2012 Competition details

There are many ways to win in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition.
There are:

• Five categories
• Four competition-wide special awards and
• The People's Choice Award.

The 5 category winners will be in the running to become the overall winner. They will be assessed and scored by our panel of judges and the overall winner will be announced as the Best Australian Blog for 2012.

Wondering what criteria your blog will be judged on?

70% Quality of writing
We'll be looking at the ease of reading, clarity of expression, relevance, and the quality of topics and observations. Yes, we will be mainly focusing on your writing – we are the Sydney Writers' Centre after all.

20% Presentation and usability
This includes the attractiveness of your blog, ease of navigation and usability, effective linking to other blogs and resources.

10% Engagement and social media integration
We'll look at the conversations in the comment section, guest bloggers, and the use of social media to promote your blog. For example the use of Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin.

Here are the categories:

Business
Any blog written to promote and develop a business or customer community. This can be a blog by a single business owner or it might be a company blog with multiple contributors.

Commentary
Blogs that share your opinion and comment on developments in an area of your interest. Commentary blogs can focus on any issue or industry including the media, politics, law, fashion, art, theatre, feminism and human rights.

Words and writing
Blogs about writing, reading, book promotion, poetry, publishing and e-publishing. If you're working on, promoting, discussing or reviewing any of the following, this category is for you: fiction for any audience, freelance journalism, poetry, screenplays, scripts and non-fiction books. This category includes book bloggers and blogs about publishing.

Personal and Lifestyle
Blogs about your life, hobbies and personal interests. This is the category for: online journal style blogs; blogs about your life; travel; food and dining; and hobby blogs. If your blog is about any or all of these topics, but you also blog about parenthood and kids, we recommend you enter the parenting category.

Parenting
While parenting blogs fit in the Personal and Lifestyle category, we believe this booming part of the blogosphere deserves its own category. The parenting blog space is packed with great writing on a range of topics not just limited to parenting and kids, and is by far the most networked and sponsor-targeted part of the blogosphere.

Special Awards

Special awards are competition-wide accolades designed to recognise outstanding posts and blogging potential. These are the perfect opportunity for smaller blogs to get noticed and celebrated. There are two types of special awards – two for younger blogs and two for outstanding posts.

You must enter the relevant URL or dates requested for each round you want to enter.

The special awards for 2012 are:

• Outstanding funny blog post
  The most hilarious post entered.
  
  
• Outstanding advocacy blog post
  The best blog posts advocating or fundraising for an issue.
  
  
• Best new blog
  The best blog under 6 months old.
  
  
• Best young blogger
  The best blog written by a writer under 26.

Key dates

Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition Terms and Conditions.

A Sydney Writers' Centre initiative
Suite 3, 55 Lavender Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061

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