Housing Wire Blog is introducing its Inaugural Real Estate Blogging Awards. Nominees were selected in 7 categories. Voters have until January 10 to decide a winner. Sellsius° is nominated for an award in the Techno category, which are “blogs dedicated to helping real estate professionals harness the power of the web.”
We thank Housing Wire for the nomination but we decline. We are, of course, happy to be noticed and honored to be included with the other nominated blogs, but not at the exclusion of other deserving blogs, three of which are glaringly omitted, Curbed, Rain City Guide and Matrix. There are many others. To the contest’s credit, it does allow write-in votes. But the omission of these long standing, quality blogs in a voting contest disturbs our sense of fairness. How could we in good conscience tout an award, assuming we won, that did not have them in the running. We have no problem with the other nominated blogs participation and support. It is their choice. We choose otherwise. That’s just how we roll.
Had Housing Wire decided to give awards based on their own criteria, that would be fine. But this is a vote.
Read about the Blog Awards here and cast your vote, if you like.
Personal Note: If you do vote, we ask that you consider writing in Curbed or Rain City Guide as Best Overall and Rain City Guide or Matrix in the Brain Power Category (or any other blogs you think were overlooked). In our opinion, Dustin, Ardell, Russ, Galen, Robbie, Eileen and Craig set the standard for stimulating intelligent conversation in the real estate blogos. And Jonathan Miller of Matrix definitely has a big brain. How else could he explain all those graphs, charts and statistics? Plus, these blogs have maintained their quality over an extended period of time.
No nomination for The Condo Blog? What the heck?
I just went over and read the categories. Interesting that they don’t have any categorie for local small business consumer type blogs. Blogdom rewards those who blog for others who have blogs or are interested in them. The little blogs get a different kind of award from their clients. I got a special prize today when one of my readers decided that she wants me to write an offer on a condo. I guess it just doesn’t get any better than that.
You mean I threw away my vote yesterday….? For the record, I like Matrix, Curbed etc. I was an early fan of Rain City Guide and I still read it when Galen, Dustin, Robbie, Russ etc are blogging… but I would still vote for Sellsius° Blog if they were all in the running.
Thanks Maureen. We appreciate your support. Awards are nice but sometimes we have to stand on principle. We are just bowing out to support other blogs we think should have been included, yours being one of them for local blogs. You do a great job covering Columbus.
Wow!
Thanks so much for sticking up for Rain City Guide! I didn’t want to say anything when I saw Mike’s post for fear of sounding like a sore loser (before the voting even began!), but I thought some of their omissions were a little bit too obvious as well.
Awards are fun and it would be great to have a user nominated award for real estate blogging, but I’m with you that the REBA people are probably not the best people to “own” that topic. I also don’t like the way that Inman doles out his awards because he provides no explanation whatsoever. There is definitely room for improvement in this area!
Dustin,
We have no problem with sites that give awards based on their own criteria, since it’s only their opinion. But in award contests that are vote driven, we feel the long standing top sites like RCG have to be included. We just wanted to make our position known.
And Jonathan Miller’s brain is so big he can’t wear hats
Wow! I guess we were so flattered even to be included, our vanity didn’t let us stop to consider the nominating process.
Maybe the biggest statement is that there are now a big enough group of quality real estate blogs that they can’t all be considered. Rock on.
Dear friends at Sellsius - thanks for the vote of confidence. You are setting the bar for integrity so high, its got be illegal.
Jonathan, we call it like we see it. Matrix and the other top blogs didn’t get there AND remain there by chance. It took passion, expertise, dedication and a love of real estate to consistently produce quality content over an extended period. We know it and everyone else should know it too. You are one of the trailblazers.
And only one vote per category kind of stinks, too. I mean, how on earth could a little old lady like me figure out whether Matrix or Bloodhound has more brain power? I think I’ll go see if I can vote more than once using different browsers/different ‘puters.
I just wrote in “anything but a bubble blog” in almost every category. The only thing more lame than the excess of bubble blogs was their logic behind having them.
Yes, obviously some excellent blogs were overlooked (wink!) But I agree with Jay, too many hysterical bubble-blogs to make the contest credible.
You’re in a class of your own, anyway!
Well, I guess I voted before I should have. But I have to say the ballot was warped. Why didn’t that call it the Bubble Bloggers Awards?
Maybe someone wants to set up a separate RE blog award contest? I happen to have some decent survey/poll software that is good for about 27 more days that I would gladly donate to the cause, should anyone be willing to take this on.
Right on, Sellsius!!! md