Some Basic Rules for Running A Blog Contest
Blog contests can bring in some good traffic, but you need to run them correctly, or they can be a total pain. I’ve run countless blog contests, some more successful than others. When I first started holding contests at my blogs I made some pretty dumb mistakes. The good news is that I can tell give you some tips about what you should and shouldn’t do if you decide to hold a blog contest.
Make the rules simple. SIMPLE. I just had a blog contest at one blog. We had 215 or so entries. At least 80 of those entries were disqualified because the people didn’t follow the very basic rules. And believe me, they were really simple. If you get too tricky with your rules, you’ll end up with about five decent entries.
Make readers work a little. While I don’t think you should make things too tricky, it can be hard work to snap up cool prizes for contests, so I’m not normally a fan of having readers simply “leave a comment” to win. If I don’t have a good simple plan, I’ll use an old standby, like, “Visit our prize sponsors website, and tell me an item you like.” NOTE: This is way too tricky for some people, but seriously now, if they can’t read and follow something this easy, well, maybe they don’t really want to win.
You don’t have to pay shipping. I always ask sponsors if they’ll send prizes to my readers, vs. the sponsor sending me a prize then me having to pay shipping to send one or more prizes off. I’ve never had a sponsor refuse. If you have a prize yourself to send, and work for a network, you can always ask if they’ll pay shipping. One network I work for will do this.
Always ask your sponsors where they’ll ship to. I used to forget this little step (back in newbie days), and I could have gotten into a lot of trouble. I didn’t, but that’s just luck. If you don’t ask, you won’t know to note something akin to, “Sorry folks, but this contest is only open to U.S. residents.” Then when someone from Australia wins, and the sponsor has to pay loads of shipping they didn’t count on, that’s trouble. If you’re paying shipping yourself, make a decision about where you can afford to ship as well.
ALWAYS have a notification disclaimer. Note somewhere in your post, “I will draw winners names on June 5th. I will email the winners for their addresses. If you don’t email me back in 5 days, I’ll draw a new winner.” If you don’t put a disclaimer in, you may wait, and wait, and then most likely wait some more. This means you’re tied up with a contest that should have been over ages ago. Also, contest sponsors expect a somewhat timely response. It’s not cool to make them or the winners who respond wait.
Send a quick thank you to your sponsors. Nothing fancy, but it’s nice, and it keeps you in their head should they feel like offering another prize at some point. I always send off a quick email thank you, along with links to any posts I did about their product / company. Often times this works in your favor too, because a company will add you to their press page, giving you an instant link.
There are many more ways to make a contest a success, but these tips above can help you avoid a lot of the obnoxious stuff that tends to come along with a contest.
Also check out: Where To Get Blog Contest Prizes
10 Ways to Let Your Competition Be Your Guide
I’m always hesitant to use the word "competition" to describe other bloggers in my niche. I always like to look at them as colleagues in which to share ideas and community rather than the person whose traffic I should be stealing. For the purpose of today’s blog post, we’ll allow it just this one time.
If there’s one thing I learned with Freelance Writing Jobs is that if you have a popular blog, others will want to do the same exact thing. It used to frustrate me, but I decided to use this to my advantage. Rather get frustrated with all the other job listings blogs, I look to them to see how I can do things better or different.
Some of my network blogs are in competitive niches as well, my blogs on saving money or beauty tips certainly aren’t the only ones out there. How do I stand out among the rest?
Here are 10 ways I let my competition be my guide.
- I participate in their communities - It would be silly to expect no one else to have the same type of blog, wouldn’t it? My philosophy is, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. The great thing about the blogosphere is that there’s room for everyone. If I’m not going to be the only blog re-listing freelance writing jobs or offering tips for finding said jobs, I’m going to welcome the others into the neighborhood. By participating in the other blog communities I’m offering my insight, learning and gathering new ideas from others, and maybe even gaining a reader or two.
- I look to see what they’re missing - When I look at another blog like mine I wonder what they’re missing. What do their readers have questions about and what topics aren’t they discussing? Offer something your competition doesn’t have and people will respond.
- I define my niches. When I visit other blogs in the same niche I wonder how I can do things differently. For instance, with Freelance Writing Jobs I became more than a "relisting" blog. I began offering advice for finding and getting jobs. At this blog, Jennifer and I target bloggers who work for others rather than the usual make money online blogging blogs. At the List Maven, my beauty blog, I offer all tips and product reviews in list form, and at Simply Thrifty I offer stories from my youth and updates on home DIY projects. Even my celebrity blogs are different - I have one featuring celebrity role models and one featuring celebrity lists. Now when people visit me it won’t be the same old thing they see on other blogs.
- I continue to evolve - This holds hands with point number 3, by continuing to evolve I don’t get stuck in a rut. I don’t have to talk about or do the same things over and over. It’s ok to change your blog’s focus now and then to adapt to your readers’ tastes. Sometimes that’s by widening a narrow niche, other times it’s by changing a blog’s design.
- I look to see what my competitors do right - When I see other blogs in my niche, I want to know what they’re doing right. I’m not going to copy them, but I am going to use them for ideas for bettering myself and my blog.
- I investigate the most and least popular articles - What topics do their communities respond to most and least? This will give you a good indication of what your readers might like to learn about. Don’t copy, but do add your own point of view.
- I investigate their traffic - Knowing how the competition is faring can be a great kick in the ass. How many comments do they get? What is their Alexa, Technorati or Google ranking? Are they at the top of the search engines? Where does a lot of their traffic seem to be coming from? Do they get lots of track backs from other blogs?
- I investigate to see who is linking to them and why - Other other blogs and communities responding to my competitors’ posts? If so why? What makes one post more popular than another? Is controversy or negativity such a good thing? Knowing which posts get the backlinks might give you some good ideas of your own -and might also give you an idea of other communities to target.
- I offer to trade guest posts - By trading guest blogger posts with your competitors or fellow niche bloggers you’ll be sharing ideas and traffic.
- I keep them on my radar - Even the bloggers with the most popular blogs keep their competitors close. Even if you only visit the blogs or feeds once a week, know what others in your niche are talking about as well as the reaction of their readers. This way if they start to all of a sudden gain a lot of traffic or comments you’ll know why…and know what to do to use it to your advantage.
When Being Helpful Is A Time Waster
Last week I posted my time wasters (in case you forgot) and some solutions. Below are the time wasting activities; with solutions linked.
- Not knowing what to blog about first.
- Email, or should I say EMAIL!
- Moderating and responding to blog comments.
- Breaks during work hours.
- Getting side tracked while posting.
- Forums.
- Sleep, meals, and exercise.
- Twitter.
I haven’t mentioned forums yet, because my solution is pretty dull - quit visiting forums. Or at least really limit yourself. Forums have been a total time waste for me the last few months; mainly, I think, because I’m one of those helpful by nature sorts.
If you’re new to the world of blogging or freelance writing you can learn a lot by visiting blogging or writing forums. I’ve made many good friends at forums so I do appreciate them. However, if you’ve been writing or blogging a while, what happens is that you tend to offer too much help at forums, and don’t gain as much useful help back. Offering help is really nice, and not a bad use of time in general, but it’s also not a great use of time when you have work to get done.
When I frequent forums, I tend to get emails asking for personal help often. That’s cool. People helped me out when I was a newbie, and I do believe you should give back. It used to be I answered every single email I’d get from new writers or bloggers, but right now, my life is super busy. I just don’t have the time to answer every email. I wish I did, but I don’t. That said; I’ve drastically cut my forum time. I only visit three forums, and I never visit daily. I stop by once a week or so to see what’s new. Also, even when I do visit a forum, I tend to just read, not respond.
Being too helpful is not an activity that’s only attached to forums though. Along with cutting out most of my forum time, I’ve cut out answering emails from folks I don’t know, that don’t pertain to my blog topic. Say at Offbeat Homes. If you email about a house, it’s 100% likely I’ll respond. If you email asking for help about a blog, or how to find work, it’s unlikely I’ll respond. This is kind of a switch for me, a hard switch actually. I love to talk about blogging, I love to help people out, but there’s a point where being helpful is too draining, and that’s where I’m at right now.
Does this make me less nice? I don’t know, maybe. I actually do feel a little guilty when I delete emails. I tell myself, this is not about people I know, or friends I have already, this is about strangers emailing asking me really in-depth questions, that would take time to answer. Overall though, it’s tough not to respond. Since I have quit helping out so much, I do have more time to work though, so it’s a time management solution for sure.
Are you helpful to people you don’t know? How much help do you offer at forums? Where do you draw the line about who to help out, and who to let go?
Discuss…Full vs. Partial Feeds: What’s Best for a Network Blog?
Yesterday one of our commentators mentioned he wouldn’t visit our blog if we continued to shorten our feed. The truth is, we don’t shorten our feed, we shorten the post. There are steps we can take to shorten the post and leave our feed intact, but I haven’t been able to get it to work properly with this particular blog. We like to shorten our posts because they make the front page look tidy, but not at the expense of our readers. So what do we do?
The Benefits of Shortening Your Feed
The argument over whether or not to shorten feeds is ongoing in the blogosphere. Many bloggers like a shortened feed because scrapers and content thieves can’t carry the whole post. Plus page views and revenue are up among many bloggers who have a shorter feed.
Why Many Bloggers Don’t Shorten their Feeds
The problem is, many blog readers don’t want to have to click to read more. If they can’t read the whole post in their feed readers, they move on. I personally don’t get this. I feel if content is good, people will click..how much trouble can it be? But, as usual, I’m in the minority.
Should Network Bloggers Shorten Posts?
Most network bloggers use short feeds because they get more pageviews when readers click through to read the entire post. Since many are paid a base plus traffic bonuses, it’s in their best interest to get their readers to come to the blog rather than read feeds. Moreover, I’m of the opinion that people who visit the blog will be more likely to participate in the conversation and you’re better able to build up your community.
Because network bloggers are paid a set fee by someone else instead of their own blogs’ revenue, I feel they have to do what they can to bring in traffic. Especially since it’s their livelihood. The problem is, your readers want full feeds. So what do you do?
First of all, the decision to publish a full or partial feed is ultimately up to the network. About.com only publishes partial feeds and they have very good traffic. Other networks keep a full feed. When you hit the “more” feature to cut your post, you’re cutting the feed too. Try this…take one week and post only full posts/full feeds. Take another week and “more” your posts. Is there a difference in traffic? If so, is it a big difference? Do people complain? As a network blogger you have to do what brings your blog the most traffic, and the higher paycheck without alienating too many readers.
Keep in Mind…
There are a bunch of people who absolutely refuse to visit a blog offering a shortened feed. It doesn’t matter if your blog is great and your content is the best ever. It’s a matte of principal for them. They want to stay on their feed reader and never stray. Decide what is most important to you and your blog. To “more” your posts, making them prettier and bringing in more traffic, or to leave them whole and cater to everyone - even though it might mean scrapers will steal your content and you’ll have less traffic.
Let’s put it to a discussion here. Why do you use a full or shortened feed…and does it make a difference when you visit a blog? I’d also love to hear from those who run blog networks - what is best for the network blogger?
Discuss…
5 Lame Ways to Comment at Other Blogs
Looking to get your comment deleted from my blog? Comment like this…
1. “Hey, this doesn’t relate to your post at all but…. http://www.linkthatdoesnotrelate.com” - you lost me at “doesn’t relate.”
2. On one of my contest posts: “Everyone come enter my contest instead! at http://www.mycontestisbetterthanyours.com” - sad. Really even if you leave out the “instead”, I’m likely to delete you AND not enter you in my contest. This, in my opinion, is no better than spam. It’s just not cool. You already get to leave your url at my blog.
3. Say one of the following: “You suck” - “That last comment sucked” - “This post is stupid” - if my blog, my readers, or I suck so hard core, please back it up with why. I mean, it’s the least you can do, and it will save you from a delete.
4. On my post about organic shirts: “I love organic shirts, they’re so much better than regular shirts, my favorite organic shirts are from http://myorganicshirts.com” - then I look and guess what your url and email are - oh, big surprise, “myorganicshirts.com” this is slightly concealed spam within a semi-decent comment, but I’ll still catch and delete you.
5. “I HAVE A BLOG LIKE THIS! PLEEZE COME SEE MY BLOG LIKE THIS BLOG!” sigh.
You know, commenting at other blogs is one very cool way to promote your blog, and get more traffic. However, you do need to leave a real comment. The comments above are the types of things I see all the time. Often I’ll go check out the blogger and see that they’re working for someone else, say, a network blog, or an obvious company blog, which frankly boggles my mind. Bad comments are a terrible way to promote your client’s blog. If you work for someone as a blogger, and part of your gig is networking, you can do better than the above.
I promise, you’ll get more clicks back to your blog if you leave a comment that has one or more of the following traits:
- Relates to the topic.
- Smart
- Respectfully argumentative
- Questioning
- Helpful
What sort of comments frustrate you?
What To Do If Your Parachute Fails To Pop Open
You know what I think you shouldn’t be doing if your parachute fails to open; trying to figure out who the heck will take care of your blogs. Although, as bizarre as it sounds, without a solid emergency plan in place, that’s likely one thing I’d be thinking about. NOT the only thing; but I’m sure at one point, I’d think, “Damn, who is going to finish that series on recycling terms?”
Of course the above is extreme, I mainly used it because I’d really like to go skydiving one day, but if you blog full time you do need a plan for what will happen if something happens to you; if you get sick, laid over in a city and your laptop breaks, or worse.
My current plan is flawed.
The first part of my plan is good. Someone very close to me in my real world life (i.e. offline life) has an email saved that contains all my editor and client contacts and my schedule. If something were to happen to me, this person would be one of the first to know, and could contact all my clients. I trust her and she knows how to email people - don’t laugh, my best friend can barely use the computer (we’re not alike - she’s also really shy). That said, make sure you choose someone you trust, but also someone tech savvy enough to manage the task.
The part of my plan that’s flawed is that if something did happen to me this individual might be too upset to email lots of clients. The second part of your emergency plan is to choose someone who is actually an online pal that you trust, who knows where you work, who has that contact info, and who is also neutral enough to get the job done. You can give your online pal’s name to your real life friend and you’ll be all set. All your real life pal has to do is send one email to your online pal. Double covered.
I don’t think it’s wise to depend on just an online friend. If I vanished from the internet for a few days I’m sure people would worry and email me, but they’d have no clue what was going on because they’re not in my real world. If you work online full-time you do owe it to your clients to keep them up to speed. Now, do you have an emergency contact person?Or better yet two.
Being A Team Player at A Blog Network
As a blogger at a blog network, what’s typical is to be split into sections (or niches or channels). It could be by blog topic (such as all the pregnancy and parenting blogs are grouped together), it could be that your blog is simply one of many assigned to a particular managing editor, or it might be that the network is small enough that everyone falls under one main managing editor, or whatever the boss likes to be called.
What’s true of all networks is that within your section, the bloggers and editors can work as a team or not as a team. Having blogged on teams that actually are a team, and teams where you don’t even know each other’s names, I can tell you that the, “Let’s work as a team situation” is absolutely better.
When the editors and bloggers in a channel or niche are on board with teamwork, it’s great. If not, well, it can be frustrating.
It’s frustrating because perks of working as a team can be really nice. Perks of teamwork can include higher page views for your blog, the channel, and the network as a whole, better communication when something goes wrong, or even better when something goes right, overall happiness with your job, more friends, and a more flowing feeling.
Honestly, what’s the point of being part of a specific channel, if you’re really not part of that channel? Many bloggers come to a network after having blogged on their own, so maybe the switch to team player is tough. But that’s a network. If you sign on, you’re signing onto a team, not simply your own blog.
Team components:
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Why I’m so Liberal with the Link Love
If you’re a regular visitor to my blogs, you know I like to end my weekly blogging with a link love post featuring news, tips and ideas from my favorite bloggers. I do this for several reasons:
- To turn my community on to something I feel will be of interest
- To show another side to a story
- To highlight another great blogger
- To learn something new
- To share something fun
- To start a discussion
- Others might discover my blogs through my linking to them
I was once asked why I like to send my visitors to my competition. I responded that I don’t see other bloggers as competitors. I see them as friends and colleagues and we all share ideas together.
We all appreciate when other bloggers link to us, won’t you do the same?
Image: stock.xchnge
How to Blog Nice - An Interview with Liz Strauss
So, I did say I’d talk about clients who don’t get blogs today, (and I will soon - promise), but yesterday I saw a question at a forum about people leaving rude comments at blogs. Mainly, this was about people being rude just because – with no rhyme or reason. This sort of situation - rude people at blogs always irks me. There’s really no point.
Blogger etiquette is a big deal when you blog for others because not only are you representing yourself as a blogger, but you’re representing your client or network. Blogging etiquette also matters because you will be dealing with comments, not all of them nice.
When I see bloggers acting rude, either in a post, or in comments, it does reflect on what I think of a network, channel at a network, or in some cases a company. It’s in your best interest to blog nice when possible. And I’m not talking about being a push over, I’m talking about being genuine, having manners (a seemingly lost art), and not pushing people’s buttons simply to stir up controversy. Disagreeing or debating topics is part of blogging in my opinion. Being rude well, I wish it wasn’t part of the blogosphere, but you see it a lot.
One blogger who is in no way rude is Liz Strauss. In fact, Liz is really nice. Ask anyone. A while back, I did ask around and Liz’s name kept popping up as “the nicest blogger” in town, so I knew she’d have some great tips on blogger etiquette.
As many of you likely know, Liz offers blogging wisdom and advice at Successful Blog, one of the few blogs about blogs at the b5media blog network. Nicely, (no pun intended), Liz answered some questions about blogging nice.
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