Forget the Oscars and the Baftas, right now it is all about the BiBs. Yes, it is award season in the blogging world.
The Brilliance in Blogging awards, or the BiBs for short, is a parenting blog awards from Britmums, and with over 200,000 votes last year it is one of the largest blogger awards in the UK.
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Last year I was a new blogger when the nomination stage began, and I watched on with awe and wonder as bloggers began asking for nominations and exchanging tips on who to vote for. 'Wow', I thought, 'this looks amazing, I can't wait for next year!'. And so, like every other blogger I agonised over who I was going to nominate, and I dreamed about a time when I too would be good enough to be up for an award.
Fast forward a year. The time has come again to start nominating your favourite bloggers in one of 12 categories, and the blogging world is buzzing with excitement once again.
There is so much going on. My twitter feed is full of people asking/ begging for nominations. People sharing with the world who they have nominated, in hopes that some may be thankful and return the favour. For some, there is a massive excitement in the air, but for others there is a sense of desperation, which I find very sad.
After a year of dreaming about receiving an award, it feels strange now that the nominations have began, and I don't even know where to start. I have put out my plea on my personal Facebook account in hopes that I will get some love from my family and friends, and I have added the 'nominate me' buttons to the side of my blog so that if someone enjoys reading what I have to say they can vote, but that is about as far as I have gone. I haven't made a big plea to the world because I just don't think it would work.
I have to admit, when the award season started I couldn't help but feel a little bit deflated. Last year I loved the idea of being nominated for best newcomer, and felt a bit rubbish that I hadn't made enough of a name for myself to achieve that... But then I stopped myself, and had a good think about think about it. There are thousands of parenting blogs across the UK, but only ten places on the shortlist of each category. When the Shortlist is announced on April 28th there are going to be a lot of disappointed people thinking they aren't good enough because they didn't make it.
There are some amazing blogs out there. Bloggers with amazing talent, who put in a lot of hard work, and they deserve to be recognised for that. I will be casting my vote, and cheering on some of my favourites at this years ceremony. But there are so, so many, which makes it difficult to choose. And there are lots of bloggers I love who I won't be able to nominate because I only have one vote.
So to all of those lesser known bloggers out there who won't get the nomination they were hoping for, please don't beat yourself up about it. It doesn't make you any less of a blogger. Your blog is amazing in it's own unique way, and not getting an award doesn't mean that your blog isn't fabulous!
I love reading all of your comments and getting to interact with all my readers so pop a comment in the section below and lets chit chat.
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I think that's a fantastic attitude to take. There are so many parenting bloggers out there, and nominations for the awards are driven by popularity (and a willingness to brazenly ask for nominations) as much as quality. Not gaining a nomination is not a sign of failure by any stretch of the imagination. Good luck though!
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliantly written Lauren and perfectly sums up how i approach awards too. I think, despite some lovely blogs winning each year, they do tend to be very popularity driven. It's hard to compete with long running blogs with massive audiences! But award badges are definitely not the be-all and end-all. It's great to be recognised for what you do, but nicer in some ways if people just tell you that directly, isn't it? Good luck sweetpea, you would be a lovely shortlist-ee! :) xx
ReplyDeleteI just haven't bothered, Lauren. I'm not "popular" enough to get short listed so there was no point in me even trying. I think the awards can make really great bloggers who share so much of themselves feel that they're not good enough because they don't have a flashy website or know loads of the bloggers on first name terms. I had a bit of an experience earlier in the year that left a really bad taste in my mouth and it's made me really hate some aspects of the parenting blogging thing, so I'm not bothering in future. x
ReplyDeleteI don't stress about these awards....There are hundreds of bloggers out there who are totally amazing! I haven't put the badges on my blog hoping I will fly under the radar and people use their votes on someone who really deserves/wants it...
ReplyDeleteWishing you the best of luck x
I am one of those lesser known blog/blogger so I really cant see myself joining and winning this =( #pocolo
ReplyDeleteI love this post, it's almost the same as one I started writing but never got round to finishing ('drafts' is handy, isn't it?!). After 5 years of no awards, I'm still debating with myself as to whether I should even mention it to anyone else. We'd all love to get one, but I think by now I've just about accepted that I'm just not memorable enough, and actually, it doesn't really matter! I've enough else going on in my life to keep me busy :) Like you, I know so many that I would like to nominate that it feels mean just picking one for each category... where to start?! Just wish that the disappointment didn't hit some people so hard :(
ReplyDeleteA great post. When I first started blogging, I didn't know this whole world existed - let alone the awards!! It is not easy and I think I started just before lots and lots more did. I think as long as you are true to you and what you write that nothing else really matters. All that said, good luck :) Thank you for linking to #PoCoLo x
ReplyDeletePerfect attitude to have! I was a brand new blogger this time last year and still figuring everything out, so this year I'm more established and have found my feet but still wouldn't dream for one moment I'll get shortlisted! Good luck, not long now until nominations closed so let's keep fingers quietly crossed! xx #BrillliantBlogPosts
ReplyDeleteI was brand new last year too and remember following the twitter feed and getting super excited for the bloggers who won. I'm not expecting anything this year, I'm still too new even though I fit into the fresh voice category and have been blogging for over a year. I just find the whole thing pretty exciting whether I'm nominated or not! xx #brilliantblogposts
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