Blogging Idol

[EmmaB]

Are there any blogging idol participants on this forum? What do you think of the competition? I sent in my application but I am still waiting to know if I am approved.

[Rarst]

I've sent my application and got confirmation already. But since I skipped contact form and mailed it to Daniel directly that may have been a shortcut. :)

[athlon24]

My application was also confirmed already. and i think there's no shortcut thing because I used the contact form. and Daniel immediately confirmed it, the day after. :D

[akira07]

ha? what the blogging idol comeptiton is? competition to choose the best blogger? I just know about it right now, can you tell me detail information about it?

[athlon24]

@akira
I am not really sure if application is still open. My time zone is different here. It will close thursday. Kevin blogged about it, you should have never missed it if you were subscribed to bloggingtips. http://www.bloggingtips.com/2008/10/28/blogging-idol-2/

:p

[Kevin]

I'm taking part as well (not with bloggingtips, with another of my blogs). It should be fun.

It will be interesting to see what blogs emerge after a few weeks.

[slee]

i was considering doing it but im away for a few days from tomorrow so imnot sure if u should do it or not as ill miss the first week

[athlon24]

@slee
you should have joined in. it was just a fun

For me, I need some miracle for me to win. As of now, I only have 2 subscribers. :D:D:D Pity me.

[Kevin]

i was considering doing it but im away for a few days from tomorrow so imnot sure if u should do it or not as ill miss the first week

It's free to enter so you have nothing to lose :)

[Rarst]

@slee
you should have joined in. it was just a fun

For me, I need some miracle for me to win. As of now, I only have 2 subscribers. :D:D:D Pity me.

It's about increase gained, not about total quantity. :) Getting initial subscribers is sometimes easier than increasing after first hundred.

[slee]

It's free to enter so you have nothing to lose :)

You are right so ive signed up :) it will be good for me to get some more subscibers as i want to start writing more.

I just checked i have 1 subscriber haha

[athlon24]

@Rarst
I thought about it too. For us, who have small number of subscribers and are in initial stage of our blogs, it is easier to have new subscriber. :D

i hope that is true.. :p

[akira07]

ow man i miss this competition, but it's OK since actually i think i'll not win...well my blog is new and so simple....
well, i find the prize is so interesting, $4500 worth of prize, maybe next time i'll join it :D

[slee]

i never got a reply when i signed up so i dont know if im in or not :(

[akira07]

@slee
so, you already sign up?

Hmmm, if i hold a contest in way to get subscriber, it's allowed or no?

[slee]

well i tried but ive not had confirmation that im in

[EmmaB]

There are over 150 Applications so it will take time :)
I think that is why there is a one day space, so that they can go through all of them.

[slee]

ah right i didnt know that hopefully ill get confirmation before i go away on holiday though

[akira07]

@slee
i think making contest in way to get subscriber is allowed, because there is no rules which said that "you can't make a contest".
I think making contest is best strategy, the rest is, dare you invest to it?

[Rarst]

@slee
i think making contest in way to get subscriber is allowed, because there is no rules which said that "you can't make a contest".
I think making contest is best strategy, the rest is, dare you invest to it?

There is rule "no paid advertisement" so just pumping bucks in contest won't work. I think it strongly depends on nature of prizes offered. I didn't follow firs blogging idol closely but remember there were disqualifications for unfitting contests.

[athlon24]

@Kevin
I'm just curious. What is the blog that you entered in this contest?

[navjotjsingh]

Damn I missed the contest second time too. At first edition, I did not find the rules nice enough. And when the second one seems improved, I missed it completely! my Bad! :(

[akira07]

There is rule "no paid advertisement" so just pumping bucks in contest won't work. I think it strongly depends on nature of prizes offered. I didn't follow firs blogging idol closely but remember there were disqualifications for unfitting contests.


rules "no paid investment", right?
how about make the prize is "banner 125x125 ads in my site" ?
it's allowed or no? We must asking for it, first....

Well, for people who late to register, just wait for blogging idol 3

[Rarst]

Game start! :)

If someone (participating or not) looking for stuff like guest post, reviews and banner exchanges (with really nice ratio) check my post :)
http://www.rarst.net/web/blogging-idol-participation/

[akira07]

i'm not participating, but hopefully this event will success and one of bloggingtips forum meber will win the prize.
Rarst, what is your strategy in way to get subscriber?

[Rarst]

i'm not participating, but hopefully this event will success and one of bloggingtips forum meber will win the prize.
Rarst, what is your strategy in way to get subscriber?

Cross-promoting two feeds with different content, getting visibility by exchanging reviews, banners and doing guest posts. Pointing my usual promotion to feed instead of blog itself.

That's for a start. :) Have some ideas in development.

[akira07]

so how many participant is from bloggingtips forum? About your strategy, getting visibility by exchanging reviews, banners and doing guest posts is OK, good luck.
How about we creating together strategy to win it? Just wanna help :D

I thinking about how if you giving free away freebook?
Build an opt-in list and system which make people will get free e-book if only their reffer your site to their 10 friend?

[slee]

ah it is a shame i was too late to join as my counter wasn't on my site and i was on holiday when daniel emailed me so i've missed it now.

let me know if i can help any of you with some ideas :)

[akira07]

@slee
you can try next time in blogging idol3 hehe...

Ups, sorry i make a correction for my previous post :
I thinking about how if you giving free away freebook?
Build an opt-in list and system which make people will get free e-book if only their reffer your site to their 10 friend?

it's not related to subscribe, but it's way to get opt-in :D. But if there is a trick to sending e-book automatically via email after someone subscribing, that is what i mean. Is there any method to do it?

@all participant
how's going on?

[sarahG]

it's not related to subscribe, but it's way to get opt-in :D. But if there is a trick to sending e-book automatically via email after someone subscribing, that is what i mean. Is there any method to do it?

Not when they subscribe as subscribing to the feed is anonymous (unless you mean via email, and I don't think Feedburner offers that option).

What you could do is edit your feed file to insert an additional comment that only people subscribed to your feed would see. So for example you could have at the start or end of a post

"As a way of saying thank you for subscribing to my feed I am offering a free eBook to all subscribers on whatever subject. To get this book please visit this url"

Or, if you didn't want to put the eBook online for your subscribers to download, you could put up a basic form, ask people to fill that out and you'd send them the eBook. It could be made automated if you wanted to, with a bit of scripting.

[athlon24]

ah it is a shame i was too late to join as my counter wasn't on my site and i was on holiday when daniel emailed me so i've missed it now.

let me know if i can help any of you with some ideas :)

I can use your idea slee. I don't have any idea yet and I am losing fast. Since the start of the contest, I only got 2 subscriber increase... :(

[akira07]

@athlon24
what strategy which you use to get subscriber? I wanna know it, so i can give my opinion and suggestion for you. Get only 2 subscriber is bad :D, i think you must using another strategy

[athlon24]

@akira
That's the thing I don't have any idea yet. My blog is new and my strategy now is to put up more content. :D I just joined in, to get a little bit of exposure while adding content.

[akira07]

oh so you entering new blog for blogging idol, hmm...
how about giving away free e-book about "how to win blogging idol" hahaha...!!!! LOL so funny, right? to win blogging idol, what we do is to tell people how to win it

[slee]

firs off have a look at this plugin: http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do it is very good for attracting visitors to sign up

[sarahG]

firs off have a look at this plugin: http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do it is very good for attracting visitors to sign up

It's a nice idea except it should be handled a bit better for non-cookie users. I select which cookies are set in Firefox and if I've refused a cookie I don't want a 'new user' message for every visit.

It'd be easier to check for a cookie, if the cookie doesn't exist, check to see if one can be set, if it can then you can treat them as a new visitor, if it can't then you could always have a different message saying

"Cookies could not be set. Enable cookies for this site to see additional features"

I'm surprised no one's mentioned it to the plugin developer (although they may have in the 500+ comments that I didn't look at!)

But overall, yeah it's a good idea/plugin. I've seen it on a few sites and thought about doing it myself.

[akira07]

anyway, some subscibing contest at some blog is closed and the reason is because their participate at blogging idol and to make contest is gaaints the blogging idol rules. I can understand it :D