OK, so let’s just remind ourselves of the categories and the nominees:

Miscellaneous Article Communities – sites who do not specialise, but rather accept articles on a wide range of subjects.

Business Article Communities – sites who promote business specific articles.

Sales Article Communities – sites that specialise in promoting sales and marketing articles and services.

In addition this year I have added a brand new category, which I have called “Blog Grabbers“ These are sites who syndicate and promote blog posts, and this year I have worked with three very good ones, so they deserve their own “JF Gong”

What I do need to repeat is that mine, as ever, will be a very personal and subjective view based on my experiences through 2008. Here we go:

Miscellaneous Article Communities:

EzineArticles.com

Buzzle.com

IdeaMarketers.com

And the winner is……. for the third year running, Ezine Articles - it would be almost impossible for me to fault the sheer size, not to mention the excellent presentation and service that Chris Knight and his team provide. 137,191 authors cannot all be wrong and it just demonstrates the enormity of the site…..way to go Chris.

Business Article Communities

BuildYourOwnBusiness.com

TheSideroad.com

BestManagementArticles.com

And the winner is….. Build Your Own Business - This was a tough one to call, as I know for a fact that all three of these sites are run on a part-time basis, which must be terribly difficult. Each of them have their own fan-base and each of them have contributed immensely to Top 10 Sales Articles this year.

However, I decided to give it to David Bain, as much for his support over the past three years as anything else. He is a true friend, who never fails to be there when we have a “push” on. Well done that man… have a wee dram on me tonight!

Sales Article Communities

EyesOnSales.com

Salesopedia.com

SalesGravy.com

And the winner is….. Salesopedia - yes I know that SalesGravy enjoys the highest number of visitors, and that EyesOnSales is now owned by Landslide Technologies, but when I visit Salesopedia I know where everything is, there is no clutter and load times don’t force me to go make a coffee whilst I am waiting.

I think Leah Rust is doing a superb job at EOS, and I love the new site design, but it is not quite there yet.

Jeb has added lots of new sections this year and continues to be very successful with his “Jobs Board” but I guess I also feel that Clayton goes that extra yard when it comes to providing reciprocal support: We generate incremental traffic for our “partners” via Top 10 Sales Articles every week, and so asking them to promote the Top Sales Article Of The Year Award, for example should not be beyond them. 

So great stuff Clayton, two years running and fully deserved!

Finally: Blog Grabbers

TheCustomerCollective.com

Blogowogo.com

Blog.Smartdraw.com

And the winner is… The Customer Collective - I like very much what Linda Geller has created over at Blogowogo, and Blog.Smartdraw is very new and innovative, but there was only ever going to be one winner here.

Robin Frey-Carey and Jerry Bowles have done a superb job in creating something very original: I would suggest that it is a very intellectual and forward thinking location, which attracts a very high calibre of bloggers – so not sure how I manage to feature. However, I can say that it has been an immense honor to be involved with such a high-class project. A couple of martinis tonight guys, shaken but not stirred? On me of course! Great stuff, well done.

So there you have it – I am also highly commending four further superb sites who do not quite fit into an official category, but who provide an excellent service.

First Sales HQ, a Monster company, which is now edited by the immensely talented Kit Richert PhD – aka Dr Kit, and an absolute dream to work with. Obviously this is a Monster site which focuses on sales jobs, but they are expanding their vision and I am keen that we stay close to them.

Secondly, Insightory.com is growing in reputation, and the CEO is Avneet Jolly – what a great name that is, particularly at this time of year. I am over there and so is Jill, Paul and a few more of the gang, so do check them out.

Then there is alltop.com which is an absolutely brilliant location to find all the top blogs in the world. It really is an honor to be included there – you will find literally thousands of blogs on every topic.

And I could not conclude without mentioning the “Top Sales Blogs In The World” location – where else can you find us all in one place! 

I just need to say a big thank you to all of the nominees – you are doing a fantastic job, and we really appreciate you – if you wish to celebrate your success, the Elves have created some widgets for you:

http://www.jonathanfarrington.com/widgets/JF_Awards.php

That’s it for another year – now I need to go buy some Christmas presents, but I’ll be here tomorrow for a final post of the year, before I take a day off.

PS: Salesopedia have just published the five most read articles of 2008 – just click on the banner below.

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