After weeks of hard work and patiently waiting for the final results, Hesham of FamousBloggers finally announced the winners of the Internet Marketing Blogging contest he recently organized. I am so happy to know, despite the “close race” between the contestants, that I managed to win it, and along with the obvious reward, I must say that I have found so many advantages to have participated in this contest, that quite frankly, I don’t even know where to start. This is the first time I actually participated in a contest as most of the time, I prefer to be a sponsor.
Anyway, I will lay out the most important things (positive and negative) I learned, and explain within a certain context, why this venture is very similar to achieving results in your online endeavors. Note that the advantages are not limited to just the participants, but for everyone involved (more on that later).
First Things First
To all the participants, sponsors, supporters, the winners and specially Hesham (the host and organizer), thanks! This was a remarkable event and one that would have not been possible without everyone’s active participation. I would also like to thank all those who have supported me during this contest. Special thanks to Ileane and Holly (Blogging Survival Winner), for staying there up to the last minute :). Also, congrats to Jane Sheeba, Sandipan Mukherjee, Danielle McGaw and Ana Hoffman.
The Formula For Winning?
This is the secret… “I was determined to win and never thought of quitting”.. nothing else!
And with this determination, I set out the plan of what I needed to do, to make it so. Here’s what I did…
1) Read and understood the rules to its fullest. I had some doubts with the “reviews” and the “type of links” I could use (aff link for example), so I sent Hesham an email and he responded promptly.
Lesson: When in doubt, ask.
2) Wrote and submitted my entry, in addition to creating a “how to” type video tutorial embedded in the article. As soon as it was published, I had 15 days to promote it and obtain as much shares and comments as possible. They counted for points.
While the support that I got during the 15 days of promotion was more than I expected, it was not enough in comparison to my fellow “competitors”. 15 days later, the promotion was locked and no additional points counted.
3) This is an important part. I started to “monitor” my competitors and see what was going on. Fortunately this was a bit easier due to Heshams real time results (CompResult). In addition, I followed Kristi’s technique of monitoring the results via a simple spreadsheet and started to “map” my offense to level the playing field.
4) Finally, and by carefully “monitoring” the results, I figured that the only way I could get ahead is by writing sponsor reviews (remember the rules). This is where I started to go crazy.. Just wrote lots of it and again, simulated the results using the spreadsheet above. In addition, I was carefully watching what the top contestants where doing. I said to myself, if you write “twice” as much, perhaps you can have a fighting chance and achieve better results. Ultimately, that’s what happened. Just look at the top five and see that they all written reviews. I was actually surprised that “other” contestants decided not to do so.
Advantages and Why You Can Compare Some Things Learned Here With Your Online Ventures
As I mentioned before, let’s take the obvious out of the way…
1) May not mean much to you, but I proved to myself that if you are really “determined” and take action, the chances of success are multiplied many times over. Whatever you want to do or accomplish, apply the same motivation and determination and GO FOR IT! It is the only way that you can make things happen. Don’t quit!
2) For Hesham, the host and organizer, the exposure was massive and while it may not have been the primary objective, the amount of “backlinks” his website got was tremendous. As far as social engagement is concerned, there are simply way over a thousand links pointing to his website. Need I say more?
3) In incognito mode, Google for the term “Curationsoft Review” and the results are awesome. While there may not be a lot of people searching for the software (yet), I am convinced that in a matter of time, things may change, considering that the topic of content curation is getting a lot of attention.
Results: Great for SEO. My post and the video I uploaded on YouTube are getting a lot of attention from Google. In addition, I have actually sold four Pro Versions of the software during the contest. Not much I know, but the fact that “the rules” allowed for affiliate links, getting this much visibility can have an extra benefit. Plus, the entry has backlinks to my site :).
4) The sponsors – I think the sponsors are satisfied with the results. A total of 149 reviews were written and all of the reviews had at least two backlinks to their site. In addition, all contestant had to write a blog post about the contest, and obligatory links to the sponsors. All in all, I believe they had a good return for their generous offers.
5) Last but not least, the contestants. In my opinion, everyone won. The contestants got exposure and were able to take advantage of Hesham’s blog visibility. I met a few people that I have not stumbled upon before and that opened for an opportunity to build relationships in the future.
As you can see, a blogging contest is almost the same as blogging or guest posting. The advantages are there for your taking. The most important part of all this, is to answer a simple question – how determined are you to succeed?
Obviously not everything is a contest, but in essence, if you are doing some form of business online, it eventually ends up in some sort of “friendly competition” and taking action to make things happen… “Those who do, will.. and those who don’t, will not…. “ And for the record, now that I have won the contest, I am ready to look into flights to New York and book it ASAP :).
Brankica wrote a post recently and she ends the article with this message:
Don’t just read about it, don’t just plan to do something,
don’t just dream about something – DO IT!
It is with this mindset that everyone should be facing the challenges of 2012.
That’s it! BTW, and off topic, you may have noticed that “Speedlink” is on a small hiatus. It will be back on 2012.
Thank you all once again for being supportive and here’s to a wonderful new year and to your success.
Image credit: clipartof.com
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ntathu allen
Well done my dear. Excellent results and yes blogging contests are a fantastic way to connect with.others; and grow. Wishing you a traquil and contented 2012.
Hi Ntathu. Sorry for the delayed response. Thanks and a great 2012 for you too!
Abhi Balani (OddBlogger)
First of all, Congratulations.
Thank you very much for sharing all these. I have participated in my first contest. And learnt very much from this post. Big thanks again and a very happy new year.
Hi Abhi. Thanks and good luck with your contest. I have seen your entry on Jane’s blog and it is great. Happy new year to you too.. thanks for stopping by
What an awesome win my friend! How wise to follow the tracking strategy you picked up from Kristi along with advice from Brankica – how can you lose when you follow the guidance of those two contest winners!
Congratulations to you and all the best on your continued success in 2012!
Hi Ileane. Yeah, both Krist and Brankica’s advice were very helpful to help me win the contest. Your valuable support was equally important and one that I have no words to thank you enough.
All in all, that’s one of the messages that I also wanted to relay.. Having the tools, the information and advice are all good, but is useless if don’t put it into action…
Thanks for stopping by and a happy new year! Wishing you all the best and good luck with your “email marketing” objective 😉
Robert
That’s great stuff, well done! Blog competitions are always a great way to improve your blogging skills, and you learn a lot more than you realise. I’ve actually just finished a series of interviews with a blog competition that Kiesha Easley of WeBlogBetter was running, and even though I wasn’t in that competition, I learnt a great deal from it just be talking with the contestants.
Hi Robert. Thanks! Blog competitions are really great to follow and learn from, even if you decide not to participate. This is particularly true if you have a great organizer, awesome sponsors and great bloggers joining the wagon 🙂 So much to learn… Thanks for stopping by and happy new year
Congrats on winning DiTesco. Of course, I read the entire thing then started looking for the link to your YouTube video and I don’t see it here; man, we’ve got to get you to remember to promote your links more. lol
LOL, Mitch. You got me there with those links 🙂 I could have actually pointed to YouTube but preferred for people to go around it and stop by Hesham site first 🙂 Thanks and hope all is well with you. A happy and great new year.. All the best
Jim Syyap
Congratulations! I blog and know how much it takes just to be consistent with it. Imagine having to win a contest when I don’t even know where the next idea is going to come from.
Keep it up!
sam @ goa carnival
Yes this it is unique way to attract many other bloggers and take many good advantage from this contest and beside that no doubt in that we can get many more types of info with the help of this contest.
sai krishna
very nice to know that you are the winner , your explanation also very nice and you cached very nice points 🙂
Congratulations and thanks for sharing this valuable insight. I have yet to enter a blogging contest but 2012 may be the year. I will definitely bookmark your article. I’m off to check out Kristi’s technique as well.
Hi Sherryl. Thanks!
Yeah, it took me a while to jump in my first contest. But once I decided to go for it, I did what I had to do 🙂 Whenever you decide to enter a contest, let me know and I’ll be there pushing and rooting for you like crazy, lol.
A great and wonderful new year to you. All the best and sorry for the late response
Cheng Lee
I also want to participate in such competitions, if anyone have information about any competition please inform me. I don’t want to win the competition. I am just trying to improve my blogging skills.
Hi Cheng. Check this one out > http://www.probloggingsuccess.com/blogging-tips-101-contest/
William Anderson
Great and very nice, finally you can have a fighting chance and achieve better results.Thanks for sharing
Jane
Fran you really did go crazy with the sponsor reviews 🙂 .
Although I maintained a chart myself, I also got involved with Christmas activities in the Church and didn’t publish some reviews (about 12 of them) that I wrote. Don’t know if they would have helped but still, it was a nice competition 🙂 So much to learn and the experience is priceless!
And I too noticed that only those who wrote reviews won 🙂
Kostas
Congratulation Francisco, this was really a tough competition but it seems that it’s difficult for others to compete with you. I hope you will have a great new year with even more success…
Hi Kostas. Thanks!
As for the competition, I think that everyone had the same chance of winning. I did what I had to do and that is what made the difference. In just about everything I do, I apply the same philosophy and that is to go for it and not look back. In one or another, there is something I learn from it 😉
thanks again and a happy new year
Rizwan Sultan
Hey DieTesco!!
Congrats for wining the competition I think it’s a real gift for Christmas and new year.
Thanks Rizwan. It is a wonderful “gift” indeed 🙂 Hope all is well with you and a happy new year
Max
Hey DiTesco –
Congrats on winning the blogging contest. It takes time and talent to win something like that, so congrats.
Congrats DiTesco . Well deserved win and thanks for sharing the experience and the “secret to your contest success”.
faissal alhaithami
congratulation Ditesco, you really deserve it 😀 as you have done a massive work to reach that.
well done.
Jeet Dholakia
First all very congratulations to you.
It take serious hard effort from your side to get in to the contest and win it from there. and thank you so much for mentioning and explaining the steps which you have followed. in future if i will get chance and if there will be some contest than i will surely participate in to it. one question i would like to ask you is you sponsor some giveaway on other blog?