Blogging Ain't Easy

Blogging is no cake walk.  If you go into it thinking, "I'm a pretty good writer, how hard can it be?"  you'll be in for some sad disillusionment.  If only it were as easy as typing out a great post...

I started blogging about six months ago.  I seem to have tapped into an unlimited number of ideas to write about, to my total surprise.  Still, I sometimes have moments of self-doubt, where I ask myself, "what if I get to the point where I have nothing else to say?"  And then a woman walks by in tapestry pants, and an entire dialog starts in my head around my fashion choices.  It's these moments that reassure me that I'll always have something to blog about.

But it's not all just about thinking and typing.  It's about branding yourself, attracting the right audience, and compelling others to follow your words.  On paper, it seems relatively straightforward.  In reality, however, I am constantly reminded of how difficult it truly is to make those things happen. I'm not especially extroverted, I'm late to the social media game, and I blog about weird things like security badges and missing medicine coolers.  Thankfully, I have thick skin, so I keep plugging along, churning out my blog twice a week, and getting disproportionately excited over every single new follower.

So imagine how excited I got this weekend, when I found that my friend over at Inside the Mind of Jman bestowed this lovely award to my blog:

So what is the Liebster Award?  It's a grassroots effort to promote blogs with less than 200 followers.  Fellow bloggers promote blogs that they enjoy, and the pass-it-forward nature creates a lot more blog traffic than what you'd normally get.  It's a whole lot more effective than relying on someone stumbling onto your Cubicle Wall post because they Googled "3-D pictures".

So a big thank you to Jman!

And now I must pay it forward, following these rules:

1.  Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to them.
2.  Nominate up to five others for the award.
3.  Let them know via comment on their blog.
4.  Post the award on your blog.
5.  Bonus step:  Follow this link and at least consider signing up for the A-Z Challenge.  It's a great way to find new and interesting blogs, have people find your blog, and meet new people.

Choosing my winners was easy.  Some of these don't have their follower counts visible, so hopefully I'm not promoting anyone who already has 80 bazillion followers.

1. I recently found Rebeccah's blog, Connelly Confusion, and I've really enjoyed her writing.  I can relate to many of her posts, and she keeps them at just the right length for this attention-challenged reader!
2. Clark over at Ridiculously Inconsistent Trickle of Consciousness blogs about all kinds of crazy things, which is what I love about his blog.  This is the post that hooked me:  Every Day I'm Hustlin'
3. Tanya at Let Mr. Bemis Read read was my very first non-family/non-friend follower, and so obviously she forever has a place in my heart.  And as a double bonus, she writes a good blog!
4. Things I Like to Eat and Other Nonsense is a blog about food, friends, and internal plumbing.  But in a good way.  Here's an example of one of my favorite posts from TILTE:  Life with Endometriosis

  Congrats, fellow bloggers!  Your trophy is in the mail.