2009-05-12T15:15:03-06:00 contest contest-winners announcements _autoblog-contest 6305 721 35959 true false true true 55301 1 2009-05-13T11:08:32-06:00 Premium-Support 8608 2009-10-01T20:54:05-06:00 <p>Our 2009 autoblogging contest is now over and we have selected the winners. We thank everyone who participated and we saw some some really creative uses of AutoBlogged. Autoblogs have long been thought of as spam sites, scrapers, or splogs. Overall we believe that our customers have shown that there are many legitimate uses for autoblogging software.</p> <h2>Contest Winners</h2> <p>It's important to note that there were a number of entries we found to be well-designed, clever, innovative, and creative. However, our approach was to judge the sites on various different factors and the numbers just didn't add up for some sites to win. There were several sites we wanted to win, but often one aspect of their site hurt their score. <br /><br />Ultimately, our goal was to select those sites that best showcased the capabilities and power of AutoBlogged. Presentation, creativity, use of AutoBlogged features, value of the site, and overall coolness affected each site's score. Although there were some great-looking sites, there were some technical issues such as not limiting title length, poor feed selection, or lack of filtering that hurt some sites.</p> <h3>First Place</h3> <p>The First Place prize goes to <strong><a href="ttp://equineartist.info/artists" target="_blank" title="Equine Artists">Equine Artists</a> (<a href="http://equineartist.info/artists/" target="_blank" title="Equine Artists">http://equineartist.info/artists/</a>).</strong> Some of the things that pushed this site ahead of the others are:</p> <ul> <li>Perfect example of using AutoBlogged to build a portal/community site around a well-defined niche.&nbsp;</li> <li>Using the original author's name on each post&nbsp; and categorization by author which makes navigation easy.<br /></li> <li>Careful attribution to each author, clear copyright notices, and a page listing every artist's web site.</li> <li>Good use of AutoBlogged's tagging features.<br /></li> <li>The designer worked with each author to arrange for access to full articles in the feeds. <br /></li> <li>Great customization of a free WordPress theme.</li> <li>Provides good value to that niche.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Runners Up</strong><br /></h3> <p>The first runner up is <strong><a href="http://www.news.magznetwork.com/" target="_blank" title="MagzNetwork">MagzNetwork </a>(<a href="http://www.news.magznetwork.com/" target="_blank" title="MagzNetwork">http://www.news.magznetwork.com/</a>)</strong>. What we liked best about this site is:</p> <ul> <li>Good quality, on-topic posts from a wide variety of sites, which we know is hard to do when you are dealing with a broad topic like WordPress.</li> <li>The designer did a great job at making the site look hand-edited even though it is completely automated.</li> <li>Provides great value to WordPress users and designers and seems to have built a large user base with plenty of return traffic.</li> </ul> <p>The second runner up is <strong><a href="http://iplseries.com/" target="_blank" title="IPL Series">IPL Series</a> (<a href="http://iplseries.com/" target="_blank" title="IPL Series">http://iplseries.com/</a>). </strong>This site scored well because:</p> <ul> <li>Great use of AutoBlogged's image and thumbnail features.<br /></li> <li>Nice theme choice and presentation for the topic.</li> <li>Good use of AutoBlogged in conjunction with other RSS elements</li> </ul> <p>We appreciate all those who submitted entries and we are offering to all those who entered either an additional single site AutoBlogged license you can redeem now or a free upgrade to version 3.0 that comes out later this year. If you are one of these entrants, you can e-mail support and redeem these at any time.</p> <p><br />Thanks again to everyone who participated and thanks to <a href="http://autoblogged.com/themes/woothemes" target="_blank" title="WooThemes">WooThemes</a>, <a href="http://autoblogged.com/themes/press75" target="_blank" title="Press75">Press75</a>, and <a href="http://autoblogged.com/scripts/goscript/uniquefier" target="_blank" title="GoScript">GoScript </a>for sponsoring our contest.</p> <p>Our 2009 autoblogging contest is now over and we have selected the winners. We thank everyone who participated and we saw some some really creative uses of AutoBlogged. Autoblogs have long been thought of as spam sites, scrapers, or splogs. Overall we believe that our customers have shown that there are many legitimate uses for autoblogging software.</p> <h2>Contest Winners</h2> <p>It's important to note that there were a number of entries we found to be well-designed, clever, innovative, and creative. However, our approach was to judge the sites on various different factors and the numbers just didn't add up for some sites to win. There were several sites we wanted to win, but often one aspect of their site hurt their score. <br /><br />Ultimately, our goal was to select those sites that best showcased the capabilities and power of AutoBlogged. Presentation, creativity, use of AutoBlogged features, value of the site, and overall coolness affected each site's score. Although there were some great-looking sites, there were some technical issues such as not limiting title length, poor feed selection, or lack of filtering that hurt some sites.</p> <h3>First Place</h3> <p>The First Place prize goes to <strong><a title="Equine Artists" target="_blank">Equine Artists</a> (<a href="http://equineartist.info/artists/" title="Equine Artists" target="_blank">http://equineartist.info/artists/</a>).</strong> Some of the things that pushed this site ahead of the others are:</p> <ul> <li>Perfect example of using AutoBlogged to build a portal/community site around a well-defined niche.&nbsp;</li> <li>Using the original author's name on each post&nbsp; and categorization by author which makes navigation easy.<br /></li> <li>Careful attribution to each author, clear copyright notices, and a page listing every artist's web site.</li> <li>Good use of AutoBlogged's tagging features.<br /></li> <li>The designer worked with each author to arrange for access to full articles in the feeds. <br /></li> <li>Great customization of a free WordPress theme.</li> <li>Provides good value to that niche.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Runners Up</strong><br /></h3> <p>The first runner up is <strong><a href="http://www.news.magznetwork.com/" title="MagzNetwork" target="_blank">MagzNetwork </a>(<a href="http://www.news.magznetwork.com/" title="MagzNetwork" target="_blank">http://www.news.magznetwork.com/</a>)</strong>. What we liked best about this site is:</p> <ul> <li>Good quality, on-topic posts from a wide variety of sites, which we know is hard to do when you are dealing with a broad topic like WordPress.</li> <li>The designer did a great job at making the site look hand-edited even though it is completely automated.</li> <li>Provides great value to WordPress users and designers and seems to have built a large user base with plenty of return traffic.</li> </ul> <p>The second runner up is <strong><a href="http://iplseries.com/" title="IPL Series" target="_blank">IPL Series</a> (<a href="http://iplseries.com/" title="IPL Series" target="_blank">http://iplseries.com/</a>). </strong>This site scored well because:</p> <ul> <li>Great use of AutoBlogged's image and thumbnail features.<br /></li> <li>Nice theme choice and presentation for the topic.</li> <li>Good use of AutoBlogged in conjunction with other RSS elements</li> </ul> <p>We appreciate all those who submitted entries and we are offering to all those who entered either an additional single site AutoBlogged license you can redeem now or a free upgrade to version 3.0 that comes out later this year. If you are one of these entrants, you can e-mail support and redeem these at any time.</p> <p><br />Thanks again to everyone who participated and thanks to <a href="http://autoblogged.com/themes/woothemes" title="WooThemes" target="_blank">WooThemes</a>, <a href="http://autoblogged.com/themes/press75" title="Press75" target="_blank">Press75</a>, and <a href="http://autoblogged.com/scripts/goscript/uniquefier" title="GoScript" target="_blank">GoScript </a>for sponsoring our contest.</p> 2009-05-12T15:15:03-06:00 35959 6305 55301 2009-05-13T11:08:32-06:00 8608