Winning (or How To Get Ahead In Blog Competitions)

No, this isn't a tribute to the massive arse that is Charlie Sheen.  It is literally about winning! 
As I tweeted earlier this week, in the last year, I've won over £200 worth of prizes from blogs.  And this is without really trying.  I don't search for competitions; I only enter those of people I follow on Twitter or links tweeted by people I follow.  And I only enter competitions with prizes that I would actually like (ie. I skim over all the baby stuff comps!).
So I thought I'd write this blog as a guide to blog competitions from a competitors point of view.


Firstly, the latest thing in comps seems to be Rafflecopter.  This makes entering said competitions very streamlined and allow for more than two ways to enter.  And it does it's job well, so long as the instructions given by the blogger are clear and precise and all the links point to where they're suppose to point.  It's not without it's drawbacks though.  It's quite impersonal and the temptation not to even read the blog and skip straight to the Rafflecopter box is strong.  


All blog competitions require you to leave a comment.  We know, when entering, that what we write isn't important, but it's still nice for us to get creative.  So suggest a question, a scenario, a thought competitors should add.  It makes me read other comments and relate more to the blogpost as more than just a competition.


Tweeting about a comp is obviously the best way to get your post out there, but where possible, let tweeters compile their own tweet as it saves the identical tweet occuring several times on our TL.  Again, maybe suggest a prompt.


If you require a Twitter follow for entry to the competition, try then to interact in some way with your new followers, otherwise, once the competition is over, they will simply unfollow. (Yes, I do this all the time).


On a personal level, I hate to "like" pages on Facebook.  I already do "like" a lot of blogger pages, but that is simply because I like them.  I won't "like" a page just to enter a competition.  I will, however, "like" a post on a bloggers page as it means that it doesn't clog up my stream.


If you decide to have a competitor email subscribe to your blog to enter, I would suggest that you use a facility where they are sent each actual blogpost rather than a reminder of a posting.  I only recently subscribed to several blogs, have them sent to my phone and read them on the move.  Have yet to figure out how to comment by email, but I fear that may require a phone upgrade.  (Anyone running a comp for a new phone??!)


And finally, make sure the winner finds out that they have won.  I was recently sent an email to say I'd won which ended up in my spambox.  And if they are happy with their prize and are nice like me, they will tweet you a photo once they receive it!

 My Experience Day Prize from Lakes Single Mum's blog

My Trollied dvd from Typecast's blog

I don't know whether I know enough about blogging for this post to be informative, but I certainly know enough about winning!  And if you have a competition running, feel free to include your link in the comments box!

What's pissed me off this week

I have decided to start a weekly (ok, the intention is weekly, but in reality, it will be lucky if it survives this week!) post covering the things that have pissed me off in the previous seven days (in the interests of catch-up, this post will cover everything that has pissed me off in the previous gazillion days in my life).  

1. Bullying - or to be precise, the Panorama documentary about cyber-bullying.  I know this isn't going to be a popular opinion, but it comes from someone who was bullied most of her school life and still has instances of bullying now.  Bullying in school is appalling and every school's main aim should be to eliminate it.  Kids can be horrible and their parents don't help matters.  It is everyone's responsibility to tackle bullying.  However.. (ok, this is where it gets controversial...) cyber-bullying, while just as hurtful and damaging, has a simple solution. Block and report. Silence your online presence. Avoid Formspring. These people will never stop, so just don't give them an audience.  A parent will take their child out of school because of bullying, yet they don't remove them from Facebook?  I've taught my kids not to be online victims - it's every parents responsibility to do the same.
2. Blogging - it's always been a love/hate relationship.  I love to read them, it's sometimes a chore to write them (which defeats the purpose) but having read a couple of new-to-me bloggers this week, it amazes me that they can manage to write a blog, perched as they are on that high horse of theirs!  Blogging is fun, to me it's like a really long tweet.  I've never done PR, I can never remember what SEO stands for.  It's like a "U"-rated diary, where I can spout my verbal diarrhoea, to coin a phrase. It's not about being influential, it's not about numbers, it's not about Klout (sigh..), but about you being you being entertaining. IMHO, of course.
3. Snow - seriously, be soft, romantic, idyllic, magically... or just fuck off, there's no inbetween.
4. Facebook Statitus - the compulsion to air your endless moans and groans on Facebook, in an effort to draw attention and virtual hugs. Everyone deserves sympathy now and then, but sometimes it's nice to hear the good news, to hear the happy times, to hear you've just have a decent cup of tea, ffs!! (This infection is spreading online, mutating to the growing Twitter Updatitus. Get vaccinated now!)
5. Take Me Out...ta here! - Nope, this isn't a rant about how much I hate Take Me Out, (though that is so true.. you wouldn't believe how enraged it makes me.. the archaic format, the sexist banter...grrrr...but, I digress) this is a twitter bugbear of mine.  Some people like some programmes, and so they tweet about those programmes.  Some people hate those programmes... so why, the fuck, do they tweet about those programmes? You don't like it, we get it.  That doesn't give you the right to sneer and deride people who do?  Block the hashtag, ignore the tweets or, god forbid, turn off Twitter! Just stop being so pompous!

I think that's enough.  There are obviously more than five things that pissed me off, but in an attempt to avoid being on anyone else's list, I'll quit while I'm ahead!