If you're trying to determine who is "Best" of anything, you can't really get that with a ballot that doesn't allow write-ins. How could anybody be found that is truly the Best when it is dictated by such rules. Indeed, all you get is the Best of the list I have put together...nothing more.

"Since you can vote multiple times for a blog, and since you can ask anyone to vote for your blog, are these awards determining the BEST blogs, or the ones that are PROMOTED the best? In the end, does the award say anything about a blog’s quality? Or is it an indication of who put in the time and effort to campaign?"

The getting nominated part is definitely more about campaigning. Like I said on The Viral Garden, I'm no good at self-promotion, and I think that's a big reason why BMA wasn't nominated.

Really these awards are a way for the bloggers to feel good about themselves. It will be a big deal for this week, maybe next week, then no one will care. There will the same complains about 'ballot stuffing', someone will lose that thought they should have won, and the winners will be happy with the results.

Course in a few more weeks the next 'awards' will come out and we can go through this all over again ;)

A client of mine has been considering creating an award, and in my research - I came across so many rules/parameters for Addy's and Webby's, that it just seemed like it'd be too time consuming to monitor and manage well.

Your point is food for thought, Ann.

It reminds me of clubs or even industry associations whose sole purpose for being seems to revolve around presenting awards to each other. Then, of course, publicizing their prestigious award at every opportunity.

Wouldn’t it be easier to do a little shopping at the local awards store, pick out a really cool trophy, engrave it as you’d like, and… Well, you get the picture.

I was more pumped about making the original cut then anything else. I stand no chance but because my regular readers are not the folks that spend all day on the web, I had to let them know with an email blast. Really, I'm in the same grouping as Seth Godin....so in my case it is like the 62 Mets taking on the 27 Yankees.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

I've gotten a few of these requests too. One thing's for certain - the only clear winner is MarketingSherpa.

I was looking forward to the results of the award. Thought it could offer some sort of guidance in the information jungle... Ann, I see your point. One could however hope that the mass effect of the internet will prevail.

I wasn't nominated. I've signed my will and booked my flight to NYC so that I can jump off the Empire State Building. Tell my family that I love them.

Or, on the other hand, I could care less about these contests, as I feel that creatively they amount to squat.

"Or, on the other hand, I could care less about these contests, as I feel that creatively they amount to squat."

Until they come out with a blog award for the 'Best coverage of American Idol', and 10 blogs are nominated, and Musicial Ramblings aint one of them ;)

I don't really think the idea of awards for the 'best' blogs are a bad idea at all, I just think that most 'awards' aren't identifying the best blogs, but rather the best promoters.

I'll offer a "sour grapes" disclaimer here, for I too failed to get nominated. It made me feel like I did in school when I got cut from the team.
I was very disappointed but then I remembered Scoble's admonition: (paraphrasing) It's not how many people you reach, it's which people you reach.

So if I didn't reach those who nominate blogs or vote for blogs, what have I really lost?

Thought I'd quickly join the conversation here -- as the inventor of Sherpa's Blog awards I'd like to clarify a few things:
#1. It's a reader's choice award which means MarketingSherpa staff are banned from nominating and voting. We run it, but we don't get to decide who gets the sparkly crown at the end.
#2. I used to worry about "ballot stuffing" a lot, until my stats team reviewed the results and told me that sure it was going on, but it affected results a lot less than expected. We doublecheck results by filtering by dupe IP addresses; we also check by filtering by "blocks of votes" (when there's a freakish-looking wave of votes for one particular blog in a massive clump probably due to some self promotion.) However, in almost every instance each year those filters didn't turn up a different winner. This may be due to the fact that we get so many votes (as of this morning tens of thousands of folks had visited the form.) It may also be due to the fact that once fans of one blog come to vote for their pal-in-need, they are often interested enough to check out other blogs on the list, and vote for them too. Perhaps I'm also innocent -- I have a faith that many people vote their true feelings and not just to "help a friend."

I believe there is value to the awards for several reasons. The biggest is that it gives undiscovered blog gems a chance to shine and gain a few more visitors and fans. So we all grow as a community. Nominees have been interviewed by press, seen an upsurge in their RSS feeds, etc.

Anyway, this whole thing, which began as a small contest three years ago, now shows signs of turning American Idolish in nature (although naturally on a tinier scale.) Our voting servers which had been upgraded two weeks before have been crashing like crazy due to six-figure traffic. The tech team are running aroud like crazy getting extra servers brought up, etc. So if you haven't voted yet and you'd like to - as Ryan Seacrest says, "Keep trying if the lines are busy." Thanks

I love awards. I love being nominated (which we were!). I love winning. I love (global) marketing. And I love this blog!

Did I forget to mention I love my husband too?

Laurel

Awards are a nice idea, but they are pretty worthless without some serious effort to make them credible.

However, if I ever win one, that won't stop me from proclaiming myself the winner of the such-and-such award.

Maybe I should start an awards project?

"Anyway, this whole thing, which began as a small contest three years ago, now shows signs of turning American Idolish in nature (although naturally on a tinier scale.) Our voting servers which had been upgraded two weeks before have been crashing like crazy due to six-figure traffic."

Which I think makes Peter Kim's point, that the clear winner in all this....is Marketing Sherpa ;)

If they had an award for American Idol coverage, there's no way I'd beat M.J. so I wouldn't even worry. On the other hand, M.J. didn't have a recap posted on the official site like I did, so I'm good to go :)

But, as another poster said, if ever I win one, I will probably crow about it until you're all sick of me.

Even Danny Sullivan thinks of this award as a bit odd since, well, he is a major player in SEO but wasn't even included.
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060621-082435

Hmm...seems a bit strange to me.

I love it when a succinct post like this leads to so many good comments.

I guess I'll offer up this perspective from the creative industry which values awards. Awards are great, but it's peer regognition at heart. One should always feel good about getting an award, but not forget the person/audience/consumer we are connecting to.

Nice post Ann. A thought provoking one.

I was happy to "make the team" but very unhappy that you can vote more than once since it's easy to prevent multiple votes.

But I expect more from Marketing Sherpa than typos saying the voting ended the week before it began and crashed servers.

Having handled situations where millions of people were accessing a server, I know that you can in fact plan for the traffic by purchasing flexible amounts of bandwidth. That's better than hoping it will all work out.

As for the claim that most people don't stuff the ballots -- yeah, right! That's hilarious.

Of course, if I win, I'll be happy.

S'cuse me, I have to go vote for myself again.

It reminds me of the Chicago-style of voting - vote early and often. :)

To their credit, the MarketingSherpa awards don't require a check to clear like so many "credible" awards who make loads of cash on entry fees, banquets, and sales of additional trophies and plaques.

I'm sure most bloggers would be happy to win a MarketingSherpa award, but nobody should be disappointed if they don't win or weren't nominated.

If you had to nominate the 100 best paintings, how many Van Gogh's, Rembrandts, and DiVinci's would be excluded? Would any Warhol work even make the list?

Blogging beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It's a stroke of genius for MarketionSherpa, and certainly many of the winners will leverage an award to their advantage. No wonder they are pulling out all the stops to get votes.

Maybe all those get-out-the-vote efforts by many of the nominees could be used elsewhere - like improving the actual product.