Pixiq

It is that time again when I will annoy my readers mercilessly by asking them to vote for me in the South Florida Sun Sentinel Best of Blogs Awards Contest.

If you were around last year, you probably remember that after two weeks of hounding my readers to vote daily, I ended up beating 200 other blogs to win the Best Overall Blog award.

Yes, it is a pain in the ass because not only does the Sun Sentinel make you register before voting, they also require people to vote daily instead of just once.

Obviously, they become the real winners of this contest because they get a boost in registered readers and traffic.

Fortunately, this year the contest only lasts for one week instead of two.

The Sun Sentinel also did away with real-time results, which allowed us to see which sites were in the lead. So much for transparency.

Photography is Not a Crime was nominated for three categories; Politics, News and Photography.

But my goal is to win Best Overall Blog as I did last year, which happens when you accumulate the most votes in all the categories.

The contest has been criticized by local bloggers for being nothing but a popularity contest instead of an accurate indicator of quality. And maybe they are correct.

But I believe a blog’s readership is also an indicator of its quality, not much different than a newspaper’s circulation is a reflection of its quality. And PINAC does have a sizeable readership compared to most South Florida blogs.

So there is no reason why PINAC shouldn’t win the Best Overall Blog award again.

The truth is, it’s really a stupid little contest where if I win, I receive a $100 gift certificate to Target. Last year, I gave it to my mom.

To me, it’s about bragging rights, for whatever that’s worth.

So this is what I ask from my readers.

Click on this link and either create an account of log in through your Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts.

Scroll down to the categories News, Politics and Photography and vote for PINAC in each of those categories.

Do that once daily for the next seven days.

Voting ends at 10 a.m. EST next Monday.

Thanks!