How to Accept an Award

Has someone (like me) passed along an Internet award like this one to you? Confused on what to do next? Keep reading.

Awards of this variety are intended as both a compliment and a networking tool. They can be a great way for readers to discover new blogs: yours, the one who gave you the award, and all the people you like enough to give an award to. They also make all the blogs involved rise in the Google listings through all the linking.

1) The first thing you should do is say thank you in the comment stream of the post in which you were given the award. If you don’t want to do anything else, this is perfectly fine. Compliment given and received. I personally am perfectly fine with that alone.

Want to let the world know you got an award?

2) Copy the image (which I will call a “badge” from here on out).

I’m not sure how you do this on a Mac, but on a PC you can right-click over the image. A menu will pop up. Click “Save Image As” then pick a spot on your hard drive where you can find it again later. Upload it to your blog host, web host, or to an image host like Flickr or Photobucket. Now put it into a blog post and/or your sidebar.

I’ve only done this with WordPress, so can’t help you with Blogger or other blogging platforms, but if you are using HTML code it should look something like this:

< a href ="http://nowherevilleusa.blogspot.com"/>Given by Toni:< img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/AliceAudrey/Blog/FabulousBlogAwardSandee.jpg"< /a>< /a>

or even simply:

< img style=”verticalalignmiddle;” src=”http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a385/AliceAudrey/Blog/FabulousBlogAwardSandee.jpg” alt=””>

only without the spaces between < and whatever comes next. 3) Most of these awards come with a set of rules. The rule you are most likely to see is the number of people to whom you should give the award. For instance, you may be expected to list ten things that make you happy and to give the award to ten blogs that make you happy. Each award has it’s own expectations, and the expectations can change for any given award as people choose which and how they want to handle the rules.

Don’t get hung up here. There are no awards police who will be coming to check if you did it right. I’m quite willing to help you out as you need it, but don’t mind if you want to change something. Many people will accept an award and not pass it on or follow the special instructions. Many others are careful to do everything exactly as directed. It’s your call.

4) Set up a post in which you include the badge, answer any questions or make any lists the award calls for, and name those to whom you intend to pass the award. Link like crazy.

a) Link to the person who gave you the award.
b) Link to each of the people to whom you are giving the award.

The html code for linking should look something like this:

< a href="http://www.aliceaudrey.com/">Alice’s Restaurant < /a>

Substitute the link in the part that says www.AliceAudrey.com and the name of the person or blog in the place that says Alice’s Restaurant. Remember to take out the space between < and whatever comes next. In WordPress you can simply highlight the name, click "link" in the menu under the HTML tab and insert the link in the pop up box. 5) Tell everyone to whom you gave the award that you did so. You can leave a comment on any of their posts, or send an email. Personally, I think adding it to a comment you were going to make on their post anyway is the classiest way.

Do Not assume they will see it on your blog, even if it is someone who comes by regularly. Some of us move very fast on the Internet, and sometimes stuff gets overlooked. I’ve been known to skip right over an award while searching for a meme entry. If you are accepting/giving a whole bunch of awards at a whack, don’t assume the person you gave it to will see their name among all the others. Be up front about it. Remember, this is a compliment. I want to know you like me. You can tell me anywhere. Um… assuming you’re giving me one, of course. *cough cough*

6) It’s nice to say you are welcome on the awards acceptance posts of those who chose to accept your award. Not necessary, but still nice.

You don’t need to be timid about this. If someone has posted an award and said that anyone who wants it can claim it, then by all means, help yourself. If you have taken one this way, you can still follow the rules, even if your source didn’t. If you’ve stolen an award, you don’t have to get permission from anyone to pass it on. The only time you shouldn’t give an award to someone else is when the person who gave it specifically says not to. So far I have never seen one you weren’t supposed to share, but I have plans. heh heh heh.