The judges have done a lot of reading, they’ve deliberated and debated, and they’ve decided on the finalists for the 2008 SEMMY Awards. Me? I’ve setup the voting booths and tested things, and it all seems to be ready. So…

Starting at 12:00 pm ET (9:00 am PT) today, the finalists in all 15 categories will be revealed on the SEMMYS web site. And because I’m a sucker for drama, the finalists will be revealed one category at a time every five minutes. It’ll begin promptly at 12pm/9am with the Rants category, then progress until the SEO category finalists are revealed at about 1:10 pm ET (10:10 am PT). If you’re not a sucker for drama, just click thru after that and you’ll get the full meal deal in one sitting.

What You Need to Know

1.) Rather than one survey covering all 15 categories, there are individual surveys for each category. Yes, this means you have to do more clicking to vote in multiple categories. It also means you don’t need to read the finalists in one sitting and then vote in one sitting, too. Take your time. Vote just in the categories you know, then come back the next day and read the other category finalists and vote some more.

2.) Voting will be open immediately when the finalists are announced, and will remain open until end-of-day (PT) on January 30. Give me a couple days after that to get the winners announced.

That’s it.

Congratulations to all the finalists! David Mihm has cooked up some new SEMMY Finalist Badges that you’re free to use if you choose to let your readers know about the voting.

Thank you again to all the judges for your time and effort in choosing the finalists.

Thank you to all who’ve supported the SEMMYS. Now off to work I go…..