How to own an award-winning blog? The easy, no-brainer way would be to buy one (some blogs are for sale). The other route – the one I took – is to make your blog awesome enough to win awards. 
[Earlier Blogpost: What It Takes to Win A Blog Award]
I did an interview with OMY.SG / MyPaper and my interviewer wanted to find out what I thought were the reasons why some people win awards while others don’t.
My short and simple answer: Bloggers who did not win, did not want to win the award enough. If you want something badly enough, you will get it.
I read blogs… a lot of them.
And some of the finalists this year, who took part but didn’t win, had the audacity to blog about their excuses for not winning:
1) The voting process is too long, too tiring!
2) Other bloggers have more fans!
3) I submitted my blog for too many categories, became a finalist in many of those categories, but I’m too busy to do the required blogposts! [This one REALLY makes me angry! For depriving other hardworking bloggers of the chance to compete!]
Just have a look around the blogosphere and you will find more blogposts with very lame excuses for why these blog owners did not win at the Singapore Blog Awards 2013.
My response to them (if they end up reading this post)…
1) There is NOTHING you can do about the voting process. What you CAN change is HOW you perceive it. Think of yourself as a marathon runner; you have to outrun and outlast all the other runners. Are you going to give up halfway AFTER beating so many other nominees to get into the race? Give your best, or don’t submit your blog next year! Or the year after too!
2) Bloggers weren’t BORN POPULAR! They GREW their fanbase by creating a buzzing community, by doing giveaways (like I do), by engaging their readers and fans on a daily basis, by learning from other more successful bloggers, among other things. If your fanbase is small, grow it! Don’t sit around at home and whine that “Oh… so-and-so has more fans than me. I am sure to lose”. Get up and put up a good fight. So what if someone has 4,000 fans and you only have 400? You think all 4,000 will vote? And besides, SEVENTY PERCENT is from blogposts – YOU determine the outcome. The votes are just icing on the cake!
3) Bloggers who submit their blogs in multiple categories then run out of steam and get so overwhelmed are really ridiculous! After you become a finalist, there’s a blogging component. I’m a finalist in only one category, so I can put laser-sharp focus onto my one blogpost. YOU, on the other hand, have FOUR blogposts to handle. No wonder you are giving up! I don’t even want to comment on the quality of your blogposts.
I took a risk this year… I nominated myself in 2 categories, became a finalist in 1 of them, and won. Last year, which was my first year of competing, I nominated myself in 4 categories (2 of which were not even very relevant), became a finalist in 1, and did not win.
What do you learn from this?
If you’d like to hear more from me about my strategies for winning this year’s blog awards, what I do to grow my fanbase, and how I decide what to blog about, come for any of my 2 upcoming Blogging Workshops:
1) 20th July (Saturday), 3pm to 5pm
2) 18th August (Sunday), 10am to 12 noon
Venue: A location in town, to be announced later
Bring: Laptop/netbook/tablet (optional) or good ol’ pen and paper
Group size: Maximum 5 people per session
Notes provided? Yes
What else? FREE LIFETIME Email Coaching
How Much? S$250
How To Sign Up: Email gracewwg@gmail.com with subject title “Blogging Workshop”, with your name, handphone number and preferred date (2o July or 18 Aug) and I will send you payment details.
-
From the desk of Grace Tan,
Owner of this award-winning blog, WorkingWithGrace.wordpress.com
*BTW, I’m in Korea on a sponsored trip till 18th July so I’ll take a while to reply to your emails. Be patient.
