» March 30, 2008 in
Blog contests are events where bloggers try and make a bunch of attention for themselves and get bunches of links back by only providing a reward to a few of the people that help spread the word.
Not only are blog contests very selfish promotional tools some bloggers use, they are rather annoying.
The post that kicks off a blog contest interrupts (wastes) everyone's attention, but then the blog will make updates to the contest over the length of the waste of time.
Then many of the other bloggers need to post about the blog contest saying, "hey here is a blog contest" and then eventually everybody is making useless posts about a blog contest where the only one that really wins is the person holding the contest.
Nothing personal, But I Won't Sponsor/Plug Your Contest
I've had a handful of people ask me to plug their contest or sponsor their contest over the last couple of weeks. I'm sure I've mentioned before I don't like blog contests, however I couldn't find a post to point them to so the reason for this one.
Nothing personal that I won't participate, I just don't wake up in the morning and read your blog to hope I "might" win a free ebook or $50 paypal and have no desire to hear you and others talk about this contest over the next few weeks.
Blog contests are cheap gimmicks that authors use to try and get more visitors to their site.
Do Something Better With Your Time
Blog contests take tons of energy from the blogger and the community. Why not invest that time/money/energy into something useful for your readers?
Make a cool tool. Make improvements. Make a cool resource. Upgrade your site. Do something useful for EVERYBODY instead of wasting everybodies time for a few lucky people.
Is this a bingo hall?
For some reason contests seem to really cheapen a blog and give the feel of a bingo hall or dog track.
For me, In the real world it's the equivalent of hanging out at a nice restaurant (a regular blog) or hanging out down the hall at a bingo hall (the contest) hoping to win a few bucks.
Virtually Useless
Other than providing value for the blogger (Personally I think the blogger holding the contest looks kinda corny doing it, do you really need to bribe readers?) and a few winners, blog contests are a waste of time and pretty much useless.
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steve says on March 30, 2008
all i can say mate is
I Agree 100%
it seems a lot more blogs promote these contests lately
and to be honest i am getting sick of reading the same thing constantly.
Also what happens when the contest is over, you lose most RSS subscribers and traffic dops off.
So hold another contest to get them back?
mike huang says on March 30, 2008
It is very true about how contests just means the owner is selfish, but I tried a different technique. I had a contest in February that requires participants to link back to all the contest sponsors if he/she wishes to earn more entries. What happened was each of my sponsors received about 40+ linkbacks. Of course one of the entries were to subscribe to my RSS, but I actually had a lot more people linking back to the sponsors than I thought. I was the first one to come up with the idea, but I don't see much people following and I think mainly because it may seem like a lot of work.
Here's the contest link that is over:
http://bloggin-ads.com/the-one-heck-of-a-giveaway-contest
-Mike
mike huang says on March 30, 2008
One more thing is that contests are starting to devalue RSS feeds..
-Mike
Jay Francis Hunter says on March 30, 2008
You make some great points.
I don't think I'll ever play host to one of these "contests" you speak of, however, I will keep sponsoring them. ;o)
Great way to get my services out there with just about zilch effort on my part.
Terry says on March 30, 2008
Just popping in to *LMAO* @ "Is this a bingo hall?"...lol!
I don't happen across many contests, thankfully (because I do agree with you), but I also have little faith that the contest holder really will pick winners randomly to win the prizes (and not a preselected bunch of pals or winners that will bring/push the most attention).
I find "blog memes" and "carnivals" to be the same annoying interruption...at first they were kinda fun (as in years ago), now they're *not*. In fact I see them now as a type of quality signal (negative).
Lori says on March 30, 2008
Hmmmm, I disagree. I like contests, I like sponsoring them. I've had great success with mine and if it wasn't for my standmixer giveaway, I would probably still have 50 readers on my food blog. Because of that contest, people were able to visit a blog, with good content, that they otherwise would have never known about or would have taken forever to find.
The people who don't like to enter in contests can probably AFFORD NOT to enter. Those of us who do enter NEED the winnings, whatever that may be.
Vlad says on March 30, 2008
Had one of those myself, gave $200.... Will never do it again. Agree that I could have done something good for the community. The worst part I wanted my regular readers to win and they did not.
thegeekboys.com says on March 31, 2008
I have always found it hard to believe blog contest I have done a few myself and I just pick any random person that sticks but what's there to stop me from picking a freind blogger or any one I'm trying to link bait or make friends with so I've always had a hard time going for blog contest
Stu @ PMPR says on March 31, 2008
"Why not invest that time/money/energy into something useful for your readers?"
You mean something useful for your readers like this post?
Homebizseo says on March 31, 2008
I don't like the emails that come with the blog contest. Non stop spamming.
Matt Jones says on March 31, 2008
I would have to agree and disagree with you, depending on the nature of the contest.
Lets say you've made a new product that is genuinely useful and you are giving it away for free, but the best way to have people hear about it is via a contest. Is it really so bad to promote it like that? It is up to the people who take part in contests to decide if it is worth entering or not. People enter the lottery even though it doesn't make much logical sense.
I do agree it can get boring reading about endless contests, but that is a self-correcting problem. When it gets boring for enough people it wont be worth having contests anymore and they will stop.
Collin - Feed Flare says on March 31, 2008
I guess Mark it is a way (that works) to create some buzz about your site. I am at the tail end on my grand opening contest over at Feed Flare and I am sure if I ever have another one it will be a year from now to celebrate my one year mark live, kind of like what Pro Blogger does with his birthday bashes.
What I did with mine though which I hope seperates me from others is I got a lot of my readers to sponsor which promotes them and their sites just as much as mine. Which is a great way to bring the community into something that can be fun. But ya, I think this is going to be my last one for a while, a long while. Video blogging in my new love and I want to put as much energy into that as I can.
But I have seen a drop in involvment in them over the past few months so I think your wish is going to come true, they will just die off some enough kind of like MC Hammer Pants when they came out.
Stephan Miller says on March 31, 2008
I have seen some bad contests and some good ones. A good one is where the contestants learn something and actually compete. Too many winners are chosen at random. Make your contestants work and learn something.
chris says on March 31, 2008
It is a scam!!
How do you know you going to win?
and nothing is free!!
I rather just concentrate on content and content and more content on my own websites.
Happy Opening BaseBall Day..you all
Go Yankees!!
Zac Johnson says on March 31, 2008
The problem I see with blog contests is that so much effort is put into the prizes or concept, then no one enters. Chow gave away two $5000 tickets to elite retreat... and this was when he had 15k rss subscribers. He ended up with 12 entries...
Ty Hurd says on March 31, 2008
I think contest can be a good thing if done correctly. I'm putting together a contest where the concept is to have entrants visit a new blog everyday. It's kind of a scavenger hunt. Entrants will earn points by blogging about the sponsors, contest hosts, and the blog of the day.
It goes without saying I'm hoping it will help me, but it's really aimed to help the sponsors (some big, some small), and promote reading a new bog everyday. I think it'll be good for the blogging community as a whole. Plus there'll be a $5,000-$10,000 cash grand prize!
Kyle James says on March 31, 2008
Mark, you just gained a ton of respect from me on this post. There is a certain contest, i won't name it but you probably know which one i'm talking about, going on right now that is the self proclaimed largest blog contest ever and I'm so tired of hearing about it.
Bill says on March 31, 2008
KJ....Amen brother. It's about 15 days past its welcome point. Shoot the thing in the head already. I don't think anyone even remembers they entered because it started so long ago.
Bill says on March 31, 2008
Hey Mark...what's even MORE lame than contests....is your top 100 list not updating this weekend.
;-)
Turnip says on March 31, 2008
Yeah, but the same ebook that said contests were good is the same ebook that said I should post comments on popular blogs just to get noticed. If you experts keep confusing me I'll have to come up with a real opinion.
45n5 says on March 31, 2008
@turnip - I ain't no expert ;)
@bill - it's updating now, check back in an hour or two
@all - cool comments, great to see both sides weighing in ;)
Louis Liem says on April 1, 2008
Some contests were lame and they required more effort the prize wasn't worth doing.
But some others were good ones, they made point collecting fun and the prizes were very rewarding.
Contests can be used as an alternative to create buzz on your blog. If you got great content, but nobody knows, useless is the word.
There might be a drop on your RSS subscriber after the contest is done, but mostly the final number is higher than before the contest.
One more thing, contests can lend startup bloggers a hand, either by free promotion, some cash to cover their bandwidth charges, EC credits to increase traffic. They can make a good use of entering contests before they earn their name in the blogosphere!
Tom Beaton says on April 1, 2008
I am in two minds about contests. I use give aways on some of my projects. It is a great way to launch a project with a bang and create a lot of buzz. We all need buzz to get traffic and ultimately money. Most contests are focussed around building email lists which you can then sell to. It is the basics of email marketing. Blogs just make this sort of thing easier.
At the same time, if too many people do it then it is a nightmare. The spam is crazy and the poor posts abundant.
Geeks are Sexy says on April 2, 2008
I won over $2500 in prizes at the Performancing 2nd year anniversary blog contest. :)
They had a very fun treasure hunt over the blogosphere.. I had a blast participating... And no, I didn't have to link, talk about or do anything in order to win...
vincent says on April 20, 2008
Turnips, count me in. This will be my first contest.
Simple Mindz says on April 20, 2008
LOL. I am right there with ya! I am not innocent of it though. I have tried in the past to get in on these. To get excited and want to spread the word. But honestly, I just can't. I get as far as leaving a comment, and that's as far as I go. I even thought that I would have my own and maybe I would like it a bit more...But, if you ask me - people are just going to join for the chance, and then dump the feed after.
What's the point in that?
Steve McGrath says on April 21, 2008
Simple Mindz: Not everyone will dump the feed after the contest. ;)
Some contests are simple and some require too much work for bloggers. You can win cash or some kind of publicity for your own blog if you win.
For example, I once asked for bloggers to leave a comment because I had 10 text link for prizes for the first 10 to enter. It took 1 month and they would had win 1 free month of publicity. If they added their blog to my blog directory, they would had gotten a second month. Only 1 did that out of 10.
Last year, I gave $1100 in prizes of my own money. The biggest was $500 and also sponsored $300 on Problogger. Both did not deliver on ROI for me. On the $500 one, I only got like 11 entries. One blogger was happy and entered a few days before the end.
Now, I still sponsor them by giving something more SEO related for bloggers in my blog directory. No more cash for now. Plus, I also consider the ROI for me when someone want me to sponsor them. I'm more flexible.
Mark: You could do a simple comment contest on your blog for your readers showing a 125x125 on the sidebar now that you removed all ads(just saw that post). ;)
tony dee says on April 25, 2008
Well I guess all of your points are valid. but like you said it's only you're opinion. are those small bloggers out there supposed to do nothing to try and attract new visitors or potential customers to products they may be advertising? Or should everyone just give all of there cash to PPC to generate hit or miss traffic.
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