Thursday, November 5, 2009

Are Blog Awards a Good Idea or a Waste of Time?

Are blog awards a good idea or a waste of time? Granted, it takes me a while to pick the nominees and link their blogs to my post, but I definitely feel these awards are worth every minute.


Here are the reasons I came up with:

-When you nominate others for blog awards, they’re supposed to put a link from their blog to yours in acknowledgment. That’s a bonus for you because their readers might jump over to check out your blog. Free advertising.

-When someone nominates you, they have a link to your blog from theirs, so their readers can see how great your blog is. More free advertising for you.
-Bloggers who’ve been nominated by you feel special and may follow you (if they aren’t already) or send you an award the next chance they get. They may comment more often and visit more frequently, too.

-When you stop by someone’s blog who has nominated others, you have the chance to meet new bloggers and read their posts.

-It feels good to be able to give to your blogger friends.

Rebecca A. Emrich awarded me an award yesterday.  This one goes out to all my readers because I luv you.  Thanks, Rebecca.


What do you think? Are blog awards worth you time? What do you like about them?

22 comments:

  1. I agree with all of the points you made! I personally like blog awards. Not only do you get free advertising and more blog exposure, you're also networking and getting to know other writers better. I saw a comment on a fellow writer's blog post about receiving an award (an anonymous comment, of course) that criticized her for buying into the whole awards thing because it somehow demeaned her blog. That person obviously never got one themselves and/or completely missed the point of the whole thing: encouraging each other. Congrats on your award!!

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  2. I agree with you Lynnette, and I saw the same comment Julie saw and it made me roll my eyes.

    I think blog awards send out positive energy and make people feel appreciated. The advertising aspect is a nice bonus.

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  3. It's always good when you can spread the love and meet new bloggers too.

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  4. I think they're great!! We're all out here doing our best to network and meet other writers, share, support, etc.....what's so wrong with making someone else feel special???

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  5. Hi Lynnette!

    One of the other best reasons for awards: they connect you with other bloggers with like-minded blogs and topics, like the writing community. How great is that? Building support with other writers is HUGE and blog awards are an instant way to do that. Plus, the awards say that the blogging you're doing is valuable to writers, and that's quite important I think.

    So in effect we're helping each other build the communities and following that writers so desperately need in this time of internet marketing. The anonymous comment troll who posted about awards being demeaning may be missing out on this important marketing aspect.

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  6. I think they are great, but I do know people who feel like awards are just another way to be exclusive.

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  7. I think awards are fun and are definitely a good way to earn friends for your blog. I often follow the links to award winners and have begun to follow many of them. They are work to pass on, but it's especially rewarding to find new blogs who need exposure (instead of passing the award on to those who already have a bunch).

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  8. I think they're fun, and I'm pretty much seconding what Roni said: they put out positive energy and the advertising is a bonus. ;)

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

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  9. I love blog awards, but unfortunately my blogger has gone nuts at the mo and I'm having trouble with graphics :-(

    Hi, by the way! Nice to meet you; I love meeting new writers :-) Thanks for the add!

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  10. Absolutely! I think they're wonderful. However, they can be extremely time consuming. I do my best to follow the directions but sometimes life won't slow down enough to give me that extra hour. Some friends of mine began posting them on the side of their blog and linking back to the person. And I like that idea.

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  11. I think they are wonderful! And I am more excited to see bloggers who deserve the award win than when I win one.

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  12. I'm all for the linking and the positive promoting of fellow boggers but I think the award badges clutter up the page.

    Some people have so many of them that they turn you off!

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  13. I think they're fun! And, congrats on your recent awards, by the way!! :-)

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  14. Of course I think they're a great idea! Although I'm slightly biased ; )

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  15. P.S. I like the fact that you gave it to all your readers! awesome idea!

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  16. Yep, for all the reasons you mentioned! (I'm just really really horrible at passing them on...)

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  17. Hi Lynnette -

    I like the blog award concept. The only problem is they seem to arrive in bunches and take a lot of work.

    When I first started looking for Christian blogs, I had a difficult time. When I found a good one, I visited all the sites on their blogroll. I still do this on occasion. I also link to articles on other blogs.

    Between blog awards, links to articles, and blogrolls, we have some excellent tools for connecting with each other.

    Blessings,
    Susan :)

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  18. Thanks for stopping by my blog:)

    I love awards for all of the reasons you mentioned, and it's nice to know that someone thinks enough of you to pass an award to you.

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  19. I love awards. They make you feel appreciated and lets you pass on the love. I just don't see a down side.

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  20. Exhortation is a spiritual gift that should be shared. I appreciate all the people who encourage me and allow me to encourage them.

    Congratulations on your award!

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  21. They are definitely a good thing and I think you covered the best reasons.

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  22. The best reason for the blog awards... sharing the love. *hugs*

    Lynnette Labelle

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