It’s that time of the year again. The blogging award nominations are open and bloggers across social media are asking for your votes.
I’m not going to ask for your votes though, mainly because I know I’d never win!
Here’s why I won’t win an award for blogging:
- I’m not funny
- I’m not sweary
- I don’t take enough selfies
- I don’t have loads of blogging friends
- I don’t write about babies or giving birth
- I don’t have time to blog every day
- There are no “working mum” categories
And that’s ok, I’m really not bothered.
We all blog for different reasons and you can set your own measure of success. You don’t need someone else to tell you that you deserve an award. I mean, if you’re a parent and you manage to find time to blog then you definitely do deserve a medal!
If you’re feeling a bit deflated with all the award talk, think about why you started blogging in the first place. It probably wasn’t to make loads of money from your blog and win awards.
I started blogging because I work in Digital Marketing and I wanted to build a website to practice web design, SEO, content writing and social media. I had no idea what to build a website about so I started a blog. It was never supposed to be a “mummy blog”, but I realised I didn’t have anything else to write about!
I don’t get 1000s of visits a day, but I think I’ve built an ok site. I’ve managed to get a DA (Domain Authority) of 33 within a year of going self-hosted and I get a fair bit of organic traffic from Google, so my SEO must be ok. I’ve amassed 4000 followers across my social media accounts in less than 2 years, and social is my biggest source of traffic so I must be doing ok at that as well.
I’ve also worked with some good brands, got some free stuff to review, and have even got paid to write a few sponsored posts.
All of that means more to me than an award picked by blogging friends, Don’t get me wrong, the winners of the awards will be fantastic bloggers, who’s posts I no doubt enjoy reading. The whole thing just has a bit of a Eurovision voting feel to it – vote for your mates. These awards are voted for by bloggers, not the public. Whilst I really do appreciate fellow bloggers taking the time to read and comment on my posts, I also want the public to find my blog by searching Google When they’re trying to find articles to read.
So if you don’t get nominated for a blogging award don’t worry. I reckon you can still think of yourself as a successful blogger if you’ve managed any of these…
- You have people you don’t know visiting your blog
- You have a decent Domain Authority
- You’ve learnt about SEO
- People follow you on social media
- You’ve worked with brands
- You’ve managed to get those Yoast traffic light symbols to go green on more than 1 post
- You enjoy blogging as a hobby
- You hit the blogging goals you set yourself
What do you think? Can you be considered a “successful” blogger without winning awards?
Let me know what makes you a successful blogger – gloat below and tell everyone why you’re awesome!
Respect to you for writing this blog post! Even though I’m up for a different blogger accolade at the moment, I still worry about people/bloggers get caught up with numbers of followers and trying to win awards. It’s not healthy. It’s really important to look after your own confidence and what I call your online wellbeing when you blog.
Yes I’m sure it would feel fab to win an award one day but peeps have to remember the fab feeling might not last forever. It can be quite transient. Loved what you say about remembering why you started a blog in the first place.
Thank you! Good luck for your award – I hope anyone up for these don’t take offence to my post because it is an amazing achievement! X
No no offence at all – I actually worry about how being up for awards can be bad for people’s wellbeing too. If people aren’t good losers they may forget about all of their amazing achievements along the way. There is a lot of pressure out there to be nominated or winning blogger awards. When I was at Blogtacular last year I realised awards weren’t the most important thing to me. It’s important I set my own achievements to work towards. So I set myself the achievement of talking at a blogger conference one day. I’m very fortunate that it’s actually happening on 10 June at Blogtacular. Love your blog and congrats on all of your success so far. You rock Sarah.
No no offence at all – I actually worry about how being up for awards can be bad for people’s wellbeing too. If people aren’t good losers they may forget about all of their amazing achievements along the way. There is a lot of pressure out there to be nominated or winning blogger awards. When I was at Blogfest last year I realised awards weren’t the most important thing to me. It’s important I set my own achievements to work towards. So I set myself the achievement of talking at a blogger conference one day. I’m very fortunate that it’s actually happening on 10 June at Blogtacular. Love your blog and congrats on all of your success so far. You rock Sarah.
Love this. Blogging lets you tell your own story and define success in your way. If that’s awards, getting loads of traffic and going pro that’s all good. But if it’s making connection, developing skills etc then that’s good too. There’s too much emphasis on numbers – but they’re not the be all and end all. Few gets into blogging for the numbers … They usually do because they’ve got something to say. It’s important not to lose sight of that
Couldn’t agree more blog because you love to, strangely I’m up on a shortlist for an award at this very time first time ever great read #dreamteam
Success is about so much more than awards – for me, I think getting good engagement from other bloggers and the wider community as a great measure of success. When someone shares one of my posts because it resonated with them, that feels like success to me. #DreamTeam
Hi, I love this post you as the individual are the only one who truely knows if your blog is a success. It sounds like yours blog is doing very well. Hopefully one day I will have a DA as high as yours #TwinklyTuesday
YES! I couldn’t agree more with this post – I understand why some like to be nominated for the awards and why they are in place to begin with, I just hope some people are taking on board that blogging is a lot more than winning awards and being recognised for what you do by an ‘award body’. #DreamTeam
I hate people asking for votes and even worse, nominating themselves.
A successful blogger to me is one who enjoys blogging x x
It’s very easy to get swept up in award season fever, I did the last couple of years. This year I’m stepping back and not really paying much attention to the awards because I know I’ll never be nominated by anyone other than my mam and husband haha! Having an award definitely isn’t the difinitive measurement of blogging success though for sure.
This is such a refreshing post when the blogosphere seems saturated with people appealing for your votes. #MarvMondays
Love this post! I understand why people want to win blogging awards, but I don’t really pay much attention to it all to be honest! x
I love this and it’s such an uplifting post to read. I think that reaching the finals for an award must be an incredible privilege and for those that blog professionally it must be a real string to their bow, but there are so many voices out there now it is impossible to recognise everyone for the brilliant pieces that so many bloggers are producing. I think you’re right and we should all celebrate achieving our own goals. That’s why we started in the first place after all. Thanks for sharing with #DreamTeam x
I love this – I’m always trying to work out what success will look like to me and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here! Your list is what I’m aiming for #dreamteam
Love this! I will never win a blogging award but I blog because it’s something that I love to do. It’s like free therapy! #MarvMondays
I love this. So refreshing to hear. To be honest, I don’t really care if I ever win an award or not. I didn’t start blogging for awards – I didn’t even know they were a thing! I started blogging for myself and I will continue to blog for myself.. #marvmondays