The Origin of floralcars.com and Two Tips For Beginners

The Blogger Recognition Award

A few weeks ago the wonderful Jess awarded me with the "Blogger Recognition Award". Jess runs https://www.jesscantoni.com/ - a lifestyle blog, as well as https://jesseatsandtravels.com/ for all things cooking and travelling. I urge you to check these out because they're a delight to read. In the past we collaborated for the Austrian Food Week.

I am very grateful to have been awarded this, erm, award and hope to do it justice in the future. It is nice to get something in return for all the hard work I put into this. However, now it's time to move on after my brief display of human emotions and look at the rules that go hand in hand with the "Blogger Recognition Award."

The Rules Of The Game: 

• A Link back to the original post and the blogger who tagged you.
• A small paragraph on why you started blogging and the origins of your blog.
• Two pieces of advice to any new bloggers.
• Select and tag 15 other bloggers you want to give this award this to!

The Origins of floralcars.com: 

One can easily assume that given the content on this blog, that floralcars has always been that. However, when I first dipped my leggies into sharing articles on the internet, it had been in the long distant year of 2015, when I used it as a space to share one story of my week. This could be a funny story, a travel account or just random musing on what's been on my mind. Back then, I did not consider viewing numbers or social media as a way for promotion. Instead, I enjoyed the task of getting a few words out once a week.

In 2016 I had been selected as a pre-launch leader (read: writer/blogger) for drivetribe.com. This forced me to consider how I'd split these responsibilities. I did not want to stop writing here but I also wanted to embrace the challenge of running a successful tribe. So I ended up splitting the topics, and thus, floralcars was the place for lifestyle - and still is, while I used DriveTribe as a place for car ramblings. For various reasons, I rarely use the site nowadays and even moved the road trip adventures from there to here (see: The Rookie Road Tripper), but I would be lying if I said that it hadn't influenced what happened on floralcars, which has become my sole focus. 

Two pieces of advice to any new bloggers: 

Be organised!

... is my number one advice when it comes to blogging. When all boil down, blogging is a LOT of organisation while you try to not trip over your own feet. "But why?" I hear you wonder. After all you have that blog post and yeah ... what else do you need.

One issue is that readers don't really like the randomness of the matter. It is "a bit not good" when you are inactive on Instagram for a the whole of three weeks and then post three photos during one day followed by another month of radio silence. The same counts for your blog, readers like a schedule, they like routine. Maybe they even look forward to Wednesday and say "hey, today it's time for a new blog post. I wonder what it's going to be about?"

Furthermore, it's going to take a lot of pressure of your shoulders as well. You don't have to stress three hours before 4 PM on the day that you haven't posted anything yet if you schedule and plan your articles, and posts ahead. While this does, on the odd occasion, lead to an instagram and blog that lags a bit behind - e.g.: my article about the Audi Museum has been published two months (!) after I had visited - it does not matter, unless it's a time sensitive post - say a Christmas post should not be published in January. If you already know what you'll need up ahead, it's easier to get working and not start growing grey hair should you ever find little time for blogging and writing because you already have everything ready thanks to good planning.

As far as I am concerned organisation is everything when you're a blogger, and I could ramble on about it for ages.

Do what you love with your blog!

This is my second advice and you know why? Chances are that you are going to famous with your blog and do it full time while sustaining a reasonable living - or get hyper rich are relatively slim. So why build a whole blog around a topic that, while yes, might be popular, is not for you?

Sure, there is nothing wrong to write about what's popular once in while to drive a few more viewers to your blog but then do it in your own way, otherwise none of them are going to stick around. Furthermore, I am also a big believer that being a "little bit of everything" blog is perfectly all right. I write about nail varnish (beauty), road trips (travel), and books. This rather left-field combination has given me the idea to explore nail designs with a motorsport theme - which sounds highly niche but is great fun.

There is also nothing wrong with adding another category later on - as long as you consider how to manage it with your other interests, and sometimes one is going to take a low priority because it's just not for you anymore. I think all of this is perfectly all right - a blog grows and changes along with you.

The 15 blogs that deserve this award are ... 

B With Blue
Chelsey Meijners 
Dairy Of A Spanglish Girl

dressesnaddremsblog
First Mate Wifey
Glow Steady

Hayley Stanway
Hello Bexa
I'm Booked Blog

Jenny In Neverland
Lisa's Notebook 
Lost In Translation 

She In The Know
Will Flirt For Food
Zombie Goddess Beauty