The deadline for 2017 Best Construction Blog competition nominations is fast approaching. It is at 11:55 p.m. on Jan. 31. Then, on the morning of Feb. 1, the two month open voting period commences.
So far, we have more than 20 entries. Some blogs received several nominations so the nomination total is significantly higher. There are many new entries along with repeat candidates.
The competition has some special features:
- There is no entry fee. You can nominate your own blog, or as many as you like. So there are truly no entry barriers.
- The qualification rule simply requires that the blog entries be directed primarily by or for the architecture, engineering and construction community. These can include services for the industry or for potential consumers. While most blogs have some search engine optimization (SEO) intent, we’ll exclude obvious “splogs” (spam blogs). There should be genuine, original content, with some reasonable updating frequency. (If you haven’t added a new post in several months, you probably should wait until you resume reliable posting.)
- The winning blog is selected through a combination of popular vote and independent judging. Both are important. You could say a reasonable popular vote count is needed to qualify for the judging. The reason for this rule is that in the early years of the competition we had a simple “popular vote” rule — and that encouraged massive campaigns to get out the vote. Fair enough, but large companies/organizations with big offices could easily swamp a smaller business or individual blog.
- I tried a variation where we allowed only one entry per IP address, but this had the perverse effect of denying the bigger organizations a fair chance of winning. The combination approach works quite well. If your blog is among the top seven or eight in popular vote, and the judges love it, you can win. The judging may be especially valuable in pulling a blog which might be second or third place in popular vote to the top spot.
- While there is no cash prize for winning the competition, every blog receives a free (positive) review by me sometime before the voting deadline. This publicity with inline links and references will obviously be useful for your SEO, and you may find some direct traffic simply from people reading this blog or our weekly Construction Marketing Ideas eletter. The publicity value is of course magnified for popular vote winners and the final winner.
- Ultimately, there is no practical risk in entering the competition, and potentially much reward. After all, if you already have a blog, you won’t be doing much additional work in submitting the entry form. If you know a blog you like, even if it isn’t yours, it takes just a few minutes to complete the nomination.
That said, here is the nomination form. (Note if you view this entry after Feb. 1, the form will be unavailable. This is a genuine deadline.)
Fill out my online form.
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