I have always wanted to create a blogger award. I mean It’s a great way to get involved with the community and help. That’s why I have come up with the Sow A Seed Blogger Award!
Couldn’t decide on one image so we made two!
What is the Sow A Seed Blogger Award?
Sow A Seed Blogger Award is an award given to bloggers who have been creative, positive, inspiring, hardworking and dedicated. Who make blogging fun and have been wonderful for the blogging community. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get.
After the dedication and vast amount of hours they have kept into their blogs. It’s time for them to share some of their knowledge with newbie and veteran bloggers. To create a sort of citadel of tips that can help other bloggers especially the newest in the community.
Why Did I Create The Award?
Well like I said earlier, helping create a post with a vast amount of tips, from amazing bloggers that are good at what they do. I have been getting a lot of mail from bloggers who have been asking for advice and I really think this could benefit them.
Tips and advice not from one but from different bloggers who have had the same and different experiences in the blogging community. And for that reason I created my own award, Sow A Seed Blogger Award and nominate bloggers who can also nominate others; and so on, creating a citadel of tips and advice.
Helping create a friendlier community and build a link between bloggers in the blogosphere! So if you get tips or advice from a blogger you like, you can go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, checking out the bloggers they nominate and maybe make new friends along the way.
Rules of Sow A Seed Blogger Award
- Put the award logo/image on your blog.
- Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
- Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well
- List the rules.
- Give a brief story of how your blog started and problems you faced.
- Give five pieces of advice for new and old bloggers. (Note: you can still mention a tip that’s been mentioned already because we all express things differently)
- You have to nominate 5 -12 bloggers.
- Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog or just reaching out to them.
My Brief Story
Like I have said in previous awards it all started with Kiri Kiri Basara, a blog from the anime Occultic;Nine. Yuta Gamon runs his blog, writing news and discussion of the occult.
And trying to drive traffic to his blog, so he could live off the earnings from affiliate click-throughs. It was something I could see myself doing.
So I created a blog on Blogger and from there to WordPress where I am now. Under a different name and niche. Contributors have gone and come since I started this journey.
I remember once a relation even condemned the whole thing I was doing. My blog has been hacked once when I first started and I had not learnt about security.
I’ve had other technical issues that have made me learn a lot about the technical stuff going on behind the scenes of blogs. I Learned a lot about SEO, I read a lot…
But honestly I wouldn’t change it for anything, I like improving on my writing and seeing people reading my content in places I hadn’t heard of or places I might never be opportune to go to. Reading comments.
Luckily for me I had two amazing supporters that have zero to little interest in my niche but still support me (my mum and girlfriend) and amazing blogging partner, Thenerdygirlnews.
Blogging is hard, it’s really like diving into the deep end of a pool epically if you don’t want it to just be a hobby. But through all the ups and downs it’s very rewarding. Example of such good days is when I eventually finish a post I am writing and look at what I created, it surprises even me that I could come up with what I write.
Five Advice For New and Old Bloggers
- You probably don’t need as many plugins as you think you do
When I first started plugin, I used like 30 or 20 something plugins. I had a plugin to do this and that, but now I have cut them down to 16.
Too many plugins can add to your load time or cause technical issues if they have code that conflicts with other things on your blog like your theme.
Or even security issues if the plugin has malware. It is not bad to have a lot of plugins. I know some blogs that have +30 plugins and still load pretty fast as long as they are properly coded they won’t be an issue.
But over time I have learnt to following a coding principal KISS (keep it simple stupid).
Too many functions can be overwhelming and sometimes you might already have a plugin that can do or is already doing the function you want to get another plugin for.
- Don’t pay for any wonder SEO toolkit
I can’t stress this enough there is no wonder tool that is going to take you blog immediately to ranking for top pages in search engines.
If anything, some of these methods might not be good practice, so they could have negative effects on your blog.
The only thing I have really paid for since I started blogging is for my domain name and hosting. And I have even heard of people who have started a blog without even paying for hosting.
Not saying there are not some good services out there that wouldn’t take your blogging to another level but when you start a blog always try to start off as cost effective as possible, only pay for the essentials.
- Do what works for you
If there is a balancing act I still haven’t found it. Balancing blogging and normal life stuff can be hard but to cope I think creating a schedule that works for you is best.
There are some bloggers that can publish new content every day, some twice a week, others once a month etc. To find some sort of balance work at your own pace, I notice if I push myself I could push out something everyday but I don’t feel what I would come up with would be the best I can do.
Last year I used to post sporadically, this year we’ve been sticking to a schedule of a new post, once every week. We even have scheduled posts now.
What I am saying is it’s OK to be overwhelmed with the schedule and be on and off. Find your own groove and write, I know of some bloggers that only publish once a month and are doing better than daily publishers.
- Free to use or not free to use images
I have heard and asked this question a lot:
” how do I use images without violating copyright issues?”
And it’s a question you get a lot answers to. What I would advise is to have a disclaimer for images, credit images when you know the source and don’t edit out the image watermark if the image has one.
- DON’T GIVE UP!
Don’t get discouraged. You might hear or see blogs that say they started out with a 100k views, making a +$1000 off affiliate links etc. I honestly don’t believe that’s possible.
If you are thinking your writing or presentation is not good enough. Those things get with time, the more you write and read other bloggers posts.
Blogging can be rewarding in a lot of ways but monetary or views wise, that takes time. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme.
Learn to have a thick skin, you will definitely come across a few troll bridges and very “opinionated” otaku fans on your blogging journey.
Blogging is fun and one of the best things you can do has a hobby or job. So don’t give up! You will find your voice.
MY NOMINEES
- Mechanical Anime Reviews
- Umai Yomu Anime Blog
- I drink and watch anime
- CROW’S WORLD OF ANIME
- Jon Spencer Reviews
- GEEKNABE
- 9 Tailed Kitsune
- Anime Rants
- Matt-in–Hat
- The Otaku Author
- Nerd Rambles
- Blerdy Otome
And with that I am done and I’m sending it off. Congratulations and best wishes to our nominees! Hope you have fun with this and we help a lot of bloggers.
And if you’re reading this post and want to take part in this award, then consider yourself nominated.
