Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Blogger's Insight Re Blog Awards

Do you jump for joy when you receive an award?

I received the Liebster Blog award from Gene Lempp the other day. What an honor, since I value his opinions and admire his writing. In fact, his Wednesday "Designing from Bones" posts are some of my favorites, chock full of fascinating info and cool writing prompts. Check them out when you get a chance. If I was a teacher, I'd use his writing prompts with my students. Great for any age, elementary school through college. Perfect for us, too!


"Liebster is the German word for friend."

Anyway, part of Gene's post shares reflections on blog awards that I thought others might find interesting. So, with Gene's permission, here's a partial quote from his 9-3-11 post:

"Over the course of the last week I received two blog awards. The first was the Versatile Blogger, given to me by Amanda Rudd. This is my second of these. The other is the Liebster Award from Marie Andrews, a new-found ROW80 friend.
"After receiving the awards, I had several conversations with a few of my blogger buds and gained some interesting insights. Some bloggers see awards as a type of chain letter. Others meet them with a 'nice, but one more thing on my plate I don't have time to deal with' choice. Some are excited to be given an award, others, well, not so much.
"As I considered the words of my friends, I came to a realize that the value of the award was based on point-of-view. Given that our goal is to build author platform for our work, how do the awards help?
"Let's consider the points of value that come with being given and displaying awards.
"1) While the award may be of little personal value to a veteran author/blogger, our blogs are not for us, but for our readers. If we are truly building platform then not all of our visitors are author/bloggers, some are readers. Displaying our awards adds a sense of "expertise" to our site and posts for our non-blogging guests. You know, the ones that we want to buy, read and enjoy our books.
"2) Not all bloggers are veterans. In fact, blogging does not come easily to everyone. It took me four attempts over the course of six years to finally start the blog you are reading. In honesty, if it wasn't for Kristen Lamb, Jami Gold and my wife, I wouldn't be here now.
"Blog awards are a simple and effective way to offer our support and appreciation of those we visit and read. It can make all the difference in another bloggers world. When Sonia G. Medeiros gave me my first Versatile Blogger award, it let me know, much to my surprise, that at least one person out there enjoyed my writing. It gave me the boost I needed to keep going.
"The rules that are attached to each award are what make them appear to be chain letters. I do not think that we should allow ourselves to remain trapped in, or trap others into, having to comply with these rules in order to receive an award. If we are going to show appreciation, then show it. No strings attached. Hey, I love your work. You deserve this. Great job."

Thanks for your thoughts on blog awards, Gene. And thank you for the Liebster Blog award and for telling us that Liebster is the German word for friend.

I personally love to read all the interesting facts bloggers share about themselves when answering questions that came with an award, but I have to agree with Gene that for some bloggers, it might seem burdensome. That's why I made it optional the last time I passed on some awards, so the recipient could enjoy the award and answer the questions and pass the award on if they so chose.

Last week I also received an award from the awesome C. Lee McKenzie of The Write Game. It's the One To Follow award.


I'm choosing to pass these super cool awards on. I would like to give the One to Follow award to these bloggers:

Gene Lempp - As I said above, his "Designing from Bones" posts are fascinating. Not only that, Gene is always helpful with tweeting and blogging and is an all-around nice guy.

Tiffany A White of Tiffany A White's Ooo Factor - I was up in the air about whether to give Tiffany the Liebster award or the One to Follow award. She's a Twitter friend and also has a cool blog with posts featuring Tele-Tuesday and Why It's Worth a Watch Wednesday and Friday FabOoolousness. She's a fun one to follow.

Ellie Ann of Navigating Through the Week - She has a wild imagination and features any commenters in her Tall Tales posts who are game to be mentioned in the next Tall Tales Tuesday fun. She has other worthwhile posts, too, but her Tall Tales is one of my favs.  



As for the Liebster award, I'd like to pass this on to these new friends that I've met in the blogosphere:

Robyn Campbell of Putting Pen to Paper - We haven't been following each other's blogs very long, but we became instant friends. She's supportive and enthusiastic. Her love of life bubbles up in her emails and comments. She has seven kids, runs a farm, and somehow finds time to write! 


Misha of My First Book - Misha is another new blogger friend. She shares great info and tips, asks for advice, and offers kind words. 


Bish of Random Thoughts - She grew up on the Virgin Islands and now lives in Texas and is dealing with one of the worst droughts they've ever had. I'm just getting to know Bish, but she admits to being a bit of a prankster, so I consider her a kindred spirit! 


I'd like to give the award recipients the option to share something about themselves with us in the comments or on their blog. How about sharing a favorite childhood memory or an embarrassingly funny memory? SHARE IF YOU DARE! Hee-hee! And feel free to pass the award on to someone who deserves it.

How do you feel about blog awards? 
Do you love them? 


Or not?



31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for passing my award thoughts forward. I've gotten so much feedback on this (all positive) and its been a bit overwhelming, but good :)

Thanks for the award, I do appreciate it and all the kind words given to me here in your post.

When I was a kid, I remember finally getting to ride bikes with a group of kids I'd always wanted to hang out with. On the first ride together I rammed my bike into the "group leaders" back tire and wiped us both out. Needless to say, he was not pleased and that was my only ride with them. It also taught me I'm better at walking then at riding a bike :)

Thanks for giving us options, that is always the best way!

Laura Pauling said...

Love those pictures! Hilarious. I'm indifferent about them. Sure, my first year blogging they were fun to receive, some validation I was moving forward. After a while though, the energy fades and I struggle to keep up with them. And I never like answering the questions - in fact, never have. But I have passed them on and I have a page on my blog that needs to be updated. :)

It's a fun thing to do.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Congratulations on the award, Lynn. I think awards mean a lot when they come from someone you value. I've had a couple awards given to me from people who have never left a comment on my blog other than "I have an award for you."

I took my awards off after an agent lead webinar said to make your blog look like a website. But I wouldn't turn down an award...I love the little things you are supposed to do when you get them. I just wouldn't repost them on the side of my blog like I did before.

Love the pictures!

Anonymous said...

I'm the one who told Gene the blogging awards remind me of chain letters. :D

Here's why: A blogger is tagged, given a blog award, told to put xyz on her blog *and* tag 5 more people. It's the same concept as a chain letter, minus the dire threat that your teeth will turn black if you don't keep it going.

I don't doubt that some of these awards are given with the utmost sincerity. However, as another commenter mentioned, the opposite is sometimes true, too. It all depends on the person bestowing the awards.

I *love* the way you handled this, Lynn. Very graceful and gracious.

LynNerdKelley said...

Gene, I'm so glad you've received lots of comments from your blog award reflections. Love the story about your childhood bike ride with the cool gang! That would be a good scene in a kids' book.

Laura - Glad you got a kick out of the pics. I have a feeling a lot of veteran bloggers feel the same way you do. That's very understandable.

Sharon - Thank you! You make a very good point here about the worth of the award depending on who it's from and how much it means by them giving it to you. You're so right about it not meaning much if given by someone you hardly know and have never really "connected" with. That's interesting that the agent said that. Thanks for sharing your comments.

Catie - Well, your comments started some great discussions on this subject. And you're right about the awards being like chain letters if someone is passing them on out of a sense of obligation with no real meaning behind it for the person it's being passed on to. Good thing there are no death warnings with them, huh? That's funny! Thanks for leaving your comments.

Bish Denham said...

Thanks for the award Lynn. I was one of those people who thought the awards were more trouble than they were worth, but I've changed my mind in the past year. And I love Gene's POV of them!

Thanks for sharing.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Congrats on your awards.
I think awards are wonderful ways of showing appreciation. I rarely follow the rules, though I will show my appreciation.

LynNerdKelley said...

Bish - You're welcome. I think Gene's POV is really interesting, too. Glad you're enjoying receiving your awards now.

Lynda - Thank you! Yes, awards are a great way to show appreciation. With all those followers, I bet you've received tons of awards, and you're always so gracious. And what's going to happen if you don't follow the rules? Are the Blog Police going to come and arrest you? Make you write "I will follow the award rules" 1,000 times? Haha! No, we all have to do what feels right to us.

Anonymous said...

Lynn: Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the awards...even when they're not sincere. Validation is validation.

I'll let you in on a dirty little secret, though. Every time somebody posts a comment on my blog, I feel like I have been given the greatest award in the world. My readers give me reason to keep on keeping on. They're awesome.

Emily R. King said...

Congrats on the award! I'm going to check out the people you passed it on to.

Theresa Milstein said...

Look at you collecting all these awards. Congratulations!

I like them, but only accept them if they have no strings attached.

MunirGhiasuddin said...

Those pictures are awesome. I think that from now on I will get to know when you write something new as I found a way to follow your blog!
Congrats on all those awards:)
How is the baby and how are the new parents? You must be on top of the world eh?

Carol Kilgore said...

I like receiving awards and post them on my blog - now on their own page to speed loading time. But if the requirements get too long and involved, I often change them. Otherwise it takes way too much valuable time. I'm all about simple and easy.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and leaving a comment.

Congratulations on your new grandson!

Margo Berendsen said...

I really like Gene Lemmps' thoughts on blog awards - so glad you reposted!

Hey, I have a book to send you and managed to lose your address! So sorry! Can you email it to me again, berendsen70 at yahoo dot com? Thanks!

Luanne G. Smith said...

Well, who doesn't like being recognized for their efforts? I like the awards, but the questions are often, uh, silly, IMO. Why would anyone ask if I was a rutabaga? Why?

I believe in the networking aspect of the awards and in letting others know about great bloggers they may not have met yet.

Nancy Thompson said...

I have received my fair share of awards and accolades this summer and I found it very flattering. I responded and passed each award on to deserving bloggers and reveled in the attention it brought to me and my blog. The summer was a good time for this and I started calling these award posts "fluff" mostly because it felt rather like cotton candy, sweet, but without any real substance. Now that summer is over, I want to refocus on more substantive writing, but I do love how these awards brought us bloggers all together and gave recognition and attention to those of us new to blogging and the publishing industry.

Matthew MacNish said...

Congratulations on some great awards!

Melissa Amateis said...

Congrats! Love your hair! ;-)

cleemckenzie said...

I'm an award hugger. They give me a chance to tell others that I appreciate them. I guess because blogging doesn't come easily to me, I really appreciate those who do it so well. But like Gene, I'm slowly easing into it.

Robyn Campbell said...

What an honor, pal! I heart you, you know that? I really mean that. You're my compadre. *waving*

Embarrassing moment? Too many to count. (I was a dumb kid.) ;-)

But one of our kids got his head stuck in the bars at a zoo. He stuck it in to look at the animal and could not get it out. Talk about *RED-FACED* Egad! I told the officials he was my sister's kid. HA! <3 you.

LynNerdKelley said...

Catie - I agree that validation is validation, and even though some people don't want to take part in answering the questions or passing the award on, I think most appreciate getting that recognition.

E.R. - Thanks! I'm glad you're going to check out the recipients of the awards. They're all good people.

Theresa - Thanks for weighing in. That's interesting about accepting them if there are no strings attached. I love getting everyone's input.

Munir - I'm glad you're able to follow now. Thank you! My daughter and the baby are doing better, getting into a routine. He's finally gaining weight, not throwing up like he was at first. She's on an antibiotic for a fever, but it's nothing serious. Yep, I'm on top of the world. These are happy times for our family!

LynNerdKelley said...

Carol - I'm so glad you stopped by and signed up to follow. You have a beautiful blog. I've had other bloggers tell me they have all their awards on a separate page. I need to try adding a page to my blog, but I'm afraid I'll do something wrong and wipe out the whole thing. I guess I should give it a shot after backing it up.

Margo - Thanks for your comment. You made the one award a lot of fun by changing the questions. It's taken me I don't know how many awards before I realized I'm supposed to copy the picture of the award, put it on my post so those I pass the award on to can copy it and put it on their blogs. My bad.

I emailed you my address. Hope you got it.

L.G. - Thanks for your thoughts. I also like the networking aspects of awards. I haven't seen an award that ask about being a rutabaga! Yep, that's a humdinger of a question.

Nancy - Thanks for sharing your insight about awards. I love your idea of "fluff." That's really cool.

Matthew - Thank you!

LynNerdKelley said...

Melissa - Thanks! Glad you like the wacky hairdo!

C. Lee - I love your term, "award hugger." I'll remember that. You seem like a natural at blogging to me. I never would have guessed that it doesn't come easy for you.

Robyn - You're my BBB - Best Blogger Bud! Thank you for sharing your hysterical story with us. I know it wasn't funny at the time, but that's just the kind of things get themselves into! My goodness!

Unknown said...

Lynn--thank you so much for the award. I definitely jump for joy. =D
You are super sweet, with a jalapeño on top as a nice zing. The pictures of you made me laugh, love them!
-Ellie

Lisa Gail Green said...

Ha ha! I just talked about this the other day on my own blog! LOL I just don't want to take up my readers time by talking about myself. It feels weird. But I did just do one that asked about favorite blog posts because I thought that might be interesting. Even so, I always feel special and flattered when I get one! I just don't always DO anything about it except thank the person. :D

Talli Roland said...

Congrats on the award and to those you've passed it on to. I love getting blog awards... it's the passing them on bit that can get slightly tedious. I seem to be the place awards go to die! :)

Love the pics!

MG Higgins said...

Such mixed feelings about blog awards. Love the recognition, but have a hard time choosing who to pass them to. I tend to thank the giver, then stop the chain. Thanks for this post. Given me something to think about.

LynNerdKelley said...

Ellie - Thanks for the compliment. I love your descriptions. I hope you get more followers because your blog posts rock!

Lisa - Seems that a lot of bloggers don't pass the awards on but do appreciate receiving them. I always enjoy reading the answers to the questions. I don't know about other readers, but I really enjoy getting a better glimpse into the person behind the blog!

Talli - That's very understandable that it's hard for you to pass the awards on, considering the huge following that you have. Enjoy all your awards.

MG - Thanks for your comments. You're not the only blogger who stops the chain, but don't sweat it. We each have to do what's right for us.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the awards, Lynn! I personally think blog awards are like chain letters - but POSITIVE chain letters. It's a way for a blogger to support another blogger. If receiving an award, a blogger has the right to play along or just bow out graciously. I personally feel like sharing the love.

Thank you so much for the kind award. I appreciate it more than you know! I am honored to share it with Ellie and Gene - they are two of my favorites! :)

LynNerdKelley said...

Tiffany - Thank you. You have such a positive attitude about everything. I'm learning so much about social media from following you. You're a good friend and an excellent blogger to follow. I'm glad you like the award!

Anonymous said...

I'd never even heard of blog awards until this past week when I won the Lieber -- gee, what a great one to land. LOL. Thanks for the entertaining post, Lynn! Wishing you a wonderful week.