My Favorite 2010 Search & Social Awards Nominees

This past Monday morning, when I started my day with the usual routine checking of my TweetCaster mention alerts, I was greeted with the following tweet from @LorenBaker:

Talk about a great start to the day. In just a few hours, I had the Search and Social Awards banner in my sidebar and had sent out a tweet asking readers for support.

Since then, I have gotten a few messages from people mentioning that they were not familiar with many of the nominees. So I would like to take a moment to introduce you to some of my favorites in the nominee list, plus a sampling of some of their recent top posts.

Nominees for Best SEO Blog of 2010

Here are my favorite SEO (Search Engine Optimization) blogs out of the 22 nominees listed.

Daily SEO Tip

Daily SEO Tip is a blog that covers everything from SEO, link building, social media, blogging, and keyword tools. It is run by Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal and Ann Smarty, which many bloggers will recognize as the founder of My Blog Guest and author of many great guest blogs across the web, including on Famous Bloggers.

A Sampling from Daily SEO Tip

• 4 Link Building Tips You Should Integrate into Your SMM
• 10 SEO Tools Every Blogger Must Use
• How to Name Your Website Files

SEM Group Blog

SEM Group Blog is run by Gerald Weber, also known as @the_gman on Twitter. He is definitely one of the friendliest SEO’s out there, always sharing great articles and tips. His blog focuses on many topics including blogging, copywriting, social media, SEO, technology, and much more. He also contributes to Famous Bloggers.

A Sampling from SEM Group Blog

• How to Write Better Press Release Headlines
• How to Get More Comments on Your Blog
• 9 Specific Ways Your Business Can Use Twitter

Stay on Search

Stay on Search is a search and social media marketing focused blog that also covers tools, design & development, and e-commerce. Owner Mark Thompson‘s recent product launch is the Link Builder’s Toolkit – a spreadsheet full of resources to help you build links, from blog directories to forums to classifieds plus a section on search operators and how to use them to find link opportunities.

A Sampling from Stay on Search

• Huge List of 150 Compelling Headlines for Your Blog
• Effective Link Bait Examples and Techniques
• 9 Professional Social Media Monitoring Tools

Nominee for Best Search News Blog of 2010

Here is my pick for the best search news blog out of the 11 nominees listed.

Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Journal covers the latest in search engine marketing news including SEO, social media, link building, PPC, and tools. I was reading this site long before I became a contributing author, and many of their informative posts have appeared in the weekly roundups on Friday.

A Sampling from Search Engine Journal

• 2 Great WordPress Plugins to Find Your Blog’s Most Powerful Pages
• Local Business Marketing – The Known Future
• Why Buzz Beats Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed

Nominee for Best CRO/Conversion Blog of 2010

Here is my pick for the best CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) blog out of the 7 nominees listed.

GrokDotCom

GrokDotCom makes my favorites list simply because they are a one of the strongest dofollow blogs out there. They have a huge section of archives covering conversion and marketing topics.

A Sampling from GrokDotCom

• Your Website is Unique – Don’t Settle for Best Practices
• Credibility – Yours to Loose
• What Makes a Product Review Great – Seven Tips that Count

Nominee for Best Social Media Blog of 2010

Here is my pick for the best social media blog out of the 10 nominees listed.

Techipedia

Techipedia by Tamar Weinberg covers all things social media, with a list of categories that focus on all of the major social networking sites.

A Sampling from Techipedia

• How to Get an Influencer’s Attention
• 7 Social Media Marketing Truths
• 11 Characteristics of Highly Influential Bloggers

Nominees for Best Blog for Bloggers of 2010

Here are my pics for best blog for bloggers out of the 7 nominees listed.

Kikolani

Yes, this is the category that Kikolani is nominated for. I’m not going to toot my own horn, but just say that I hope that my readers find this site valuable enough to vote for it. Some posts that I would like to toss in to help weigh in on that decision include:

A Sampling from Kikolani

• HootSuite for Blogging – A Blogger’s Guide to Twitter Management
• The Fetching Friday Series
• Reasons to Love CommentLuv Blogs

ProBlogger

ProBlogger is definitely worth a vote in this category. Why do I give them a vote? Darren Rowse‘s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog course, which I took for free a year ago (and later bought the workbook), changed my blog on the first day’s task – creating an elevator pitch. That exercise helped me define my site’s purpose for the first time which has led to it’s success today in blogging and social media topics.

A Sampling from ProBlogger

• Feeling Blogged Out – 10 Pro Bloggers Share Their Advice on What to Do
• 4 Foundations of a Successful Blog
• 9 Tricks I Used to Triple My Adsense Earnings in 30 Days

Nominee for Best SMM Blog of 2010

Here is my pick for the best SMM (Social Media Marketing) blog out of the 9 nominees listed.

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan‘s blog is about business oriented social media marketing. I must admit that it is usually a bit more business and PR than I usually get into, but some recent posts have been very interesting to me, and since some of my favorite social media sites are not in the mix of nominees, this is the one I choose as my favorite out of the bunch.

A Sampling from Chris Brogan

• When Google Owns You
• Turn Twitter’s Follow Friday into Blog Traffic
• How to Reach Out to Bloggers

Your Vote

I wish I could have talked about everyone on the nominees list, as there are many great sites listed, but a post about 150 blogs would be a bit lengthy. So please add your comments below in praise of other nominees, who you would have liked to see on the list, and any other thoughts!

UPDATE: Voting has officially closed.

• 5 Favorite Lists of Bloggers and Marketing Experts in 2010
• Blogging and Social Media Goals for 2010
• Writing Around the Web – Social Media ROI, Google+, and Local Search
• 2010 Social Media Wishlist – New Features for Facebook, StumbleUpon, & Twitter
• What is Your Favorite Part of Blogging?

This post brought to you by Kristi Hines

Kristi is a blogger, freelance writer, online marketing consultant, and social media enthusiast. Connect with me on Twitter and Google+.

Kristi has written 453 awesome article(s) for Kikolani.

Kikolani runs on Thesis, but also likes using Genesis. Learn more about Thesis vs. Genesis.

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