Tips for Running a Blog Contest

Running a contest is good for many reasons on your blog site. It will bring you new subscribers, links back to your site and ultimately reward one lucky winner with a prize. As the "Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer" is the first contest I've ever run on any blog, it's definitely been a learning experience in the early stages. It's had over 10 entries so far, so it takes some work to keep track of the various entry types.

Here's some things to consider when you set up a contest on your own blog:

1) Keep the rules clear and simple. Last thing you want to do is confuse people. I think following form of most other blog contests you've seen helps here. Take a look at the blog Contestblogger.com. They announce every contest around and you can see how sites set their rules. With this I also decided to make a minimum number of entrants. Entrecard is popular but you never know what you're gonna get based on current traffic, etc.

2) Promote the contest elsewhere - Not just on your blog itself. I'd suggest you make a clear link somewhere noticeable on your blog. Look to other blogs and forums to announce your contests as well. Especially if you're a newbie blogger and may not have traffic to get enough entries. With this contest I posted on the Entrecard forum and informed a Contest Blog. The word of "mouth" from other blog entries helps too.

3) Keep a spreadsheet - That's the best way I could come up with to keep track of who has entered and how they've entered. Have columns for each of the ways to enter, RSS, Email, and Blog Post. List out each entrant. Then put the appropriate "entry amount" in that column for each person. I've also used it to keep track of people's emails, blog post URL's and screenshot URL's. So it's a smart idea to set up an Excel Spreadsheet or even download the free OpenOffice.org.

4) Determine a Good Deadline - I set the contest to end February 1, which seems far away right now. I'm thinking 2-3 weeks is good for most contests, because the longer it runs the more potential entries you will get.

5) Make Sure You Have the Prize - I've read on another blog that someone won a Playstation 3 and never received it. In this case I'm good for the 777 EC's sitting within my Entrecard account, so have no fear ;)

Again I wish good luck to any and all who've entered so far. I've also decided I will provide link love on the post announcing the winner. That means every entrant will be listed in the post as well, with a link back to their blog site or entry. It's rather simple to enter and you can check it out here:

Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer!

A Really Scary Ghost Story

Ok, Halloween is long past, but I wanted to share a really scary ghost story with you. The story is actually about each of us as individuals, and originates from Napoleon Hill's book, "Think and Grow Rich". The book isn't on the level of Stephen King horror, but it can be just as scary.

The story is that we each face the really scary "Six Ghosts of Fear". These vicious apparitions are what hold us back in our lives and prevent us from achieving the true success that we all deserve, even in blogging or making money online.

Six Ghosts of Fear:

Ghost 1 is the Fear of Poverty
Ghost 2 is the Fear of Love Loss
Ghost 3 is the Fear of Illness
Ghost 4 is the Fear of Old Age
Ghost 5 is the Fear of Criticism
Ghost 6 is the Fear of Death

As Hill mentions, many people will be quick to tell you they fear nothing, when in fact deep down in their subconscious they fear at least one of these. It may not be something they speak of often, but it exists and may even be what drives them. These fears are detrimental to our well-being and enjoyment of our lives though. They often lead us to other problems as well. For example a constant fear of love loss or illness can in fact manifest itself as illness in us. Bloggers most likely face the fear of criticism more often, or even the fear of poverty if they quit their jobs to blog.

So, I think that you'll agree this is a really scary ghost story. Often the scariest story of them all unfolds when we start evaluating our own flaws. That's not meant harshly, but often we are afraid to face these things. Others may be a better source of evaluation for what haunts us. Ask yourself which of these six scary ghosts do you really fear the most? Napoleon Hill basically says that once we face these ghosts of fear and learn to eliminate them, we can be on our way to true success.

And for a really scary ghost story on DVD, see:
The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)

New Entrepreneur Tax Planning

The following is a sponsored review. When you set up your own new business, often times you're faced with the challenge of what you want to operate your business as. It may be a partnership or even a sole proprietorship. It's extremely important, as the type of business you operate as will determine how you handle your tax situation. At the following S Corporation site they discuss the dangers of being in a sole proprietorship or partnership. Stephen L. Nelson CPA, MBA and MS also explains the S corporation advantages. There's several articles on the site including Tax return preparations, setting salaries for the owners of S corporations and a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section. Most importantly the site features $49 "do-it-yourself" kits to set up a S corporation in any state. It's definitely worth a look for entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out the best and most economical ways to set up their business venture.

Work to Make Money Online

All too often this concept is very overlooked online when it comes to making any sort of income. Mainly people have this conception that just adding Adsense code to a blog or site, or just signing up for a program will start making them instant money. It just doesn't work this way folks. You get paid for work in the real world, and making money online involves work too. If money were free, we wouldn't need make money online blogs...John Chow would be primarily blogging about food and Shoemoney about UFC.

Almost everyone's a rookie when they start out with Adsense. You may have read up on it, but it's going to take extra planning and tweaking to get it to work for your particular site. Not only that but in order to get paid by Adsense, you need enough traffic visiting your site to get the impressions/clicks to earn the $100 minimum payout. Getting traffic takes work, whether it be search engine optimization, promotion/marketing, building social networks or even offline publicizing. To expect Adsense to make you a steady income off a blog just by adding the code is a bad assumption. Many times it may even take several blogs or sites to earn a check from Google. It may also take several months before you even see that first check. But believe that it will take work. If it doesn't, then you're probably spending money to make your money.

Then there's the referrals signing up for programs. I've had individuals say "ok I'll sign up through you so you'll get the credit/incentive". The referrals don't work this way. For example, Widgetbucks or ShoppingAds (formerly AuctionAds). You can sign up for them, and you'll have $25 to start in your account. But simply signing up doesn't earn the referrer money. The referrer earns money through their own work and your work. And you'll earn extra money through the work you put in, to get your own referrals and implement the code on your site. PayPerPost is the same. You can sign up through a referrer, but they don't make a dime until 1)your blog is approved and 2)you post about PayPerPost. There's the work. Even survey programs seem like great concepts. But you're being paid for work, in terms of filling out surveys, which takes your time and effort.

Don't believe for a minute that guys like John Chow, Shoemoney or Darren Rowse are just lucky individuals who happened to make a fortune online. All 3 have worked extremely hard to get to where they are. So how hard are you willing to work to make money online yourself?