My Blogger Recognition Award

To say I was shocked when I was nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award would be putting it mildly. I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently this is not a real award. It’s a kind of chain-post where one blogger tags another. The tagged blogger then answers a few questions and tags other bloggers. Still, I’m honoured.

The Rules

1. You have to thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog;

2. You have to write a post to show your award;

3. Give a brief story of how you started your blog;

4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers;

5. Select 15 bloggers you want to give this award to; and

6. Comment on the blogs of these 15 bloggers and let them know that you have nominated them, providing a link to the post you created.

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1. I was nominated by Onyinyechi of Endi’s World—lawyer by day, blogger by night and all that good stuff. Thank you Onyinyechi for the nomination! You can find her on http://www.onyixtus.com

2. I believe this post you’re currently reading shows the award, no?

3. How I Started My Blog

In my post about my blog semi-manifesto, I mentioned that some time in 2014 I decided to start blogging. I signed up for WordPress, created a blog (it wasn’t called Oma’s Serendipity) and even though I had things in my head I wanted to write about, I couldn’t just seem to come up with one concrete article, no matter how hard I tried. Looking back, I don’t think I had enough maturity and sufficient wisdom at the time to write about the kind of things I currently do. There were way too many distractions as well, so I felt starting a blog wasn’t important enough, after all. In summary, blogging was a good idea, but for me, it just wasn’t time yet. Simple.

If you’ve read ‘Dear 2017…’, you’d see that though I didn’t go into too much detail, last year was a bit rough and dark for me. Oma’s Serendipity was birthed from that darkness. I knowwww. So dramatic! In the midst of so many negatives, I just woke up one day, said to myself, “I’m going to finally start my blog”…and it felt right. It felt absolutely right. I spoke to two friends about it; they were unbelievably encouraging and supportive and one of them helped me create a structure for the blog. So, I picked a date to launch and began writing. Like magic, the words just flowed without inhibition. I had so much inspiration, something I couldn’t even force myself to have during my first attempt at blogging. It was beautiful, I tell you. I ended up shifting the blog launch date by a week though, because I told myself I wasn’t prepared enough, I hadn’t researched enough, I didn’t have this, I couldn’t do that…I’m sure you’ve figured out the real reason was that I was terrified. *covers face*

4. Advice To New Bloggers

i. Creating Content Is Key

Now you’ve decided to start blogging, the most important thing is creating content. More than SEO, more than publicising your blog, more than choosing a great theme, creating excellent, original content is the most major thing. Why? Because after all said and done, SEO is dependent on content. SEO works with worrrrds so even if you study it from Sunday to Sunday, all your lessons are pointless without content. If people visit your beautiful-looking blog but there’s nothing to see or your content rubs your visitors the wrong way, best believe the beauty of the theme of your blog wouldn’t matter. And when you do publicise your blog, what are people coming to see? Content! Exactly. Be consistent in creating great content. (I have used content in this paragraph a total of seven times. Content! Content! Now that’s nine times. Content. Now it’s a round figure. Haha!).

ii. Don’t Be Afraid To Blog About Trending Topics

There are topics that will be extremely popular—the crash of yet another celebrity marriage, a pastor that may be caught in a compromising situation, a politician that did or didn’t graduate, an immature guy who throws a hissy fit because he took a lady on a date and she turned down his proposal for a relationship, the latest beauty rave, etc. It’s easy to excuse yourself from blogging about trending topics for fear of over-flogging, but please don’t. You may have a different spin on things, a contrasting perspective. No two people think exactly alike nor do they have the same voice. Besides, people who don’t come across their post may see yours and who knows the message you may be depriving them of due to your fear of writing about it.

I remember when Toke Makinwa’s On Becoming was released and I had thoughts after reading it. If you’re Nigerian, remember how people were all over that book like white on rice? I was reluctant to blog about what I felt, out of fear that so many other people were going to do the same. I spoke to my sister about it and what she said in a nutshell was that even if a hundred people had opinions on the subject, each person would have a different take on it, except they copied and pasted from each other. And she was right. Of all the people who wrote reviews, published blog posts and made vlogs about On Becoming, no two people had exactly the same things to say.

5. My Own Nominations

Please forgive me if you’ve been previously nominated by another blogger. It just means one more person (me) loves getting high on your blog juice! Ha!

i. http://www.tinukeawe.wordpress.com
ii. http://www.365dayswithoutborders.wordpress.com
iii. http://www.ijefinelivin.com
iv. http://www.tegaenai.com
v. http://www.nedoux.com
vi. http://www.ihuomao.wordpress.com
vii. http://www.shivvywrites.wordpress.com
viii. http://www.becomingyevandy.com
ix. http://www.ramblingsofmissmimi.wordpress.com
x. http://www.chronologiebymo.com
xi. http://www.tyagipayal.wordpress.com
xii. http://www.afomaumesi.com
xiii. http://www.jessicahugoinspire.com
xiv. http://www.the21stcenturydisciple.com
xv. http://www.msmcbeal.wordpress.com

Thank you again, Onyinyechi, for the nomination.

Have a splendid Easter everyone!

xoxo,

Ihuoma.