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Credit: Image by DeaPeaJay on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The National UK Blog Awards, which launched for the first time this year, will highlight the achievements of bloggers in the UK across a series of 14 categories.

Entrants to the first National UK Blog Awards have less than one week to submit their entries before the window for submissions closes on Sunday 1 December.

"I felt a multi-sector award would be a fantastic way for people to come together from different industries and share their different values, experience and content," Gemma Pear, the awards organiser, told Journalism.co.uk

Entry is free and the awards are divided into 12 industry categories, listed below, with two awards available in each – one for individuals and one for organisations, as well as an additional young persons award, for authors aged 18 to 25, and a "most innovative" award.
  • Arts and culture
  • Automotive
  • Digital and technology
  • Education
  • Events
  • Food and drink
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • PR, marketing, media and communications
  • Retail and fashion
  • Travel
  • Wedding
All blogs will be subject to a public vote for the initial round of judging, from 2 December until 13 January, and the ten most popular in each category will be put before the judges.

"I felt it was quite important to have the public vote," Pear said, "as it's important to have the people's voice as well as social media. So it's about that perception and that credibility that is gained from an online audience.'

There will be two expert judges and a UK Blog Awards organiser for each industry category, said Pear, who will choose six blogs per category to be shortlisted for the awards ceremony in April.

"Considering the event is in its first year I'm delighted with the judges we've got on board," said Pear. Judges include Professor John Ashton, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, for the health category and Mike Little, co-founder of WordPress, for the digital and technology category, among many more.

"They're going to be looking at the full package," Pear continued. "The content is going to play a big part and when people have applied we've asked them to submit their three top blog posts that they believe are really good.

"[The judges are] also going to be looking at brand and style, image, writing style and how they promote the blog as well."

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 25 April at an as yet unspecified venue in London. Submitting a blog to a category is free, but tickets to the awards ceremony will be carry a cost, said Pear.

The UK Blog Awards also run #BlogHour on Twitter every Tuesday evening from 9 to 10pm, based on a specific topic each week, to help bloggers connect and share their content.

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