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$1000 prize for Blogging contest: Everyone wins

Well everyone wins because just by participating you learn to be a better blogger and hone your blogmastery (One word on purpose for dramatic effect)

So what am I talking about? Well - I decided that #1 Contests are fun and #2 I wanted to teach my members how to be the best bloggers they can be so I put up a $1000 first prize and $500 second prize for the best REW Bloggers.

Basically the contest will be judged on the best "overall" blog - first and foremost the contest will be rated on quality and appropriateness of content, but other factors like use of images, and other creative layout elements, and how well can you drive traffic to your own business (The SEO factor) will be considered as well. Who has the best bio - who uses tagging to it's full potential etc etc

Now I haven't asked yet, so I will ask here - (And maybe you folks could share this thing with your friends by pressing that little feature flag) - Matt, Kaleb or any other AR crew, we would be honored if you would participate in the contest as celebrity judges - your input just might help some rainmaker land themselves some much needed website sprucing - could be fun :)

I know I know, this is active rain, but you know what - just because it isn't on the AR domain doesn't make it any less fun. Incidentally, those prizes are for free web work and you don't have to be an REW Customer to use it - So if you can think of anything you could possibly do with a $1000 (Or $500) worth of graphic design, programming, copy writing / editing, or SEO consulting from our staff of 30+ developers, it's at least worth checking out.

I wonder if I can donate some of my AR points to the lucky winner if they are a member here (If they aren't what chance do they have to win right? :)

Edit - I am such a dummy, I forgot to post the link - here you go http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/morgan-carey/2379/show/

Posted by Morgan Carey on 08/22/2007 04:41 PM

Comments (21)

blogging contest, real estate webmasters, rew blogs

Post is included in group: My other blog is
Post is included in group: Content, Copywriting & Related SEO Strategies

21 Comments on $1000 prize for Blogging contest: Everyone wins

AUG

2007

Incidentally, in case you were worried - No I don't provide the copy writing and Editing services personally, we have professionals for that - lol I can see it now, this guy don't even slpel check never mindin the grammer.

Good luck with your contest! I threw one a few days ago and received no backing from A.R. it's just a private party, no points, but a prize from me - that is not allowed to be mailed back.

Morgan,

Why do we need a contest in the first place?

Not everyone needs a contest - but some who just need that extra push or little bit of motivation can really benefit from participating. Why does AR need points? It's a motivational thing.

Also contests are just fun - and the real estate industry and the personality types within it are naturally competitive - so this type of motivator fits well with this market.

Finally - if we are competing and we have good judges and teachers - it will make us (You) want to take a closer look at the very detailed aspects of your blog posts with more scrutiny, which will help you (Through repetition) develop good habits that will carry forward into your future blogging effots.

Sounds like a great idea. Hope it goes well!

Just an update (Should probably update the post) CK Chung of www.webosis.com has volunteered to be a judge for the SEO component - you can read his bio here if you don't know him - Great guy, tons of related experience and a wealth of blogging knowledge.

Morgan, Can you fill us in more on the SEO component of the judging? What are you looking for, what is good, what is bad, how will someone be rated better than someone else if per say one had more blogs but fewer visits per blog but still had more visitors?

Just curious.

Sounds like an awesome contest! I'll find some time to participate!

It will be judged on many factors:

A few components:

Average unique traffic per blog post.
White hat posting (no link spam "irrelevant linking" etc)
White hat architecture (Same as with blog posts no spam) use of related links, tagging, relevant reading elements etc
Creative SEO - anything that a user does (Within a search engine guidelines) that helps improve their own blogs SEO - such as creative interlinking, appropriate commenting, syndication etc

AUG

2007

I will have to wait until your next contest. I haven't finished reading Blogging for Idiots yet.

Morgan - Thanks for this post. You might want to check out my contest for "Worst MLS Photo" here:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/178968/Worst-photo-contest

As I read this , not being a REW, I thought well, I should pass posting a comment. Then I thought this is about SEO and I would do you a disservice by not posting a comment. And seeing that this is now featured ( we all pay close attention to those BTW), We should all write something and then be sure to use good grammar and spell check it twice. :-)

Some of us stand NO CHANCE of winning against all you professional bloggers! I have just started, but I LOVE the traffic I've gotten from my blog. Now to figure out how to put in smiley's... a photo I can do... see.... city of tracy fountain

this fountain graces the road in to town from the west.

I'm going to watch your contest, maybe next time.....

Susan Goulding

AUG

2007

Hope it works !

In terms of competing against "blogging pros" that should not really be an issue - this is about learning and improving your blogging skills, we will be looking at improvements over the course of the contest - so it is very possible that the "most improved" blogger might win.

Also - don't be afraid we are not all "professional bloggers" those who have been blogging for while may have more experience, but they may be at a disadvantage in the fact that they may have developed some bad habits that need to be corrected.

I am very confident that the winning blogger could very well be someone new to blogging - if you can write well and intelligently speak to your customers (Which is a skill you should be well versed in already from your real life experience) and you are willing to learn (Because throughout the contest we will be teaching blogging) then why not take a shot. Worst comes to worst, you have fun competing and you learn a TON about how to blog effectively, which in all honestly is much more valuable than the prizes.

Good luck with the contest. I am new to blogging so perhaps I can get some tips and ideas.

OCT

2008

So, hfow do we sign up? Or save time and just send the credit voucher. :)

DEC

Great, I will check back often. I really like the blog. I am new at blogging but I am beginning to learn quite a bit from reading blogs like the ones I find on Active Rain. If I can ever be of help just let me know.

Thanks, Terry

Of "Now What?"

MAR

Morgan,

Congratulations on your feature, and on passing the 40K mark in Active Rain. Every 10K gets easier. Good luck with your contest; humans are competitive creatures, and things like this are just fun!

Mike in Tucson

MAR

Mike with all due respect, do you even look at the posts you spam comments on? This was posted in 2007 - get your comment juice somewhere else please, I am not interested in manufactured comments by posters that don't even evaluate the post they are commenting on.

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