Prize catch

A week ago, the winners of the 2009 Bloggies were announced. The battle of the blogs hots up with a slew of awards up for grabs, writes Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan.

So, about a week ago, the winners of the 2009 Bloggies were announced. Huge excitement. Lots of surprises. I was particularly surprised by the number of personal blogs — mom bloggers, teenage bloggers, even a sports blog that combined a love for cycling with deep details about the personal life. This got me thinking about blog awards. Of course, the biggest deal about winning a Bloggie is getting all that traffic.

The prizes are small, sometimes non-existent, but you can't buy that kind of publicity. People go to the site (http://2009.bloggies.com), nominate blogs for a certain period of time, nominations are shut and finalists chosen, then you go to the site and vote for your favourite. That's more or less the routine for all blog awards.Here are some of the other blog awards out there.

15 bytes of fame
First, there is the Weblog Awards (http://2008.weblogawards.org). It seems pretty similar to the Bloggies, but they have several other categories — breaking down personal bloggers into sections, so it's easier to make a decision. According to their website: "The Weblog Awards are the world's largest blog competition with nearly two million votes cast in all editions since 2003." These awards must be a really huge deal.

More Googling led me to Black Weblog Awards (www.blackweblogawards.com), which showcase and award the best blogs done by black people. Their FAQ says they're not any more elitist than any other awards. Also, they argue, other blog awards have very few black people, so that's not right either. Fair enough. Only it isn't reader voting for the final call, it's pre-selected judges.

Indian blog awards
A little closer to home, there's the Indibloggies (www.indibloggies.org), which selects the best of the Indian blogosphere. I notice they've added some new awards — including "Best Personal" Indiblog which was very much missed at the previous sessions. At present, it seems as though the nominations for 2008 have just about been collected. Oh well, they have no objections to you nominating yourself, so try and make it for 2009!

And finally there's the loose, informal Blogger's Choice awards (http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/) which, as the title suggests, has user-generated awards in lots of categories. (Including, but not limited to: Freakiest Blogger, Hottest Dad/Mom Blogger, Most Obnoxious Blog and so on.) According to the "About" page: "This site not only allows you to nominate your favourite blogs within a slew of unique categories but you can also vote and comment on others that have already been submitted. Votes will be displayed on the site in real-time, so you can see who's leading within each category at any moment." Better than waiting around, I'd say.

So go ahead, nominate yourself, drum up some traffic. But remember, to make your blog worth it!

Meenakshi writes at www.thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com.
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