Creditplus are really pleased to let you all know that after our news that we had been shortlisted with eight other Automotive blogs in the UK Blog Awards, we were thrilled to hear on Friday that our blog had received a highly commended accreditation at the UK Blog Awards 2014 for Automotive Organisation Blog.

We would like to send our thanks to the UK Blog Award judges and our congratulations to the winner of the category Motortrades Insight and the other highly commended automotive organisation blog, Stoneacre Blog.

We have been blogging since January 2013 and thanks to recent team growth here at Creditplus we have been able to spend more time and resources on creating exciting and topical content.  Seems like time well spent. We believe we are still at the learning stage, about what content works well with our audience, and so we are pleased as punch to receive highly commended.

There is a lot more to come from the Creditplus Blog team in terms of creating winning content, so be sure to visit us often, or watch out for us on social media. Thanks sent to all those who contacted us via social media with lovely words of support of our content, is feels great to be appreciated.

Entering the UK Blog Awards has been really beneficial to us, we have started to look at other blogs and determine what we could do to make our blog an even better place for our customers and automotive friends to visit.

We would like to extend our congratulations to the other Automotive Organisation Blog Finalists by sharing with you an introduction to their sites and an insight into why we like them.   Please do give them a visit and if you like what they have to say, leave them a comment or get in touch via their social channels. We all really appreciate the feedback and to know someone has benefited from or liked our posts.

Motortrades Insight (Winner)

Congratulations Motortrades Insight for winning the UK Blog Awards 2014.  We believe what makes this blog work is the quality of content and that they rarely deviate from their mission (stated in their About Us section), which is to bring their audience “a spectrum of industry news and views from across the entire UK Motoring sector”.   We are fans of the categorisation and the site layout which directs users to their popular content: Hot Picks and Top Stories.  You can also easily subscribe to their news.

Stoneacre Blog (Highly commended)

Congratulations to our friends at Stoneacre Blog for receiving highly commended in the UK Blog Awards.  Stoneacre regularly feature content for both trade and consumer, related to the car manufacturers they work with, assisting their customers further with their car buying decisions.   They are also creating a lot of fun content for their audience, which is timely, researched and well written.  We are also fans of the Stoneacre Blog layout, which looks great on a mobile phone.

Creditplus Blog (Highly commended)

Find out more about our Blogs mission here.

Motor Heads (Finalist)

We really like the editor at Motor Heads, Hayley Reeve, who has provided us with advice on what content goes down well with the automotive audience. She shares a wide range of automotive topics suited to the consumer.  Should you be interested in a particular car brand, there is a handy feature where you can view posts by car manufacturer. There is also a list provided on what topics are popular that month. MotorHeads are doing well with distributing their content and have a growing and active following on Google+.

Motor Mistress (Finalist)

Debbie, the editor of  Motor Mistress, is hugely passionate about her blog and her content. She is great at sharing Motor Mistress content on social media and at networking with others in the automotive industry. Motor Mistress provides insight into the latest car models, providing opinions on vehicle performance, specifications, technical data and information on fuel economy.  We particularly enjoy the audience targeted posts (Best Family Cars) and Motor Mistress Simon’s Car Spots posts, which include collaboration from others in the automotive industry.  There is so much advice shared on this blog relating to car manufacturers, which is great for the consumers looking for news on a particular brand.

Carwitter (Finalist)

We anticipated that Carwitter would win the award as best automotive organisation blog.  They have been established for over a year and a half, when they started supplying on average 28 posts a month. They are now, with help from more bloggers, distributing twice this amount. They are very much on the ball when it comes to latest models and trends, and they show personality on their blog via their blog titles and social media chat. In summary, Carwitter is a lovely blog to hang out on.  The website has great usability and looks great on a mobile.

Racing and Waiting (Finalist)

We believe that Racing and Waiting is the most established blog in the category (December 2010). The founder and editor is Tim Hutton, who we see all over the web for automotive posts, a true expert in his field.  The blog shares information on the latest models, car events and reviews and is always on trend.

MEB the Motor Centre (Finalist)

MEB the Motor Centre blog has been established for nearly a year now and provides consistent, reliable and informative blog posts for car owners. Advice shared includes tips on looking after your car, advice for seasonal changes, and considerations on which cars to buy.   Great writing style and useful advice presented in a clear manner for those of us that know little about cars.

What we took away from the UK Blog Awards

With my Digital Marketing hat on, what we can learn from a review of the finalist automotive organisation blogs, is that for a winning blog it is important to have:

•    Clear mission on what you want to achieve
•    Place to share top news
•    Feature to allow your audience to subscribe to your content.
•    Well thought out categories
•    Blog optimised for mobiles
•    Passion for your subject

If you enjoy reading blogs or writing blogs then you may want to take part in #BlogHour every Tuesday on Twitter between 9- 10pm.

We will soon be sharing our blog content via email to our customers and friends.  If you would like to be on the mailing list please email us community @ creditplus.co.uk.

Thanks again for your support and we look forward to seeing you on the blog again soon.