How Can a Contest Help Your Blog?
Posted on 31. Aug, 2009 by Jeremiah Hoyet in Advertising, Blogging, SEO
I’m entering The Future of Blog in a Wordpress design contest being run by Keller Hawthorne from FresheVenture.com. The contest has a long list of prizes, from free premium Wordpress themes to premium Wordpress plugins. I’m very excited to see how well my blog will do in this contest, considering that I have put a little bit of work into customizing my Wordpress theme!
Entering this contest made me think — how is this contest going to help the FresheVenture blog? How would holding a contest help my blog?
Contests Mean Free Advertising
Contests are a great way to advertise your blog or products.
Why? Well, because the contestants want to win! By entering the design contest Keller is holding, I’m becoming a free advertisement for the FresheVenture blog. I will be promoting my participation in the contest, trying to gain more votes and win the prizes. In turn, each time I advertise my participation, I am handing out a link to the Keller’s blog.
Just holding a contest on your blog will turn the contestants into an army of advertisers.
Easy Quality Backlinks
One of the requirements to be included in the contest is that you must write a blog post that includes a link to the contest page. Sounds like a simple request, one that will let your audience know you are entering the contest. By writing about entering the contest, I’m also increasing the potential amount of votes I will receive.
How does this requirement help out Keller? Easy, Quality backlinks from all the contestants. Backlinks are important in SEO, and hold a large part in shaping Page Rank. By asking that each contestant write a blog post linking to the contest page, Keller is receiving free links. Not only that, due to the nature of the contest, the backlinks are more likely to be of a higher quality.
Asking for a link in return for entering the contest is a simple way to build backlinks.
Vote Now!
I’d like to say that entering a contest does help out the contestant as well. There are free prizes that make it well worth entering the contest, I get a free backlink from the page listing the contestants, and new people will be visiting my blog to judge the design and (hopefully) vote for me!
Image by ItzaFineDay!
5 Responses to “How Can a Contest Help Your Blog?”
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Doug Dillard
31. Aug, 2009
Jeremiah… I absolutely agree about running a contest is a great way to build a small army of people promoting your site. That is one reason we like to run contests too. (We have a great contest running right now you should check out)
But there are benefits to the people entering contests too. Not only do they get a chance to win a prize, but they too are getting their name exposed to everyone visiting the contest page, as well as building backlinks.
I also entered Keller’s contest today. Do I think I have the best Wordpress Design of 2009? Probably not… but it is another way to get our site noticed, and we might win something , as she is giving away multiple prizes.
Antti Kokkonen - Zemalf.com
04. Sep, 2009
I entered the contest nearly the day it was announced, or actually even prepared for it as it was announced beforehand. Contests like this are great fun and for me, it’s not so much about the actual contest but everything that it brings with it. Getting to know other bloggers being the best of it, so all the best for the blog Jeremiah, in the contest and beyond!
Jeremiah Hoyet
04. Sep, 2009
Thanks for the good wishes, I wish you the best of luck blogging as well! I agree, contests are much more than just a way to win a prize, they connect people with your blog and connect you with other bloggers!
Angeline @ marcus evans scam
08. Sep, 2009
Contests will always motivate people to explore more on the concepts. Provision of back links is one way, but providing back links in high page rank blogs is the thing that most of us have to concentrate on.
Angeline @ marcus evans scam
Edward
21. Oct, 2009
“Contests Mean Free Advertising”
You can say that again, a good way is to get contest entrants to enter by having them Tweet their entry. You set up a auto tweeting link and include a link back to your blog in the tweet. Suddenly every entrant has tweeted about your blog.