This one was rotting in the depths of the Internet till I “rescued” it in the December of 2015. I moved from Tumblr to WordPress as it had better scope for writers. That’s how Pages That Rustle was born.

My Sincere Advice

1. Post regularly: I’ve only recently started following this and I can assure you it pays off handsomely in terms of blog traffic. But you probably know this, so let me rephrase that – don’t fall into a writing slump. It’s okay to miss a day or two as long as you get back on track the first chance you get. It doesn’t have to be the best post you have ever written. Try to be as disciplined as possible.
2. Leave meaningful comments: When you join, try to follow the blogs in your niche and then some more, for variety’s sake. Comment on their posts as much as possible and add to the discussion. Chances are they will visit your blog and follow you back. This is the best way to grow your audience, in my opinion, as I don’t believe in all the gimmicks floating around the Internet these days.

Gratitude

A big thank you to those who nominated me. One of them is the Pippin to my Merry. If that piqued your interest, go check out their blogs –

Light Writes by Jajwalya R. K.

The Ink Drop by Surabhi Rao

Brewing Preoccupations by Sriraksha V. Raghavan

Breaking the Rules

You know the one thing I don’t like about these awards? Not knowing whom to pass them on to. From previous experience, I’ve learnt that the ones I nominate don’t do awards or have already received said award. I will, therefore, refrain from mentioning any blogs here. If you are blogger reading this post, you definitely deserve to be recognised, so if you’re interested, I’m nominating you. The rules are clear – just pingback to this post if you decide to accept the award (I sincerely hope you do). Have a nice week ahead! 🙂

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Have any thoughts to share? What would your top two advice be? Let me know in the comments section below.