Recently I had a lovely little notification pop up on Twitter to say that Nicole from Tales from Mamaville had nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award. It’s a little award post that’s doing the rounds in the blogosphere to recognise fellow bloggers who you enjoy reading, with a view to getting to know a little bit more about why our favourite blogs started up. It’s also a way of more established bloggers to give some advice to newbie bloggers. A massive thank you therefore to Nicole! It was lovely to see the notification on my Twitter feed, and it’s an honour to think that another blogger may want to read about the humble origins of All Things Spliced. This is what the blogger recognition award is all about:

The Blogger Recognition Award: The Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
5. Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
6. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

How All Things Spliced started:

If you’ve followed All Things Spliced for a while, or if you read my bloggy first birthday post, you may already know how my blog started. Forgive me therefore if I’m repeating myself!

Just shy of two years ago, when Baby Lighty was a newborn and Mrs Lighty was a nervous wreck, a little idea started rumbling around my brain. During those long, long hours of breastfeeding and night feeds, I’d trawl Twitter and started to read plenty of mummy blogs. The more I read, the more I thought: why not add to the full time job that is having a newborn, and start writing a blog of my very own?

The market was absolutely saturated with mummy blogs when this idea started forming in my mind, and I wondered whether to bother. But then I started to think that actually, I didn’t want to forget aspects of new mummyhood. More than this, I was a completely anxious new mum. I wanted something that I could look back on and see how far I’d come.

I’d written An Answer on a Postcard, my travel blog, for some years so I knew the very basics about blogging. Randomly, I’d also registered All Things Spliced with WordPress.com six years ago, when Mr Lighty and I were first married, with a view to writing about being newlyweds and, well, all things spliced. This all led to one naptime when I logged into WordPress and All Things Spliced was born (again).

At the beginning, I never actually intended my new blog to be read. It was meant as a treasury of memories for Baby Lighty and I. But then I got brave over a cuppa one naptime, and shared my blog with the world (aka, Facebook). And the rest, as they say, is history!

Mrs Lighty’s Blogging Advice:

I feel slightly underqualified to give blogging advice, as I often still feel like a complete dunce novice myself. However, I imagine that if I was talking to one of my friends about starting a blog, I would say:

It’s not all about the writing…

Ok, so a big part of it is about the writing. Of course it is. Creating great content will always be king. But there’s so. much. more. to. it.

I’ve been known to moan talk about everything that goes hand in hand with blogging before. In my opinion, the writing is the easiest part (although having writer’s block is terrible!). It’s all of the photo taking, and photo editing, and promotion on social media, and making sure that your Instagram looks consistent across your whole profile so that people want to spend time there, and blog reading, and linky joining, and linky hosting, and engagement, and interaction…as well as the likes of DA, SEO, Klout scores, media packs and themes, etc, etc, that go with the writing that takes the time (and often, patience).

Of course, there are far, far worse things that I could be doing, and I really shouldn’t complain. But if you are able to produce great content, then you’ll want it to be read. And promotion is the key to that, alongside all of the other bits and pieces. So definitely just give it a go, but know that it will take a certain amount of dedication.

Go Self Hosted ASAP

Now, I’m not the best person to ask about self hosting. Or even what self hosting is, if I’m entirely honest. I do, however, have a handy (ahem!) guide here. But now that I am self hosted, I do wonder what I was dithering over for all of those months. Plus, if I’d gone self hosted sooner, that DA that I mentioned above might now be higher…

If it sounds like I’m speaking another language with all of the above, I apologise. But if you’re going to get into blogging and take it seriously, you’ll soon be thrown headfirst into this strange world and you’ll see for yourself!! Don’t be daunted and let it put you off, you’ll soon learn. And I still can’t believe some of the opportunities that have come my way because of the blog. I even put it on my CV when I applied for my current job! So go for it, and see where blogging takes you.

And now onto my nominations…

I know I’m supposed to nominate 15 bloggers, but I’m really late to the Blogger Recognition Award party (I was probably too busy trying to decide what dress to wear to the ceremony!!), so I’m just going to nominate the following lovely bloggers:

• Something About Baby
• Rhyming with Wine
• 3 Little Buttons
• Being Mrs Lynch
• Shank you Very Much

Thank you once again to Nicole at Tales from Mamaville for the kind nomination! I know I’ve probably given the most useless advice above to new bloggers (sorry!) but the best thing anyone can do, when it comes to blogging or otherwise, is just to go for it!

If you enjoy reading All Things Spliced, I would be completely chuffed if you could nominate Mrs Lighty in Reader’s Choice category of the BiB Awards! Please click on the badge below and complete the form, my full web address is https://allthingsspliced.co.uk and my Twitter handle is: @MrsLighty. I will love you forever and will send (virtual gluten free) cake!

•••
For All Things Spliced, follow The Lightys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Proud to be linking up with: