The Annual Weblog Awards, or Bloggies as they are more commonly known, are set to be announced this coming Monday, March 12th. With the growing success of The Bloggies, now in their seventh year, we decided to get in touch with the man who made it all happen, Nikolai Nolan, and find out a little about why he initiated the project and has nurtured it into one of the premier awards in the blogosphere:

BPedia: When and why did you start The Bloggies?

NN: Around 2000 there was discussion going around weblogs about whether the "A-List" blogs deserved to be so popular when there are lesser known blogs that are just as good. So I wanted to see which blogs the public would choose as the best, and it resulted in both well-known winners and
less popular winners.

BPedia: Did you expect it would be such an important aspect of the blogosphere?

NN: I wanted it to, but I didn't expect it to grow so large.

BPedia: How much time do you invest in each year's contest?

NN: Hmmm, a lot? I dunno an estimate since I do things off and on for the Bloggies from
December through March.

BPedia: Why do you believe The Bloggies offers a valid view of which blogs are the most popular?

NN: I think the multi-step process is a way to filter all the nominees with as little bias as possible.

BPedia: How are blogs nominated?

NN: The Weblog Awards site has a form on it in the first half of January for people's nominations. Then a random selection of nominators choose finalists from the most-nominated blogs.

BPedia: Which blog(s) over the course of the previous years have received the most awards? (For example, Postsecret won just about every category it was nominated to last year. Have there been other 'landslides'?)

NN: Wil Wheaton Dot Net won six Bloggies in 2002.

BPedia: When do you think the word 'blog' and related terms will be recognized by spellcheck as a viable term?

NN: I think it'll take a while.

We're so inspired by Nikolai's project that we've decided to host our own blog awards here at Bloggapedia (blogs must be listed in the directory to be nomiated!) so check back for more info as we develop the project.

In the meantime be sure to check out the official Bloggies website, where this year's winners will be revealed in just a few days!