Nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award. Yay!

It’s a great feeling to have been nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award, an award that acknowledges all the effort that goes into a keeping a blog going.

What is the Blogger Recognition Award?

The Blogger Recognition Award is an award by bloggers for bloggers. It’s a way of acknowledging all the blood, sweat and tears that go into keeping a blog up and running, and to keep creating quality content, week after week. Contrary to what a lot of people may think, blogging is no walk in the park, and no one knows that better than other bloggers. So this is a great way for members of the community to support each other and show each other that our hard work isn’t going unnoticed.

I’ve been nominated for this award by Nadine, who’s blog Pearls in the Sea is about life, family and travel. Her posts are insightful, honest and straight from the heart, and you should definitely give them a read. Thanks, Nadine!

The origins of The Good Life With IQ

In early 2017, my wife and I visited the Lakshadweep islands, off India’s south-west coast. Planning that trip had been really difficult, because there wasn’t too much information available on the web, so we had to do pretty much everything by trial and error.

While we were there, we began talking about me writing a blog post on our experiences so that other travellers could have some more concrete to go on besides the vague information currently available. I had never written a blog post before, but I had written tons of articles, so how hard could it be?

Plenty hard, it turned out! But after some false starts, I finally got my blog up and running, and published my post on how we planned our Lakshadweep holiday. It’s still my most popular post, so I must have done something right! And once I got started, I couldn’t stop, and here we are, almost two years later…

My advice to new bloggers

Here are two things that I’ve had to learn (and am still learning) the hard way.

1. Keep your expectations realistic

There are lots of blogs out there that are hugely popular, with lots and lots of readers. But those bloggers didn’t get there overnight. They put in years of time and hard work to get their blogs to where they are. So don’t expect your blog to take off immediately, and don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t. Just keep your head down, keep learning, and keep working at it.

2. Pace yourself

You’ll quickly find that running a blog isn’t just about creating great content (though that’s the main thing). There’s lots of other operational things that need doing, like optimizing your site, managing your social media, and networking. And managing all these things can quickly become overwhelming. So get organized, prioritize and do what you can. Because if you try and do everything, you’ll risk burning out and giving up.

My nominees for the Blogger Recognition Award

Here are the bloggers, both new and established, that I think deserve to be recognized for their efforts in constantly creating great content. You need to check them out!

• Imran, at Uncomplicated Cooking
• Srikanth, at Srikanth’s Traveldiaries
• Ana, at Cook the Beans
• Alex and Lisa, at Career Gappers
• Roxy, at Roxy Travels
• Josh and Nick, at Wanderlust Travel & Photos
• Atul, at Social Maharaj
• Nritya, at Musaafir the Bedouin’s Travel Site
• Josh and Sarah, at Veggie Vagabonds
• Eli, at The Partying Traveler
• Darren and Lauren, at Faramagan
• Giusi, at Maybe I’m out
• Ian, at Barefoot Backpacker
• Rio and Law, at Opposite Tourists

The award rules

Here are the rules for anyone nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award, so that we can keep the good vibes flowing.

• Thank the blogger that nominated you
• Write a post on your award
• Give a brief overview of how your blog started
• Share two pieces of advice for new bloggers
• Nominate 15 other bloggers who you think deserve this award
• Let them know you’ve nominated them and share a link to your post

A big ‘thank you’ to all you amazing people for reading my blog and keeping The Good Life With IQ going!