One of the most ambitious web projects I’ve come across lately is YearBlook which is a competition for the best blog post on the web. Each month, the post with the most votes will receive $100 divided between the post owner and the person who submitted the post. At the end of the year, the 365 best posts will be compiled into a book.
Rules are pretty simple and straightforward. The biggest caveat I see is that the winners must have a PayPal account as the prizes are paid out through PayPal. Post owner also must display a link to YearBlook on their site in order to win a prize (note to owner — create a 125×125 image that says "Vote for Me on YearBlook" for the blogger to put on his sidebar.) I can’t tell how many total posts have been submitted yet, but there are more than a few. (note to site owner — this would be an interesting statistic to show on the site!)
The site appears to still be under construction. For example, when you click the Category Best link, it tells you this will be future functionality. But that just means it’s a dynamic site and there’s nothing wrong with that! Submitting a post appears to be very easy although there are a few caveats there as well, such as link directly to the post being submitted, not to just the site and try to make sure it hasn’t already been submitted, but nothing is too complicated or difficult for the average person to accomplish. There’s a well written FAQ page if you have any questions and it has a handy contact link if your’s isn’t answered somewhere on it.
So far, the post with the most votes has 19 and surprisingly it’s about a gentleman who immigrated to America from Pakistan and how he misses his cricket matches. Next most popular with 10 votes is a story of a young mother with a critically ill child. Sprinkled in amongst the serious posts are funny ones, ones about American Idol choices, political ripostes and lots and lots of posts about BLOGGING.
As a compilation of magnitude, this project is wide in scope. One could spend the day perusing the submissions and seeing a very wide spread variety of quality and well-thought-out writings. At the very least it will introduce readers to bloggers they’ve never encountered before and expose them to emotions that run the gamut from tears to laughter. Some posts won’t be relevant to everyone, but there WILL be more than one post in this wide array that will be relevant to YOU.
Votes cast by registered users are counted heavier than those counted by anonymous voters, but all votes cast are counted. Use of scripts to cast votes is specifically prohibited and will result in the post being removed from competition. it will be very interesting to see who has the most votes at the end of the year. If you’ve had a post submitted, good luck!
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