the prizes

Because of the large amount of categories, I won't personally give an award to every winner, but the Weblog of the Year owner(s) will receive 2,003 US cents (US$20.03).

Also, contributors can donate their own prizes to the category of their choice, and if the contributor has a site, it will be linked from this page.

But this year, I'm encouraging everyone to donate physical prizes, since it's possible they will be presented in person. To donate one, the contributor can bring it to SXSW, mail it to me, or send an online gift certificate or cash through PayPal with instructions of what it should be used for. I should be able to handle shipping if the winner doesn't attend SXSW. Of course, monetary prizes can still be donated through PayPal.

If the contributor is going to SXSW, he/she can also have the privilege of announcing/presenting the category sponsored at the ceremony.

South by Southwest offered a registration discount for all finalists to this year's Interactive Festival, making it just $150 for a badge.

Jish Mukerji, once again, contributed an actual award for the Weblog of the Year winner.

Biz Stone and New Riders contributed ten signed copies of his book, Blogging. Rebecca Blood and Perseus Publishing contributed five copies of her book, The Weblog Handbook. They'll be distributed in the order Blogging, Handbook, Blogging, Blogging, Handbook among whatever become the last fifteen categories that don't have prizes. If someone wins more than one of these categories and would get a duplicate book, the extra books will be passed down the line of non-prized categories. If it gets to the end, the sequence will start over with the categories that have prizes. Make sense?

Thanks also go out to Jim McCann for programming expertise and Dinah Sanders for the Bloggies.com domain name.