Before ever undertaking my new Blog Contest to Win a Pink SEO bear, I certainly did some background research to make sure that I did it right. I want to make the most out of this in order to thank my readers for their support by offering prizes, as well to draw some new attention to my blog.

I have compiled a list of the different things I considered prior to hosting a blogging contest on my Pink Internet Marketing blog:

1. I have seen lots of contests going on around the blogosphere, many for prizes of great worth. Certainly, the bigger the prize, the more attention you will receive, but at the same time, you don’t want to offer a prize that is too big for your blog. I felt my prizes are reflective of my traffic, but for higher traffic blogs larger prizes may be offered as they will receive the attention they deserve.
2. Make updates on the contest throughout - perhaps link to the newest entries. I myself plan on making an update each week showing the progress of the candy jar, and showing new entries.
3. Don’t expect people to find out about your contest just by visiting your blog. Promote your contest on contest blogs and sites and on blogging communities to which you belong. One of the major reasons for hosting a blog contest is to help promote your blog, so ensure that you announce it in as many places as possible. A list published recently on Contest Blogger of the Top Contest Blogs on the Web is a good place to start when promoting your contest. Another site, Laura Williams’ Musings, is another site to consider, as she presents a daily contest roundup.
4. If possible, make the prize something that extends your branding. I was lucky to have the cute bear on my blog already - and I know EVERYBODY thinks it is cute and I know many of my readers would a) want the bear or b) want to give the bear to a loved one (romantic liaison or tiny person). You want the prize to appeal to your readers (being your niche), appealing to everyone is not required as you want to reward and attract those in your niche.
5. You might want to have a small blog contest at first (like mine) if you are looking to offer a very large prize. Test it out, find out what works and what does not. Learning from your experiences the first time around will help you really get the most out of having a big blogging contest.

Be sure to enter my blogging contest, and win the cutest bear in the blogosphere. ;)

Posted: September 25th, 2007 under Internet Marketing, Blogging, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 9

Over and over again I have heard how cute my little Pink SEO Bear is, and now you have a chance to win your own Pink SEO Bear! Made with love by me at Build-A-Bear, this Pink SEO Bear is also wearing a pink Canada T-shirt. Not a fan of pink? Perhaps a loved one might appreciate this as a gift.

How to win the Pink SEO Bear from Canada

Unlike at the carnival, to win this bear you will not have to perform any feats of coordination or strength. Just blog about my blog. Please include a link to my home page with appropriate anchor text and also please mention and link to one of my posts. As I discuss a range of topics here, I am sure that you can find something that fits with your site’s theme. Please mention the blog contest to encourage participation, and link to this post so that I know about your entry.

In addition there is a BONUS PRIZE!

For each and every entry in my blog contest, I will add one PINK CANDY ITEM into “the pot”. (ie. a pack of FreshenUp Gum, etc.). Which means if the more entries in the contest, the bigger the bag of pink candies gets.

To be eligible for this Bonus Prize, include the following image in your post. This was made by the ever talented Hernan. It is in .gif format and to ensure that you retain the movement, please keep the .gif format.

The contest winner will be announced on October 28, 2007 and will be selected randomly out of a hat.

If you have any questions, please email me at danielle [at] seoisforgirls.com

N.B. Posts of “inferior” quality will not be considered for this contest. I am not looking for Pulitzer winning material, but I would appreciate a quality review. :)

Looking for more contests? Check out Contest Blogger

Edit: Please note, only the bear wearing the pink tee is up for grabs… the bear wearing the black leather coat, denim mini and adorable hi-top sneakers is mine, all mine. :)

Posted: September 23rd, 2007 under Contests, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 43

It’s a feed train! Choo! Choo! If you have been tagged in the feed train, copy the list and put up a blog post containing the list, add your picks to the train and subscribe to the blog feeds on the list. I was tagged by MeAndMyDrum. :)

Read more »

Posted: July 21st, 2007 under Memes, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 2

The Challenge: Develop, create and submit an idea/innovation plan that when implemented will make BlogCatalog the most extraordinary Blogger Social Community on the internet.

Submissions Dates:
Open July 12th, 2007.
Close August 31st, 2007 (11:59pm EST)

Awards:
First prize will be awarded $1,200
Scond prize will be award $500

Saw this today and thought I would let my ultra-creative blogging buddies know about it too.

And big news to report: I have sponsored a category in BlogCatalog for a month. I am not sure if this will benefit my site, but I wanted to try this out. BlogCatalog has given me so much already and they were kind enough to change my username from shopautodotcaseo to pinkdanielle when I emailed the webmaster, so I wanted to make a donation to their cause. I am pretty excited to be at the top of the list here. So check out my sponsored Internet - Blogging category.

Posted: July 14th, 2007 under Contests, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 8

My #5 source of traffic comes from outer space, meaning that my blog has gone universal. Sure I still get a lot of earthly traffic, but it is good to know that I am reaching extraterrestrial life forms, spreading the notion of Pink Internet Marketing to the stars and beyond. Here is a screen capture in Google analytics for the past week:

My blog is very new, and up until June 15, I was not really looking for traffic I was looking to rank for the keywords shopautodotca seocontest. But since then my traffic has jumped considerably, partly because my posts have gone from not interesting to semi-interesting, but mostly because I have been a social butterfly lately.

I have recently been visiting Ordinary Folk, and he was kind enough to give me some link love, and as well I have been commenting on his blog. I am getting some traffic from this site featuring Gummy the Lovesick Alien. So ET phone home and let all the bloggers know that traffic comes by UFO!

Now really, though, this just goes to show the importance of leaving comments in blogs and using networking (making friends) to promote your blog. I am sure that I could have the same results by visiting any other blog, but I am already making the rounds to a few blogs and the responsibility is daunting! :P

But as I start to increase my blogging activities, I am sure that I will come to see more and more traffic coming from other blogs that I visit. This is encouraging because you realize that while Google will bring you traffic, you do not need to be really good at SEO and SEM to make your blog count. All you need is your blog, coupled with your ability to interact with other bloggers. Thinks of comments as mini-posts on other blogs, and don’t just follow the mentality of “the more you shoot the more you score”. Make each of these mini-posts count, and I am sure that you will see some increased traffic to your site in no time flat.

Posted: June 28th, 2007 under Blogging, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 4