Blogging pays bills, Kenyan youth advised
The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) has challenged the youth to embrace blogging as a way of creating employment and earning a living.
Speaking during the launch of the 6th edition of Bloggers Awards 2016, BAKE Chairman Kennedy Kachwanya said blogging has become serious business that if well managed can help create more jobs for the youth.
“We have seen massive growth in terms of people setting up new blogs focusing on different aspects of life and also in terms of submissions to the awarding panel,” he said.
“A few years ago, blogging was mostly done as a part-time venture but now it has become serious business and people are doing it full time and earning good money from it.”
COMPETITION HAS GROWN
The awards continue to grow with submissions increasing every year.
During inception in 2012, competition has grown 300 submissions and 10,000 votes to 4800 submissions and 540,000 votes in 2016.
This year, two new categories have been introduced i.e. Best Lifestyle Blog and Best Human Rights Blog to champion for lifestyle and human rights issues.
The introduction of the two will see the total number of award categories increase to 21.
The categories are sponsored by Ford Motors and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) respectively.
HAPPY TO SUPPORT AWARDS
Ryan Majiwa, the Group Marketing Manager of CMC Motors, the distributors of Ford cars in Kenya, said: “Ford, and by extension CMC Motors, are happy to support the Awards as a way of improving the content produced in the blogosphere in general and in the Lifestyle category to be specific.”
He added: “We are happy to note that there are more women in the competition and that they are doing well in terms of participating and winning.”
Vivienne Ethangatta, the Digital & Social Media Manager at Safaricom, said the company’s continuous support of the awards was informed by the positive progression of the competition.
WINNERS’ GALA
“Safaricom has supported BAKE & the BAKE Awards from the very beginning and we are happy to see Blogs are great for a more personal and in-depth look at issues in different topic areas and we would like to see even more growth in the blogging space,” she said.
This year’s competition started on January 9th 2017, and will culminate in the awarding of the winners at a gala on May 13th 2017.
Submission phase started on January 9 and is set to close on March 10 2017, paving way for the judging phase between March 11 and March 24.
Online voting will be opened on March 27 and close on May 9 with the winners’ gala taking place on May 13.
