Ahh, the spirit of blogging. Responding to things in an open forum.
Frank Barnako, of MarketWatch, took a few swipes at us and the Business Blogging Awards today.
He says that there wasn’t enough peer review, that it was just a popularity contest, and that things weren’t run seriously enough.
Which I’ll happily concede. Because as Frank quotes, and apparently forgets: it was all just for fun.
Frank even goes so far as to accuse us of rigging the votes (or something):
To suggest the competition’s purpose was more business development than professional development, consider that one of Wright and Barefoot’s consulting clients, eBizBlog.ca, won an award. You have to wonder: why didn’t all of them?
Huh. See, here was me thinking this was all just for fun. Why the jab, Frank? Why no phone call? You do have my number, I know you do. And you’ve taken to not answering my emails either. Have we somehow soured you on the concept of InsideBlogging? I’d really love to know.
Obviously I’d have said all of this on Frank’s article, except there were no comments.
Thankfully, others aren’t taking these awards as seriously as Frank is. Steve Rubel brushes them off, which is the right thing to do. It was all just for fun, and to showcase some cool new blogs people might not be aware of.
Frank seems to think that Steve deserved to win, and that Media Guerilla was unworthy:
Who are these guys? I cover blogs, read blogs, and talk to Web loggers. The winners in this “contest” are unknown to me. [...] By contrast, Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion, which draws tens of thousands of readers, was passed over.
Personally, I just have to laugh. The amount of press these awards have garnered is fantastic for everyone. Washington Post and MartetWatch straight down to some more local papers.
I just think it’s ironic that it’s largely thanks to a previous article Frank wrote (on the auctions) that we even exist today.
Were the awards just a “PR stunt”, as Frank purports? Not really. The problem with PR stunts is you typically have to be trying to get PR by doing them. The BBA site had less than 20,000 visitors. That’s roughly what my blog gets in 2 days. It’s not a lot, and the “PR” from the awards was meaningless. What wasn’t meaningless is the connections we’ve made, the fun that’s been had, the blogs we’ve discovered and the giggles we’ve gotten over some of the responses.
Frank, seriously, this is the kind of thing that deserves to go in a blog, not in MarketWatch. But, it’s in MarketWatch, so thanks for the traffic and have a great weekend. I’m sure all of this will matter much less after a few drinks and a little bit of sun. I, for one, am glad the awards are over and we can look forward 
ps: I’m writing all of this with a smile on my face. Irony, intrigue, scandal, laziness? What more could you ask for on a Friday?!
March 2nd, 2005 at 6:39 am
As one of the entirely unworthy and undeserving winners, in an obscure category, I would say the real value of the Business Blogging Awards was in meeting many new business blogs for the very first time.
The various entries were often unknown to many business bloggers, but they aren’t strangers now. In fact, some business bloggers have already made friends and connections with other nominated blogs.
I know that I have.
Ignore the detractors.
Count the gains for business blogs, and not the losses.
March 2nd, 2005 at 3:36 pm
I find it funny that the awards were even mentioned by such major media outlets. You have to love the exposure, as you alluded to. Congrats on that.
Of course, it is unfair for him to imply some sort of bias. But, hey, that’s what some people do if there is any connection at all. I have to select various award winners at my sites and… it happens to me, as well.
Also, it’s an unfair shot at the winners, as well. To portray them in an undeserving light. He has to have heard of them to win… I don’t see why. No one knows everyone. As generally unimportant and for fun as they may be (and awards at my sites are), they still have basic meaning. Such and such was selected to win this award by the voters, which included his visitors, peers and other. If it was me, it’d be great to win. If I was nominated and didn’t win, I am not going to die or throw a fit. Just congratulate the winners and be appreciative of the opportunity. But, the winners should be proud and hopefully, they won’t feel detracted from because of this article.