Good morning fellow bloggers!
I hope everyone is having a great start to their week, the sun is out here and I’m feeling good. Mainly because I’m off work until next Tuesday, but still I’m buzzing! I think I get more excited about other people’s birthdays than I do my own (my boyfriends on Wednesday). So when I get back from work I’m on balloon blowing up duty and preparing for his arrival tomorrow morning.
Anyway, enough about my personal life. I wanted to talk about something that has been bothering me for a few weeks now about the blogging world. This will be a controversial opinion and I am simply expressing one persons view, but I want to get this out there to clear my mind.
So I’m sure a lot of you will already be aware of the different types of blogging awards that are shared around, but for those who aren’t, here’s a brief summary.
What is a blogging award?
Well, it’s not a physical object that you’re given, it’s a tag which other bloggers link you to as a sign of appreciation for your posts. For example, I have previously been tagged in ‘The leibster blogger award’. This meant that if I were to accept the award I would read the rules within the post of the person who had nominated me and write a post with my answers. In this example, I had to answer 15 questions set by the nominator, tag their blog in my post and then set 15 questions for other bloggers I wanted to nominate for this recognition. A few other examples of blogging awards are :
- The versatile blogger award
- The mystery blogger award
- The sunshine blogger award
…The list goes on.
What is the point of these ‘awards’?
The point of these awards is to give recognition to those blogs that deserve to stand out under an array of topics. From inspiring others, to simply being an awesome new blogger!
To start with I thought oh my god this is amazing, other people are recognising me for my posts and enjoying my content. I felt really good about these in the first month of my journey and I think they are a great boost for those who are just starting out. However, for me…the novelty has worn off. I have been noticing people who are nominating me without even interacting or reading my content (it’s easy to figure out if you check your stats ratios) which then made me think, ‘Are they just looking for a little bit of exposure?’. This may not be the case and I may be over thinking it, but I have to go with my gut on this one and do what’s best for my content.
I wish I didn’t think like this, but I can’t help it and as a result have decided to refrain from posting any more award posts. Don’t get me wrong I’m very happy and appreciative of the bloggers who have previously nominated me for these, but I don’t think they are the kind of posts I want to be sharing with you anymore. I would prefer to focus on my own content prompted by my thoughts and not an ‘award’.
I hope I haven’t offended anyone who may disagree with me, but for those who have nominated me for awards recently and thought ‘why have they not posted mine’, this is why. I’m not saying everyone is looking for exposure because I’m not a big blog and I’m not the most popular one, but there have been one or two that I have picked up on and unfortunately have put me off the concept as a whole.
Sorry to put a little bit of a downer on things, but there we go, these are my feelings and I will do what I have to do to keep myself and my blog as good as it can be. I have made some loyal friends on here and love interacting with them and their posts so my appreciation for blogging is through the roof, but not everything and everyone is perfect.
Moral: You have to do what’s best for you even if that is not respected or agreed with by others.
The Average Aspirant 
Well said! 👍🏼
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Thank you, I was trying so hard not to offend anyone!
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I agree with you here, but to be honest I don’t mind it. I noticed that award posts bring me a lot of traffic.For this reason I am doing it+if someone is interested to know me a bit more, that is the only way they can do it 🙂
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Yeah fair enough, I actually found that I don’t receive as much traffic when I make these posts, but we’re all different. To be honest I even struggle to answer some of the questions I’m asked too haha!
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It’s your choice and I am sure everyone will understand 😍❤️❤️
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I definitely agree with you, I’ve received many nominations but never reposted. Mainly because I have a specific schedule and look for my blog, and award posts don’t fit in it, but also because they seem designed to drive traffic more then give a simple shoutout to a good blog. I make a point to thank each blogger who nominated my blog, and leave it at that.
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I always make sure I thank the blogger too, but I agree, these things are definitely based around getting more views rather than content sometimes.
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Very well said! I don’t mind doing the blogging award posts. However, I still kind of STRUGGLE with the who “pingback” thing and it’s a little bothersome because I always feel like I mess the post up for not doing it right lol on top of that it takes me a min to answer some of the questions lol
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Thank you! I think everyone approaches them differently and whose to tell you you’ve done it ‘wrong’ anyway! That’s a little annoying I agree, I like my posts to just flow and be effortless 🙂
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Lol Yesss!!
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I got my very first award nomination last week, and I was really over the moon. I then nominated 11 others, but I have to say choosing was AGONY. Then I didn’t hear anything back from any of my nominees…I set some questions and was keen to hear what people thought, then nothing. Quite disappointing, But then I realised how actually stressful it was, so now when I see the blogs that I follow haven’t nominated me, a part of me feels relieved….(this is turning out to be a confessional), But I am still so grateful to have been nominated at least once, by PTSD Girl.
Thank you.
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I totally know what you mean, especially when starting out you don’t really know many other bloggers, but the novelty definitely wears off. I know that some newbies are dying to be nominated and when they aren’t get a bit down about it which is yet another flaw with things like these! Congrats on your recognition though and thank you for reading 😁
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saw you on community pool and came over. I did a post about the Liebster award awhile ago. What I do if I want to recognize a blogger is simply give them a shout out on my blog, no strings attached. I personally don’t want one of those awards but if somebody truly likes my blog they can mention me in their blog and ask their readers to check me out. This way I get exposure and the blogger doesn’t benefit from this recognition by me giving them a shout out. That way it is truly a selfless act with pure motives. I have done the same for others and it should be noted that it has not been done for me. I am okay with that.
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I love that, I think everyone needs to read this comment and take a page out of your book. Shout outs to help to smaller blogs are a much better way of making things more personal as well as helping!
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thanks so much. I like to do it every once in a while
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I like the idea of no strings attached shout outs. I honestly thought of chain mail when I first saw my award nomination and had to do a lot of digging to figure out if this is spam or legit. However, as a new blogger I thought it would be rude not to accept and keep it going. Wasn’t sure if that was part of the culture but the nomination did motivate me to explore and read more blogs.
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More people should adopt this 100%! My mum started blogging about a month ago and she had some people nominate her without ever interacting with her and I had to just tell her to ignore it because it basically felt like spam! I know exactly where you’re coming from!
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hi Keji. I think the awards are part of the culture so I accept them for what they are and see why people participate but its just not for me.
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thanks so much. I enjoy coming up with new corny jokes or sharing those that I have read. Will have a new post in about an hour or so.
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I agree with you. The initial fizz dies down and then you realize that it really doesn’t add much value. But that doesn’t take away the credit of the awards in bringing few like minded people together. I found a friend in you through the awards. So I guess I will always be grateful for that.
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Yes definitely, there’s two sides to it, but for me I agree it fizzles out and starts to be a tad annoying 😂 aw yes that’s also a very nice benefit 😁🙆🏼♀️
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You seem very apologetic for writing this. Don’t be. I was awarded and I was grateful as a new blogger. Three of the 5 persons I nominated played along and I was happy for that as I got to know them better, even though I follow them.
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I was trying not to push my opinion into people that may not agree, but thank you for sharing 😊
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I’m just sticking to 1-2 awards post as I feel I’m being swamped by them, I don’t feel like I can suddenly stop them, now that I started. I prefer to do a monthly round up listing my favourite posts from the previous month and I list all those who nominated me, by way of a thank you. My current blog is a pre-cursor to a bigger blog and the new one will definitely be an awards free zone.
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I think that’s a good way to deal with it, I probably could’ve done that but my decision will lift a weight off my shoulders and I just had to get it off my chest! That’s a good idea 🤓
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SO glad you posted this and I found it (from the Community Pool). I’m a new blogger and have seen the awards on other blogs. When I first saw them they felt like goals in this new blogging world that I should strive to get. And I WAS keen to be noticed!
Then I was nominated for a 3-Quotes-3-Days gig. Not exactly an award. One quote a day and nominate 9 other bloggers over the 3 days. The quote was easy. The nominations?? Kinda hard!
Pro: I did end up poking around WordPress more and found some new blogs. Yay!
Con: Most I didn’t know very well and it felt weird to nominate them.
The ones I had been following had already received all sorts of other “nominations” and it didn’t want to nominate them for something they had already received. Plus, I was quickly learning how hard it was to do this. Then I remembered the actual awards I had seen and thought, “gads! a lot of those involved multiple Q&A and 11 blogger nominations” and I suddenly hoped I didn’t get nominated.
Soooo, your blog post let me know it’s ok to not accept. To thank, but not pass it on. As a traveler in a new land, you helped me with some etiquette issues and I’m incredibly grateful for that. Thank you!
(PS reading the comments helped, too!)
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I’m glad you feel the same, I was worried that I was putting out a very unpopular opinion, but clearly from the response I’ve received…I was wrong!
Doing what’s best for you is so important and to remember the reason you started your space within WordPress.
If that means thanking, but not accepting then you do you! 😁
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It’s one of those things that it’s easy to hold two conflicting feelings: recognition feels good AND it can be hard and send you off your path.
I’ve started linking to posts that illustrate a concept I’m exploring on my blog (walk the goats), which is we often use language to recognize different thoughts or personas that we may not want or like. I’m going to link to you because you say “I wish I didn’t think like this” which is, for me, a way of wanting to have some distance from the thought. In my language, you have a character that feels that way. By linking, I also get to recognize blog posts I’ve liked and share them with others (my 24 followers. Whoot!
I’m enjoying reading blogs and discovering how often language is used as a way to “observe” our thoughts, ala meditation suggestions.
Anyway, thanks again for your post and your comment back.
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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You did good by laying out your thought process. There are pros and cons. The system is not perfect. That’s for sure.
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Totally agree!
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