How Blogging Contests Nurture the Blogosphere

Blogging contests - recently we hear a lot about them. Isn’t that good? Yes it is. Blogging contests are nurturing the blogosphere in every possible way. They are changing the blogosphere to a whole new one.

I would like to mention some of the great things that blogging contests are doing to the people in the blogosphere.

Well everyone gets a lot of it. Be it a blogging contest organizer(s), or a sponsor or a contestant, the exposure they get is simply amazing. Let me tell you how:

They are the ones who run the contest. They broadcast it to their readers. And their readers broadcast it to their friends. And there comes a myriad of sponsors who volunteer to offer sponsorship. The organizer published all the contest entries at their blog. So just imagine how much content that is for their own blog.

And, usually in every contest, the winning entry is decided based on the number of social shares a post gets and the number of comments. So every contestant will naturally distribute the contest entry link in all social media, and heavily promote it to win votes, tweets etc.. In addition they will ask all their friends and their own blog readers to comment and promote their post. So the exposure got by one contest entry is really big. And if you think of the number of contest entries, this usually gives a very good exposure to the host blog.

Not only that, you can see peeps tweeting around and talking about the contest everywhere, which again is a big advertisement to the blog.

These are the ones who either provide cash or any products as prizes for the winning contestants. They play a crucial role for every contest because without them there can’t be any contests or prizes (the coolest part about contests).

So how do sponsors get exposure? Well a lot for the money or the product they offer. Normally these contests require the contestants (participants) to write a blog post about the contest and publish it in their own blog. This post will have to include the names, links and banner of the sponsor.

So if you think of the number of contestants who participate, the sponsor will have a do-followed backlink from all those blogs, and in some cases with the desired anchor key text. That is something sweet for the sponsor’s SEO. Some contests even encourage contestants to write review about any of the sponsors for additional points towards winning chance.

They are the ones who write killer content for their contest entry. They usually do crazy promotion of their contest posts. And remember, contest posts are normally published on the organizer’s blog, who is usually a biggie. So the contest post reaches all the the loyal readers of the host blog and gets tweeted/shared by those readers. The exposure is a substantial number of times increased to the contest post.

I don’t think that I have to write much about this. Every contest post is written with great care and accountability. Blogosphere earns a great quality content with every contest entry.

Money is always in the list - I mean, not your subscriber list, but in your goal list or to-do list. When you participate in a blogging contest, and win it, the prize is usually some decent cash. So you need to write a guest post; if you usually have the habit of writing guest posts you are not doing anything extraordinary. If you don’t have the habit of writing guest posts earlier, it is good to start anytime, since you will need to do it in your blogging career sometime.

A guest post which is something like the one you usually write for blogs, could earn you money. Isn’t that a good thing?

I should say that this is one of the brilliant things I learned in participating in a contest. Learning how to crazily promote a blog post. Yes, the contests are not just about writing great content; you are given additional points for the number of social shares and comments you get.

So you really need to push the limits and promote your post as crazy as you can. Now after participating in the traffic generation contest, I have learned to promote a lot; well I still need to go far too long, but this contest gave me the push. I just can’t wrap up this point without recommending Kriti’s Ultimate Blog Post Promotion Guide to you, which is damn useful and literally the ultimate guide.

Entering a contest and winning is not a one man show. You need people to support you. Given that your post should go viral on social media, you cannot be promoting your post alone. You need to invite people to help you. And, you cannot just drop an email to a stranger to vote for your post or leave a comment on it.

This is where networking comes in. You should really be a good networker with good number of connections to get more exposure for your contest post. So you develop such connections. This is one side of the story.

The other side is here: You get to know great people and connect with them after you enter the contest.

1. Since your contest post is published on a famous blog, those readers automatically connect with your via comments and promotion.

2. You review contest sponsors and thank them in a post on your blog. Those posts get promoted by the sponsors you mention and those sponsors connect with you on social media; you become friends.

3. You discover that you contest post is going viral on blogging/social networks which you haven’t known earlier. You jump in there and become a member; you earn friends, followers and exposure there.

Here are some great people I discovered and am friends with

Brian - from Blog Engage

Bryan - from Blog Interact

Ileane - from Basic Blog Tips

Dan Lew - the guy who made Keyword Winner

Kristi - from Kiolani.com and the one who wrote the book “The Ultimate blog post promotion guide”

I really will make you scroll down to kilometers if I have to mention them all. And, there are also people whom I already knew and they supported my contest post and connected with me more closely after the contest.

You see, it’s all wonderful.

When I was thinking of a good title to this post, I came up with the current title in a matter of seconds; my favorite and the “key” word (not the SEO keyword ) I want to insist here is “nurture”. I can’t find a better word!

So here I am writing this post

1. after entering the 2011 traffic generation blogging contest - Here is my contest post.

2. after sponsoring the guest blogging contest at We Blog Better (the contest is not yet started, check out the link to enter).

3. after deciding to enter the Blog Engage’s second guest posting contest.

Well I would love to hear your opinion on this!

Photo by Johan

Tagged as: contest, networking

Article by JaneSheeba

+Jane is the founder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, freelance writer and blog designer. Don't forget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she offers.

Jane has written 270 awesome posts for Problogging Success.