I ask this question because last month we ran a very easy contest promotion for QuizSnack and all you had to do was leave a comment to win a full year license worth $288, yet we didn’t have too many entries. So using the QuizSnack tool again, which only take a few seconds to create, I ask for your participation in a new simple one click survey asking, “Why Don’t People Enter Blog Contests?”

By the way, the  selected winners from the comments posted on the original contest post were Timothy, Peggy and Priya Florence Shah. You will all be contact through your sites contact forms about claiming your prize.

I’m running a month long contest through my blog BenSpark.com. I’ve dubbed the contest SwagsGiving. I have a bunch of products that I’ve gotten over the past year from attending conferences and connecting with companies and brands. Basically I have a ton of stuff that I cannot use. How many Flip Cameras does one person need. I guess I could videotape myself from multiple angles or something at the same time but for the most part this is stuff I do not need. So I want to give it away and I want to promote my blog and get a few followers/fans/readers along the way as well.

There are so many blogs doing giveaways and contests all over the place. How do you stand out? Here are a few tips that I have towards promoting and running your contest.

Running a month long giveaway contest.

Post every day at the same time so that people know when they can start entering the contest.

Tease the prizes – Talk about what you are giving away but don’t reveal what people are going to win each day until that day. I’ve got Seagate GoFlex drives, Kodak Cameras and signed books to give away. However no one knows what day I’ll be giving those prizes away. They will be given away during the month but the contestants don’t know which day those will be given away. This gives a sense of mystery around the whole contest and gets people talking.

Use Twitter - Set up a twitter account that promotes the contest and create your own hashtag for the contest.

Buy the Domain – I posted my first SwagsGiving post and Jim Kukral asked if I had the domain name for it, I didn’t but I bought it immediately. I then linked that address to a facebook fan page that I feed with the links to the contest each day.

Invite Your Friends – Look, everyone likes to win free stuff, especially cool free stuff. Invite your friends to your new Facebook fan page for your contest.

Allow people to win more than once. It keeps them coming back and since the winners are picked randomly it is fair.

Follow up with each winner quickly. Get in touch with the winner, they will post that they won and further promote the contest.

Thank entrants each day who didn’t win. E-mail each entrant telling them that they still have a chance the next day to try again.

Set up multiple tasks to enter the contest – Tweet, sign up for your newsletter, follow you on twitter, subscribe to your blog and so forth. The main point behind the contest it to garner more followers, readers and fans.

Use Video – Make a video each day of your winner and the prize the won. Congratulate the winner, leave links to the contest and further promote the contest.

These are just some ways that I run my contests. Do you have ideas for more ways to promote the contests that you run?

Instead of sitting back and letting the news and media attack BP, LogoMyWay has thought of a creative and effect way for designers to fight back… and bringing awareness to their design service as well. Designers of all skill levels can join LogoMyWay and submit their own BP logo design. The winner will walk away with $200 and bragging rights.

Let’s get back to the controversy topic and how it can help your blog grow. Let’s take a quick look at Google Trend’s activity of the search phrase “BP” over the past 12 months. You can see the activity has doubled since the spill and it’s just going to get worse.

Using current events and taking immediate action is one of the most effective ways to bring in new search traffic, viral activity and awareness to a site or blog. LogoMyWay was smart in creating a funny and controversial topic for their design contest. This BP logo redesign contest in particular has been viewed over 2800 times, already has over 68 entries… and that’s with over 11 days still remaining before a winner is selected.

Let’s take a look at a few of the creative, funny and new ideas submitted into LogoMyWay’s BP Logo redesign contest.

Submit your own design or create your own logo contest at LogoMyWay, and let me know what you think of the current design submissions.

To win, all you had to do was follow @SiteValley on Twitter, follow @BloggingTipsCom on Twitter and tweet a specific message. Although many people retweeted the message they were supposed to, they forgot to follow Site Valley and Blogging Tips on Twitter.

One of the few people who did was Nicola Erlich, who was chosen by Site Valley staff as the winner. Alex: Can you please direct message @sitevalley via Twitter or send an email to marketing@sitevalley.com with your contact details. Thanks

My original plan was for us to give away a 6 months hosting package every week for a month however due to the low interest in last weeks competition I am going to wait a few weeks and review the situation (though we may have one again).

We will also be launching a weekly contest to win a theme from Blog Themes Club so stay tuned for more new on that

thanks,
Kevin

The Prize

The Site Valley 6 Months Blog Hosting Package retails for $5.95 per month. It boasts a good amount of storage and bandwidth, 10 MySQL databases, 100 email accounts and 10 FTP accounts. You can add up to ten websites (domains) and an unlimited amount of subdomains.

The account comes pre-registered with such blogging scripts as WordPress, B2evolution and Pivot so should make the transition from a free blogging platform to a self-hosted one a little bit easier.

Also, if you don’t have your own domain name yet, I will register your chosen domain for you and push it to your account

Wait…there’s more!

Don’t get too upset if you don’t win a hosting package as Site Valley are offering all Blogging Tips readers 20% off any of their VPS hosting accounts and shared hosting accounts (this includes their Blog Hosting package). All you need to do is enter the coupon bloggingtips during checkout.

Please note, this discount is applied every month, not just your first payment. For example, their blog hosting package would be reduced from $5.95 to $4.76 per month.

Competition Details

To enter all you have to do is:

1. Follow @SiteValley on Twitter.
2. Follow @BloggingTipsCom on Twitter
3. Tweet the following message on twitter:
   

   Follow @sitevalley & @bloggingtipscom for a chance to win free blog hosting. Contest details @ http://bit.ly/xNNtS – Pls RT

The deadline for this competition is Thursday 27th August 2009 at 5pm Eastern Time. Any entries after this deadline will not be eligible. The winner will be announced next Monday.

If you have any questions about this competition please leave a comment

To celebrate the end of our beta (launch) period we are dropping the price of all our membership packages. This offer is only valid Today, Tomorrow and Friday. On Saturday (August 1st) the cost will return to $49 for a 3 month membership, $79 for a 6 month membership and $99 for a 12 month membership.

For the next 3 days membership prices will drop to:

• 3 months membership – $49 $29 $20
• 6 months membership – $79 $49 $35
• 12 months membership – $99 $69 $50

Blog Themes Club members currently have access to 4 premium WordPress themes however our new Artemis theme should be released within the next few weeks with our 6th theme hopefully being released before the end of September.

All members also get premium forum support, access to all our WordPress themes,
access to changes & updates to our themes and access to new Blog Themes Club designs.

Til the end of the week a 3 month membership only costs $20 which works out at $5 per premium theme. Over the next 2 months we will be adding at least two more themes so I’m sure you will agree that this is a fantastic deal. Make sure you don’t miss out as it is only available for the next 3 days.

To place an order please visit our Membership Order Page. To find out more about our themes please visit Blog Themes Club.

Theme Recap

Here is a quick recap of all of the Blog Themes Club themes.

Anima

A beautiful yet simple WordPress Theme which is incredibly easy to modify.

Demo | More Info

Invictus

A bold yet elgant red and black based WordPress Theme which boasts a useful mutl information tab. This is the theme which powers Blogging Tips itself!

Demo | More Info

Kronos

A clean and functional blue and grey design which would be suitable for a variety of blogs.

Demo | More Info

Profectus

The Profectus theme is the ideal CMS solution for aclient and boasts it’s own options area and a seperate page for your blog too. We are currently using it on Blog Themes Club to highlight how it can be customized for your site.

Demo | More Info

Artemis

Our latest theme, Artemis, should be added to the BTC collection within the next few weeks

If you have any questions about this promotion or about Blog Themes Club itself, please let me know.

Link : Blog Themes Club

The prizes up for grabs in Janbuary 2009 are :

• TITANIUM TIER: $300,000 Commissions Earned
  Reward: A New Smart Car ($11,990 Value)
• PLATINUM TIER: $90,000 Commissions Earned
  Reward: VIP Las Vegas Vacation
  1st Class Air, Stay at the Wynn for 2 nights , $500 Cash
• GOLD TIER: $10,000 Commissions Earned
  Reward: 32 GB iPod Touch with $500 iTunes Gift Card
• SILVER TIER: $1,000 Commissions Earned
  Reward: XBox 360 Elite Package

Unless you have a high traffic blog or website, you will find it difficult to reach the upper commission tiers however I’m sure a lot of you would be able to reach the silver tier target.

As an added bonus, Motive are also giving away $100 in Cash, Flip HD Mino Camera and a 16 GB iPod Nano to 3 lucky bloggers who link to the announcement post. I recommend checking it out.

Link : Earn Big Money & Huge Prizes from Motive Network

In addition to cash prizes at the end of the competition, forum members also picked up several great prizes over 7 weeks. Therefore, before moving on, I would like to give a huge thank you to all our forum sponsors. Much appreciated guys

• Daily Blog Tips
• Unique Blog Designs
• Performancing Metrics
• Branding David
• Max Blog Press
• ProBlogger

Cash Prize Results

At 12pm ET today (5pm UK time) I disabled the credits system. I then temporarily closed the forum in order to total up all the results (so that new posts wouldn’t generate new credits and mess up the results).

When I searched for members with over 50 posts I was a little surprised to see that only 14 members had reached that figure. However, I have still been pleased with how things have developed Congratulations to everyone who finished in the money!

Could all winners please send me a private message in the forums with your paypal email address so that I can send you your winnings!

Again, I hope you have all enjoyed the competition. I will do my best to have another big forum competition within the next few months so stay tuned.

Also, don’t forget, there is still one prize left in the competition, a wordpress theme from Unique Blog Designs. All you have to do is leave a message in our forum with your suggestion on what niche you would like to see more themes developed for.

Have a great weekend

Kevin

This weeks prize is a full licensed copy of one of Unique Blog Designs WordPress Themes (worth $79), kindly donated by UBD. UBD themes are very easy to install and customise.

The winner of this competition can choose what UBD design they think best suits their blog.

Competition Details

This weeks question is quite straight forward :

“What niche would you like to see more themes developed for?”

As always, I think it’s important that things are kept fair and competitive :

• There is no limit to the number of suggestions you can make.
• Ideas/Suggestions should be original ie. don’t just copy someone elses idea and try and claim it as your own.
• Deadline for entries is 12pm ET Tuesday December 2nd 2008

On Tuesday December 2nd 2008 Nate will choose what he believes to be the best suggestion. That member will be emailed details of how to download the theme.

All entries must be submitted in the forum thread mentioned below. Good luck

Link : Win a Unique Blog Designs WordPress Theme

Contest 1 : Blog Design Group Writing Project

The Group Writing Project has been live for about a week but there are still 11 days left in this great competition. Blog Design Studio, designers of the current Blogging Tips design, are looking for bloggers to write a post of at least 250 words on the topic of Blog Design. I think this is a great contest idea as it means you will not only be adding great content to your blog, you might also win a prize for your efforts.

Here’s a list of the prizes you can win :

1. Win a custom WordPress theme for your blog from Blog Design Studio (worth hundreds of dollars).
2. Premium Theme from Daily Blog Tips – Daniel has donated a premium theme from Premium Themes Now as the prize for second place.
3. Consultation from Kevin Muldoon (yes me!) – I will be giving some consultation to the first winner of the contest and doing my best to help the blogger with their blog.
4. Consultation from Mayank from Blog Design Studio – A prize for the third winner of the contest.

For full details of the contest please visit the competition info page at the link below.

Link : Free custom blog design contest – group writing project!

Contest 2 : Win a Template, Logo or Icon Pack at ProTycoon

Steve Michael from Brochure Monster contacted me recently about hosting a contest at ProTycoon, a great little blog I bought from former Blogging Tips author David Shaw recently.

To win a prize you need to write a review of Brochure Monster of around 200-250 posts.

There are three prizes up for grabs and each winner can choose from any of the following :

	Prize Option 1 You have the option to choose any of the templates at BuyTemplates.
	Prize Option 2 You have the option to choose any individual icon pack from IconGalore.
	Prize Option 2 You have the option to choose a logo from LogoAngel.

Full details of this link can be found at the link below.

Link : Win a Template, Logo or Icon Pack

Both of these contests require you to write a review on your blog. It may not be suitable on your main blog but can review them on your personal blog if you wish. Good luck to those who decide to take part.

This week we have 2 signed copies of ‘ProBlogger : Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income‘ up for grabs. Co-written by Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse, the ProBlogger book has been hugely popular and is one of the best blogging books available.

This 10 chapter book covers every aspect of blogging for money and has something for everyone in it.

To find out more about the book please check out the Official ProBlogger Book Website.

Competition Details

Here is this weeks challenge :

Post your best blog tip in 140 characters or less

As always, I think it’s important that things are kept fair and competitive :

• You are only allowed one entry so make it count!
• Ideas/Suggestions should be original ie. don’t just copy someone elses idea and try and claim it as your own.
• Deadline for entries is 12pm ET Tuesday 25th November 2008

On Tuesday 25th November Darren will choose what he believes to be the best response

All entries must be submitted in the forum thread mentioned below. Good luck

Link : Win a signed copy of Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger Book

This weeks prize is a copy of the fantastic Ninja Affiliate WordPress Plugin (worth $97), which has kindly been donated by Max Blog Press.

The Ninja Affiliate WordPress Plugin is an excellent plugin which lets you easily convert keywords on your blog into affiliate links. It is incredibly easy to use and should help every blog increase their affiliate commissions.

Competition Details

Here is this weeks question :

If you own ‘MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate’ then how will it help you to maximize your income from your blog in many different ways?

Here are some recent posts from the MaxBlogPress Blog which may may find useful when answering this question :

• Are You Monetizing Your RSS Feeds?
• The Hallmark of A Pro Affiliate Marketer
• Do Or Die: Track and Manage Your Affiliate Links
• Don’t fly blind
• Affiliate program can earn you more than twice what you are earning now

As always, I think it’s important that things are kept fair and competitive :

• You are only allowed to leave as many answers as you want
• Ideas/Suggestions should be original ie. don’t just copy someone elses idea and try and claim it as your own.
• Deadline for entries is 12pm ET Tuesday 18th November 2008

On Tuesday 18th November Pawan from MaxBlogPress will choose what he believes to be the best response

All entries must be submitted in the forum thread mentioned below. Good luck

Link : Win a Copy of the Ninja Affiliate WordPress Plugin

This weeks prize is a 2 hours of blog consultation from David Peralty of Branding David. The winner will be able to speak to David for 2 hours on the phone, e-mail, skype, im or ustream. (woth $240). You will be able to discuss tactics for link baiting, SEO, WordPress management and much more.

In the last 4 years David has worked for some of the largest and most well known blog networks on the web so I’m sure he will be able to greatly help the winner with their blog.

Competition Details

Here is this weeks question :

What is the one blog that has a balance of great
design, strong branding and excellent content in your mind, and
please defend your selection?

As always, I think it’s important that things are kept fair and competitive :

• You are only allowed to write one answer so please take your time to think about it and leave a good reply.
• Ideas/Suggestions should be original ie. don’t just copy someone elses idea and try and claim it as your own.
• Deadline for entries is 12pm ET Tuesday 11th November 2008

On Tuesday 11th November David will choose what he believes to be the best response

All entries must be submitted in the forum thread mentioned below. Good luck

Link : 2 hours of blog consultation from David Peralty

This weeks prize is a year long license of the professional edition of Performancing Metrics online stats software (worth $59), kindly donated by Performancing.

Competition Details

Here is this weeks question :

What would be the three most important traffic details or information
you would want to see in your analytics software overview, aside from
page views and uniques?

As always, I think it’s important that things are kept fair and competitive :

• There is no limit to the number of suggestions you can make.
• Ideas/Suggestions should be original ie. don’t just copy someone elses idea and try and claim it as your own.
• Deadline for entries is 12pm ET Monday 3rd November 2008.

On Monday 3rd November Angelo from Performancing will choose what he believes to be the best idea for a new feature.

All entries must be submitted in the forum thread mentioned below. Good luck

Link : Win a Professional Edition of Performancing Metrics

Before we talk about the contest, here is a list of all the prizes on offer :

• A lifetime subscription to Keyword Country (worth $2,000)
• An annual subscription to the Trackur corporate edition (worth $1,000)
• $300 courtesy of Sponsored Reviews
• $300 courtesy of BidVertiser
• $300 courtesy of TNX
• $100 from Daily Blog Tips
• $300 in text links from Text-Link-Ads
• A 3-month subscription to the SEO Book Training Program (worth $300)

Daniel has added some rules to ensure that the competition is fair. He has setup a panel to award points to the most improved blog and there is an open voting session too. The blog with the highest jump in RSS subscribers also gets points. All in all I think the rules are pretty straight forward and should make sure it’s a fair competition.

Anyone with a blog with less than 2,000 subscribers can participate. All you need to do is email Daniel with your name and blog URL. The deadline for applications is the midnight, Thursday, October 30th.

There are some great prizes on offer and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun so I recommend taking part if you have a blog with less than 2,000 subscribers. Good luck

Link : Blogging Idol 2: Send Your Application Now