It dawned on me early this morning. 

I was sat at my desk writing a plea, for nominations,not something I’d ever done before but, this year feels different. It is my fifth year. I wanted it to count for something.

I spent a few days searching for relevant awards but they had all gone in January-march. So I spent my time looking for something relevant. I want to put my blog out there, to get critiqued, to be noticed! I started my ‘Please vote for me’ post around 2 weeks ago now, 4 weeks after the nominations opened. Which subsequently turned into this, a negative post on why I’m not a very good blogger… Why? Why do I do this to myself? I want to be better, achieve and yet I resort to being negative. It struck accord in me though. I was sitting at my desk like I said, writing a plea.

It struck a cord in me though. I was sitting at my desk like I said, writing a plea. Speaking from the heart, about my passion for writing, makes me more motivated to show myself to the world. To show how passionate I am about writing and about inspiring others in their health. I wrote about my love for my little blog and….

Wallop. I was hit by this wave of reality.

I will never be a ‘real’ blogger’. I’ll never be noticed or recognised for being a writer or win a blog award. I only came to that conclusion after I realised that I was pleading, for nominations.

A real blogger, a real one with her shit together doesn’t need to plea or ask for nominations, perhaps a nudge so people know that they’re coming up. Not that I think negatively of that at all, it just made me feel a bit, well, quite frankly? it made me feel like crap.

Here I was…

Writing up a definition of who I was as a blogger, explaining myself to a non-audience. Telling them that I’m here, Hey- hello, you there..have you ever heard of me?! The thing is, I was explaining who I was, really going into depth about my site which meant that they hadn’t even heard of me.

I’ve been here for five years and noone really knows who I am or what I do? 

That’s the thing though, I don’t really know what category I’m in either – I want to but..sometimes I get a little distracted. People ask me at events what I write about and I don’t really know what to say. “I write healthy recipes and talk about weight loss news and motivation” – That’s a bit of a mouthful though isn’t it?

I’m not really a health blogger, I’m not much of a lifestyle blogger and I don’t really fit into any categories.

Not that I’m complaining

No no no, far from it.

I guess I like the fact that I can write about crap, I can even choose to ramble because, for the most part, no one really reads it! I don’t really share my work with anyone, a few blogger circles but I’m rubbish at networking, tagging and SEO. This Is my little corner of the internet and perhaps I’m being lazy, or even selfish? 

Yet, at the same time, I know that I could do more. I don’t really want them, the other bloggers and brands, to find me. My pictures and sometimes even content, are not up to standard – not by a long shot.

What if people stumble on my blog on a ‘bad day’ and my content isn’t up to standard. I’d rather not put myself out there in an award situation where I could be judged on my ‘bad days’ (which, if I’m honest, are fairly frequent). The days where I want to write but instead I ramble or preach. I could use to shorten my work, add better pictures and take more time to work on my content but I don’t…

I’m lazy

I confess. I sometimes forget to write at all, I’ll lie in bed until late and rush out an article. It’s the cardinal sin of blogging! But that’s not all I do wrong:

I’m never on time. I have a schedule for posts 7pm- 7.30pm Monday Wednesday’s and Saturdays but I never stick to it!They normally roll in the next morning or sometimes the next evening! I want to be a serious professional but I turn into a school girl who’s late to hand in her homework.

My photo quality is…somewhat lacking. Want a picture of a vote for me sign? Took me 25 attempts in an hour – an actual hour! to get it right, and that’s before editing. 

I don’t take myself seriously (but I guess that’s also a bonus). I want to write with passion on every article but I end up making a joke out of things and my serious health articles get lost under humour and passive aggressive tones.
Side note: bunchems are not fun to get out of hair, who knew!

So, I guess you can take this as more of an advice piece, after all, a bit of “here’s what not to do” when writing a blog. There are a lot of things I do wrong and I’ve been doing them for quite some time now but, Most importantly? I don’t use the time spare to really put in the extra push for my site.A site doesn’t flourish by its self, people won’t type in keywords and find stumble upon your site. You need to have the motivation to push your work out into the world.

Do I want to be recognised as a blogger – yes. Don’t we all?

Do I deserve to be recognised? – perhaps not. There are some amazing bloggers who have the time and money to create elaborate work and I’m just not there yet. Perhaps in another five year’s I’ll try again, eh?

So, That’s why I won’t win a blog award and why no one really knows who I am. Not just yet anyway…

I will be putting my name in the hat this year, for the UKBLOGAWARDS because, hell – I want to! This year feels so important to me to get involved in these things, for people to really recognise me as an” influencer of health”. 

At the moment, I worry that the title of ‘lifestyle’ blogger may mislead some people. I have qualifications in diet,nutrition and sports recovery. It has been a passion of mine since 2011 and for the past 5 years I have gone out to get more information so I am educated in these subjects -and not just telling you random facts about gluten free. I can actually inform you of your digestive system, your diet choices are up to you but know about your diet and how it effects your bodies.

You can leave that bit up to me.

Voting isn’t open until December 5th but not to worry, I’ll give you a nudge closer to the date!