As it turned out it was NOT easy to do ! I could do it even better, but I have lived, breathed and slept this for the last few days and I have been neglecting the rest of my life (including my other marketing activities) trying to finish it. But even if it was late, I was determined to finish it anyway. I should say that the first character you see is not really me. Various technical difficulties prevented me filming myself … that’s what forced this approach. And in case anybody is in any doubt, it’s NOT Alex either … but you have to watch it to understand why

PS:  if anybody is interested in how it was done, leave a comment and I will post a little on the technicalities.

But today’s winner is somebody that I just can’t leave out. For a long time now, he’s been producing some really good content on his blog, both text and video. He’s been innovative too: for example, he’s run one competition already and has another planned for later this month. Plus, he has just started a beta video marketing site, that that looks like an interesting idea.

This guy would be another in the hypothetical “Where the Heck Does He Find The Time ?” category of my awards.

I say this because he’s doing most of this whilst working away from home. This is something that I used to do and I know that it can take an awful lot out of you. I used to wake up in the mornings and look to see which side of the bed my alarm clock was on – that was what told me where I was ! But our winner today seems to be doing all of this whilst working full time in a foreign country. Quite how he’s doing this amazes me !

Apart from his own videos, he’s also found one or two really cracking videos that really address some of the issues that should be at the forefront of our minds as entrepreneurs and marketers. For example, I particularly like the one about the cab driver

So for sheer all round energy, innovation and versatility, today’s winner has got to be Iain Buchanan for www.iainbuchanan.me.

Congratulations Iain, your Blog Of The Day badge will be on its way  to you very soon

Update: whoops ! I forgot to update The Roll Of Honour – now corrected !

Although today’s winner is one of the last to pick up his award, the first time I noted him was some time ago, about 10 days before Alex Jeffreys’ traffic competition even started. He posted a video to his blog about social media marketing. I don’t think he’d mind if I call it a rant !

But it was a controlled rant, it brilliantly summarised the way that a lot of us feel about what’s going on at lots of social media sites, particularly twitter. In many ways, I’m still getting to grips with twitter and I’m kind of having a love-hate relationship with it. I can really see the power of how to reach lots of people that you want to build a relationship with. But like today’s winner, I can also see that it has huge scope for ticking people off with floods of tweets about get rich quick “opportunities”.

So even before Alex’s contest started, I knew this was a guy to watch. And since then, I’ve seen more good content going on to his site. A lot of it is on video and there’s a nice mix between “how-to”, motivational and personal posts.

But the thing I get most from this guy, the thing that has clinched the award for him today is that he seems to be having so much fun with this ! He is just loving what he is doing and that enthusiasm really comes through in pretty much everything you find on his blog. And we all know that if you are really enjoying what you do, then your chances of success just sky-rocket.

Finally, I must ask if it’s a coincidence that this guy shares our mentor’s name ? There ! I’ve given it away … because fellow students of Alex Jeffreys will instantly know that today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to the irrepressible Alex Lim for alexliminc.com.

Congratulations Alex, your award badge is on its way !

Today’s winner is one that has upped his game significantly during the course of Alex Jeffreys’ traffic competition.

A few weeks ago, he felt that his blog wasn’t cutting the mustard, so he made some changes. It looks quite different from Heidi’s (yesterday’s winner) but it works for me … as always, no one answer is “right”.

And he wins today’s award not only because of that, but also because he has recently been finding and focussing on corners of the internet marketing landscape that are potentially extremely useful and/or profitable, and then passing the good word along. His recent video about trendrr.com is a great example of this.

His latest post has a series of “how-to” documentary videos that look over his shoulder during the construction of his first Squidoo “lens”. I have toyed with Squidoo in the past, but it’s something that I’ve neglected a little recently, so it was interesting to watch these and see how things have changed recently. What I like about this is that it’s “warts and all” … in other words, you are genuinely getting the same raw experience that he had, even when things don’t quite seem to go the way he expects !

He’s also got a fascinating product lined up for a launch in October. The Science of the Sale hooks in to his own personal knowledge of the psychology of selling. He’s really moving ahead on several fronts and this makes his blog a site to watch.

So for all-round improvement and for massive future potential, today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to Alan “The Schwa” Harris for alanharrisonline.com.

Congratulations Alan, your Blog Of The Day badge is on the way !

I have to confess that, once again, this is a blog that I have been watching for some time. I have noticed a definite theme developing in terms of the blogs that have won the Blog Of the Day Award. Almost without exception, they share certain characteristics … the best word that I can find to summarise these qualities is that they are all engaging, and that’s very true of today’s winner.

Looking at previous posts on today’s winning blog, we find good use of pictures and graphics. As far as content goes, there’s a nice mixture between internet marketing, associated topics and some personal glimpses. These definitely tell a story and they do it simply and eloquently. The latest blog post details the anxiety of preparing and shooting that important first video.

A link to the video itself would ensure even more viewers, especially because of the freeze-frame image that it would have, though this is a very minor carp on my part ! But do click on the link to see it on YouTube because it’s well worth it ! I think that this is probably the best video that I have seen by any of my fellow students so far.

Not only is it different and novel, but I found it charming and captivating. And there are double digit comments on the post that agree with me.

So, for all of this – but especially for that video – today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to Melanie Steeden for www.melaniesteeden.com.

Congratulations Melanie, your Blog Of The Day badge is on its way !

Today’s winner was one of the first blogs that I looked at when I started my coaching with Alex Jeffreys. At the time, I remember being mightily impressed and having revisited it several times since then, my initial feelings about it have only been strengthened. This guy is one to watch.

I like the look and feel of his blog, though I know that for some a black background is a bit of a turn-off. Personally, I like it in this context. However, as regular “BOTD” readers all know, whilst good looks are important to me, they are definitely not the only thing that I’m looking for.

One of those other things is great content and this guy gives really high quality information both in text and video form. One of the other things that I like is that it’s primarily a blog about blogging … the longer I study this subject, the more I’m convinced that it is key to successful marketing online.

I know that this is not his first blog and the fact that he’s got tons of experience in this arena comes through in what he does here. However, he’s also used this blog as a platform to launch a great series of videos on how to “do” Wordpress blogs. I’ve had a peek at this and I have to tell you that it’s excellent.

I know that he’s already earning good money from his blogs and he’s been very up front about his goals. My guess is that he will exceed them.

Matthew Wolfe is definitely one to watch, and so is his blog, matthewwolfe.com.

Congratulations Matt, your Blog Of The Day Award badge is on its way !

Where do we begin with this guy ?

Well, he’s pretty well up on Wordpress, the ultimate tool for serious bloggers. Check out the Wordpress Blog Assistance tab on his blog. On more than one occasion, I found myself consulting his blog for details of how to do some of the more basic things that newby bloggers need to do, like setting up a gravatar or the “widlink” widget supplied to us by Garry Parkes.

And he’s prodigious in his output. Only last week, Alex asked him to develop an idea on blog copywriting. Within a week he has produced a series of videos that are about to go on to YouTube. Personally, I can’t wait to see them. Oh and if you check out his blog entry about these videos, you’ll see the names of some of the top dogs in internet marketing that he’s worked for. Social proof or what ? !

Another thing that I’m eager to find out is exactly what numbers he makes at the end of Alex’s traffic contest. I figure that this blog is going to be at or very close to the top of the heap.

Add to all of this the fact that the tone of his writing is enthusiastic but not overwhelming, and it’s personable and sincere.

So today’s Blog Of The Day Award goes to Rob Canyon for escapetoprosperity.com.

Congratulations Rob, your Blog Of The Day badge will be on its way to you shortly.

This guy has won today’s award because he has a cute picture of his dog on his blog

Not !

(Although I did say that I might make these awards on the basis of just one thing, like a picture, so get snapping !)

But seriously, that’s not the only reason. No, because today’s winner would probably come top in the Bursting Out All Over category of my awards. His blog has a veritable torrent of ideas that are all executed with panache and style.

It turns out that we used to be very near neighbours, at least until he upped sticks and moved to the other side of the world. And you can see from the pictures and videos on his blog that he’s living in an idyllic setting. I wish that I’d had the chance to meet him in person before he went south.

But even though I only “know” him though his blog, email and his forum posts, the over-riding feeling that I get from this guy is his passion for what he is doing. He has a brilliant product out there for twitter and he’s soon to launch a series on video for marketers.

His blog totally embraces all the new media like video, and audio. (Though to be honest, the borders make it look like it’s laid out on the living room floor !)

Talented, helpful and enthusiastic. The truth is, I am rather envious of the guy !

If you haven’t already guessed, today’s winner is Josh Bartlett for joshbartlettblog.com.

Congratulations Josh ! Your BOTD award badge will be on its way very soon.

Over the last five days, I have been very busy working on the Blog Of The Day Awards. I am really enjoying it and my fellow students seem to like the idea.

The idea grew in response to a task set by my mentor, Alex Jeffreys, as part of his Marketing With Alex 2.0 internet marketing coaching programme.

But I have been working on other parts of the syllabus too. For example, I have now viewed the recorded video session that Alex had with Maria Andros, “The Video Marketing Queen”. Wow ! I’d figured for a long time that video is the way to go, but if there was ever any doubt in my mind about its effectiveness, she has dispelled that. What she is doing is amazing !

I have also been looking at ideas for generating reports that can be used in “giveaways”. For example, I have had a resale rights product “on the shelf” for quite a while and just before starting in on Alex’s coaching, I was getting a sale page together for that. So I thought that it might be worth writing a short report to act as a lead magnet for this product. But first, I wanted to know whether my sales page was up to scratch.

So I took advantage of the fact that we had our second brainstorming session with Alex last night. He gave me a critique of the web site I’d roughed out, but more importantly (and without realising it), he gave me a better idea for a lead magnet ! I shall get working on that later today, after I have made the next Blog Of The Day Award.

After that, I have a number of other things to move on. For example, I need to think some more about video because there’s also Alex’s video competition. And then later in the week, we have our next session on social media traffic generation. It’s all go !

Watch this space …

(Picture from sxc.hu by L_Avi)

I have to confess that when I came up with this idea, I already had two or three blogs in mind as significant. But in each case the reasons were different … as I said when I announced the awards, my criteria are entirely subjective. And as I have been surfing some of my fellow Marketing With Alex 2.0 student blogs over the weekend, I find myself placing different blogs in to different categories in my mind, like Gil in the Dogged Persistence Until The Problem Was Solved category and Shirley in the Grace Under Pressure category.

Well today’s winner would be up-front in the Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone category. Why ?

Well because he’s been very open about the fact that he was uncomfortable about something that he felt that he really needed to do – and that was to make a video to place on his blog. I guess this decision came as a result of watching Maria Andros’s session with Alex Jeffreys as part of his training programme (something that I still need to catch up with !)

But he did it. OK, it may not be the kind of highly polished, super quality production that Maria turns out, but it does the job more than well enough – if my first “to camera” video is half as good, I’ll be over the moon.

But most importantly of all, what’s totally clear from what you see is that it’s authentically him.

He’s honest about how difficult he finds the situation, both on the video and in his written words, but he’s engaging and he gets his message over very clearly. And yesterday he posted an interesting follow-up piece in which he also talks about his plans for Alex’s video competition.

So today’s winner of the rog-blog.com Blog Of The Day award is Sean Beardmore for his first video on www.seanbeardmore.com.

Congratulations Sean ! I look forward to seeing more of your videos soon.

I’ll be in touch with your Blog Of The Day badge later today.