As some of my readers may’ve seen, I accepted another blogging award in the past couple of weeks. I’ve tended to enjoy accepting these awards and “paying it forward” to other bloggers by nominating deserving bloggers for those awards.
However, I also realize that not all bloggers have the same attitudes I do about awards. I’ve heard of bloggers who have an indifferent attitude about awards, and bloggers who even dislike accepting them. Given the differing attitudes about awards, I think that a good follow-up to my recent blog award acceptance is to express my own thoughts about blog awards, and give room for open conversation about them in the comments section below.
So…blogging awards: To accept or not to accept?
Really, it’s all up to you. You, the recipient of the award, can choose to accept or not accept the award, and I think there are valid reasons to accept and valid reasons not to accept. And, if you accept the award, you can choose what that acceptance of the award looks like.
Therefore, instead of giving a definitive “you must accept” or “you must not accept,” I think it would be helpful to outline some benefits I’ve seen to accepting blog awards through award acceptance posts, as well as some pitfalls.
Among the benefits I’ve seen for accepting blog awards include the following:
- These award acceptance posts give an opportunity to share things about myself that I would otherwise not share.
- The award acceptance posts tend to give me an opportunity to highlight the work of deserving bloggers, through nominating said bloggers for the award.
- I really enjoy sharing good news about myself and my blog.
- Not that I have ever intended this to be a benefit, but it seems like my blog following grows by a decent amount after I accept an award nomination.
But, I have also noticed some pitfalls to the blog award posts. Here are a few pitfalls I’ve seen:
- Blog award posts, and particularly award posts where you need to nominate other bloggers for the award, take a lot of work and time. Honestly, identifying other deserving bloggers is the most time-consuming part of a blog award post for me, and formulating my own questions for other bloggers’ blog award acceptances is also a time-consuming process.
- While I enjoy sharing more things about myself, some questions from some blog award posts may require people to answer questions about themselves they might not feel comfortable answering in a public realm.
- I haven’t gotten to this point as a blogger yet, but I’ve seen some bloggers get nominated for awards often enough that accepting every award post would mean more award posts a month than they might like.
The decision on whether to publish an award acceptance post or not should come down to one thing and one thing only: whether you feel that the award posts are a net benefit for you and your blog, or a net drawback. If it is a net benefit, then go ahead and publish those award posts. If it’s a net drawback, then you may want to consider something other than a traditional award post—what you should consider depends on what the biggest drawbacks and benefits are for you. Personally, if I get to the point that I get so many blog award posts that it would be too time-consuming and get me too much away from the focus of my blog (outweighing any benefits), then I might consider doing something similar to what Ashley at Mental Health @ Home does—in some form of wrap-up post (for me, possibly a wrap-up post for the year, as opposed to a wrap-up post for the week in Ashley’s case), thanking bloggers who nominated the blog for certain awards.[1]
Am I missing any benefits or drawbacks to accepting blog award posts? Do you accept blog award posts, and why have you reached your decision? Feel free to talk about these things and anything else relevant to blogging awards in the comments section below!
[1] If you want to read a different point-of-view on whether to accept or not to accept blog awards, I recommend reading Ashley’s post on this topic. She’s coming at it from a different perspective than I do, but I think it’s worth the read: https://mentalhealthathome.org/2019/12/08/do-you-do-blog-awards/
Blind Injustice 
Interesting post Brendan. The first couple of years of blogging I accepted every award and passed them on. Eventually though, there were so many they started eating away at my scheduled posts. Exacerbating things was that oftentimes they were the same award offered by different people. Nowadays if I’m nominated I thank the person gratefully and comment on their post.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences with blog awards, Kim. It sounds like it got to the point for you (like it does for some other bloggers) that the blog award posts were a net drain. Thanking the person who nominated you, even if you don’t do an award post in it of itself, seems like a good compromise.
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Thanks for the mention! I think that’s a really good overview of the pros and cons. When I was in my earlier blogging days, they were definitely a net positive.
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You’re welcome! I think your post is helpful for those who want to read about this topic but from a slightly different viewpoint. One thing I’m reading from the comments that have come in thus far is that it’s a net positive in earlier blogging days but maybe a net negative later on as you get more and more awards.
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This is a worthy topic, Brendan. You’ve done a good job of summarizing the benefits of blogging awards, and also the drawbacks. I think the benefits are definitely worth the requirements in the first few years of blogging. And the recognition is always appreciated. But when you’ve been blogging for several years, the drawbacks you mention become more pronounced. As a long-time blogger, I’ve adopted an approach that I use when the award nomination comes from someone whose blog I am really pleased to introduce to my readers – like yours! I don’t accept the award, but I write a blog to introduce my nominator’s blog and also to answer the questions. I hope you saw that I did that for you recently. I noticed that you did get some traffic from it.
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Thanks! It seems like among those who’ve commented thus far, the consensus is that it’s a net benefit to start but turns into a net drawback over time. Your approach seems like another interesting/good way to handle things too–one of my favorite things about blogging awards is introducing my readers to other blogs.
By the way, thanks for pointing out the award post you made! I didn’t get a notification from WordPress (even though you linked to my blog) and somehow I missed it. Oh well.
And thanks for commenting!
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Gosh, then I’m very glad I commented, Brendan. I guess I should have let you know separately, but assumed the link would appear to you in a WP message. Never assume! 😏
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Good thoughts. It’s tough to make time for and to respond to those that get them, although I try as I remember the excitement in the beginning until I digested the whole thing. Personally, I don’t like to see anyone’s posts more than once a day and better yet 2-3 times a week including my own. I want to be respectful of others time and my own. I’m just too busy and blogging can take over your life if you let it and I have a lot of other commitments with work, writing and family. I love the idea of a quarterly recognition of nominations. ❤️ Cindy
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on blogging awards, Cindy. I have not yet gotten to the point of not accepting blog award nominations, but the idea of doing quarterly awards is certainly a potential idea if you end up getting overwhelmed with the number of blog awards.
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You’re so welcome! Yes, everyone has to find their way with this..
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I think awards are kind of a complicated thing because like you said they can be a lot of work and can also be too many for bigger blogs. I personally tend to do some when I have time and leave the rest. The idea of doing one post thanking everyone is good- I’ll definitely consider doing something like that.
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Thanks for sharing, Pooja. My blog is not (yet) large enough that it has become too much work, but if I end up with blog awards every other month (or more) then I certainly would be getting to that point.
If you decide to go in the direction of having a post where you thank those who nominated you, Ashley’s weekend wrap-ups (which you may see already if you follow her) might be good examples to look at.
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Good take on the topic. While I do enjoy reading and participating in other bloggers’ awards post, I find that the posts themselves don’t fit in very well with the article-based themes on my site.
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Helpful post. Not likely to be my problem, since I would never get nominated … the liminal space i live in of leftist-activist-religious blogging is hated by fundamentalist religious blogs and assumed to be a frb by most others!
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Thanks! Though who knows–I think that there is certainly a niche there that may be larger than you realize. I think the rise in popularity of people like Richard Rohr and the late Rachel Held Evans are indicative of that.
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I’m not sure why people get offended when I do not accept their award nominations, it’s my personal choice
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I can somewhat understand–working on an award post (including identifying blogs that you think are worthy of an award) can be time-consuming. That being said, as you said, it is your choice as the blogger to choose to accept the award or not.
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I’m definitely going to be looking at Ashley’s perspective and I think accepting awards draws you closer to your readers and followers particularly if you do not blog about yourself all the time.
From accepting awards, readers could know your nationality, your pet peeves and maybe your background.
If we’re being honest, awards are more beneficial than hazardous to blogs but I believe that they should be done with care.
Some persons only publish award acceptance blogposts… always and if it’s not looked into on time, they may deviate from their blog’s core goals.
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Thanks for sharing your viewpoint! I definitely fall into the category of blogger who doesn’t talk about himself all the time, so blog awards I think do help my readers get to know me a bit better. Certainly, where I’m at right now, blog award posts are a net benefit, but that may change as my blog grows, as some bloggers get more nominations than what they can keep up with.
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You’re very welcome.
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I am very new to WordPress and I am not understanding how is the winner of blogging awards declared, would be helpful if you can guide.
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Hi Esdi. Welcome to blogging!
What happens with most awards is that usually someone (another blogger) nominates you and other bloggers for an award. You can choose to “accept” the award by making your own award post (and nominating other bloggers for the award) or not.
Hopefully this clarifies things!
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Okay! Thank you so much! I got two award nominations this week!☺
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Congratulations!
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😊
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I don’t believe a reward should come with conditions.
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I would definitely agree with that. In the blogging world awards theoretically come with certain conditions, but it’s up to the recipient of the award to determine how many of those conditions they are to act upon.
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Appreciate your viewpoint on Award acceptance or simply Gratitude without answering all the separate QnAs (saving time and energy).
My personal opinion is Awards give a blog visibility and connection with many bloggers whom we might not connect otherwise.
I had once merged 2 separate awards into 1 and thanked 2 Nominations together on 1 big post.
But soon later received 3rd nomination and gave it a miss still Thanking the nomination. Which offended that blogger and they stopped liking my posts and blogs after that. Hope they understand nothing personal and doing 1 full circle is not easy.
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Appreciate your viewpoint on Award acceptance or simply Gratitude without answering all the separate QnAs (saving time and energy).
My personal opinion is Awards give a blog visibility and connection with many bloggers whom we might not connect otherwise.
I had once merged 2 separate awards into 1 and thanked 2 Nominations together on 1 big post.
But soon later received 3rd nomination and gave it a miss still Thanking the nomination. Which offended that blogger and they stopped liking my posts and blogs after that. Hope they understand nothing personal and doing 1 full circle is not easy.
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Thanks for sharing your opinion on blogging awards. When I started out, the award posts definitely helped give me visibility and connection. Not to say that the connections aren’t useful now, but they were particularly useful when I started.
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Correct. Surely every connection counts!
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I’m a retiree and only blog as a hobby and a way to express my observations. From the outset I decided to have a no blogging awards policy. A reminder is included in my tagline. I simply do not want my blog to hog time I’d rather use to observe life and enjoy my remaining time on Earth.
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That is a fair attitude to take, especially considering what you use your blog for (which is to enjoy your time left here and observe life). Ultimately, it’s your blog, so it’s your choice what you want to do with it!
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