When I started blogging a month ago, I saw other bloggers announce blogging awards they’d been nominated for. “Awards!” I thought. Golden rings I hoped to win.
The awards provide recognition and potential exposure for bloggers, and typically involve various Q&A’s along with a requirement to pass-it-forward by nominating others. Often a generous list of “others.”
“Cool,” I thought. “I can do that.” I was getting myself ready for the day my brilliance was recognized and the nominations poured in.
Then I was invited to do a 3-Day, 3-Quote Challenge, where I needed to nominate nine other bloggers over the three days I posted quotes. I just finished. The quotes were easy. I got a taste of what the “challenge” was.
Yes, the awards encourage you to explore WordPress and find other bloggers. Yes, they can expose your blog to others and gain you new followers. Those are awesome benefits.
And…I have a character who tends toward perfectionism, so nominating nine other bloggers I had some familiarity with (who hadn’t already been nominated) proved time-consuming. And harder than I expected.
“Woah!” I thought. “These awards have a dark side!”
A recent post by The Average Aspirant offered her thoughts on the awards. She wrote about the initial enthusiasm she felt about them when she first started blogging, as well as a shift in her perspective. It was a great read.
So, do I want to get nominated for one?
One character, sitting on the couch eating ice cream says, “mmm, maybe not.”
The other one, twitchy fingers on the keyboard, blogging away says, “damn right I do!”
UPDATE:
After posting my original blog, I learned that people handle the awards situation a variety of ways.
Some post a “no awards” policy on their blog, expressing gratitude for readers who visit, comment and may want to nominate them, but preferring to guide their blog content without distraction.
Others had similar responses as me, discovering, upon being nominated, that selecting 15-other bloggers was challenging, and that one nomination often led to multiple other nominations, overwhelming them. One Day at A Time chose to establish a page for Awards and handle all she received over the course of a month on one day. Brilliant solution!
Several suggested that once an award was received, it was ok to “tweak” it to make it work. If it said to nominate 15 and you nominated less, that was ok. This focused on the idea that someone thought your site was worth checking out. Accepting the nomination is like receiving and accepting a gift.
I’m grateful for all the feedback I got. I realized that one of the personas I have wants to “do things right.” I LOVED that it turns out there is more than one “right” way, making the awards bright and shiny again. Thanks all for your guidance.
Walk the Goats 
I like them. I’ve watched my stats and seen how many people go to look at blogs I’ve nominated and it tells me that it’s a worthwhile venture. I really enjoy reading these posts and examining their nominations but it’s like peanut butter I guess – you like it or you don’t!
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I love peanut butter! Especially stuffed into a chocolate peanut-butter-cup!
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And…I really am of two minds re: the awards. I stressed out coming up with 9 names for the quote challenge because I wanted to pick people I had read for a bit. And most of those people had already been nominated. I ended up staying up too late scoping out new blogs, and skimming them to get a taste. and THAT felt insincere. It was an unexpected alley I found myself in!
Glad to know you see the value. Thanks for sharing that. You are one of the most reliable “likers” on my blog. And an incredibly consistent post-er. Not just with me, but with lots of folks. I kept seeing your name in the Community Posts. Very inspiring!
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I don’t worry about if people have been nominated before or not – it’s about ME recommending blogs I think are fun to read. If there are any other rules it’s insincere. I also think if you want to nominate 3 or 15 you should do it! The whole point is it should be fun and not pressured. I want to read the blogs YOU like, not ones that are just nominated because they’re “last picks”. You were nominated, the baton was passed, it’s up to you how you run your section of the race 😊
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It’s helpful to hear different perspective on this. There’s an etiquette I wasn’t too sure about, and hearing your comments and others gives me a sense that there is some flexibility in how are you execute an award. That takes a ton of pressure off. Thanks for that.
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New bloggers somehow get to grasp everything so quickly nowadays (I mean you among others). Your post is very perceptive and honest. It is your blog and your choice. Obviously. Let me share MY thoughts on that topic.
Like you, when I first started I was mesmerized by those award posts. I felt like I was never going to get one. It felt like so far out of my reach. So when I got nominated (a WHILE after I first started) I was over the moon. And then (the same day or week) I got nominated again. I was flattered. I did the posts and then got more awards. It was very much appreciated, but I didn’t want to be posting only award posts on my blog. Shortly after, I got overwhelmed. I wanted to participate, but I didn’t want to change the focus on my blog. Then, I started wondering if they were really sincere. As a result, I decided to do monthly award posts (a compilation of the nominations from the whole month). It would be more time efficient and would not leave your Reader with an award spam from me. Many bloggers actually have a no award policy, and I considered it for a moment. I decided to keep participating (at least for now).I realized that those people that nominate me are 95% people who are consistent visitors of my blog (and I read their stuff). People I have rapport with, so I do value their appreciation. And then, because my blog is not “lifestyle”, there is not a lot about “me” in it. I mean info about me. And many people are curious. And the Q&A is a fun way to get to know bloggers, I think. I’m still honored when I get an award.
When it comes to rules, I do bend them sometimes. OK, quite often now. Because like you, in the beginning, I struggled to find “the right” people to nominate. I spent waaaaaay too much time on that. So now, when I had 15 (or more) nominations to respond to, I realized I needed to change something. And so I decided to nominate my own number of people and compose my own number of questions. That was, I am time efficient and I don’t nominate the same people over and over again. By nominating 1 person per each award, I try to limit the number of awards going on. And not because I don’t think others deserve it (they sure do), but because it does get overwhelming for everyone.
Sorry for such a long comment.
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I LOVE your comment. Thanks for sharing it. I’ll comment more later. My tablet is misbehaving.
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The comments here have been equivalent to an Awards 101 seminar. It was great to learn others experienced similar feelings and pressures and challenges when picking folks to nominate, and also great to hear that folks modified the rules. Because nominating a few sites is do-able. Nominating 15-sites, at this stage of my lurking around WordPress, is still hard. Especially as I had concluded on my own that I couldn’t nominate someone who had previously been nominated.
I love your solution of combining award nominations into a single monthly post. Brilliant.
Hmm, now that I’ve put out my “two minds” comment about awards, have I angered the award gods? I hope not, because now I feel as if there are options out there that work, the pressure valve has let the air out, and I’m ready to reach for the golden ring again.
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I’m happy to hear that I helped release your stress.
Depending how you feel, I would edit your post and add an “update” at the top, so that if someone wants to nominate you and comes to look at your site they don’t see the “I’m not sure I want to do it.” Just my 2cents.
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Excellent idea! Thanks for all your comments. And support.
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