Using a Contest to Increase Your RSS Feed
Posted on March 1st, 2008 by John Cow under Guest BloggersIf you're new here, you may want to check out this cool new contest. You could win almost$3000 in Prizes!
-A Guest Post By Ian Fernando-
There are multiple ways to increase your RSS feed. You can have a HUGE RSS button, offer free ebooks, dedicate a subscription landing page, guest blogging, forum posting/hopping, etc. The most interactive one (I personally find) is hosting a contest or giving out rewards.
In the past I have hosted 3 contests with specific sponsors giving out a free version of the Revolutions Theme by Brian Gardner, giving out OIOPublisher by Simon, and recently giving away 3 Premium Templates for Free! Now, I am having another contest with more sponsors and more prizes to giveaway!
First, how can a contest really attract readers to your blog and will they subscribe? A contest with prizes is more like a bribe; you want to reward your readers with something unique. A lot of readers will start to view your blog because you are giving things for free. I mean who does not like FREE. But are the rewards worth the bribe or benefits?
Think about this, John Chow literally gives things away via contest. What he gets from his business partners for free he gives back to his readers. I am doing the same with the help of some sponsors. With the help of sponsors, I have the chance to give something back to my readers. It can be a simple T-Shirt, 3000 EntreCard Credits, or it can be a $97 eBook about Atmoic Blogging; whatever the rewards that your sponsor is providing it should benefit your readers. If you provide poor pathetic rewards you get poor pathetic results.
What is a contest when there are no participants?
Your current readers need to be interacting within your blog, reward them for what they do on a daily basis a simple comment or by simply subscribing to your blog. If a contest has a great prize then maybe something of greater value such as a post about the contest may be more qualified to winning that specific prize.
If your readers simply just read your feed and do not comment, try to get them to comment by stating you have a contest. This allows you to interact with your readers that normally do not interact with your blog. Create that atmosphere to your readers, especially if your posts are controversial.
Your current readers should be the first to be on the scene when you announce you have a contest. They should be the first one to tell their friends or leave a comment. Your current readers are the ones that give your blog authority to the new comers of your website. Just like a forum, if there is no interaction it proves to be a lousy forum, same goes for your blog.
Using the benefits of RSS to get New Subscribers and Interactions
When you subscribe to a feed there are usually footer notes at the bottom, either from a Wordpress plugin or from Feedburner. This proves to be very beneficial, there are multiple readers that subscribe to a feed but do not interact with your blog. Leaving a foot note to comment on a specific post to win a specific prize can give them that push to comment and interact with your blog, giving you more authority.
Also, there are a lot of readers out there that go to your blog that just remembers your dot com. These readers particularly do not bookmark or subscribe to your feed; these are readers that love your blog so much they just want to go to your site. To entice these readers, tell them you are having a contest and you are rewarding dedicated readers on this blog with great prizes. Once they are subscribed they see the foot note and they interact, it is a chain reaction.
A lot of your readers are probably thinking “Whats In It For Me?” Get them to think differently, explain the benefits of leaving a comment. Tell your readers you are having a contest and only valid comments are eligible to participate in such a contest. A simple comment from your reader gives them a chance to win a prize from you or one of your sponsors. I personally think this is the best way to gain more readers and create interaction among you, entrepreneurs, and bloggers on the internet.
The contest does not just gather more readers or create interaction; it creates some what of a viral stage. Users will start to write and spread the news of a blogger giving out FREE things, especially if the item is of great value. Once the contest is being spoken of in forums, written on other blogs, bookmarked, etc you gain more readers and soon gain more RSS subscribers.
Overall, a contest on your blog can prove to be very beneficial to you and your readers. Also, it proves to be entertaining and fun as well. The best part is everyone benefits: your sponsors, your readers, and you as a blogger.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
March 1st, 2008 at 6:49 pm
March 1st, 2008 at 6:49 pm
March 1st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
For some reason, I’m very hesitant to host contests rewarding people who subscribe. I guess I feel that I don’t want any junk subscribers…fake emails, people who aren’t interested in my content, etc.
Who knows though, eventually I might give in, just to see that magic number increase.
Jason’s last blog post..Are You Sleeping With Lorena Bobbitt?
March 1st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Cool post but it was lacking in several areas.
Getting participants is a huge part of getting a successful contest. The best way to get more people of course is to market it. Contest blogs are a perfect tool for this. We have put together the 20 contest blogs, which is a valuable resource for anyone looking to have and promote their contest.
http://blogaboutyourblog.com/2007/11/19/top-20-contest-blogs/
Matthew’s last blog post..Comment Friday for February 29th
March 1st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I agree with the fake subscribers point, but increasing your subscriber account will help your popularity regardless of the fact that they are interested or not. This was a really good post, but I just feel like it stresses contests a bit too much as the end-all, must-have in order to increase your traffic. You need to have great content in addition to incentives for the best chances for success
Jim’s last blog post..Top Five Must-Have WordPress Plugins
March 1st, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Its not an “end all” but it is a great way to get a boost. However, you have to keep them. I owe contests a lot for the subscribers and promotion we’ve gotten.
Matthew’s last blog post..WP Auctions Plugin - Bid Now
March 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
> all
a lot of people say they are hesitant they do not want junk subscribers because they are just in it for teh prizes, but it does bring some benefits - also contest should be related to your targeted audience if it is general the crowd will be general
> matt
ofcourse marketing the contest is important, without any traffic there is no point in the traffic. but the ability to use the current traffic to generate new buzz is fairly greatful of your readers
> jim
content ofcourse is needed especially great content and especially if you want your readers to stay as subscribers
Iantrepreneur’s last blog post..Affiliate Summit West: Jason Calacanis Controversial Keynote
March 1st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I run competitions on my forum which I suppose is similar.
Close Protection’s last blog post..CJStoffberg Introduction on 01st March 2008
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 am
Interesting! I agree Ian, hosting contests can really boost your subscribers count. And if out of 50 contestants if only 25 stay, even that is worth as they weren’t there before.
Nice post!
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 am
Contests are great to get more RSS subscribers. I’ve done a few and it’s time to do another.
Affiliate Confession’s last blog post..Jason Calacanis - The Great Master Baiter
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:28 am
That is very useful if you want to increase your feed.
David Chew’s last blog post..KLIA Airport
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 am
Wow! This is my read of the day
Keep up the good work!
-Mike
Mike Huang’s last blog post..You Are A Techie When Your License Plate Says So
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
The interesting thing about holding a contest is that in some ways, it could help in your SEO efforts too. Great article to moltivate someone to start a blog contest.
Blog Contest Central’s last blog post..The 5 mistakes that no blog should ever make in a blog contest
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
> all
thanks
> blog contest
yes contest can help with seo and pr and linkbacks - it is helpful in every way
Iantrepreneuer’s last blog post..Affiliate Summit West: Jason Calacanis Controversial Keynote
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I have thought about a competition for a while now. I wasn’t looking at 100% self promotion though. As nice as it would be to get more subscribers and interaction on my site I wanted to promote an open source application that I use. End of the day word press wouldn’t have as many themes, plugins etc if the public didn’t drive it too
Has given me quite a couple of things to think about
Si Philp’s last blog post..Struggling for ideas? Using your statistics for post ideas
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
Does this have the same effect if you’re blog is new and has no or little following?
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
for new blogs i don’t recommend this because you would have to promote your contest separately. I ran a contest when i launched my site, and i am offering 8 prizes and i still have 6 contestants. Now it is still going until the 11th, but i guess people don’t find a need to win the 7th or 8th prize. Perhaps i think in a few months i will retry the contest.
Syed Balkhi’s last blog post..A way to expose your blog to a larger audience
April 1st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
April 4th, 2008 at 5:40 am
April 14th, 2008 at 1:50 am
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