If there's one thing I worry about more than any other when it comes to blogging, it's how hard I try to be supportive of other bloggers.
I will never forget how much I fell in love with blogging as a hobby back when I first started out, or how keen I was to learn as much as I could - to grow my blog and to start to earn some money from it.
All I wanted was to be able to afford not to have to return to work when my maternity leave ended.
I will always be so grateful for the fact that blogging made that dream possible, and that even now 4 years later it has remained the main source of income for my family.
And although it's true that blogging is the kind of thing that you're always learning more about - I do believe that I wouldn't be where I am today with it if not for the help of a few people who taught me what they knew, and gave me inside tips. And for that reason, I am so conscious of wanting to do the same thing for other bloggers - I want to be supportive of peoples blogs, I want to impart as much blogging wisdom as I can (if I have any!) and - as with anything I do in life - I want to be a nice person.
Surely everybody wants to be a nice person, right?!
But it can be difficult - life as a busy parent means that time is something we don't have in abundance after all.
But there are a few things we can do that really don't take much time at all, mere seconds infact, which can make all the difference to another blogger .
Here are 5 quick and simple ideas for how to do this!
1) See A Brand Promo? Interact!
Brand collaborations for bloggers are a big deal. Most bloggers work extremely hard on their collabs, and I don't think there are many of us who don't worry a bit that our brand posts may tank and leave us red faced.
When a blogger is working with a brand the number of likes, clicks, comments etc they get is crucial for ensuring that the company is happy with the work and likely to work with said blogger again in the future.
So if you see a brand collaboration on a blog, instagram, twitter etc...don't just scroll by.
Be a nice human and interact! Like the post, leave a comment if you have time, hit Retweet. One thing I always like to do on Instagram is follow the brand that they're promoting because that's the whole purpose of the brand campaign - the brand will be happy that the blogger has brought them follows, and who knows - maybe they'll even notice my blog and decide to work with me too! Win win!!
2) Don't X Out
One thing that I am super conscious of when using Instagram stories is that viewer numbers dwindle with each upload - the first clip on my Story will have a decent viewer number but by the second clip i've lost a hundred viewers sometimes, more again by the third story and so on.
This is something that makes me quite anxious and so I'm super conscious of not upsetting other bloggers by X-ing out of their stories. After all, there is a list of viewer names so it's really obvious when someone didn't want to carry on watching and of course that's fine but personally? I don't want people to think I couldn't be bothered to watch the whole thing!
If I don't have the time or inclination to continue watching to the end, then instead of X-ing out I simply tap the screen to skip through the story. It means I can quit watching if I need to but the user doesn't end up feeling unloved!
3) Share!
If you enjoy reading a post, then why not take a moment to share it?
Every now and then I like to promote blog posts I have really enjoyed on my Facebook page, and retweet them on Twitter - it takes seconds to do but for the blogger on the receiving end it can be a huge compliment to know that you enjoyed their work enough to share it.
4) If you see someone ask for engagement/help, offer it!
One thing that always fills me with dread is putting myself out there and asking people to help me with something - whether it's asking for questions for a Q & A video or asking people to vote for me in awards - no matter what, it makes me feel nervous and worried that nobody is going to do it and I'm going to look and feel like Billy Wanna Friend.
For this reason, whenever I see people ask for these sorts of things - I ALWAYS make sure I get involved, because I KNOW that feeling of putting yourself out there and if I can help someone not to feel that horrible "Nobody is interested in me" feeling that scares me so much, I absolutely want to do it.
It usually takes all of two minutes to engage on these sorts of things - what's two minutes out of your day when it can make such a difference to how somebody feels?
5) Compliment!
Blogging is a labor of love. We as bloggers know how much effort and hard work we pour into our blogs.
Sending someone a simple compliment on that hard work will cost you nothing but could mean the absolute world to them - did you enjoy someones recent post? Tell them! Did you think their photography was on point? Say so! Do you just really love their instagram stories? Let them know!
You never know when somebody is experiencing self doubt and in this game it's something we all suffer with pretty bloody often - a few compliments could go such a long way to changing that!
What are your favorite ways to be a nicer blogger? I'd love to hear them!
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