FiveThirtyEight is a polling aggregation website with a blog created by Nate Silver and owned by ESPN. During its first five and a half years, FiveThirtyEight won numerous awards both when it was an independent blog and when it was published by The New York Times. These included “Bloggie” Awards for “Best Political Coverage” in 2008 and “Best Weblog about Politics” in 2009, as well as “Webbies” for “Best Political Blog” in 2012 and 2013.

An incredibly popular blogger and now a New York Times bestselling author, Jenny’s blunt, incisive writing style and willingness to lay everything bare have made her a blogging favorite.

The Bloggess is by Jennifer Lawson, an American journalist, author and blogger from Wall, Texas. She is the co-author of Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle and a columnist for SexIs magazine — and she’s well known for her irreverent writing style. She was recognized by the Nielsen ratings as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Mom Bloggers and Forbes listed thebloggess.com as one of their Top 100 Websites for Women.

Why it’s in the showcase: The 4-Hour Body site looks completely unique and custom, and accomplishes this simply through custom CSS and Javascript—peel that away, and you’ll find it’s built on top of the Twenty Ten theme.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The 4-Hour Chef site looks completely unique and custom, and accomplishes this simply through custom CSS and Javascript—peel that away, and you’ll find it’s built on top of the Twenty Ten theme.

Why it’s in the Showcase: Larry Kramer is the founder and Former CEO of CBS Marketwatch.com, the first president of CBS Digital, and currently sits on the Boards of Discovery Communications, Inc., American Media Inc., Freedom Communications, Inc., Answers Corp., Black Arrow Inc., Harvard Business School Publishing. Former reporter and editor for The Washington Post and San Francisco Examiner.

Fig & Fennel is a food blog promoting a soon to be released cookbook. It features recipes from the cookbook, information about healthy living, and local inspiring people and places.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The Fig & Fennel website makes use of the WordPress.com Custom CSS upgrade, along with photographs of wide variety of delicious looking food, to share recipes.

My blog [Whole lotta lovely] was created to share all the beautiful things that inspire me and hopefully they’ll inspire you too.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The blog makes extensive use of the WordPress.com Custom CSS upgrade, along with a number of high-quality photographs, to present a visually impressive website with a wide range of content.

i’m a girl who loves being in the kitchen, behind the camera and in front of life. i believe in cooking and eating with the ebb and flow of the seasons. i believe in picnics by the sea, campfire s’mores and small acts of kindness. i believe you should never pass up the chance to make someone happy and you should always say yes to ice cream. i love the french countryside, my herb garden, handwritten letters, strong espresso, tofu and bacon. i love those magical moments captured by a photo, a story or a good meal. pull up a chair and stay for supper.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The kiss my spatula site makes use of the WordPress.com Custom CSS plugin and quality photography to present a very visually impressive website.

Why it’s in the Showcase: Even though blogs are getting more and more common among politicians, they are still relatively uncommon. Bildt’s popular and frequently updated blog is both unique and notable.

Since August 9, 2009, The Orwell Prize has been blogging George Orwell’s diaries, allowing you to gather your own impression of Orwell’s face – behind the screen, rather than the page. Each diary entry is published on the blog exactly seventy years after it was originally written by Orwell, beginning in 1938.