Happy birthday Crunch Corner, we’ve turned one [+Giveaway!]

First and foremost… the giveaway:

To celebrate my first birthday for the blog, I’ll be giving away a dome8 phone case, suitable for any iPhone 5 or 6. The winner will then be able to pick one case of their choice from the dome8 range. I recently featured this phone case in one of my latest blog posts, which you can read more about here.

Here’s how you can enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy birthday to us, happy first birthday Crunch Corner, happy birthday to us. This August, I can finally say I’ve been blogging for a full year- woohoo- and it’s been bloody awesome.

I actually bought my domain main three years ago, and sat on it for far too long. I kept putting myself off from starting, asking myself questions that probably most bloggers did when they first started too. What makes my blog different? What if no one likes my posts? How do I even do this?

After two years of petty deliberations with myself, followed by a mere 20 minute chat with Nat, I was ready to start on Crunch Corner and just take whatever came in my stride.

As with the questions I kept asking myself before, yeah, they were still there in my thoughts every so often, but overpowered by the ‘so whats’ and the ‘who cares’. As someone who loves writing and taking photos, having an outlet to share this on is one of the main reasons for blogging. And of course, knowing that your posts may be read by the thousands is awesome, but things take time and patience.

With one full year (oh yeah!) of blogging behind me, here are just a few tips I’d love to share with you, that I wish I’d have genuinely listened to more/not let myself get strung up on:

• We all have to start somewhere: it will seem as though you have a lot of hard work to do before you fall into a rhythm or amazing opportunities are emailed to you, and that’s because it is. Everyone had to make that same start at some point, and the best of things don’t really tend to happen overnight. Keep working on it and be persistent. It all pays off in the end. And it’s always nicer knowing you worked hard for it.
• Grow with your blog: it’s okay to not be sure what exactly you’re into writing about. You might start off with niche, but completely fall in love with writing about different topics. And also don’t feel pressured to fall into a certain style because others are.
• Do it for you: it’s easy to compare yourself to other bloggers, especially ones with huge followings or receive hundreds of comments on a post. But don’t. Blog for yourself, and remember back to why you wanted to start. Do and write about what makes you happy, it will resonate with people tuning into your blog and you’ll grow your readership that way. Don’t get too hung up on stats, everyone wants more, even those that already have more.
• Enjoy it: when you blog for you, writing should be fun and exciting. We all have times when we really can’t be bothered, but that’s completely normal. Don’t ever let it become a chore, and when it does feel like that, just take a step back. What I love most about where I’m at with blogging, is that there’s no pressure if I don’t commit to my ideal target of four posts a month. It’s all about working around what works for you, and should you wish to work harder- amazing, should you wish to skip a month- fine.
• Have fun with it: once you find your feet with your blog and feel comfortable with what you do, why not try and take it a step further? There are so many creative ways you can blog, don’t ever feel like you have to follow the norm or what your favourite bloggers do. Find inspiration from them, but have your own twist on things. And being different is a big thumbs up- we’re all unique in our own way 🙂 

With the blog turning a strong one, I also have one main aim for myself for Crunch Corner. I’d love to genuinely commit to at least four posts a month. It’s completely doable, but I’m too easily distracted. Whether it’s Cuthbert sitting on my lap looking for attention, or there’s a new series I can’t take myself away from, or potter around the house in between writing, my goal for the second year is to switch off from distractions and just write to my heart’s content. Apart from when Cuthbert is looking for a cuddle. I mean how can you turn this little cutie away?