Well the Grafton Media Blog Awards Ireland 2012 long list nominations are out and I was delighted to find I’ve been nominated for four categories this year, namely Best Health/Wellbeing Blog, Best Lifestyle, Best Eco/Green and Best Blog of an SME.
It was a great disappointment for many of us when we heard that the 2011 awards would be the last, and then three business women thankfully took it on and have revived the awards this year.
Having seen the long list of over 1,000 entries there’s an enormous amount of work involved in putting this event together. The organisers already deserve praise for the professional manner in which they’ve approached it, particularly as it’s their first year (of hopefully many) of organising it – they and their volunteer helpers are doing a fabulous job.
The Blog Awards give us bloggers something to strive towards. As an unpaid hobby for many of us there’s no denying it’s nice to get a bit of recognition for our work, even if it’s just seeing our name on that nomination list or making it through to the shortlist so we can add a new badge to our pages. Knowing the awards is in the distant horizon can help to keep us on track when we’re feeling unmotivated or stuck for ideas. More importantly however, the awards give us an opportunity to see who else is blogging in Ireland, help us to make connections and find and read more great posts. I’ve already added several to my Google Reader and am sure will be adding more over the coming weeks.
None of us know who’ll make it through to the shortlist (due to be announced on the 8th September); the panels of judges now have the unenviable task of looking at our posts, categories and sites and making their decisions. No matter how long, regularly or committed we are to blogging we can never take anything for granted – there are some excellent bloggers in all the categories so we’ll all just have to wait and see!
So best of luck to everyone and fingers crossed!
6 Comments
Great post Dee. Amanda, Lorna and Beatrice are putting in some workload, it’s mind blowing. Before I only heard of the awards when the longlist was announced and that was only because friends were highlighted on their blogs that they were nominated. What they’ve done is a real boost to blogging.
Congratulations to your 4 nominations. Be rooting for you to get shortlisted in the 4 – you deserve it.
Marian
Thanks so much Marian, And yes, an amazing amount of work!
Congrats Dee! I am certain you will make it to the short list and can’t wait to see you at the blog awards. Hope you’re still enjoying the sun x
Wish I could share your certainty Mona but thank you for the vote of confidence and congratulations on your nominations too, you’re an inspiration 🙂 And yes, the sun is still beating down!
Very well deserved 🙂 Everything crossed for you!
Thanks Lou! Will try and forget all about it now for a while! 🙂