One week left!!

We are down to the wire here for the 2010 Blogisattva Awards.

Don't wait until the last minute to give props to your favorite blogger for inspiring you with their wit, wisdom, compassion, etc.

I just want to take this moment to thank all those that have been involved in the rebirth of the Blogisattva's. It's been enjoyable to say the least. I look forward to awarding this years and getting to work on next years. So, thank you everyone, you've been great.

If all goes as planned, the next post will be our announcement of the winners. Thanks everyone for your support and talk to you soon!

Awards Update

Just a reminder that there is only one month left to get those Blogisattva nominations in! November 1st will be the last day to submit your nominations for those outstanding Buddhist blogs that you read and love. The process for sorting through and posting the finalists and award winners will probably take a few weeks after nominations close.

Also, we have hit the 400 milestone mark for Buddhist related blogs and websites in the directory, and everyday a few more get added. The Buddhist Blogosphere is far larger and more dynamic than I ever imagined! We will be keeping the ability to add to the blog directory database probably through November 1 as well. I am working on sharing the code so sometime in the near future that anyone can publish the blog directory that resides here.
 
Finally, for next years awards, we will be looking for new volunteer administrators to run the awards. I'm not sure if Nate, Anoki or myself will stay on, but there is definitely a good chance for an opening to volunteer! If you are interested in carrying forward the Blogisattva torch in 2011, just drop us a line here.

Thanks again for everyone's time and effort to make this year Blogisattva awards possible!

Blog Of The Day!

Thanks to a contact I made via Yahoo Answers, I was able to come up with a cool script that randomly chooses a new blog each day.

We imported the list of nominations for the Blogisattvas, so the blogs that are chosen are one's you guys have all recommended others to check out. This is just another way that we think will help garner a little more attention to  blogs other's may or may not have checked out yet.

The "Blog Of The Day" has been up for a few days now, just tucked under the fold you might say, that way we could make sure it would run properly. Now, it is "above the fold" for all to see.

There has been no human intervention in choosing the "Blog Of The Day". The code randomly selects a new blog every 24 hours. And, like I said, the list for the script to choose from has come from you guys.

We hope this exposes some great blogs and as always thank for your interest and support of the Blogisattva Awards!

Blogging Summary

Thanks to all who responsed to the survey we ran last week, here is a results summary of the rather unofficial, unscientific poll.

As you can see of the 40 responses we got, under one year was first with 35%, and between 1-2 years was last with only 15%. I think this shows us a couple of different interesting things about the Buddho-blogosphere, which I think were fairly expected. (Obviously these are just our opinions of course.) Firstly, I think this shows how difficult making it past the 12 month mark for new bloggers can be. Many folks do tend to take up blogging and begin with a lot of enthusiasm, ideas and energy, but as you can tell by the numbers after the first year, quite a few bloggers stop writing. Sometimes it is rather difficult to come up with new writing topics and interesting ideas to keep that energy and enthusiasm going. As well, it does take quite awhile to build up some return readers and followers. This can be a bit disheartening to some after awhile, even though becoming a well known Buddhist blogger perhaps isn't their intention to begin with.

Also, as you can see, and I think this is mostly true, if a writer hangs in there for a couple of years, they do tend to stick around and continue blogging for quite sometime. Here are 10 tips that may help new Buddhist bloggers build a readership, keep a steady flow of ideas and perhaps have a more enjoyable time blogging.

• Don't push yourself too hard, too fast. Be easy on yourself and don't be afraid to take a step back every now and then.
• Get involved with the online community; join other Buddhist blogs, comment on other posts and perhaps ask to exchange being added to each others blog roll if they are a blog you enjoy reading.
• Reading others blogs is also a great way for you not only to learn about other peoples practice and what they are writing about, its also a great way to get new ideas for topics to write about yourself.
• Making a post complimenting another blogger on something they wrote that impressed you can go a long way to building new friendships and getting a dialogue going.
• If you have time, get a twitter account to promote your blog as well as to converse with other Buddhist tweeters out there. There are tons!
• When an idea strikes you for a post, jot it down on a piece of paper. Don't ever feel bad about having several partially finished posts started at once. When the moment is right, you'll find the words to finish them.
• Speak in your own voice about how your practice is coming, or about your understandings of the dharma. Don't be afraid to bring up controversial topics that interest you too.
• Learn about the different sites around the web you can register your blog to point new readers to your stuff. It only takes one great post to get a loyal reader.
• When people leave comments on the blog, take some time to thank them and interact with them. 
• Don't let negative feedback get you down. Sometimes the criticism isn't constructive and should be ignored, but many times you might pick up a tip or two, and make a new friend.

We have reached over 225 blogs and websites that have been added to the directory here already. Don't forget to add yours. Also, Nate has been hard at work on something special we are hoping to unveil in the next few days. So stay tuned!

How long have you been blogging/writing online about Buddhism?

We thought it might be fun and interesting to do an informal anonymous survey about how long folks have been blogging about Buddhism. If you’re a blogger/writer/journalist feel free to answer the question below. You can also see the real time results by clicking on 'See Previous Responses' after you submit the form, or just click here. We will publish the final results up in a week or two.