Just thought I would do an unsolicited favor to a like-minded blogger who also shares the same interest as me. For all those who have been yearning for a good premium Theme but can yet afford one, this is your good chance at taking a shot at winning at least one for yourself.
WPShout, a blog also about WordPress Themes is celebrating their first anniversary with a blog contest that offers up to 19 premium Themes as prizes. Themes includes, WPZoom – 3 themes, WPShift – 1 theme, ProThemeDesign – 1 theme, StudioPress – 3 themes, Elegant Themes – 2 memberships, Viva Themes – 3 themes, Gabfire Themes – 5 themes, iThemes – 1 copy of Builder.
Doing it solely to increase his subscriber base and twitter followers, all you have to do is to subscribe to their feeds and to follow them @WPShout
For more details about the contest, check out – Massive Premium Themes Competition
Increasing Subscribers
There too was a time when I tried desperately to increase my RSS subscribers, but along the way, I got quite disillusioned with all these things. For all the pitiful few hundred subscribers that this blog has gotten over nearly 3 years, the daily “reach” is less than 80. Which means less than 80 people actually read my feeds. So on a personal basis, the figures are just ego boosters. In reality, less than one third of our subscribers bothers to check out our feed updates.
Thus I stopped totally trying to artificially increase my feed numbers with free giveaways and such. Now I only include a simple feed link and only those who has a real interest in my articles will only subscribe.
That is personal, but if you have intentions to sell Adspace, you will have to show big subscribers numbers. I think every Advertiser will inquire about how many subscribers you have, your Alexa ranking, your page rank, along with your traffic stats before deciding to Advertise in your blog. It is something that makes me want to cry, for except for maybe your traffic stats, all others are just mere illusions.
But that’s the way things work and I certainly cannot say Advertisers are stupid to consider those figures. They must have reasons for wanting to do so and I do not know what it is.
It is also the same with your twitter followers.
Holding Blog Contest
Having a blog contest is always a good way to increase awareness. Other than doing it to increase your subscribers or twitter followers, it is also a hell of a good way to increase backlinks. Just make linking back as one of your contest rules. If you offer fantastic prizes, one contest can bring you a few hundred linkbacks. Much better and more legitimate than buying links. I have seen bloggers spending thousands in prizes, organizing monthly contests in their blogs when they start up. Whether they succeeded in building up their blogs later on to re-coup their investments, I do not know, but it is a strategy, albeit a costly one.
Innovative Blog Contest Case Study
A very innovative way which I witnessed some years back was a Korean blogger who came up with this idea which kind of works like a treasure hunt. First he spent some $500 to have his blog reviewed by John Chow ( that was the price he commanded for a paid review back then ). In the review, the contest was mentioned along with the very expensive prize.
I can’t remember what the prize was, but it was very very attractive. Something like a brand new wide screen TV or something.
First he came up with a mystery question. Then he came up with 20 clues. The rule is you have to subscribe and only those who subscribes to his blog will get the clues, one at a time, which will be shown at the end of a post on a weekly basis. Anyone who can piece the clues together and give the correct answer in the shortest time wins the prize. There will be no random draws.
Anyone can join in anytime before the contest ends. As long as they subscribe, all previous clues can still be found in his older feeds. One can even do it halfway through if they think they have the answer after reading one or two clues. If they get it wrong, that is the end of the road for them.
Now this genius did not say what day of the week the clues will appear and he hinted that, some of his post will contain the answers to the week’s clue. By doing so, he had all his subscribers clamoring to check his updates every day, hoping to be the first one to submit the correct answer.
The contest ran for 20 weeks and in that 20 weeks he build up his blog and his subscribers quite substantially. If I am not mistaken, his subscribers passed the 2000 mark by the time the contest concluded and to be honest, he did write lots of high quality articles within that period which got him many loyal readers from then on.
This guy did not just simply hold a blog contest. He planned it very meticulously to get the most of out it. He understood human behavior and he tailored his contest to take advantage of that. He understands RSS and what RSS feeds really means. He knows that once he gets a subscriber to read his feed as a daily habit, he got a loyal subscriber who will check on his feed updates the first thing they open their feed reader.
That, in my opinion, should be how all blog contest are organized.
If you are depending on affiliate sales, why would you care about regular visitors?
A regular visitor will buy something once, after that he will just come reading. Unless you are something like an e-store, I doubt that regular readers do anything, unless u come up with new affiliate products every week to “recommend” cause ur so nice.
I find passing by traffic more attractive, cause any abnormalities on the site, will no affect those passing by, cause it’s their first and last time. Yet wondering around they might click on ur ads , or sign up for whatever you are selling.
I think regular visitors r overrated, and it’s like ego booster. No one likes to admit it, but it’s true. In my opinion you need a mix, of both, new and returning, but it’s not a loss if people don’t wanna stick around.
Anyways just my 2 cents, i think we r seeing the “sheep effect” here, which is 1 goes, the rest follow, without really knowing and thinking about it.
Mitco,
There will come a time in your blogging life when you will wish you had tens of thousands loyal visitors.
We can spend years building a blog for search traffic. getting them and making something out of them, but all this is a passing fad. One day you might wake up to find that the affiliate program that you have so successfully promoted is no more as good.
Just like the Thesis Theme. After they switch to a new affiliate network, I have yet to receive my check for February sales when before I get paid very promptly at the beginning of the month.
Same with eBay.
And Adsense.
We never know when they decide to change or just terminate our accounts.
All these realization will make you ponder if it would be better if you are selling your own Ad space instead of being reliant on a third party for income.
In order to achieve that, you need regular visitors and numbers to show. No matter how artificial the numbers are.
But of course, it is a personal route to take. I can make 100 blogs to make 2 dollar a day from Adsense and it will bring me a full time income, but the security is not there. It can just vanish into the thin air.
So my way of doing thinking is, make do with the affiliate products, but also try to build up the blog to a certain level where advertisers will come knocking on my doors.