2017 was an interesting year with many new things popping up including scandals, entertainment and newsworthy items. You may have gotten some of that information from your favourite bloggers. You have a chance to nominate those bloggers that made you laugh, cry or even have that WTH moment for an award. The Kenyan Blog Awards are back! The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) have launched this year’s BAKE Awards which also kicks off the submission phase of the competition. This means that you can now submit your favourite blogs for an award. Simply visit BAKE’s submission page and nominate the blog of your choice. Note that one submission is enough as more submissions do not increase the blog’s chances of getting nominated by judges.
Hitting the 7th year in a row, the annual competition celebrates the best of Kenyan Blogging and giving them ample recognition over the content they curate. The submission phase which began on January 11th, 2018 opened the door for people to submit blogs in 22 categories. These categories include; Travel, Lifestyle, Food, Photography, Technology, Business, New Blog, Environmental, Agriculture, Fashion and Creative Writing etc. To view the entire list of categories, visit http://www.bakeawards.co.ke/categories/. This year, BAKE has added 3 other categories which are;
- Best Environment Blog
- Best Beauty and Hair Blog
- Best Video Blog (Vlog)
When you include the Kenyan blog of the year selected by the Judges, the total number of categories sum up to 23. The rule that was introduced last year that stated that 3-time (or more) winners in the competition are ineligible to compete still stands. To check out more rules on the competition visit, http://www.bakeawards.co.ke/rules/.
The competition is becoming increasingly popular as years progress. Last year, 10,000 blogs were submitted and 800,000 votes recorded in the voting stage. Last year, women did exceptionally well with bloggers such as Jamila El-Jabry (lifeinmombasa.com), Maryann Waweru (mummytales.com), Rachael Muthoni (safari254.com), Diana Kaluhi (kaluhiskitchen.com), Rayhab Gachango (potentash.com), Dr. Wandia Njoya (wandianjoya.com), Nyawira Mumenya (curveswithstyle.com) emerging winners. First-time winners such as Magunga Williams (www.magunga.com ) clinched an award as the Best Kenyan Blog in Kenya and with Owaahh (owaahh.com) taking home the Best Topical Blog award.
Over the years, many blogs have gained great recognition through winning awards more than once. Such blogs include Biko Zulu (bikozulu.co.ke) who has won the Best Creative Blog three times in a row and The Kenyan Blog of the year once. Tech Moran (techmoran.com) a technology-based blog has won 3 times too. Ben Kiruthi’s (benkiruthi.com) blog has also gained great traction having scooped 2 wins in the Best Photography Blog category. In the entertainment category Ghafla Kenya (http://www.ghafla.com/ ) a Lifestyle Blog has also scooped 3 awards. These blogs show the potential the blogging industry has the moment you curate content that resonates with your audience. The blogs submitted in this categories have an avid following of interested readers who keep up to date with their posts.
Once the submission phase is over, the selected judges sift through thousands of blogs and select 5 blogs for each category. They then move on to the voting stage where they welcome fans to vote for their favourite blog in the various categories. After the voting is over, the Winner’s Gala where winning blogs are awarded is held. This year it will be held on the 5th May 2018. Here are rest of the dates;
- Submissions phase – January 11th, 2018 to March 6th, 2018
- Judging phase – March 10th 2018 to March 27th, 2018
- Online voting – March 28th, 2018 to April 30th, 2018
- Winners ‘Gala event – May 5th, 2018
For any other questions, you may have about the completion, visit, http://www.bakeawards.co.ke/2016/01/25/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-bake-awards/
