Blogging Tips Competition: 5 Prizes
Free Stuff !!!!
No – Really – Free Stuff.
And this is not some strange new usage of the word “free” that involves you paying money for something to get the “free” stuff.
This is the dictionary definition of the word free –
Costing nothing; gratuitous; without charge
I am not even going to rant on about the amount of times I discover something that is “free,” requiring a payment of some kind. But this is genuinely free, gratis and for nothing – it won’t cost you a penny – just a few minutes of your time.
So what’s the deal?
Here’s the deal:
Leave a comment here at the bottom of this post which reviews my own blog, which is here.
Pay me a visit, come back here and write a brief review of my site. There are 5 areas I am interested in hearing your opinion on:
Design — usability, visual appeal, readability, navigation.
Content — got an idea for a great viral post we could write?
Promotion — how would you suggest i promote the blog?
SEO — can you see areas for improvement?
Readership - how would you suggest to better improve and retain readership?
I have 5 great prizes to give away:
The Copywriters Handbook
Web Design for ROI
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Communicate to Win
Starting & Running an Online Business for Dummies
After 7 days of this post’s time stamp, Kevin and I will decide on 5 winners. The 1st best reviewer gets to choose the prize they prefer, and so on, down to 5th place.
So, have some fun and tell me what you really think of my site. I am thick skinned, so brutal honesty works for me. My goal here is to improve my site and have a little fun. And give away some FREE STUFF !!!
That Website Again is www.swiftmediauk.co.uk/blog/
Great thanks to Mark for your help in writing this post.
Gerad T | February 28th, 2008 at 7:01 pm #
Design (usability, visual appeal, readability, navigation):
You need to invest in a custom theme. I’ve seen your theme before and I always dislike that. It wouldn’t cost you more than $100 - $200 to get one and it will do wonders for your site. You don’t have many pages — only a about me and contact me page. It would be best if you expanded and provided more pages regarding your blogs topic. Maybe even a top posts page would be good for you. You also don’t have many categories. I don’t like blogs with 50 categories either, but 3 is not much. You are at maybe 50,000ft with your categories. You could drop down to 25,000ft and it would help. Get rid of the META box on the blog — the readers don’t need to see that.
Content (got an idea for a great viral post we could write?):
There are lots of ways to write viral content. You should Visit Sphinn and Digg and watch the SEO and Marketing articles that make it to the front pages and replicate their tactics (don’t steal their content, that’s wrong). Another GREAT linkbait/viral idea is to create a FREE E-Book for you niche. You can even get readers to subscribe via email to obtain the e-book and that will help boost your feed count in the process.
Promotion (how would you suggest i promote the blog?)
Purchase reviews from some of the top blogs in your niche. You can use ReviewMe or contact the blog author directly and work out a deal (usually cheaper since the middleman is cut out). Also purchase ad space on other top blogs in your niche. Also submit your blog to directories and post in forums. Also post VALUABLE (dont spam) comments on other blogs in your niche (or related niches). Guest Post on other blogs in your niche (or related niches) — it allows you to get your material out their and obtain readers from other blogs/niches.
SEO (can you see areas for improvement?)
You should be naming your images better. In you current post you have an image with the name of ‘237745759′ from a flickr account. That is not a good thing. The image name should have keywords related to your niche and also descriptive of what’s in the picture. You can gain visitors/hits from google images if someone searches for an image using a keyword from your niche.
Readership (how would you suggest to better improve and retain readership?):
WRITE GOOD CONTENT. If you write solid content you WILL increase and retain readership. Make your content easy to access and read. You do a good job of making readable content (breaking up articles into sections with headers for each). Please watch the length of your articles. You want good content, but you also want to get your point across quickly. You have to respect that your readers time is valuable and we may not have time to read a 1000 word post. I think it’s always good to keep posts between 200 and 400 words (thats just my opinion). Write often and consistently. Reach out to your readers and find out what they are interested in. Read and REPLY to the readers who comment on your blog. Participate more in the top social networks. Post articles to social sites like digg, sphinn, etc. It also helps to get your posts stumbled.
Overall, it looks like you are on your way. You will learn something new every day. Just always keep an open mind. Good luck with your site and I hope my input is valuable.
Thanks,
Gerad T
cashslacker | February 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm #
Gerald T:
Thanks! I learned as much from your comments as I have in a while!
If blogs were the chain of life mine is still a tadpole but I’m working on it.
The CashSlacker
pablopabla | February 28th, 2008 at 11:40 pm #
I don’t mean to be a spoiler but I can’t agree with your definition of free because you are still asking people to do something for you - a review of your site, which some people would charge for a fee just to review.
Honestly, it would be better off if you say that you will give away the 5 prizes to 5 of the most constructive reviews you receive on your site. Perhaps you did not realise the implications but having read the promises of free (at the upper part of the post), I was disappointed to read further on that it is not actually free and there are only 5 prizes available. What happens to those who give the 6th review and so on?
I know I am being critical here but I hope you will receive my feedback with an open mind.
Jacky | February 29th, 2008 at 1:43 am #
The theme you use now is being used by many bloggers.This will not make your site stand out among them^.^
Andy Macdonald | February 29th, 2008 at 7:32 am #
Thanks for the comments guys. @ pablopbla, I understand what you mean and how that comes across, so i appologise for that.
In terms of the prize’s, this is as much about providing as best of a review as you possibly can to be in with a chance of winning the prize. Unfortunately in competitions, prizes are limited to whatever the competition owner has put up. That doesnt just apply to my competition, but any competition on any subject, anywhere in the world.
The enterants are aware there is only 5 prizes from the time they submit the review, so the chance of winning all depends on how many people enter, (the less people, the more likely you’ll win), and the quality of the review. Provide a quality review, and you have a good chance of winning.
i hope you can understand where we are coming from with this. Darren at problogger does a monthly community consultation, and the terms and competition we are doing here is the exact same compeition as Darren runs, people know what prizes are available, and what they need to do to enter.
We are simply doing the same thing!
Zhu | February 29th, 2008 at 1:50 pm #
Design — My first impression was: nice, clean design, easy to read. That said, I have a fairly wide screen (1288 x 778) and the blue area is a bit too… blue. The content area looks a bit small compared to the blue background. Now I’m aware that most people use 1024 screen resolution, in which it looks fine.
Navigation is very straightforward and the text is easy to read. My eyes are drawn to the content right away which is a good thing.
Just one thing: I’d make the “comment” text (top of the post) a bit darker… I looked for it for a few seconds.
I’m used to see the RSS button higher, maybe just under the profile drawing? Or even by the search box in the title?
The sidebar could have more info.: tag cloud, better archives (check out live archives), latest posts, more popular posts etc.
Oh, and I know it’s supposed to be good for SEO to have more than one post on the first page but I hate scrolling down too much… I think you have too many posts as of now. Archive your posts… people won’t read down to the bottom and it’s slow to load.
Content — I’m not a marketing person myself but as a reader, I’m always interested in honest reviews (i.e not sponsored) of money making website. Such as Pay Per Post, Text Link Ads etc. These ones are well-known in the blogosphere of course, newer companies might be best to review. But I know bloggers are sometimes a bit reluctant to sign up with companies without reading reviews about them… If you’re fair and honest it might be a good way to assert your authority.
Promotion — From my own experience, writing good content is the best way to retain readership on the long term. Sounds obvious… I know!
Participating in forums (Digital Point, Bloggeries…) also helps (put your link in the signature). I know that as a non-marketing expert, if I see someone pretty helpful and knowledgeable in forums, I’ll bookmark his/ her website.
Contests are also a great way… see, I subscribe already!
SEO — I’m not a SEO master either… Yet, I noticed that you didn’t have a social bookmark plugin at the bottom of each post. This is the easiest way for readers to Digg or Stumble Upon your articles. You can get one with a nofollow or a dofollow… (check out: http://andybeard.eu/wordpress-plugin-hacks)
Consider a tag cloud as well and use tags for your posts. Implemented that on my blog a couple of weeks ago and it did wonder in term of lowering my bouncing rate.
Readership - Don’t post too many articles a day. I know I unsubscribe if I see someone posting like crazy… I don’t have time to read the posts, they pile up in my feed reader and their quality isn’t usually that good. That would be my best advice.
Also, be consistent, pick a posting schedule and stick to it.
Hope that helps!
Devi Girsang | March 1st, 2008 at 4:45 pm #
[Design] neat, simple, clean (I don’t really like too much ads), easy to read and navigate.
[Content] very informative. I like your ideas about marketing and blogging improvement. Basically I appreciate genuine ideas from blogger, not a copy-paste one.
[Promotion] based on my experience, link exchange and good writing are the best two points people will be interested reading your blog. Actively bloghopping and leaving comments on others’ will leave trace to yours
Social networking like Myspace, Facebook, and Friendster also a free good way to make a promotion.
[SEO]yes. keyword is somewhat important too.
[Readership] I always seek for informative and inspiring writing and updated constantly. As for your blog, don’t display too much blog posting at the first homepage. It turns me off sometime.
I think that’s all I can say for now. Hope that helps
pablopabla | March 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 am #
No malice is intended Andy. Just my feedback on the choice of wordings used
Andy MacDonald (Post Author) | March 5th, 2008 at 3:11 pm #
Thanks for all your submissions guys, the winners have been chosen, and can be viewed at: http://www.bloggingtips.com/2008/03/05/blogging-tips-competition-the-winners/
Well done to those who won, and thanks for everybody that didnt.