Archive: Blogger's Choice Awards
Blogger's Choice Awards fans and fanatics, take note:
OCTOBER 1st is an important date! On that day, nomination and voting capabilities for 2008 will only last for two more weeks (closing on October 15th). The votes for each of the three top blogs in each of the 36 categories will also be "hidden," so as to contribute to the element of surprise when the winners are announced.
So if you've recently discovered some awesome blogs that fit-in to any of the current categories, take action now by nominating them, and then voting for your favorites.
And if your blog(s) has been nominated for a BCA you might want to consider a reminder post to your readers, to have them vote for you. Obviously someone thinks you're site(s) is special or they wouldn't have nominated you. Don't forget to have your "brag badge" posted somewhere on your site -- that's a great way for your readers to know about your nomination (and garner some votes).
If you signed-up to receive updates about the site be on the lookout for a couple of e-mails in early October, containing important information about voting closing and 2009 nominations. Of course, you can also get information here on the blog and in the BCA threads on the message boards.
To view the 2007 winners of each category click here.
Technorati Tags: blog awards, blog site, Blogger's Choice Awards, blogging
Hey IZEA Peeps! Sorry we skipped the Tip of the Week last week (if you must to know - it was my bad!) But to make up for it, I hope I can offer some great info regarding our new Customer Support portal.
Late last year, we introduced a new kind of support portal for our customers. As a customer, you don't need to do anything differently to reach us. Simply click any Contact Support link after logging into your account if you are a registered user. If you're not yet registered, you can use any of the Contact Support links throughout the site. This takes you to the new support portal in a new window, without losing your place in your PayPerPost account! (that's improvement #1!)
Once in the support portal, here is what you will see:
This offers you many options for self service, delivering immediate information and answers. We are updating the information here regularly so even if it's just been a week since your last visit, be sure to check our current info.
First, there's the Glossary. In the glossary, you will find terms that relate to general online marketing and blogging as well terms that are specific to the IZEA process. Having a tough time deciding which categories best fit your blog or opportunity? Check out our Blog Categories in the Glossary.
Next up is the Knowledge Base, where you can peruse our FAQ's or search for your topic, using the Troubleshooter link. We have separated the information items into different listings, based on the type of IZEA customer - PPP Advertiser, PPP Blogger, IZEARanks, etc. However, you will notice even when you log in as a PPP Blogger, you will still be able to see quite a few FAQ's in the PPP Advertiser section, and vice versa. We will continuously strive to remain up to date and timely, and the Customer Love team is great at identifying trends in customer issues. If it's not in the FAQ's yet, but we have an increasing number of folks with the same question, it's an easy add.
Sometimes it can be tough to find the answer you're looking for by simply sifting through FAQ's. We appreciate not everyone has time to do that. So you can simply do a search of our Knowledge Base. Either click on the Troubleshooter link in the Knowledge Base, or choose Submit a Ticket as search is one of the steps in submitting a ticket. All you need to do is enter a key word or phrase in the related section, and any matching topics will pop up. Want to see more details of one of them? Click 'See Complete Answer'.
Finally, if you cannot find the information you need, Customer Love folks are thrilled to help you out! Click on Submit a Ticket, if you haven't already. Here's why it is so important that you log into your account before clicking on Contact Support if you are a registered user: Some of your account information is auto-populated into our system when you are already logged in. This saves us time in beginning research, and will help get you an answer more quickly. Please also remember to add as many details as possible, especially when submitting a ticket about a specific page on the site, link or opportunity, prior communication, any system issues. Once again, this saves us some time-consuming guess work, and helps ensure we give you not only a faster answer but an accurate & useful one!
One of the aspects we loved the most when selecting the right new tool is that it allows YOU to rate US! Yep, that's right! We strongly encourage you to use the rating system of 5 stars (1 being lowest, 5 being best) when reading through the information we've provided in FAQ's or the Glossary (you'll find the stars toward the bottom of the information item). Have some extra time? Feel free to read up on several topics and rate them. We've already done one round of updates to the FAQ's and info based on the ratings received. Anything with low ratings was reconsidered and reworked, in most cases adding more detail. For example, the FAQ of 'How do I know if my blog qualifies?' was changed to offer more details.
On the Customer Love side of this new tool, we can more readily access your history of communication with IZEA. Please understand, you may see some 'canned' responses as part of your ticket answers, but don't take that personally! The entire Customer Love team put a lot of time into creating just the right answers to fit common questions We focus on remaining personable, even in our canned responses. Nobody likes receiving an incomplete automated response - and our standards are higher than that. So when the 'canned' response doesn't address your full question, you can be sure to also expect details specific to your situation.
Have a request for specific information to be added to the Knowledge Base? Find any incorrect info out there? Feel free to let us know by Submitting Feedback with your suggestions.
Look for more options and features from this support portal in the coming months. As you might imagine, we are adding information and preparing for SocialSpark. After release, we can dedicate even more time to updates, improvements, corrections, & regular maintenance.
For months and months BloggersChoiceAwards.com has been a highly-trafficked, very popular site in the blogosphere. It's been a huge success and as many of you know there have even been a couple of celebrities campaigning to win in the "Best Celebrity Blogger" category. This is truly a testament to the power and reach of the blogosphere. That being said, the winners of the 2007 Blogger's Choice Awards were officially revealed at a VIP party this past Saturday night at TAO Las Vegas. Everyone who attended the party had a great time and enjoyed seeing who some of the most popular blogs right now are. In fact, our Posties took lots of photos of the event (as well as PostieCon) and many of them can be found here.
If you weren't able to make the party then you can see a list of the winners here (or in the list below):
- Best Animal Blogger: Cuteoverload.com
- Best Blog About Blogging: Problogger.net
- Best Blog About Stuff: Postsecret.Blogspot.com
- Blog Blog Design: Kentuckygurl.com
- Best Blog of All Time: Cuteoverload.com
- Best Blogging Host: Blogger.com
- Best Business Blog: Optionaddict.Blogspot.com
- Best Celebrity Blogger: Rosie.com
- Best Charity Blog: Heroesforchildren.Blogspot.com
- Best Corporate Blog: Blog.Dreamhost.com
- Best Education Blog: Internetsafetyadvisor.info
- Best Entertainment Blog: Officetally.com
- Best Food Blog: Veganyumyum.com
- Foreign Language Blog: Sedentario.org
- Best Geek Blog: Lifehacker.com
- Best Gossip Blog: Perezhilton.com
- Best Health Blog: Scienceroll.com
- Best Hobby Blog: Yarnharlot.ca/blog
- Best Humor Blog: Thesneeze.com
- Best Marketing Blog: Copyblogger.com
- Best Parenting Blog: Thecowgoddess.com
- Best Photography Blog: Thepioneerwoman.com
- Best Podcast: Keithandthegirl.com
- Best Political Blog: Feministing.com
- Best Pop Culture Blog: Postsecret.Blogspot.com
- Best Religion Blog: Standfirminfaith.com
- Best Shopping Blog: Purseblog.com
- Best Sports Blog: Mvn.com/nfl-giants
- Best Travel Blog: Hostelbuenosaires.Blogspot.com
- Best Video Blogger: Brotherhood2.com
- Freakiest Blogger: Dead-silence.org
- Hottest Daddy Blogger: Neilgaiman.com
- Hottest Mommy Blogger: Dooce.com
- Most Obnoxious Blogger: Perezhilton.com
- Most Passionate Fan Base: Blacktygrrrr.wordpress.com
- The "Blogitzer": Dooce.com
- Worst Blog of All Time: Perezhilton.com
A BIG congratulations to all those who had the most votes in their categories! If you are one of the lucky winners listed above we would like to send your award to you. Please e-mail your address (no PO Boxes) to ashley[at]izea[dot]com, and include your t-shirt size.
All 2007 nominees (and winners) were automatically included in 2008 nominations, although all votes were cleared out. The 2008 winners will be announced on a yet-to-be-determined date and location but you can sign-up on the site to receive e-mail updates.
Congratulations, also, to those who were runners-up in the categories. It's a big achievement to get to where you were, given the success of the site. If you have any stories about how the awards site impacted your blog or traffic we'd love to hear them! Simply leave them as a trackback or comment to this post.
Technorati Tags: Blogger's Choice Awards, blogging, blogosphere, celebrity bloggers, social media, TAO Las Vegas
Congratulations to the top voted video for Ross the intern & Rosie.
Ross Mathews, intern for Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and Rosie O'Donnell are both in the top 3 site for the Celebrity Blog Category in the Blogger's Choice Awards!
We got some help from our Posties to recruit them! The mission was to give Ross & Rosie their best pitch on why they should attend PostieCon and the BCA's party at Tao Las Vegas. After the top videos were selected and posted on the blog our viewers voted on the best one. Congratulations to "The MC" for being the top voted video. We hope to see you Ross and Rosie in Vegas!
The Sewing Mom's blog: http://sewingmom.com
As planned, the 2007 Blogger's Choice Awards winners where selected last Friday, Oct. 19 at midnight. The actual winners will be revealed at the BCA VIP Party at Tao in Las Vegas on Nov. 10.
You may have noticed that the BCA site was continuing to accept votes over the weekend, even though voting had officially ended. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Later this morning the 2007 top 3 nominees in each category will be posted on the site for all to see. In addition, all votes will be zeroed out and 2008 voting will officially begin. These changes should have happened in unison at midnight on Oct. 19, but we ran into some issues that prevented that from happening.
It's important for everyone to understand that the official 2007 winners were selected at midnight on Oct. 19 as planned. Any and all voting over the weekend will not impact these results.
Great news! Ross Mathews, intern for Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and Rosie O'Donnell are both in the top 3 site for the Celebrity Blog Category in the Blogger's Choice Awards!
Now we need some help from the Posties to recruit them! Your mission is to give Ross & Rosie your best pitch on why they should attend PostieCon and the BCA's party at Tao Las Vegas.
Some topics to consider:
- Perhaps you are coming and would like to meet the highest voted celebrity bloggers online today?
- Maybe your blog has been nominated within a top 3?
- Perhaps you would like to discuss blogging with Ross over a PPP yummy postini?
- Or is it you want to see them both on stage announcing the 2007 BCA winners?
Whatever your reasons, we think they would love to hear them! Remember, Rosie and Ross may see all these videos, so the better they are the more chances you have to fall into top 10 videos.
Let's do a little brainstorming, shall we? Here are a few ideas to get those creative juices bubbling and to help you get started:
- Puppets. Who doesn't like puppets? They're cheesy, funny, and can be made out of a paper bag or a sock.
- Rhyming. Why not write a ballad to Ross and Rosie about coming to PostieCon? You can act out your song, make it silly, and have fun with it. Let's have fun people :)
- Be a fan. How about a skit where you pretend to be Ross and Rosie's biggest fan! You can gush about the chance to meet them, having fun in PostieCon, and talk about how you can't complete each day without catching up on the latest news on their blog!
- Dress Up. Wouldn't it be fun to run into your closet and pull out that fancy dress or suit you only wore once? Dust it off and act like you're getting ready to be either Ross and/or Rosie's date to PostieCon. Talk about what you'll do when you're in Vegas, how fun PostieCon will be, and how proud you'll be when they win their coveted Best Celebrity Blogger award.
- Be famous. Pretend you're a celebrity - how about dressing like Britney Spears, Cher, John Travolta, or Arnold Schwarzenegger and lament not having been nominated for this awesome award and how you wish you could go. Talk about how Ross and Rosie should go and what they'll be missing out on if they don't!
1. Visit: www.postiecon.com and www.bloggerschoiceawards.com To learn more about the event.
2. Create a 30 second or less video that creatively recruits Ross and Rosie. The video should tell everyone why they should attend, and what they will be missing if they don't.
3. Focus on all that is surrounding PostieCon and the BCA Awards and how it will benefit all those who have voted for them on the BCA site.
6. Upload and email us your video at www.transferbigfiles.com - select your video and email it to postiecon(at)postiecon(dot)com. Videos specs are a .mpg/320x240/30 seconds or less. Rockstartup.com will be doing something special with them but it's a secret for now.
7. Deadline is October 17, 2007, by noon EST.
8. The 10 best videos will be selected by PPP and posted on our blog on October 18, 2007, for voting to determine who created the absolute BEST video.
9. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 by 6pm EST. He or she will win the ultimate bragging rights to carry into PostieCon!
Over the past 8 months, more than 200,000 votes have been cast for over 11,000 nominated blogs from 80,000+ users, making the Blogger's Choice Award's the largest fan-based blog contest on the Internet.
On Oct. 8, you will notice a change to the site. The vote count will be removed from view for the top 3 vote getters in each category. This will minimize the "runaway winner" factor and keep the votes coming in. If this change affects your blog, rest assured your votes are still being calculated.
Selection of the 2007 BCA winners will happen soon after, as all 2007 voting will end on Friday, Oct. 19. and the winners in each category will be determined. The results will be revealed on Saturday night, Nov. 10 at the BCA VIP Party at Tao in Las Vegas. It's a hot ticket, and the only way to get in is to register for PostieCon.
On Oct. 20, voting for the 2008 BCA's will begin. At this time all 2007 votes will be removed and all nominated blogs go back to zero. That's right, it's back to the starting gate. Also, all 2007 nominated blogs are automatically nominated for 2008 voting. You do NOT need to re-nominate your blog.
Please note, all BCA nomination badges will continue to work as usual. Be sure to keep them in place so your visitors can help you win in 2008.
The Marketing department has been busy, busy, busy lately...with various upcoming projects. It's been a while since we've done a video confessional, and we have some exciting updates for both Posties and non-Posties alike, so Britt & thought we'd put a little something together for you. Not the most exciting video ever, but I figure it's a nice diversion from the average blog post.
We've got some news on PostieCon, Blogger's Choice Awards, and a few other things, so check-out these two videos when you have a few moments. (The video cut-out when we were almost finished and rather than bother the production guys to edit the two together, we decided to keep it raw.)
As mentioned in the first video, here is the link for some information on hotel accommodations in the Vegas area: https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=53266. Most are pretty good rates but if you can find something better on your own, by all means feel free.
We're also heading-up to the Boston area tomorrow, for CollegeFest '07. We'll be documenting our trip so be on the lookout for a future RockStartUp episode. And if you're one of our Postie Reporters...we'll see you there!
Technorati Tags: Ashley, Blogger's Choice Awards, Britt, CollegeFest, confessionals, PostieCon, RockStartUp, TAO Las Vegas
PostieCon here we come! We are working very hard to get you all as much information as possible. Stay tuned, as we will be sending out updates shortly by email with a lot more details.
Hotel Reservations:
For those who are ready to book your hotel please check the link below. BlogWorldExpo has negotiated some great rates for you all. I believe there will be more details shortly on their website. https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=53266
PostieCon Tickets:
If you have not registered for PostieCon what are you waiting for? Register here: http://www.postiecon.com/register.php
Oh and did we mention it's free to attend and that you will automatically be invited to the BCA’s VIP party?
To The Lucky First 100 Registered:
Congrats to you all who get not only a ticket for PostieCon but also BlogWorldExpo. More details to come via email on what this ticket will include.
BCA’s VIP Party:
I am very excited about all the venues we have visited. I cannot wait to let you all know which one it will be but I assure you all you're going to love it! More details to follow via email.
Mentioning NYC, I'm reminded of the time Britt & Ted went to visit the "Today" show last Fall. Well I did some digging and found a bunch of photos I don't think we ever shared! Looks like fun, and folks were jazzed about PayPerPost. Britt & Ted handed out posters, t-shirts, and other swag.
Here's a photo album I created with the ultra-cool Bubbleshare:
Speaking of the "Today" show, did you know Meredith Viera is nominated for "Best Celebrity Blogger" at BloggersChoiceAwards.com? Check it out:
