Well I’ll be…I’ve just been given the bloggers recognition award!!

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This blog award is really late. And it was given to me by the über cool, suave Raistlin903 (check him out guys!). So thank you for this award :D.

The rules:

• Thank whoever 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
• Select up to 15 other blogs you want to give the award to

In the beginning:

Not many of my newer followers / readers will know this, but in terms of seniority. I’m pretty much an oldie on WP. I’ve been on WP for 7 years (only 1 and just one other blogger comes close). Now this does not mean this particular blog is 7 years old. It just means I’ve held an WP account for 7 years. I’ve had 3 blogs sites here. The first one was an utter failure – I started it at the same time I created an account on here in 2009. No direction, no confidence and no clue. Tried several things with it. Just didn’t work out. The second – whilst it’s still active in terms of it being kept (out of sentimentality). I don’t post there any more. The second blog is pretty much a starting point for me – older followers of mine will know it. The second blog helped me find two of my consistent commentators – the excellent reviewer The Judge from OtakuJudge & Taku from TakutoAnimeCafe. Them chaps are the corner stones for my blog comments. I can’t thank them enough.

Inthecubbyhole – is the 3rd iteration of my blog. And this is where I am at today.

That’s just a small intro. What got me in to blogging is; I used to write fantasy stories for a long, long time. I mean pads and paper, using texts books once I left school for the summer holiday. That sort of thing. Then I stopped. Just like that. The dream of being an author ended. However the feeling for writing has never ended. Sure I get some ideas, but sadly they come and go. I think I introduced you to my anti-hero / villain Lucian Reinheart. There is another one, however I just didn’t have the time write a post up on her. Anyway long jingle short xDD. I like writing and blogging is the natural step.

Advice:

Introduce yourself to the blogging sphere:

Starting a blog is a very cool prospect. You have the whole world at your finger tips, just waiting what you can show to the world. You spend hours planning meticulously on a post, the very first post that you hope will bring in the views / traffic by the bucket loads to your blog. However you get nothing to maybe the odd single digit. And more importantly no comments. This is off putting. There is a reason. You are a small drop in the ocean of blogs. There are thousands of blogs with similar interest like yourself. All waiting for the same thing. To put it simply; they don’t know you exist.

So you have to do something. And it does takes great courage to come out of your comfort zone. Take the plunge and comment on other people’s blog. Believe me, I’ve been there. It is nerve wracking as hell. Will this person see me as a troll, will they be horrible to me etc. These things went through my mind at first. Here’s the trick; find a blogger where you can feel more ease at. Finding a blogger with a similar or a nice attitude can be a big help in overcoming your shyness. I was like that when I was commenting on Taku’ blog. Now, am commenting on other blogs left, right and centre – with ease. And encouraging new bloggers to keep posting. Which goes on to my next tip.

Keep posting!!!:

I don’t know if is this is a statistic or not but I read somewhere that; every 6/10 blogs discontinue within three months of starting. If this is true, then this is sad. The main reason is as stated above. They don’t intro themselves and then they get discouraged to continue on. Blogging is litterally an art form. It takes time to develop your craft, writing style, presentation and gain followers. Granted some do it a lot quicker (looking at 100Wordanime & Lethargic Ramblings). Point is; don’t give up. Keep going, 1 comment is better than no comment. Spend time replying back to comments on your blog. Believe me, for every comment you get, you’ll enjoy them and vice versa.

Nominations:

1. Palpable Emotion
2. Ryuji Tatsuya
3. Zoya
4. Bravocube (Bravo is in the process of moving sites)
5. Jill

Thanks for reading this very long post. Take care peeps!!.