Blogger Recognition Award + I Survived My First Month!

Hello friends, it’s nice to see you again! (Look Mom, I’m so polite)

So one month ago, I posted my very first post here on my blog and wow… a big YAY for me because I survived my first month. I actually thought that I won’t make it this far because I have a bad history with commitments. Anyways, I am honored to do this post today which is The Blogger Recognition Award.

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I have been nominated by these awesome bloggers,—Katherine @ Fabled Haven, Morgan @ Happily Ever Bookish, and Michelle @ The Reading Belle—please don’t forget to check out their blogs!

RULES:

• Write a post to show your award
• Give a brief story of how your blog started
• Give two advice to new bloggers
• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.

I actually avoided this award for a long time, and I refuse to accept it because I don’t feel worthy of it. I’m still very new here and I don’t think I can give any legitimate advice to the other new bloggers out there. But since I have surpassed the one month mark, I think this is the right time to do it. Anyways, here is my story!

I had a really great reading month last April, and after watching a lot of BookTube I had this extreme urge to talk about books. I seriously considered making a Youtube channel because I also wanted to enhance my video editing skills but… of course I couldn’t take filming myself seriously, and my home is pretty crowded so the entire process would just be hard and awkward. Plus, I’m not very photogenic (or is that video-genic?) and I hate the sound of my voice.

So then I decided to just write my feels about the books, I was actually in the process of writing book reviews on my other (personal) blog when I discovered that Book Blogging was a thing! Seriously, I didn’t knew that this is a really big blogging community. Due to my boredom this summer, I decided to start a book blog. And then, poof! Geniereads was born. I spent most of May 4, customizing the layout and stuff. Then, May 5, I officially published my first post.

Oh gosh, I never thought that I would make it this far. I was literally clueless, when I started I was super confused about everything—the tags, awards (I thought actual trophies and plaques were given), and memes (this was the worse, I thought that it was the actual picture memes like with pepe the frog or the derp memes lol). I had to do some extensive “research” and figuring out to cope out with all the bookish things. And then, I just started faking it and acting as if I knew what I was doing when in fact I had no idea what was going on most of the time. Well, up to this point, I’m still pretty much winging it and learning new things everyday!

Some of you guys left some pretty flattering comments on my May Wrap-up post, saying how “successful” this blog is for its first month. And some of you were asking for advice. Again, thank you all for your wonderful words, they really make me smile every time. As I’ve said in the comments, I am still very overwhelmed on how fast I have progressed with my blog, and I don’t feel like I deserve all the love. But, you guys are seriously and extremely awesome for making it all possible, so… watchagonnadoright?

Okay now, enough of the ramblings. Here is my advice to all new bloggers out there:

1. EXPLORE THE BLOGOSPHERE!

Interact with other bloggers. This is a pretty common advice, I actually read this one when I started and I followed it. AND IT REALLY IS THE KEY. Mind you, I’m an introvert so starting up conversations is a big NO for me but I found it so easy to start up conversations here because EVERYONE IS SERIOUSLY SO NICE AND EASY TO TALK TO. So don’t be afraid to like and comment on different posts!

Explore. What I actually do is, because I have no life, I spend a lot of time exploring and discovering new blogs. I simply just admire their layout, then explore and read their posts and like some of them, comment on the posts that got my attention and most of the times follow them. This is a really efficient way to interact with other bloggers, and to make a lot of new friends! 

2. PUT YOURSELF IN YOUR READER’S SHOES

Look at your blog at try to see through a reader/viewer’s eyes, ask yourself: Is this pleasing to look at? Is everything readable? Is it easy to navigate through posts and menus? etc. Then, make the needed improvements and adjustments.

Same with your posts, I always try to imagine myself as the reader of my post and I make posts the way I want to read them. Like, I like looking at pretty edits so I make my own headers for my posts. I don’t like reading huge chunks of words, so I put GIFs in between paragraphs. With my reviews, I like to emphasize important points so I bold the sentences that I think are important.

I hope that you got my point, I don’t know if this will work for everyone but it surely works for me.

3. GET ORGANIZED

So this is more of a challenge to myself than an advice because I SERIOUSLY NEED TO GET ORGANIZED. I’m behind my reviews, tags, and awards. I think that a schedule would help, and I should start making plans ahead. My advice is please don’t be like me because I currently write posts on the spot, which is bad especially now that school is near. 

Basically my opinion is, don’t just try to gain followers. You should aim to have readers, people who will read your posts and leave thoughtful comments. As a blogger you are both a writer and reader. So do your best in being both!

Those are my advice, please bear with me because I’m not good with giving some advice. But I hope you’ve learned something out of that blurb.

So today I’ll nominate the bloggers who have helped me in their own little way. You guys may have no idea, but you and your blog inspired and helped me especially in my first weeks of blogging. I am so thankful that I have found you here in the blogosphere <3. I know that most of you have probably done this award, so feel free to disregard.

Donna @ chocolatesnwaffles’ blog / Casey @ AdoptABookAUS / Inside My Minds / Grace @ Quirky and Peculiar / Fatima @ Noteablepad / Cara @ Periods and Semicolons / Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books / Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews / Liam @ Hey Ashers! / Claire @ Coffeeholic Bookworm / Poulami @ Daydreaming Books / Lola @ Hit or Miss Books / Reg @ She Latitude / Lisa @ The Not So Secret Life of a Nerd Girl / Ashleigh @ A Frolic Through Fiction / Katherine @ Fabled Haven (you nominated me lol, but I really had to mention you) / AND YOU! If you’re following me consider yourself tagged because I’m so thankful for each one of you.

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HAPPY FIRST MONTH MY BABY BLOG! I would never regret making and having you ❤

Again, thank you all so much for every single thing. I’m sending you all virtual hugs and candies! I guess that’s all for this post, I hope that my advice would help all the new bloggers out there. Thank you so much for reading!

Please do leave any comments, thoughts, messages, reactions, and/or suggestions! Thank you for reading. Until next time,

❤ Louise