never really thought about what the award host get out of it - but you are perfectly right!
of course they get hits through the bloggers sending their readers to vote and that makes them a lot money through the exposure of the advertisment on the host website!
i think there should be a proper panel of judges to decide what the best blog is - not based on hits and whatnot.
i got really pissed off when i discovered that the cosmo awards are only for those with handpicked media - pointless of getting people to nominate your blog if you arent part of HPM in the first place!
I'm of the shrewd marketing sense that most Blog Awards are about garnering information, stats and using social media (cheaply) to promote a mag's brand rather than truly awarding for merit in content, style, originality, engagement and readership (NB. Many good blogs act like top quality niche style magazines and are big influencers with opinion formers and need not nec have huge readerships etc). If magazines really want to start engaging, they should start reading the content (we see it from the RSS feeds) and crediting the bloggers with more kudos, business suss and social standing than they currently have.
I think it can be an unfair process really. I've seen blogs with thousands and thousands of followers who very seldom update.
But there's people blogging all the time and people don't bat an eyelid.
It's just popularity really/ Just because that person has a lot of followers doesn't mean they are more deserving to win. It just means they are noticed more than little blogs.
And with so many people in beauty blogging now it can be hard for people to amount to that.
I have to say I agree with everything you have written! I am so glad that you have brought this up, as it has opened my eyes - I never really thought of the blog awards like that before, although I was very apprehensive to enter my personal details in order to vote. What has hit home the most is that journalists don't seem to respect bloggers in the slightest - so why exactly are magazines holding award ceremonies in our 'honour'?! Well, for the reasons you have suggested it would seem!
It would be extremely difficult for those sites to review every blog nominated fairly, therefore (as you say) it becomes a popularity contest. Of course blogs with lots of followers can be brilliant but there are lots of talented and creative bloggers who haven't been 'found' yet. I love the idea of turning the tables and creating a 'magazine awards', very clever!
A very thoughtful post. I'd never really thought of a lot of these issues before, but of course the mags do it for exposure and to increase their website hits/gather data.
As someone that had a lot of recognition in 2010 I was really excited and humbled to have been nominated for awards, but as time has moved on I don't think they're valued in the same way. Most of the awards rely purely on people's votes, so the blogs with more followers/readers will always win regardless of the quality of their content. I agree that the awards need an independent panel of judges basing their votes on posts, engagement, writing etc rather than just getting 6 million teenagers to vote for their idol.
I think the whole 'blog awards' thing needs to be re-evaluated before it can be properly valued. There's little in it for the blogger at the moment - I believe that some mag awards are even asking for FREE content if you win?! How ridiculous.
I'm not opposed to blog awards in principle. I'm a small enough blog that I don't mind sending traffic to a firm I like because I do receive traffic back. Not much, but some.
But I have to say I'm in agreement with Anon, whilst I'm not opposed to Blog awards in principle, I actually think for me personally they are a waste of time because they are just popularity contests and whilst I may be tempted to put up a badge and do a blog post, I don't want to beg or bribe my readers to vote, so usually it's just my Mum doing the voting. ;)
As you've mentioned, its an entirely different ball game for bigger blogs, for smaller blogs it's much more mutually beneficial.
I don't really care to be honest. I wouldn't want to be nominated in the slightest, despite the fact that its flattering that people vote for you of course (which is definitely very heart warming don't get me wrong!) - i feel i would be defined by my blog entirely which i hate the idea of, because this is just a hobby. I also think it would severely damage my hope of becoming a print journo,possibly cringey. I don't know if this makes sense, but if i won i would be embarrassed. Embarrased in the fact i would be seen as 'just a blogger' something many print journos turn their noses up at, and because at the end of the day, i would be another marketing ploy to just get more readers/hits.
i think it causes bitter rivalry, (something that is already a big issue in the blogging community sadly) unbeknown to the publishing companies.
If they really wanted to highlight bloggers, they should include them more through features or commissioned articles, something i've seen more in Grazia and Glamour. I love the fact they have commissioned articles from Disney Roller Girl, that is something that really makes my day!
It has only been in the last year or so that I have realised all these points. Initially, Nic and I were flattered and didn't think twice about channeling traffic to vote but actually... it just isn't fair because it means that we will win every blogger award (unless Lauren or Lindy enter). We don't get excited by that. What about content, quality, hard work, merit. It is about time we called bullshit on these awards.
We will not be taking part in any of these "awards". When brands/magazines/websites start taking bloggers seriously and find a way to judge blogs fairly, rather than just harvesting visitors info and traffic) we will engage with them again.
When blog awards first came about, it was kind of exciting. There wasn't that many beauty bloggers as there is now and no one thought that far ahead as to interior motives. I suppose we were just grateful to be recognised.
Now though they kind of wind me up a little. I think to some degree its creating un-nessecary competition between blogs and I think some people could feel a little disheartened to not be nominated. Most of the time itsw big blogs that are nominated, which is unfair really, as there is some fantastic blogs out there from women with a real passion for beauty and no matter what their readership is, they still consistently post and also are active on twitter. So its not a case that they dont get noticed. It is just a case that they dont have much traffic to offer?
I came accross the little storm in the teacup this morning on twitter. My first reaction was that I was out of the loop, left out and felt a bit sad about it. Usually I would feel a bit envious, and crap about myself for not being nominated but since I have been very absent on the blog scene lately, I was not as upset as usual. So my first reaction was to send a cheering up tweet, with the intent to cheer up all those who felt a left out.
Then, when I knew where the bloggers awards originated from, my opinion changed a little. This time, as one of my fave bloggers pointed out, it seems as if they did a good job of linking to the actual blog in questions. Also this website has been known to have supported the work of bloggers before, and given 'award of the week' I believe so it seemed it was a natural progression to move on to blogger awards and not just a marketing exercise as it was the case with the so feminine dot co uk agenda.
So all in all I am divided. I thought I was against the principle of blogger awards in general, but I guess it depends of who/which company holds it. Without wanting to offend any of the nominees, I still think, that the c*sm* awards were a little bit of a joke.
I have to admit I was overall very underwhelmed by the Comso Blog Awards (which I was nominated in, and no its not because I didnt win). I personally didnt ask to be nominated this year (the year previous I did, but I was still a baby blogger back then) and I didnt really feel comfortable constantly shilling my blog out constantly to my followers so they'd vote for me.
I think what it comes down to is that in blogging we dont want to be told whos better than each other. It causes so much animosity between the so called ""big bloggers" and the "small bloggers". And I always wonder who has the right to judge these things, I assumed with cosmo that it was mainly readers votes, but then it was 50/50 between judges. And whos to say these judges know what a good blog is or isnt.
Also, I dont need a magazine to tell me my blog is good or not. Magazines change their opinions on bloggers like the toss of a coin. One minute we are trying to steal their jobs the next we're the best thing since sliced bread. We are two very different but very similar mediums. Like Sam said, when they take us seriously I'll take them seriously!
If I get nominated for a blog award, or win one then brilliant. I just dont think they really MEAN anything right now! I dont hate them, they do have potential. But its just really something that I think isnt worth it for the blogger in the long run!
and also, just to defend HPM from that comment from Miss drifted Snow White, It wasnt handpicked blogs that were nominated. You didnt have to be part of HPM to be nominated, it was just sponsored by them. Fair few of the winners werent part of handpicked.
Hi Tsunimee: yes, I am not citing any particular sites; particularly not the sites that have worked hard on their blogger relationships and mostly bloggers will know who they are. Those are exactly the awards that may benefit smaller blogs.
Hi Lily: yes, thanks for pointing that out re Handpicked. You didn't have to be part of HP to be part of the awards.
On the whole I've been disinterested in Blogger Awards. Or maybe it's better to say that I've never engaged in them. I knew I wasn't in the running so paid no attention. I agree that for the magazine websites it's predominately about traffic and after the recent Twitter storm, it's clearer still what they really think of beauty bloggers...
However, I have to say I was rather sad that this current round of debate was sparked by an award set up by an e-tailer that I have great respect for. They've been a great supporter of beauty blogs, big and small and I think their intentions were entirely genuine. I was happy to add a badge to my site as I've always had a link to their site in my sidebar (my choice) so I don't imagine the traffic will be any different. I think they've been a victim of bad timing in this case.
Hi Modesty: just to be clear I've emailed with the site already so they know it isn't 'them' but the situation in general. They've worked really well with bloggers and you're right about the timing. They're exactly the sort of site that can make awards a positive thing such as their Blogger of The Week section. There isn't any sub-text to the post being about that particular site.
@Modesty Brown as I said to the blog awards organisers. Their award is like the straw that broke the camels back. While I do think they are coming from an entirely genuine place, it doesn't change that this is not a very fair way to judge the awards.
When I first got wind of Blogger Awards, I thought Oooo this is quite interesting and really fun to discover new blogs. However as of late I have been reading *taking back seat* some tweets made with regards to this very same topic, and after a remark which was made and caused severe whirlwinds, my opinions have changed somewhat.
With this post that you've just written, it has made me sit back and realise actually BBB is right, and you've hit the nail right on the head!!!
Hi BBB, that's great. I emailed them earlier too. I really felt for them as I'm sure they must have seen Twitter and been crestfallen. I know that it was only a matter of time before the niggling feelings about awards came to the surface and prompted a debate. It's a shame about the timing for them. I actually thought their awards might see a completely different winner which would be really positive. Thanks for addressing my comment :)
Previously, in line with what London Beauty Queen said, I thought blogger awards were fine - they appeared to have some merit to them with a somewhat transparent process that was clear to both the bloggers and voters. Now, it's a different story. Being spammed by a company hosting blog awards to put their link in my sidebar is annoying, especially they don't even link blogs they mention or worse again, spell your blog url completely wrong and expect you to be downright thrilled about it. The attitudes of some magazines is indeed changing but its still unclear, to me, whether they are doing it for the right or wrong reasons. Like Liloo, I'm on the fence about this. One on hand it annoys me and on the other, their are some blogs I enjoy reading that have won awards and I can see why. Unsure.
My blog was nominated for the Cosmo Blog Awards last year, and after going along with a genuine interest to see a bit more behind-the-scene stuff from the blog world, it left me totally uninspired (and not just because I didn't win - I was dumbfounded to have even been shortlisted).
To me, blog awards seem to serve the very worst aspects of the blogging world. The big awards are simply popularity contests that pat the usual big names on the back - names that don't really need any more recognition. Do you think The Sartorialist cares about being shortlisted for the Cosmo awards? Of course not. Which seems to make the whole thing kind of irrelevent.
What I dislike most is that they feed into the worst parts of blogs and recognition. There are a few big UK fashion bloggers who seemingly never stop complaining about being considered 'only bloggers' by PR, etc, until they develop a cross-over into print or gain serious recognition as a blogger. At which point they completely vanish from the online community beyond the realm of their own blog. Try engaging with one of these 'big' bloggers on Twitter or on the comment section of their own blog - you'll get nothing back at all. I'm talking about a select handful of bloggers here, and certainly not BBB! They seem to carry around a sense of self-importance and only engage with each other, without giving anything back to the online community that helped feed their success. I realise there is a hierarchy to everything, but it seems that some forget where they started very quickly. I'm happy for their success and still read their blogs, but it gets my back up. This is just side-rant, but this whole part of blogging is something I genuinely dislike - sometimes it fills me with apathy for the whole medium...! Sorry for rambling!
Your blog award is not anything given to you by a magazine it's the size of your following.
I would be interested to see a straw poll of blog readers assessing the merits of the various magazines. I regularly vote to love a product or leave it on Temptalia's blog. Why not magazines, you could do the Sunday magazines on a Sunday, the monthly mags one day and the weeklies another. They are part of the beauty industry so lets have a vote and see who's pleasing their readers.
An award must imply an idea of quality or achievement or it is meaningless. Awards could be for ‘the most popular’ measured in terms of views or hits like the music charts, but most blog awards are by popular vote - in which case technically they are a poll not an award of merit.
The first time I was nominated for an award it was by an established and successful online magazine site and was basically a poll of ‘their’ readers and as such totally legit.
When I heard about the first print magazine blog awards my instant thought was “Wow well done you …. brilliant digital strategy!” Print magazines are genuinely trying engage with an online audience and this felt like a stroke of genius on their part. Essentially, the magazine asks you to lead your followers to their site, leave an email addresses and vote for you…..job done. To be honest, had I been head of digital at the magazine I’d have done exactly the same - particularly targeting the big YouTube bloggers (good and bad) with their huge number of subscribers.
In my case I went into it with my eyes open, for the fun of it and to see if the publicity earned me any new traffic to my site. (It didn’t). I was grateful and flattered my followers took the trouble to vote for me but frankly this format now seems a bit tired and I really don’t want to pester my loyal and lovely viewers/readers to go and vote for me again.
If the award was for quality and the criteria was for example – design quality – written content – innovation or whatever and judged by an informed panel then it might be interesting. The American Webby Awards are judged by a member committee of web experts, business figures and creative’s including David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Denis Crowely, Richard Branson and Harvey Weinstein and winning one of these awards really means something. Obvs I’m not saying magazines need to go as far as this but a legitimate judging panel would be a good start.
When it comes to single brands announcing blog awards, it’s so obviously an email trawl - surely no one falls for that. I really don’t think my audience would be taken in by such an obvious ploy and I wouldn’t dream of taking them there.
Enough with the comment piece, can you russle up some decent, labeled swatches of the new Clinique Almost lipsticks. It was my favourite lipstick and I was actually excited to see it back but the swatches on he Clinique websites (UK & USA) are really awful and no one seems to have any decent swatches:-(
So many interesting comments! All views are eye openers. I love this kind of debate. Thanks for the post. Brilliant!
As for the award thing, well I'm like most- tired of these crapy awards that are just for popularity. There are so many people that are mega big on youtube and are nominated for their not that good blog but because these companies know they will direct them to them anyway they do it.
Also, I hate when a blogger begs for the votes. If you are good then people will vote for you. End of story. Also, it's funny how people that do not blog very opten all of a sudden when they are nominated they start blogging like mad again.
I guess all this works with the ignorance of many and nothing is for free. Everything in life has a purpose and people want to take advantage of everything, even (or I should say especially) big companies.
Really interesting post, BBB; thanks very much. I read it yesterday and thought about it for a bit and I think you're totally right. I've tried - rather pointlessly - to enter a couple of these awards as when I first arrived on the blogging scene it 'seemed' like that's what everyone was doing so I thought it was something I should be doing too. It was completely naive of me to get involved as it *is* a popularity contest which is ironic considering that a lot of people will be entering with the hope that they'll gain more exposure; but if you stop and think about it (which this article will make a lot of people do) then the only people who are going to be successful are those who are popular in the first place.
I think the idea of blog awards is great if it's for the right reasons. I realise that a company who runs it needs to gain something from it, but if they were to ensure the awards were run with a level of credibility then surely the payoff would be a high level of respect from the blogging community which, long-term, would be very beneficial.
I would love to see an award that acknowledges up and coming bloggers; those who haven't been too focussed on building a following but have instead focussed on the blog itself and the content. These are the blogs that I would want to find out more about so it would be beneficial for everyone involved.
I've been totally naive with my approach to the awards and I rely on people like BBB to make me aware of things that wouldn't normally occur to me or that I wouldn't be able to find out myself due to lack of industry understanding. Thanks BBB! xx
I am quite new in the blogging scene (hell, my own blog is only a week old) but I have been reading a lot of blog for a long time before I even thought of writing mine, so my point of view will be more of a reader's one: At one point, every single blog visited was bearing the "vote for me" icon, and the blogosphere was looking like a US Primary Election. To be honest, my first impression was that it was some kind of gimmick created by magazines to drive traffic to their own site, increase they readers and that's it... as mentionned by BBB, there is also the need to give an email address, adding to the feeling that magazines basically wanted to get more people on their list. Also, as mentionned by LBQ above, a blog with more readers will automatically get more entry, so there is this kind of Bieber Effect where people will go vote en masse for the blog they visit, which will automatically win regardless of its content. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I realy feel these awards are not much more than free advertising for the magazine... Thanks for reading, Celine
The thing I object to is the 'put our badge on your blog' part of the agreement with these online awards which only serves to send traffic in one direction. Clever, but no thanks. (Plus I'm very fussy about the look of my blog and don't want any old random logos on it.) I'm also not down with the 'prizes' that often seem to amount to some sort of work experience. We are not all media studies students!
I agree that some of these awards have just become popularity contents and it's quite cringy reading the desperate 'please vote for me' tweets. (I did it myself on my blog years ago - the shame!) That said, for those complaining that the same people always win, yes that's true, but most now also have a category for newbie blogs so I don't think you can complain too much. Anyway, I suggest it's time now for some of these awards contests to step it up and start thinking of ways to be innovative and different and genuinely supportive of blogs.
Actually what I really came on here to say was in response to City Girls Fashion Box's comment (thanks Sarah!).
Glamourmagazine.co.uk picked 9 fashion bloggers to be part of its Style Tribe channel (similar format to US Glamour) and held a competition for the 10th one. And in the initial conversations there was talk that (editor) Jo Elvin was keen for there to be lots of online-offline crossover. I admit I was initially slightly sceptical but guess what, I did get commissioned to write a feature for Glamour and it wasn't about blogging, just a straight fashion feature that *gasp* I was paid an actual fee for. So some magazines do have a clue how to make it work.
Whilst agreeing with a lot of the posts above no one seems to be acknowledging the hits/new followers the mentioned/nominated blogs will be getting in return?
Sure the awards host will benefit from your readers hits but in the long run well after the "awards" have finished so will you. Who’s the real winner?
I find this whole debate very strange. Most bloggers start small and work their way up. As a small blogger I appreciate any recognition for my writing, and blog awards provide this.
Yes of course most awards are trying to get publicity or drive sales etc but Magazines, websites and retailers are businesses so of course there is going to be some gain for them. But on the other hand, as a small blogger there is gain in being nominated.
It seems only the larger bloggers are the ones that have an issue with it. I don't understand Why when you're small, publicity is OK, but the large blogs seem to resent it.
I think snobbery is starting to taint beauty-blogging and working on both side (working in beauty and blogging) I know the larger blogs with their new-found political agendas are getting a reputation for being difficult to work with.
Bloggers rely on brands, magazines and retailers for publicity, product, advertising and free-lance writing jobs. So don't bit the hand that feeds you.
And I really don't understand the issue with 'populatiry contests', as long as smaller blogs are mentioned or and encourged to enter, sureley the general public vote is a good indication of what blogs are good. For one I wouldn't vote for some of 'huge' blogs as I don't actually rate them. There are some AMAZING smaller blogs that deserve my vote much more. So you might actually be suprised at the ourcomes.
It's an interesting debate. I had a meeting with some SEO specialists working for a major brand about 6 months ago, who's ultimate goal was to host a blogger awards. As they rubbed their hands together with glee, they talked of the massive SEO potential when hosting a blogger awards, including links from the homepages of all their key target blogs(for free!). Plus free - effectively sponsored - posts annoucing the awards, then again the shortlist, then again the winners...
*loving* the fact that Marie Claire haven't a)added links to the "longlist" of blogs or b) added half of the blogs they emailed to say "congratulations" about TO the list in the first place.
Can I just say piss ups and brewerys come to mind.
It's definitely not about getting traffic for the bloggers concerned, judging by this.
I was chuffed this morning to find that I had been nominated in these awards for the best beauty twitter section. I'm a relatively new blogger (I started in September 2010) and also a student not far off graduating. One day I hope to work as a writer at a magazine. For me, this competition was purely exciting because a magazine that I really admire has turned around and given me a bit of an indication that they like my work.
Some of your arguments definitely make sense. For example, I read your blog all the time and so I appreciate that with your level of content a 'prize' of blogging for Marie Claire is a little unusual because they'd be on the receiving end of a brilliant deal! However, I do think that in this discussion it has to be remembered that sometimes people just enter these things for themselves, as I have done. To think that I've been longlisted is just insane to me! It has really boosted my spirits and I am delighted that someone such as Marie Claire has taken note of me.
I'm also relieved to know that aforementioned "smaller" bloggers are getting a look in, because I've entered lots of things and never previously been noticed. I'd also began to notice patterns of the same people being nominated for things and wondered whether the hierarchy would ever change!
I do think it is important to remember that bloggers work incredibly hard, and appreciate that Marie Claire is getting lots of publicity from them, but I also think it's nice to take a step back and remember that a well respected publisher appreciates you and wants to commend you on your work! (I say 'you' here collectively, not you specifically, Jane.)
I don't mind slapping on their banner and bringing some readers over the host website as long as I LIKE the award host. If it's a website I like visiting don't mind linking, I'll go right ahead and do it. I would never post ones for those clearly-for-profit awards. I've noticed some coupon sites and retailers have "blogger awards" in which they simply pick out a list of 50-100 bloggers so they get free linking. I would not want to participate in those.
I like your joking thought of giving awards to magazines. Please, it would make my day if you started an award for print magazines ran by bloggers! Haha, it's like saying, two can play at this. :)
As with most things I find that there are ups and downs with these kind of awards. Through the Cosmo blog awards I found a few new blogs to follow yet as some have said at the end of the day it's a popularity contest. You may hardly ever post and when you do post it's so obviously all been given to you by PR, but hey, if you've got the adoring followers! (not talking about anyone in particular, maybe.)
I have no idea how I missed this article, eek. It is so interesting to read all your opinions, especially because I just started blogging and basically know nothing about the community from the inside. I got nominated for Marie Claire awards (god knows who did it, probably my bf haha) and I was and still am thrilled. I have no idea how the nominations work and when I looked at the rest of the blogs on the longlist, I cannot even slightly compare to them. As you alread said, its about popularity. How can me, with my 2 months worth work (and about 30 followers) be able to get above bloggers with years worth work and thousands of readers? I have blogged about the award, I have put up the badge - because I am grateful. Grateful that I actually got on the same list like people I actually admire when it comes to blogging:) Thank you once more a very interesting article!:) xx
36 comments:
never really thought about what the award host get out of it - but you are perfectly right!
of course they get hits through the bloggers sending their readers to vote and that makes them a lot money through the exposure of the advertisment on the host website!
i think there should be a proper panel of judges to decide what the best blog is - not based on hits and whatnot.
i got really pissed off when i discovered that the cosmo awards are only for those with handpicked media - pointless of getting people to nominate your blog if you arent part of HPM in the first place!
so pretty much a kind of joke really...
I'm of the shrewd marketing sense that most Blog Awards are about garnering information, stats and using social media (cheaply) to promote a mag's brand rather than truly awarding for merit in content, style, originality, engagement and readership (NB. Many good blogs act like top quality niche style magazines and are big influencers with opinion formers and need not nec have huge readerships etc). If magazines really want to start engaging, they should start reading the content (we see it from the RSS feeds) and crediting the bloggers with more kudos, business suss and social standing than they currently have.
I think it can be an unfair process really. I've seen blogs with thousands and thousands of followers who very seldom update.
But there's people blogging all the time and people don't bat an eyelid.
It's just popularity really/ Just because that person has a lot of followers doesn't mean they are more deserving to win. It just means they are noticed more than little blogs.
And with so many people in beauty blogging now it can be hard for people to amount to that.
I have to say I agree with everything you have written! I am so glad that you have brought this up, as it has opened my eyes - I never really thought of the blog awards like that before, although I was very apprehensive to enter my personal details in order to vote. What has hit home the most is that journalists don't seem to respect bloggers in the slightest - so why exactly are magazines holding award ceremonies in our 'honour'?! Well, for the reasons you have suggested it would seem!
It would be extremely difficult for those sites to review every blog nominated fairly, therefore (as you say) it becomes a popularity contest. Of course blogs with lots of followers can be brilliant but there are lots of talented and creative bloggers who haven't been 'found' yet.
I love the idea of turning the tables and creating a 'magazine awards', very clever!
A very thoughtful post. I'd never really thought of a lot of these issues before, but of course the mags do it for exposure and to increase their website hits/gather data.
As someone that had a lot of recognition in 2010 I was really excited and humbled to have been nominated for awards, but as time has moved on I don't think they're valued in the same way. Most of the awards rely purely on people's votes, so the blogs with more followers/readers will always win regardless of the quality of their content. I agree that the awards need an independent panel of judges basing their votes on posts, engagement, writing etc rather than just getting 6 million teenagers to vote for their idol.
I think the whole 'blog awards' thing needs to be re-evaluated before it can be properly valued. There's little in it for the blogger at the moment - I believe that some mag awards are even asking for FREE content if you win?! How ridiculous.
Thanks for opening up the debate BBB xx
I'm not opposed to blog awards in principle. I'm a small enough blog that I don't mind sending traffic to a firm I like because I do receive traffic back. Not much, but some.
But I have to say I'm in agreement with Anon, whilst I'm not opposed to Blog awards in principle, I actually think for me personally they are a waste of time because they are just popularity contests and whilst I may be tempted to put up a badge and do a blog post, I don't want to beg or bribe my readers to vote, so usually it's just my Mum doing the voting. ;)
As you've mentioned, its an entirely different ball game for bigger blogs, for smaller blogs it's much more mutually beneficial.
I don't really care to be honest. I wouldn't want to be nominated in the slightest, despite the fact that its flattering that people vote for you of course (which is definitely very heart warming don't get me wrong!) - i feel i would be defined by my blog entirely which i hate the idea of, because this is just a hobby. I also think it would severely damage my hope of becoming a print journo,possibly cringey. I don't know if this makes sense, but if i won i would be embarrassed. Embarrased in the fact i would be seen as 'just a blogger' something many print journos turn their noses up at, and because at the end of the day, i would be another marketing ploy to just get more readers/hits.
i think it causes bitter rivalry, (something that is already a big issue in the blogging community sadly) unbeknown to the publishing companies.
If they really wanted to highlight bloggers, they should include them more through features or commissioned articles, something i've seen more in Grazia and Glamour. I love the fact they have commissioned articles from Disney Roller Girl, that is something that really makes my day!
It has only been in the last year or so that I have realised all these points.
Initially, Nic and I were flattered and didn't think twice about channeling traffic to vote but actually... it just isn't fair because it means that we will win every blogger award (unless Lauren or Lindy enter).
We don't get excited by that.
What about content, quality, hard work, merit.
It is about time we called bullshit on these awards.
We will not be taking part in any of these "awards". When brands/magazines/websites start taking bloggers seriously and find a way to judge blogs fairly, rather than just harvesting visitors info and traffic) we will engage with them again.
Sam. x
When blog awards first came about, it was kind of exciting. There wasn't that many beauty bloggers as there is now and no one thought that far ahead as to interior motives. I suppose we were just grateful to be recognised.
Now though they kind of wind me up a little. I think to some degree its creating un-nessecary competition between blogs and I think some people could feel a little disheartened to not be nominated. Most of the time itsw big blogs that are nominated, which is unfair really, as there is some fantastic blogs out there from women with a real passion for beauty and no matter what their readership is, they still consistently post and also are active on twitter. So its not a case that they dont get noticed. It is just a case that they dont have much traffic to offer?
I came accross the little storm in the teacup this morning on twitter. My first reaction was that I was out of the loop, left out and felt a bit sad about it. Usually I would feel a bit envious, and crap about myself for not being nominated but since I have been very absent on the blog scene lately, I was not as upset as usual. So my first reaction was to send a cheering up tweet, with the intent to cheer up all those who felt a left out.
Then, when I knew where the bloggers awards originated from, my opinion changed a little. This time, as one of my fave bloggers pointed out, it seems as if they did a good job of linking to the actual blog in questions. Also this website has been known to have supported the work of bloggers before, and given 'award of the week' I believe so it seemed it was a natural progression to move on to blogger awards and not just a marketing exercise as it was the case with the so feminine dot co uk agenda.
So all in all I am divided. I thought I was against the principle of blogger awards in general, but I guess it depends of who/which company holds it. Without wanting to offend any of the nominees, I still think, that the c*sm* awards were a little bit of a joke.
I have to admit I was overall very underwhelmed by the Comso Blog Awards (which I was nominated in, and no its not because I didnt win). I personally didnt ask to be nominated this year (the year previous I did, but I was still a baby blogger back then) and I didnt really feel comfortable constantly shilling my blog out constantly to my followers so they'd vote for me.
I think what it comes down to is that in blogging we dont want to be told whos better than each other. It causes so much animosity between the so called ""big bloggers" and the "small bloggers". And I always wonder who has the right to judge these things, I assumed with cosmo that it was mainly readers votes, but then it was 50/50 between judges. And whos to say these judges know what a good blog is or isnt.
Also, I dont need a magazine to tell me my blog is good or not. Magazines change their opinions on bloggers like the toss of a coin. One minute we are trying to steal their jobs the next we're the best thing since sliced bread. We are two very different but very similar mediums. Like Sam said, when they take us seriously I'll take them seriously!
If I get nominated for a blog award, or win one then brilliant. I just dont think they really MEAN anything right now! I dont hate them, they do have potential. But its just really something that I think isnt worth it for the blogger in the long run!
and also, just to defend HPM from that comment from Miss drifted Snow White, It wasnt handpicked blogs that were nominated. You didnt have to be part of HPM to be nominated, it was just sponsored by them. Fair few of the winners werent part of handpicked.
Hi Tsunimee: yes, I am not citing any particular sites; particularly not the sites that have worked hard on their blogger relationships and mostly bloggers will know who they are. Those are exactly the awards that may benefit smaller blogs.
Hi Lily: yes, thanks for pointing that out re Handpicked. You didn't have to be part of HP to be part of the awards.
On the whole I've been disinterested in Blogger Awards. Or maybe it's better to say that I've never engaged in them. I knew I wasn't in the running so paid no attention. I agree that for the magazine websites it's predominately about traffic and after the recent Twitter storm, it's clearer still what they really think of beauty bloggers...
However, I have to say I was rather sad that this current round of debate was sparked by an award set up by an e-tailer that I have great respect for. They've been a great supporter of beauty blogs, big and small and I think their intentions were entirely genuine. I was happy to add a badge to my site as I've always had a link to their site in my sidebar (my choice) so I don't imagine the traffic will be any different. I think they've been a victim of bad timing in this case.
Hi Modesty: just to be clear I've emailed with the site already so they know it isn't 'them' but the situation in general. They've worked really well with bloggers and you're right about the timing. They're exactly the sort of site that can make awards a positive thing such as their Blogger of The Week section. There isn't any sub-text to the post being about that particular site.
@Modesty Brown as I said to the blog awards organisers. Their award is like the straw that broke the camels back. While I do think they are coming from an entirely genuine place, it doesn't change that this is not a very fair way to judge the awards.
When I first got wind of Blogger Awards, I thought Oooo this is quite interesting and really fun to discover new blogs. However as of late I have been reading *taking back seat* some tweets made with regards to this very same topic, and after a remark which was made and caused severe whirlwinds, my opinions have changed somewhat.
With this post that you've just written, it has made me sit back and realise actually BBB is right, and you've hit the nail right on the head!!!
Great and interesting post.
Hi BBB, that's great. I emailed them earlier too. I really felt for them as I'm sure they must have seen Twitter and been crestfallen. I know that it was only a matter of time before the niggling feelings about awards came to the surface and prompted a debate. It's a shame about the timing for them. I actually thought their awards might see a completely different winner which would be really positive. Thanks for addressing my comment :)
Previously, in line with what London Beauty Queen said, I thought blogger awards were fine - they appeared to have some merit to them with a somewhat transparent process that was clear to both the bloggers and voters. Now, it's a different story. Being spammed by a company hosting blog awards to put their link in my sidebar is annoying, especially they don't even link blogs they mention or worse again, spell your blog url completely wrong and expect you to be downright thrilled about it. The attitudes of some magazines is indeed changing but its still unclear, to me, whether they are doing it for the right or wrong reasons. Like Liloo, I'm on the fence about this. One on hand it annoys me and on the other, their are some blogs I enjoy reading that have won awards and I can see why.
Unsure.
My blog was nominated for the Cosmo Blog Awards last year, and after going along with a genuine interest to see a bit more behind-the-scene stuff from the blog world, it left me totally uninspired (and not just because I didn't win - I was dumbfounded to have even been shortlisted).
To me, blog awards seem to serve the very worst aspects of the blogging world. The big awards are simply popularity contests that pat the usual big names on the back - names that don't really need any more recognition. Do you think The Sartorialist cares about being shortlisted for the Cosmo awards? Of course not. Which seems to make the whole thing kind of irrelevent.
What I dislike most is that they feed into the worst parts of blogs and recognition. There are a few big UK fashion bloggers who seemingly never stop complaining about being considered 'only bloggers' by PR, etc, until they develop a cross-over into print or gain serious recognition as a blogger. At which point they completely vanish from the online community beyond the realm of their own blog. Try engaging with one of these 'big' bloggers on Twitter or on the comment section of their own blog - you'll get nothing back at all. I'm talking about a select handful of bloggers here, and certainly not BBB! They seem to carry around a sense of self-importance and only engage with each other, without giving anything back to the online community that helped feed their success. I realise there is a hierarchy to everything, but it seems that some forget where they started very quickly. I'm happy for their success and still read their blogs, but it gets my back up.
This is just side-rant, but this whole part of blogging is something I genuinely dislike - sometimes it fills me with apathy for the whole medium...! Sorry for rambling!
Your blog award is not anything given to you by a magazine it's the size of your following.
I would be interested to see a straw poll of blog readers assessing the merits of the various magazines. I regularly vote to love a product or leave it on Temptalia's blog. Why not magazines, you could do the Sunday magazines on a Sunday, the monthly mags one day and the weeklies another. They are part of the beauty industry so lets have a vote and see who's pleasing their readers.
An award must imply an idea of quality or achievement or it is meaningless.
Awards could be for ‘the most popular’ measured in terms of views or hits like the music charts, but most blog awards are by popular vote - in which case technically they are a poll not an award of merit.
The first time I was nominated for an award it was by an established and successful online magazine site and was basically a poll of ‘their’ readers and as such totally legit.
When I heard about the first print magazine blog awards my instant thought was “Wow well done you …. brilliant digital strategy!” Print magazines are genuinely trying engage with an online audience and this felt like a stroke of genius on their part. Essentially, the magazine asks you to lead your followers to their site, leave an email addresses and vote for you…..job done. To be honest, had I been head of digital at the magazine I’d have done exactly the same - particularly targeting the big YouTube bloggers (good and bad) with their huge number of subscribers.
In my case I went into it with my eyes open, for the fun of it and to see if the publicity earned me any new traffic to my site. (It didn’t). I was grateful and flattered my followers took the trouble to vote for me but frankly this format now seems a bit tired and I really don’t want to pester my loyal and lovely viewers/readers to go and vote for me again.
If the award was for quality and the criteria was for example – design quality – written content – innovation or whatever and judged by an informed panel then it might be interesting. The American Webby Awards are judged by a member committee of web experts, business figures and creative’s including David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Denis Crowely, Richard Branson and Harvey Weinstein and winning one of these awards really means something. Obvs I’m not saying magazines need to go as far as this but a legitimate judging panel would be a good start.
When it comes to single brands announcing blog awards, it’s so obviously an email trawl - surely no one falls for that. I really don’t think my audience would be taken in by such an obvious ploy and I wouldn’t dream of taking them there.
Enough with the comment piece, can you russle up some decent, labeled swatches of the new Clinique Almost lipsticks. It was my favourite lipstick and I was actually excited to see it back but the swatches on he Clinique websites (UK & USA) are really awful and no one seems to have any decent swatches:-(
So many interesting comments! All views are eye openers. I love this kind of debate. Thanks for the post. Brilliant!
As for the award thing, well I'm like most- tired of these crapy awards that are just for popularity. There are so many people that are mega big on youtube and are nominated for their not that good blog but because these companies know they will direct them to them anyway they do it.
Also, I hate when a blogger begs for the votes. If you are good then people will vote for you. End of story.
Also, it's funny how people that do not blog very opten all of a sudden when they are nominated they start blogging like mad again.
I guess all this works with the ignorance of many and nothing is for free. Everything in life has a purpose and people want to take advantage of everything, even (or I should say especially) big companies.
Mercedes
Really interesting post, BBB; thanks very much. I read it yesterday and thought about it for a bit and I think you're totally right. I've tried - rather pointlessly - to enter a couple of these awards as when I first arrived on the blogging scene it 'seemed' like that's what everyone was doing so I thought it was something I should be doing too. It was completely naive of me to get involved as it *is* a popularity contest which is ironic considering that a lot of people will be entering with the hope that they'll gain more exposure; but if you stop and think about it (which this article will make a lot of people do) then the only people who are going to be successful are those who are popular in the first place.
I think the idea of blog awards is great if it's for the right reasons. I realise that a company who runs it needs to gain something from it, but if they were to ensure the awards were run with a level of credibility then surely the payoff would be a high level of respect from the blogging community which, long-term, would be very beneficial.
I would love to see an award that acknowledges up and coming bloggers; those who haven't been too focussed on building a following but have instead focussed on the blog itself and the content. These are the blogs that I would want to find out more about so it would be beneficial for everyone involved.
I've been totally naive with my approach to the awards and I rely on people like BBB to make me aware of things that wouldn't normally occur to me or that I wouldn't be able to find out myself due to lack of industry understanding. Thanks BBB! xx
Good morning,
I am quite new in the blogging scene (hell, my own blog is only a week old) but I have been reading a lot of blog for a long time before I even thought of writing mine, so my point of view will be more of a reader's one:
At one point, every single blog visited was bearing the "vote for me" icon, and the blogosphere was looking like a US Primary Election.
To be honest, my first impression was that it was some kind of gimmick created by magazines to drive traffic to their own site, increase they readers and that's it... as mentionned by BBB, there is also the need to give an email address, adding to the feeling that magazines basically wanted to get more people on their list.
Also, as mentionned by LBQ above, a blog with more readers will automatically get more entry, so there is this kind of Bieber Effect where people will go vote en masse for the blog they visit, which will automatically win regardless of its content.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I realy feel these awards are not much more than free advertising for the magazine...
Thanks for reading, Celine
The thing I object to is the 'put our badge on your blog' part of the agreement with these online awards which only serves to send traffic in one direction. Clever, but no thanks. (Plus I'm very fussy about the look of my blog and don't want any old random logos on it.) I'm also not down with the 'prizes' that often seem to amount to some sort of work experience. We are not all media studies students!
I agree that some of these awards have just become popularity contents and it's quite cringy reading the desperate 'please vote for me' tweets. (I did it myself on my blog years ago - the shame!) That said, for those complaining that the same people always win, yes that's true, but most now also have a category for newbie blogs so I don't think you can complain too much. Anyway, I suggest it's time now for some of these awards contests to step it up and start thinking of ways to be innovative and different and genuinely supportive of blogs.
Actually what I really came on here to say was in response to City Girls Fashion Box's comment (thanks Sarah!).
Glamourmagazine.co.uk picked 9 fashion bloggers to be part of its Style Tribe channel (similar format to US Glamour) and held a competition for the 10th one. And in the initial conversations there was talk that (editor) Jo Elvin was keen for there to be lots of online-offline crossover. I admit I was initially slightly sceptical but guess what, I did get commissioned to write a feature for Glamour and it wasn't about blogging, just a straight fashion feature that *gasp* I was paid an actual fee for. So some magazines do have a clue how to make it work.
Whilst agreeing with a lot of the posts above no one seems to be acknowledging the hits/new followers the mentioned/nominated blogs will be getting in return?
Sure the awards host will benefit from your readers hits but in the long run well after the "awards" have finished so will you. Who’s the real winner?
I find this whole debate very strange. Most bloggers start small and work their way up. As a small blogger I appreciate any recognition for my writing, and blog awards provide this.
Yes of course most awards are trying to get publicity or drive sales etc but Magazines, websites and retailers are businesses so of course there is going to be some gain for them. But on the other hand, as a small blogger there is gain in being nominated.
It seems only the larger bloggers are the ones that have an issue with it. I don't understand Why when you're small, publicity is OK, but the large blogs seem to resent it.
I think snobbery is starting to taint beauty-blogging and working on both side (working in beauty and blogging) I know the larger blogs with their new-found political agendas are getting a reputation for being difficult to work with.
Bloggers rely on brands, magazines and retailers for publicity, product, advertising and free-lance writing jobs. So don't bit the hand that feeds you.
And I really don't understand the issue with 'populatiry contests', as long as smaller blogs are mentioned or and encourged to enter, sureley the general public vote is a good indication of what blogs are good. For one I wouldn't vote for some of 'huge' blogs as I don't actually rate them. There are some AMAZING smaller blogs that deserve my vote much more. So you might actually be suprised at the ourcomes.
It's an interesting debate. I had a meeting with some SEO specialists working for a major brand about 6 months ago, who's ultimate goal was to host a blogger awards. As they rubbed their hands together with glee, they talked of the massive SEO potential when hosting a blogger awards, including links from the homepages of all their key target blogs(for free!). Plus free - effectively sponsored - posts annoucing the awards, then again the shortlist, then again the winners...
*loving* the fact that Marie Claire haven't a)added links to the "longlist" of blogs or b) added half of the blogs they emailed to say "congratulations" about TO the list in the first place.
Can I just say piss ups and brewerys come to mind.
It's definitely not about getting traffic for the bloggers concerned, judging by this.
Hello Jane!
This was a really interesting read for me.
I was chuffed this morning to find that I had been nominated in these awards for the best beauty twitter section. I'm a relatively new blogger (I started in September 2010) and also a student not far off graduating. One day I hope to work as a writer at a magazine. For me, this competition was purely exciting because a magazine that I really admire has turned around and given me a bit of an indication that they like my work.
Some of your arguments definitely make sense. For example, I read your blog all the time and so I appreciate that with your level of content a 'prize' of blogging for Marie Claire is a little unusual because they'd be on the receiving end of a brilliant deal! However, I do think that in this discussion it has to be remembered that sometimes people just enter these things for themselves, as I have done. To think that I've been longlisted is just insane to me! It has really boosted my spirits and I am delighted that someone such as Marie Claire has taken note of me.
I'm also relieved to know that aforementioned "smaller" bloggers are getting a look in, because I've entered lots of things and never previously been noticed. I'd also began to notice patterns of the same people being nominated for things and wondered whether the hierarchy would ever change!
I do think it is important to remember that bloggers work incredibly hard, and appreciate that Marie Claire is getting lots of publicity from them, but I also think it's nice to take a step back and remember that a well respected publisher appreciates you and wants to commend you on your work! (I say 'you' here collectively, not you specifically, Jane.)
Congratulations!
Love, Rose x
I don't mind slapping on their banner and bringing some readers over the host website as long as I LIKE the award host. If it's a website I like visiting don't mind linking, I'll go right ahead and do it. I would never post ones for those clearly-for-profit awards. I've noticed some coupon sites and retailers have "blogger awards" in which they simply pick out a list of 50-100 bloggers so they get free linking. I would not want to participate in those.
I like your joking thought of giving awards to magazines. Please, it would make my day if you started an award for print magazines ran by bloggers! Haha, it's like saying, two can play at this. :)
As with most things I find that there are ups and downs with these kind of awards. Through the Cosmo blog awards I found a few new blogs to follow yet as some have said at the end of the day it's a popularity contest. You may hardly ever post and when you do post it's so obviously all been given to you by PR, but hey, if you've got the adoring followers! (not talking about anyone in particular, maybe.)
I have no idea how I missed this article, eek. It is so interesting to read all your opinions, especially because I just started blogging and basically know nothing about the community from the inside. I got nominated for Marie Claire awards (god knows who did it, probably my bf haha) and I was and still am thrilled. I have no idea how the nominations work and when I looked at the rest of the blogs on the longlist, I cannot even slightly compare to them. As you alread said, its about popularity. How can me, with my 2 months worth work (and about 30 followers) be able to get above bloggers with years worth work and thousands of readers? I have blogged about the award, I have put up the badge - because I am grateful. Grateful that I actually got on the same list like people I actually admire when it comes to blogging:) Thank you once more a very interesting article!:) xx
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