5 Steps To Successfully Competing In A Blogging Contest
Tom
With ‘Blogging Idol‘ coming close to the half way mark I am guessing most of you know where you are standing and how you have been going. I want to take a quick look at 5 easy steps to make sure that you come away with a good result.
Now when I say good result, I don’t mean that you have to walk away the winner of the contest. Although that would be nice – you may have notice that over 100 blogs have been entered into the contest the odds are not really in our favour to win, so how do you make sure you are a winner even if you don’t walk away with first place and a massive prize pool?
So You Don’t Enter Contests To Win?
No, I am not saying that. Sure have winning as one of your goals, but for me personally, there are other reasons for entering contests – especially rss ones like ‘Blogging Idol’.
I have come up with 5 steps to help you successfully complete a blogging contest.
- List Your Reasons For Entering
Why are you entering this contest? Sure to win the main prize, but what if you don’t? What else do you want to accomplish? With Blogging Idol I had to look at this because I new my chances of beating 100+ bloggers was pretty slim. I knew I had to have other reason for entering. I decided that that the main reason for entering this competition was to motivate myself to increase the effort I put in to this blog and to increase my RSS feed count dramatically. - Set Your Goals For The Contests – Based Off Your Reasons For Entering
Now we have a reason for entering, that isn’t winning, we have to start setting goals for each of these reasons. This is where SMART goals come into play. You need to make sure your goals are:
S – Specific M – MeasurableA - Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Time BoundSo i decided my goal was:
To increase my RSS feed count from 30 to 100 subscribers within the month of July.
You will notice that this goal fits every step of the SMART goals formula. Have goals that fit this formula makes it easy to see if you are on track and gives you a definable goal that will either be achieved or not.
- Create A Plan To Accomplish Your Goals
Goals are all good and well, but how are you going to achieve them? Now is the time you need to start looking at creating your plan. This is where you take your goal, and break it down into smaller bite size pieces and laying out your strategy to achieve it.With my goal, I created a plan that listed a few ways that I would meet them. I listed them when I posted about my goals for July. I also wrote a guest post on TylerCruz.com about how to break your goals into smaller more manageble goals. The key here is to map out the course you are taking to achieve your goals.
- Carry Out Your Plans
This is where you have to do what you said you were going to do. Take your plan and start putting it into motion. You have come this far by having a reason to enter, creating goals, and setting forth a strategy to achieve these goals – don’t give up now! Take the daily steps you need to achieve what you set out to do. - If You Meet Your Goals Early – Adjust Them Higher
This is the fun part! The thing about SMART goals is that if you have set in motion a strategy to complete them – you will most likely achieve them early. I have done this with Blogging Idol. I set myself a goal to have over 100 subscribers by the end of July. I set my plan into motion and totally smashed my goal by achieving it in the first 12 days of July. So do I just slow down and go back to normal? No way! I have doubled my goals and now plan on having 200 rss subscribers by the end of July.
Obviously this is something that should be done before you a competition starts, but if you have not done this already and you are taking part in Blogging Idol, then I highly recommend you stop what you are doing and take 30min to set some goals and map out your path to success.
Then have a successful competition completing your goals!
Vote for StandOutBlogger.com at Blogging Idol: Subscribe to our RSS Feed or email updates to get each new post to you as soon as they are written!
| 2.8 (1 person) |
Hahaha. Great post man! In had the same problem
Gerards last blog post..Band Game No Longer A Game
Congrats on reaching your goal, that was an amazing jump!
Rajaie AlKoranis last blog post..What I Think Of Blogging Idol And Its Contestants
Wow, congratulations! That’s pretty impressive to be able to increase your subscriber count that rapidly. I must admit, I often set goals, but they are not generally “smart” goals.
Nicks last blog post..CTCSS and PL Tones
I really love this post! Thanks a lot, Tom!
Very insightful post.
You know what, this post about goal-setting actually inspires me to create a new blog. Now I just have to think it through and consider my priorities. 
This is a great post.First I want to congratulate you for achieving your goal.This is a great post as anyone can use it even if they are not in a competition like me
.So again a great post and I hope you win Blogging Idol.
Jagdeshs last blog post..Changes And Updates At OnlyTechStuff
Great tips, although I never really use them that much for blogging it’s the kind of stuff I do use when working on projects for my classes
.
Congrats on hitting the 100 RSS subscriber mark Tom!
IronBloggers last blog post..10 Ways To Keep Your Blog In Top Shape
what make people follow your steps here is the stats that backs you down.. nice rss boost…
Melvins last blog post..How To Get That Advertising
I have spoken before about your tactics for blogging idol.
Just a question, are you worried about damaging your reputation by offering free links in return for RSS subscribers?
I know the saying, ‘Don’t blame the player, blame the game’, – I have so far stuck to my tactics of letting my content build my RSS count. I am currently in the top 20, I think.
I hope to see my number rise a lot more this week!
David Shaws last blog post..ProTycoon.com Update
gr8 tips
congrats for reaching ur goals ;D
Siddharths last blog post..Convert your PSD to XHTML and CSS Pages for FREE!
David: No I am not worried at all. I am offering a promotion, just like the countless bloggers offering free ebooks for subscription. I see it as an incentive for people to subscribe and even if to start with they are only doing it for the link, I then have the opportunity to convert them to active members of my blog – an opportunity I would never have had without my link offer.
Like I said before Tom:
Don’t blame the player, blame the game
I am not taking anything away from you, everyone has their own tactics!
I have done my research over the last 12 days! I am now ready to make my move!
When you understand why you are in a contest it’s easier to form a plan. There are some great bloggers out there and I wish them all the best. I don’t think I’ll win, but I just did it to learn new techniques.
Karl Staib – Your Work Happiness Matterss last blog post..Give It Your All, Not for Your Boss, But for Your Own Work Happiness
thanks for coming to my blog and thanks also for your useful tips.
If really want to win in a contest, interest should come first before the plan.
Jan Alvins last blog post..Yahoo! Search BOSS
Hey Tom, Thanks for stopping by my blog,I came by to check you and your site out! Love it and low and behold I was subscribed to your blog from this past winter… I was one of your loyal followers. Great to see you are back! I wish I had known about this contest earlier I could have joined in on the fun. Great prizes!!
jjmomscashblogs last blog post..How to Write Ads That Sell – Part I
[...] gives 5 tips on how to compete in a contest – [...]
Good points listed. It should be fun to take part though I have not participated myself before. Guess now after this post I will be looking at things differently and taking a different approach.