Rory, the creator of A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip! has kindly nominated me for the Solidarity Blogger Award, as you can see from his post below:
Putting yourself on a stage or platform is not easy the first time. How will the audience react? Or…will anyone even turn up and be in the audience to begin with?
Do you remember your first blogging post? Or first few blogging posts? I remember mine. The reaction was kind of underwhelming I have to admit. I was not sure there was anyone out there. I was working hard on my posts, but there seemed to be hardly any response.
Then slowly slowly a few likes started to come. That was encouraging. It seemed there were actually real people out there and they were willing to take a look at my posts. Then came comments. Comments were so encouraging.
But slowly slowly more bloggers look at your posts and overtime the encouragement builds and builds to the point where you start to feel braver and more adventurous in the kind posts you will produce. You start turning your hand to new forms of writing and as you are inspired by other bloggers.
All this is part of something that we have come to know as:
SOLIDARITY BLOGGING
There is wonderful supportive spirit amongst the blogging community. It is always appreciated when we receive positive encouraging feedback from other bloggers. Of course it is even better when we contribute to that supportive spirit ourselves.
We might have different personalities, different opinions, different beliefs – but it’s great to see that those differences don’t affect the encouraging spirit amongst the blogging world.
Like any community of people, we know that we all have our own individual highs and lows. It’s been very touching to receive a deluge of supportive messages of late from other lovely bloggers. That is really really lovely, a marvellous bonus of blogging. I never expected ten months ago that I would come into contact with so many caring people who take the time to send a stranger kind words to brighten their day.
It makes me all the more eager to be a solidarity blogger and contribute what I can to the lovely blogging community.
SIWO (Success Inspirers’ World) is an International Friends Blogging Forum. The idea is to encourage team work and to blog together as a community. As an international friends blogging forum, Success Inspirer’s World provides an opportunity that every blogger is looking for – the opportunity to get more exposure and find more followers and readers.
The Rules:
1. Write a post on your blog thanking the person who nominated you – THANK YOU LAURA! (AND RORY TOO!)
2. Paste the award in the post.
3. Provide a link to the blog of the person who nominated you.
4. Tell Success Inspirers’ World, SIWO what you think about solidarity blogging. Is it worthwhile?
5. Nominate 10 bloggers for the award and inform them.
I received this lovely nomination from Laura M Bailey, the creator of All The Shoes I Wear. As I looked through my drafts folder, I realized that I was also nominated a while back for the same award by Rory, the creator of A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip!
Their original posts with their nominations are below. Feel free to have a gander at them:
I was extremely impressed by the award image just above that Laura created – isn’t it great!
So I have been asked the question: What do I think about solidarity blogging? My first thought was: what exactly is solidarity blogging? I have not really thought about it that way before.
I guess it relates to the feeling that there is an audience of other bloggers out there, that is pleased that you are blogging. Most bloggers are an absolute pleasure to interact with. I know there is the occasional odd scary blogger, but most are great fun and make blogging a very merry experience.
But it’s easy to understand Solidarity Blogging when I think of the phenomenal amount of support I have received in the eight months that I have been blogging. I must admit there are times when I don’t consciously make the effort to think about how I can be a supportive blogger, I just naturally respond to posts I have enjoyed with a like and a comment. That’s great though. That is the primary way any of us qualify for Solidarity Blogger recognition.
But one aspect of blogging I do appreciate and put a lot of effort into is nominations for awards. I was absolutely thrilled to receive my first ever blogging nomination. These are a super-duper way to tell other bloggers that you are really glad they are around. They are also a great way to tell the blogging world a bit more about who you are as a person. The people aspect of blogging is one of the best bits! There are some sparkling gems out there – and some rough diamonds!
I feel that the SOLIDARITY BLOGGER AWARD has made me stop and think about how I can more pro-actively look for ways to support other bloggers and contribute to the blogging community. Bloggers can have good days and bad days. We are all human after all – I think. We all appreciate some positive feedback and encouragement.
I hope that all find support and solidarity and if you are struggling to find that – then I have included a few tips below which I hope will help any new bloggers enjoy blogging even more!
My Nominees
But first here are my ten nominees who I believe are certainly full qualified to be recognised for the Solidarity Blogger Award:
Sadje – Keep it alive (who manages to comment on other blogger’s posts more than anyone I know of!)
And last of all a blogger who we all love and have found tremendous support from (although she often gives me such a pain in my side from laughing!!!):
Read the posts from other successful bloggers and think about what makes their posts appealing and attractive. Learn from them.
Be a positive, encouraging breath of fresh air.
Be persistent. Try to publish a little something on a regular basis.
Get involved with commenting on other bloggers sites, and participating in challenges. We all like to know there is friendly human being behind the blog-site. Be safe and security conscious, but do share a bit of your personality.
Be patient – your statistics might be rather discouraging for a long time. So enjoy your writing and the interaction with other bloggers while you wait for more readers.
When you are new to blogging, the blogging world can be a bit like turning up at a party where everyone else seems to know each other and you don’t know them. So be polite, be personable, be appealing. There are bound to be other bloggers who will warm to you when you make an effort to interact. Back that up with creating your own great posts, so that when they check out your posts they want to keep coming back.
Enjoy the party!
If you are ever struggling – it’s ok to ask a blogger for help and advice. Other bloggers are human. It’s endearing when a new blogger is a little lost and asks for advice.
Do you remember your first blogging post? Or first few blogging posts? I remember mine. The reaction was kind of underwhelming I have to admit. I was not sure there was anyone out there. I was working hard on my posts, but there seemed to be hardly any response.
But slowly slowly more bloggers look at your posts and overtime the encouragement builds and builds to the point where you start to feel braver and more adventurous in the kind posts you will produce. You start turning your hand to new forms of writing and as you are inspired by other bloggers.
There is wonderful supportive spirit amongst the blogging community. It is always appreciated when we receive positive encouraging feedback from other bloggers. Of course it is even better when we contribute to that supportive spirit ourselves.
Be patient.
Enjoy the party!
Caramel 