SA Blog Awards CEO, JP Naude, says this year has seen a marked increase in entries with the most popular category being the Best New Blog. "We've seen a major surge in entries in this category and this impressive list includes one of this years most talked about blogs, www.capetowngirl.co.za. This blog is written in a similar style to previous winner www.2oceansvibe.com, but looks at life from a female perspective.
"The Best Twitter category has also attracted much attention and the finalists include journalist Mandy Wiener (@mandywiener), who became well known after tweeting details of the Brett Kebble Murder trial live from court," said Naude.
2010 sees a surprise entry in the best media and marketing category, [[www.Cherryflava.com, a blog written by Jonathan Cherry. Cherry is an entrant for the very fist time this year, he has been excluded from previous competitions as he originally started the awards.
Afrikaans blogging is on the rise in 2010. Naude says there has been an increase in the number of Afrikaans blogs nominated in the Indigenous Language category, one of the most popular blogs appears to be www.watkykjy.co.za.
He added that the blogosphere in South Africa is growing at a rapid pace.
"More new bloggers seem to be entering year-on-year suggesting blogging is increasingly becoming a popular platform to express opinions in South Africa. This year has seen the nomination phase increase by 161% - this is an indication that not only is it a popular platform but there is a much greater interest in reading blogs than before and we expect that this will continue to grow."
2010 has also seen the awards introduce the 24-hour system in the public vote phase. In the past, the public could only vote once during this phase, now they can vote for the top ten nominees in each category once a day. The new system is motivating bloggers to canvass quite heavily for votes, keeping their blogging content fresh and more frequently updated.
The categories to watch this year according to the organisers are the Best Entertainment Blog, Best New Blog and Best Microblog categories. This was noted just hours after the finalists were announced when a blogger posted a clip, now featured on You Tube, with an upset Adolf Hitler impersonator wanting to know from his troops why he had not been nominated for an award.
For more information on the SA Blog Awards and the final voting phase, go to www.sablogawards.com.
