As 2008 comes to an end, I’ve decided to come up with a few lists of a few different things bloggers I think you may find interesting along the lines of what I did in The Lists 2007.  For further information, be sure to read the disclaimer at the end.

This is a relatively new category for me… in fact it may be a new category for the blogosphere in general.  The fact is that I am a Personal Blogging Purist, in case you didn’t know already.  I don’t believe in CPC, CPM, or contextual advertising on personal blogs… and do not consider those bloggers who do that to be truly Personal Bloggers.  Does this mean that their content is not as good or any less personal than that of Personal Bloggers?  Not at all… in fact there are times they can be more personal than the best Personal Bloggers out there.  It just means that they are willing to turn themselves into a brand, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the success of other self-branded people.  How do you think Kathy Lee Gifford and Howard Stern got to where they are?  Yup… self-branding.  So here are the bloggers that I found to have the Most Successful Self-Brand Of 2008 (again, in no particular order) and I predict they’re stock will continue to rise through 2009:

Gary Vaynerchuk - Get out the protective ear muffs, because GaryVee isn’t just bringing the Thunder… he’s bringing the Thunder Storm.  As the driving force behind WineLibraryTV (which just reached its 600th Episode milestone), he took his commercial passion, his love for the Jets, coupled it all with new media, and emerged as an authoritative brand unto himself in not just wine but in self-branding itself.  Besides the fact that he had really nice things to say about a certain cereal podcast I know, the man had a producer from The Ellen Show eat dirt all in the name of his passion… wine.  Genius.  Literally.

Miss Britt - While we would all like to think that people will find us organically through other bloggers, the truth is that Google Search has quite a bit to do with it as well.  For a blogger, Miss Britt has a corner on the market of one keyword with a humongous search value that should be blogging gold.  Vagina.  Don’t let that one platinum keyword fool you though, because beneath all the fluff and flutter is a combination of raw unbridled honesty and a journey to deeper understanding of one’s inner being using herself as the frog in the biology class and holding the scapel at the same time.  I have never before loved biology class as I do now.

Jane (Mom Generations) - I was lucky enough to meet Jane and Sharon through the Hot Blogger Calendar experience.  Besides the two of them being an absolute blast, I found their approach to blogging as both fresh and innovative.  Jane is not your average mommyblogger… she’s a doggymommyblogger!  Seriously, sometimes I think these human kids just get WAY too much attention.  It’s about time we had some solid pooch blogging from a mom’s perspective.  With their latest venture, The Giveaway Connection, you can be sure that the MomGenerations brand is growing stronger and stronger by the post.

Peter Shankman - If there’s anyone who knows alot about brands, it’s Peter Shankman.  He authored Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work—And Why Your Company Needs Them.  His Help A Reporter Out (HARO) service is fresh off a win at The Mashable Open Web Awards based on the theory that everyone is an expert… of something.  Then to top it all off, he clears out his 2008 compiled schwag over his Twitter account.  Peter is the kind of guy who sees something, wants it, works to get it, and will show you how… even if it’s Hardee‘s in a city where none can be found.

Rachel - I’ve been to the city of Pittsburgh for literally 6 hours in my lifetime… and to be honest I wasn’t too impressed.  That was long before I started reading Rachel, who is a proud Steel City dweller.  Her blog is the epitome of a superb Personal Blogging Style at its finest.  Enthralling descriptive passages coupled with beautifully composed pictures that electrify the simplest things into the brightest neon sign on a desolate highway at midnight.  A social media maven to boot… her power of influence continues to rise… making Pittsburgh the town to be in.

As a reward for being the best of the best for 2008… I designed this complex thing-a-ma-bob for those who may want to display their Listed status proudly:

Additionally… because I am beyond benevolent and loving contrary to what some people believe… here is the code for you to use with a permalink directly to this post.  So if your blog was Listed upon today, all you need to do is copy and past the code:

The Lists is a yearly compilation of interesting bloggers that I currently read.  Due to the volume of blogs and the 5 blogger limit, there may be authors who do not appear.  This is not to say that you did not have a good blog, or an important blog, or even a blog I did not read because in all likelihood I do indeed read it.  This simply means that for that year that you are excluded… well… I thought other bloggers were better choices for the Listing.  This does not mean I don’t like you, I don’t love you, or that I don’t read you.  It just means that for that year(s), I chose other bloggers but there is always the possibility of next year.  Unless.

Unless you cry, whine, send me e-mail messages begging me to feature you, send e-cards with links to the blogs you want linked, tell me how I don’t love you, tell me how I don’t like you, tell me how sad you are, tell me how I don’t read you even though you know I did because I commented at some point, and/or try to muscle me with threats of large “goombas” paying a visit.  If you do any of that… then hold your breathe until you see yourself on the Lists again.  While your doing that… go get a white hat and get yourself some Smurfberry Pie ‘cause you’ll be blue before you see it.