Blogger Recognition Award (x5)

I am extremely humbled and honored to have been nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award 5 times in the past 3 weeks. It is honestly wonderful to be recognized for my work by my amazing fellow bloggers.

My first nomination was by one of my favourites, Roger Petersen (mind and love).

Roger’s blog is a place where he shares thoughts on life and all that comes with it. I really love the way he writes posts in the form of a story, because his story-telling technique is brilliant and he has such a good sense of humor that makes it all the more fun to read.

Make sure to check his blog out, you’ll grow addicted.

I was then nominated by Gurru Says and Mama Robins (An Undistracted Life). And it is ironic because these two amazing bloggers were already on my list of nominees when I was preparing this post after my first nomination. But they both beat me to it!

Gurru Says is probably the most versatile blog you will come across, you will get lost there in all the different kinds of information you can learn. You definitely shouldn’t miss this one.

Mama Robins’ blog is about self-improvement, family and parenting. She shares so many valuable information and life lessons to learn. So make sure to check it out too!

I then got nominated for the award by the ever so lovely, Emily Mae Hood (New York Family Adventures). She writes about ways to go on adventures and explore the world around you within your budget. It’s a really lovely blog and you can read more about how she started it here.

An update to include the 5th nomination by one of my very good blogger friends Sean Flac (Sean Flac 2.0). His blog is a mix of health and fitness, consumer product reviews, parenting and a lot more. Make sure to check it out!

About the Award

The Blogger’s Recognition Award is an award handed out by bloggers to bloggers to recognize the hard work, effort, and dedication they are putting into their blog.

It was created as a symbol of approval and motivation; and to let readers know more about other bloggers who deserved to be followed.

Award Rules

• Write a post displaying your award.
• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
• Nominate 10-15 bloggers who you believe deserve to be recognized.
• Let the nominees know they have been nominated.

How My Blog Started

I started this blog two months after I had quit a job I hated, and at a time when I was uncertain of what my next step was going to be.

All I knew at that time was that my goal was to create a life for myself where I don’t need to work in a job I hated just because it pays.

So I started searching for alternative ways to have income, and I found that the one thing most of those people who succeeded in achieving financial independence had in common was that they all had some kind of an expertise and an outlet to share it on.

It was either a book, a course, a website, a youtube channel, or a podcast. Some kind of an outlet to have a presence and share their knowledge, and maybe even charge for it, because they were experts in one field or more.

So, I sat there and wondered how to do this myself. What is it that I know so well, or that I am so good at, that other people would be interested in learning? What can I offer?

To my sad surprise, I had a big, fat nothing. I had not excelled in anything that was worth sharing with anyone.

This was a moment where I felt a huge disappointment in myself; but I wanted, no actually, I needed to get out of this situation and figure a way to make it happen. I started to think, “how can I do something different? What will make someone interested in listening to what I have to say even though I am not an expert?”

That’s when the idea of this blog came to me.

I figured most of those websites in the specific niche of creating financial freedom are created by people who have already made it.

I can be different by being me, being honest about my situation and my journey. I’m going to be sharing from the point of view of the beginner who is still trying to learn and figure everything out themselves. I will share what anyone like myself would have to go through to achieve the kind of success that those experts have reached.

And I hoped that maybe this would create some kind of connection with whoever reads my words; that they would find that the information I share really helpful and do tackle the areas that they would have wanted to search for, if they were heading towards the same path.

This idea for a blog came to me sometime during the last 3 days of November 2018 and I published my 1st post on the 1st of December 2018. The speed of which this happened was because I didn’t want to have second thoughts about it.

I just needed to start, take a step ahead and not worry about the outcome.

Fast forward to April 2019, my blog is actually being read by a good number of people and I am writing a post sharing my nomination for my 7th blogging award and being recognized by my fellow bloggers.

So, yea, so far it’s going great!

Two Pieces of Advice For New Bloggers

I feel it’s funny I would be giving an advice, given that I sort of am a new blogger myself, but here are my two cents:

• Pay attention to your stats, number of visitors/views, (yes you read that right) because this is how you will measure your progress and know if you are heading forward or backward.
  
  However, this should only be for awareness purpose. Do not give it much of your time or energy. Instead, focus most of the time, energy, and attention to the content and the quality of what you are putting out there.
  
  When you do your best to create great content, readers will find you and will recognize your work.
  

• Be consistent. I know this is probably something that everyone says about blogging, but it really is crucial to any new blogger.
  
  And it is not only because you are still trying to build an audience, but it is also for you, for your own sense of accountability. If you are serious about your blog, you need to mentally treat it as such.
  
  Once you start slacking and missing one post after the other, you will lose that sense of seriousness and commitment. So, whenever you find yourself losing motivation to create content, remind yourself of the reason why you started in the first place.

List of 15 Nominees

Below is a list of 15 blogs that I have enjoyed reading and believe they should be recognized for their work.

I also tried to list ones that did not receive this award before; however, if you already did, I guess you just deserve more of them then!

The nominees for the Blogger Recognition Award (in alphabetical order, yes I did):

1. Baby Boomer Super Saver
2. Baby Steps
3. Frantasmagoria
4. Going Places with Kendra
5. Hedy Zhou
6. In Asian Spaces
7. Kekoas Korner
8. Life of Siobhan
9. Pinwheels and Piggy Banks
10. Queen Media Collective
11. Sam Space
12. Steph’s Social Pie
13. The Conflict Expert
14. Tranquil Trekker
15. Write On Ejaleigh

Again, a big thank you to the amazing bloggers who nominated me and congrats to all the nominees!

Till the next awards season, happy days!