Nowadays, blogging contests are becoming an increasingly popular feature in the blogosphere. These are contests where bloggers submit posts and win prizes based on various factors. Blogging contests are usually open to anyone who is interested. If you have good writing and promotion skills, then you stand a chance of winning a prize. Such contests usually have the following terms and conditions for participation:
- Submit a post which fulfills certain requirements such as subject matter, quality and length
- Link to your sponsors when the blog post gets published
- Promote the blog post on social media channels, as well as reply to comments
Winners of blogging contests are usually selected based on the following criteria:
- Quality of the blog post – This is verified by a panel of judges or by the blog owner. You may like to read How to improve blog post quality
- Social shares – This includes stumbles, likes, tweets, engages, +1’s, diggs, as well as votes on other social networks. Read how to get maximum social shares on your blog post?
- Comments – Some contests will only consider the number of quality comments by readers. Others will also look at your replies to every comment. You may like : Blog Comments Moderating – How Strict Should You Be?
- Traffic – Some contests will measure the amount of traffic to the post using programs such as Google Analytics
Recommended for you : 5 Awesome Tactics To Increase Your Blog Traffic Fast and 5 Tips for Generating Organic Traffic to Your Blog
Here are some tips which would help you win a blogging contest.
1. Create a quality post which is helpful to many people
Think of a subject that would be beneficial to businesses as well as bloggers. In addition, make sure the content offers tips which are applicable for beginners, as well as new insights for experts.
2. Monitor the competition
When taking part in a blogging contest, you need to keep track of how your competitors are performing. You could create a spreadsheet which compares your comments, likes, diggs, tweets, engages, stumbles and +1’s against your competitors’. This will help you know where you need to put in some extra effort.
3. Promote your post consistently
Promotion needs to be a daily activity when participating in a blogging contest. You should always be thinking of different things you could do to promote your post. Even though your competition may be way ahead of you, you should not lose hope. Instead, you need to work harder at your promotion. Recommended for you : Ultimate New Blog Post Promotion Strategy
4. Promote your post in as many places as possible
The first target of your promotional efforts should be the people on your mailing list. Make sure each of them has the chance of benefiting from the valuable information you are offering. If they find your post helpful, they are likely to share it with others in their networks. Besides your audience, you share your post on social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Google+ and LinkedIn. Other places where you can promote the post include forums, discussion groups, email signatures and blog comments.
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