Build A Better Blog Day 23
An easy and inexpensive way to get your readers involved in your blog is to hold a contest. This doesn't have to be elaborate or time consuming, in fact, the readers need to do all the work. Here is an example of what you could write in your contest blog post:
This months contest is a reader self portrait, with a twist. Write a blog post about a picture you take or was taken of you, standing next to your favorite car. Come back to this post and write a comment with a link back to your post. I'll pick the post with the coolest post/image and and I'll write one more blog post announcing the winner. So you will get two links back to your blog. The winner will then choose next months winner and so on. Good luck.
Of course this is only an example. You will want to think it through and write out what you want to happen in your contest. Make sure you give ample time for as many readers to participate as possible, thats the whole point of the contest.
Over time you may give prizes, heck Darren Rowse gave away over $60,000 in prizes for his blogs birthday celebration. I wouldn't expect you to do this but it's just an example of what you can do. You might start an internet scavenger hunt, picture taking contest or writing contest. The possibilities are endless. Initially the idea is to build connections with your readers and their blogs. Everyone likes free publicity, become the PR or Marketing tool for your readers.
The last thing I want to mention are Blog Carnivals. The idea behind a blog carnival is several blogs that have similar focus each write about a specific topic and then supply the links to each of the blog posts written. The next week its a different blog hosting the theme and the links. It rotates through a group of people. This gives everyone a chance to get some link love. Check out the Blog Carnival website and get involved.
B log contests can be fun for everyone, just make sure you plan well enough ahead of time that everyone understands what they are getting out of it. Build up the contest. Blog about it several days or weeks before the event. Comment on other blogs about it. Use Social Networks like Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook or MySpace to promote the contest. There are plenty of avenues, you just need to make some effort.
ProBlogger's day twenty three post: Go on a Dead Link Hunt
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