Blogger Recognition Award

I received a pleasant surprise when I opened up my emails this morning. My good friend Carol had nominated my blog ExpatinBacolod.com for a “Blogger Recognition Award.” It must be said now that I have read and understood the rules that it strikes me as being a blogger version of the chain letter. Having said that, I do appreciate there is value in linking to other blogs and so I corrected my ‘attitude’ and thought why not? And I can’t be anti-social all my life!

I regard Carol as a good friend although I have only known her for a short time. We have never met in person, maybe one day 🙂 Our paths crossed during the WordPress Blogging 201 Course. I really enjoy the passion in her writing. You can find Carol here at Writeful Mind – that’s Rule # 1 completed!

These are the four rules for acceptance of the nomination:

Link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.
Tell how your blog got started
Give advice to new bloggers
Nominate 15 bloggers and their blogs for the award

Rule # 2

How did this blog start? Okay it’s like this. I retired from my “normal” working life in the UK in 2013. For all kinds of various reasons, it was time for me to live in another warmer climate and experience a different culture. I initially tried Thailand but it didn’t work out for me there (material for a book) and I have now settled in the Philippines enjoying life to the full.

I have a stable and loving home life once more and started to think about writing. I started this blog to develop a writing style and also because I felt I had some things worthy and interesting enough to write about. I think you will understand that more when you check out my varied and interesting former career/jobs.

Rule # 3

Advice

Write about what you know and care about. Do it often and publish it. Practice makes perfect!
Join blogging groups on Facebook. Read and learn! But take some of the stuff you see there with a ton of salt.
If you are serious about improving your writing skills find a site like this one. I personally recommend it.
To improve your blogging skills join the next Blogging Course run by Blogging University on WordPress.
Get to know the functions of your web site. But keep it simple. Do not get sucked into too many plug-ins that (a) you don’t need and (b) slow down your site’s performance. Don’t worry about SEO at first.
Don’t pay for anything you can get for free! There are many free aids to help you establish a good site and I suggest starting out with a free WP site hosted by them.
Don’t start blogging solely to earn money! It takes a long time to build up a blog following and drive people to your site

This is the most difficult part as I deliberately limit my blog followings to a handful owing to my desire to manage my own time effectively (#amwriting) – Here goes: