This week we had the pleasure of being a host judge for the excellent Project Blogger initiative the folks at Active Rain and Inman have been running over the past few months.

And so how to judge? Naturally I am subjective toward a few things in real estate and blogging: compelling, short, sharp writing, the use of data to back up well thought through arguments and the elusively defined mix of passion and personality.

One of the participants Tisza Major-Posner brought up some great points in the judging of project blogger changing week to week. I read through the previous judges’ takes and tried to keep the themes consistent but you may get what you pay for.

Without further ado, my top 5:

1. Jackie Colson-Miller – A fantastic cocktail of posts relating to Tampa’s attractions and real estate conditions. Also, using the blog to raise awareness and money for charities is a particularly good idea. Post regarding Tampa prices versus the experiences of Florida overall could have been made more personal with anecdotes from recent experiences in home transactions.

2. Theresa Lussier – A fantastic idea in entering and documenting a client’s remodeling project for a competition was one of my favorite posts of the week – demonstrating how social media is fantastic and unique. And the proof was in the pudding: a local home owner who found the post through Google and now is an engaged reader. One minor point: the link in the post to a previous entry about the house seemed to be broken.

3. Ines HegedusGarcia – A very nicely structured blog and one of the better ones at communicating it’s purpose and integrating within the wider site (some blogs are islands away from the property search functions). Market conditions post was frank and honest, and consumers will no doubt appreciate that. The city-profile post on El Portal has the makings of something great, although it was a little too search engine focused. A video interview with residents might make a good compliment.

4. Kevin Tomlinson – Fantastic post on the Canyon Ranch condo project although it was only one of two posts for the week. The blog is nicely designed and clean and conveys credibility.

5. Julie Ferenzi – Clear and passionate connection to the community mixed in with a few locally-focused resource-type posts that will feature well in the search engines over time. Switching brokerage’s post on Active Rain blog begged for a consumer-translated edition for the main blog and the tone of the main blog should be balanced with more real estate related posts vs community happenings.

And the other participants:

Mary PopeHandy – A nice mix of community related posts with the Microclimate post being especially thoughtful. A more conversational tone with the posts might spur greater discussion – post more questions from homeowners, concerns and issues on their mind that might have a wider applicability etc.

Tisza MajorPosner - Tisza raised some great points around the judging of Project Blogger in her Active Rain blog. In a recursive way though, her best post of the week was about Project Blogger. I’d agree with Mike’s comments of a few weeks back: let your personality shine through on your route 66 living blog and good things will surely come of it.

Vali Wimberly – Nice use of the photo slide show in the Inca 29 post, although the post itself might benefit from being more conversional and opinionated in tone. Where are the best value units? How does the complex compare to others in the area? How should buyers contact you to see the houses?