Blogger Recognition Award

I’ve been nominated for another blogger award! This time, Sara from Vivid n Stylish has nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award. Thankyou Sara for this nomination. And an additional thanks to Eve Estelle from the Edge of the Night blog for creating the award initially.

For those who don’t know, the Blogger Recognition Award is a way of recognising all the hard work and effort that goes into blogging and celebrating those who put in the hard work. It isn’t as easy as everyone thinks!

Firstly, I’ll outline the rules of the tag. Then I’ll explain two reasons why I start blogging and two pieces of advice I have for other bloggers. Then I’ll answer the questions Sara has asked me, before asking my own questions and nominating some more bloggers to answer them.

Rules

• Display the logo of the blogger recognition award.
• Thank the blogger nominator.
• Write something about bloggers’ recognition award.
• Write two reasons why you started blogging.
• Give two pieces of advice to your fellow bloggers.
• Nominate 15 more bloggers for the blogger recognition award.
• Notify each of your nominees that you have chosen them.

Two reasons why I started blogging

Well the first reason was because it was recommended to me. I wrote about the start of the blog in my first ever blog post . Long story short, the girls I was travelling with said they’d learned a lot about the issues I face as a disabled person over the course of the trip and encouraged me to start sharing my experiences in a blog. So I came home and that’s exactly what I did, sharing my first post in the October after the trip that summer. Secondly, it seemed like a good way to vent my frustrations with the ableist way society is set up and the barriers that are in my way as a disabled person.

Two pieces of advice for other bloggers

I actually previously discussed my advice for other bloggers. However, if I was to pick two key pieces of advice, the first would be to find your “cornerstone”. By this I mean the one value or thing about your writing that you would never give up. The thing that makes it recognisable as your writing. For me that’s my honesty, if a post doesn’t brutally honest and raw and as those my friends can hear me saying it in their head, then I shouldn’t be putting my name to it. My second piece of advice would be don’t force content. You’ve probably read somewhere that you need to release x blog posts a week that are x number of words long for good SEO and “the algorithm” or something. But if you’re forcing out content you’re not interested in purely to meet these arbitrary numbers, your audience will be able to tell and they’ll likely stop reading. Focus on building a supportive readership that waits on every word you write, no matter when you release.

Questions I have to answer

• How are you feeling about the achievements made by your blog?

It’s honestly mind-blowing, I really never expected it to reach the readership that it has or to give me the opportunities it has. However, the success it HAS achieved has shown me I still have so much I want to achieve when it comes to blogging and disability activism.

• How much quantitative time do you put into the blog daily, writing, site maintaining, and social media visiting?

I honestly have no idea and I have no intention to start counting. I’ve never set specific time periods that I need to spend each week on creating content, and I think that’s to do with not forcing content, as I said in my advice. I only write or create content when I feel there is content I want to create.

• What do you miss and/or cherish after the Pandemic?

I miss travelling and being busy. Whether that was visiting family or friends or heading to events and meetings. An “on the go” lifestyle was my standard and probably best for me. I can start to overthink if I have too much time to think.

• What do you do to keep yourself calm, while things are not going your way?

I usually play very loud music and sing along. That or watching Mixed Martial Arts videos, those are usually videos which bring up good memories of going to events with friends and remind me there are better days ahead

Nominations

Jo Jo from JoJo’s Cup of Mocha

Alex from The VI Critic

Jess from Stuck In The Book

Claire from Our Favourite Jar

Helen from Dotted Pages

Ashley from Blabbing Ash

Thomas from TheDoubtingThomas

Artie Carden

Hope from The Hope Chronicles

Keith from On My Mind Today

Weird & Liberated

Shona from ShonaLouise.com

Carrie Ann Lightley

Emmagayle from Emmagayle Blogs

Ellie M from Ticking The List

Questions

1. Who is one blogger that you think deserves more recognition? Shout them out here!
2. What is one way I could easily recognise you? Maybe a piece of clothing or something you are known for saying?
3. What is one underrated creative thing you think I should check out? whether that’s a Youtuber, a musician/band or a particular tv show, or maybe you have suggestions for all of them!

Once again, thanks to Sara for nominating me and I love forward to seeing how everyone answers my questions!

Stay Invincible!

Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)