The inaugural Best Australian Blogs Competition is done and dusted for 2011 but the good news for the local blogging community is that the organisers – the Sydney Writers’ Centre – intends running the event again next year.
Here are the top-line facts:
- 520 blogs were entered across four competition categories - Business; Words and writing; Personal/Lifestyle; and Commentary (to put this in perspective, organisers originally expected some 80-100 entries across the board).
- 13,355 people voted in the People’s Choice Awards section over a 14-day period.
- Nikki Parkinson won the Best Blog award overall as well as the Business category of the national competition for her blog “Styling You”, which focuses on fashion and style.
- Nikki won $1500 worth of prizes; other category winners and the People’s Choice Award winner each received $1000 worth of prizes from the Sydney Writers’ Centre out of a prize pool worth $7500
Managing director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre, Valerie Khoo (pictured in video above) said the Best Australian Blogs competition was proof positive of the flourishing Australian blogosphere.
“To receive 570 entries, and 13,355 votes in the people’s choice was well beyond even our expectations. The Australian blogosphere has really found it’s feet in the last year, and it’s a dynamic, supportive community of unique voices and great content,” she said.
High quality Content
According to Valerie, the traditional media was very receptive to the competition and are increasing recognising the high quality content and conversation being generated in the blogging world.
The finalists and winners were published with hyperlinks to their blogs in both The Australian, and Dynamic Business. Articles on the category blogs have run in several local papers, and personal category winner Lori Dwyer has had articles commissioned since the announcement. The 2011 winner, Nikki Parkinson has appeared in multiple QLD publications as well as appearing on Sky News, ABC radio and is this month’s cover story for the Profile Magazine, Queensland’s premier corporate lifestyle magazine.
Organisers say they will “definitely be running the competition next year” – indeed, they have plans for making it even bigger and better than this year’s fabulous effort.
Stay tuned!
DETAILS: Winners in the Best Australia Blogs 2011 Competition
Best Australian Blog 2011:
- Nikki Parkinson, Styling You: www.stylingyou.com.au
Business category:
- Nikki Parkinson, Styling You: www.stylingyou.com.au
Words and writing category:
- Abigail Nathan, Bothersome Words
Commentary category:
- Kim Powell, News with Nipples
Personal/Lifestyle category:
- Lori Dwyer, Random Ramblings of a Stay at Home mum: www.rrsahm.com
People’s Choice Award (voted by 2,583 people):
- Chris Hunter, Bike EXIF
Judging panel:
- Business – judged by Joel Norton, boosthq.com.au
- Commentary – judged by Valerie Khoo, sydneywriterscentre.com.au
- Lifestyle/personal – judged by Brenda Gaddi, www.mummy-time.com
- Words/writing – judged by Angela Meyer, blogs.crikey.com.au/literaryminded
Click here for a full list of finalists in the Best Australian Blogs Competition.
About Trevor Young