You're going to want to subscribe to my RSS feed. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread - even better, in fact. You know you want to.
Irrelevant pictures like these happen when I can’t find anything on the first page of Google images.
Does joining blog contests that require a post on your blog make you a sellout? I mean, there are all of those great prizes that you can win (in fact, blog contests were my main source of revenue in March [100 dollah! {what does a parenthesis symbol in brackets look like? I’m guessing it’s this, but I’m not really sure}]).
THE PROBLEM WITH CONTESTS
Of course, it’s not all fun and games (and winning some mad money and prizes [I really need to use less parentheses]). You don’t always win a blog contest and by the time a winner has been decided, you’ve already done these generic contest entry things:
- Subscribed to their blog (reading their content is optional)
- Dugg/Stumbled the post (isn’t advocating Diggs and Stumbles against ToS? I mean, not that it matters… after all, they don’t need to know about it)
- Wrote a post about their contest/blog (i.e. free sponsored review)
- Commented on their blog post (blog authors are generally to lazy to check what you did themselves)
In fact, it has been scientifically* proven that 95% of blog contests use this specific format.
FINAL THOUGHTS
What do you think of blog contests? Are they the bane of the blogging world, or are they a good way of getting some money and publicity?
Oh, by the way, I myself am entered in a blog competition and it’d be an honor for me to extort your votes. Just check out this post and vote for Blog Badly in the poll so that it can get a new theme. This’ll make Blog Badly easier to enjoy - and thus you’re really helping yourself by helping me win.
*the word scientifically is used loosely here.
By Link Building Bible on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
As a blog owner, I think it’s a fantastic way to get people to your blog. As a reader…. not much of a fan… but hey, that’s scene these days, and I’d rather read posts about blogs, than some lame review of a non-relevant product, with an affiliate link in the post…
By Mary_Freebies on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
I personally believe that blog contests ROCK! I’ve won prizes worth hundreds of dollars so far. I’ve started entering contest around October last year, just for fun and to see if they are legit. Sure enough, most of them were.
Blog contests are the thing for me, since I seem to have a lot of luck, but not enough knowledge to make money online using the ‘traditional’ methods.
Voted for ya!
By gLf on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
I completely agree with Mary! Blog contests are great! With my blog I have won tons of prizes, especially money. It’s an easy way to make money online… And also to discover new sites, new friends… Very very interesting.
Voted for you!
All the best
By Bob Younce at the Writing Journey on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
Scientifically, I propose that your post is either complete crap or utterly brilliant. In fact, I’m running a contest on my blog right now. The person who makes the most convincing argument (after subscribing, digging, stumbling, commenting and reviewing my blog) about why Max is out of his ever loving mind wins a toaster.
A very old toaster.
It’s dirty, too.
With rust.
broken.
(I smell a haiku in that one…)
By Louis Liem on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
They’re good for publicity, but if the webmaster doesn’t have something worthy (like content or whatever unique) on their blog, the great publicity would be a waste
By BradBlogging.com - Increase Website Traffic With Easy To Follow Steps on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I’m actually running a contest right now. It’s generated some pretty good links and new readers, so whats there to hate about it??
Why don’t you go and enter it? 1000 Entrecard Credits + More are on the line.
See ya.
Brad
By Shelia on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I like the contests that have a random drawing and simply require a post on the blog sponsoring the contest.
I absolutely HATE contests that ask for RSS subscriptions, posts on my blog, etc. I think that it is such a cheap ploy to increase the numbers and publicity of the sponsoring blog. I never enter those.
I also don’t enjoy visiting a blog thinking that I’m going to get some form of the topic that the blog is supposed to be about, and the first post is a qualifying post for another blogs contest, yuck!
To each his own, but it’s not for me.
By Brad Brown on Apr 13, 2008 | Reply
To be totally dishonest with you, I think the best contests are those that give away something practical, like baseball caps or concrete gargoyles. I kept this in mind when I started having contests (about five minutes ago), and the results have been nothing short of phenomenal. The increase in traffic is well worth the effort on my part, or so I would have you believe.
By Blue Host Sucks on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply
actually, i made my first real money online winning a 125$ from a contest.