Darren’s asking who should get a Pro Blogger of the Year Award.

First though, who would qualify?

In my mind, anyone who’s livelihood and family depend on blogging qualifies. Whether it’s consulting, blogging, programming, services, etc.

Would you give it to one of the high profile bloggers like Nick Denton, Brian Alvey or Jason Calacanis who are experimenting with models of earning money directly from blogs? Perhaps it would be one of those crazy creative bloggers who truely sold themselves to blogging this year, Jeremy Wright or Darren Barefoot.

Or would you give it to someone who is enabling bloggers to earn a few dollars from their site like Henry Copeland from Blog ads or even a blogger who is working to provide a blogging tool like Anil Dash from Six Apart. Or maybe you have someone like Doc Searls, Jason Kottke, Steve Rubel or Jeff Jarvis in mind.

I’m not sure if Doc Searls, Kottke, Rubel and Jarvis qualify, because I don’t know where their income comes from.

Personally, I don’t think I qualify. Not because the definition I’ve written isn’t true, but because I feel that people like Jason C have done far more to advance blogging than I’ll ever be able to do. Sure, we’re working in different areas, on different projects and with different models.

But, I think any Award should go to the individual or group who’s had the largest positive impact. Jason C and others have undoubtedly had a larger impact than myself or Darren. At least for this year ;-)