- 1). Browse through blog search engines and directories such as Technorati, Google Blog Search or Blog catalog, to get a feel for blogs in a particular category. Select a specific niche within the category that matches your expertise. For example, if you want to start a blog award in a business category, you may determine that you do not have enough knowledge in business law or accounting and want to concentrate the award on business marketing blogs.
- 2). Make a list of qualities to look for in winning blogs. Criteria may include blogs updated on a daily basis, expertise of content writers, user-friendly blog design or humorous perspective of popular topics.
- 3). Create a blog award website. Include basic information such as types of blogs that qualify, criteria for selecting winners and awarding frequency on the homepage.
- 4). Add a nomination form to the blog award website for visitors to fill out. The blog form should include fields such as name of the blog, blog URL, short description, the blogger's profile, approximate traffic and blog age.
- 5). Read through nominated blogs and pick out blogs that seem most worthwhile, based on criteria from above. Determine the winner yourself or post a poll on the blog award website for visitors to vote for the best blogs.
- 6). Design a blog award badge for winning blogs to display on their websites. Choose a design, such as a trophy or ribbon, that people automatically associate with awards. Upload the badge onto a Web page on your site that is not accessible from the homepage, so that only invited visitors can download the award.
- 7). Post the blog winners to the award website. If you plan on handing out a daily or monthly award, build the site using a blog format where you list the most recent award as the first post on the homepage and earlier awards lower down on the page. If you plan on awarding blogs on an annual basis, display the current year's winners on the homepage and create a separate Web page listing winners from previous years.
- 8). Email winning blogs informing them of their win and notifying them on how they can upload their blog award badge.
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