Yes I stuffed up BIG TIME yesterday, 3 simple steps, or so I thought became something of a nightmare. I thought prizes drove people to your site? Seems I drove them away!
What I thought was 3 simple steps became too hard. Just one brave person entered the contest Sue from Sueblimely, who will win a prize of her choice. Then Des being the supportive partner he is , thought he would enter knowing he couldn’t win the prizes. I had gone to bed, Glenda was not around and hadn’t been party to this, Des found trying to follow the steps I had set out was just too confusing. He was ready to tear his hair out. He ventured on and has written Tweetathon Up and Running
3 rules I forgot:
1. KEEP IT SIMPLE:
I had read several of Darrens’ posts about hosting competitions. I focussed on the the more complex one and have just revisted this post which emphasises the KISS principle:
Keep it Simple - a competition can run into trouble on numerous fronts the more complicated you make it. Every extra requirement that you make on those entering decreases the likely participation rate, every extra post you do it on it will frustrate an element of your readers and every extra hour you spend moderating and administering it will take you away from the core business of your blog (producing content and building community)
2. DON"T MAKE ME THINK!
We even have this book! As I am a skimmer of blog posts, how could I expect everyone to follow, what I thought was simple. I realize now that I should have made sure I could follow the steps myself.
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3 ONE TOPIC PER POST.!
How could I forget this I have heard it so many times. Sometimes my mind races away. Often I will read a post out to Des and he will say there are 3 blogs post there! Well this was what happened yesterday. Maybe be more.
Will there be another competition yes? Coming right up and it will have ONE focus and be simple. I will road test what I am asking my readers to do.
I hope that anyone who was deterred this time will be willing to try again.
Have you had a stuff up or a great success? Please share below or track back here
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Everything happens for a reason – the roadblocks into which we run end up teaching us stuff that helps in the future.
Lots of success to you!
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s last blog post..When life bruises you, decorate it with a happy face and rebound
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Suzie Cheel (399 comments.) Reply:
May 29th, 2008 at
How true, this whole exercise has provided so many insights, Thanks for your support
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decent post, it’s always good that you can look back and critically assess the success or failure of something. For the record: yes, I was confused by it, great idea (I think), but I couldn’t get my head around exactly what it was, aside from the Twitterfon name.
Duncan’s last blog post..My FriendFeed Wishlist
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Suzie Cheel (399 comments.) Reply:
May 29th, 2008 at
Great discussion you have going over on your blog.
Thanks for your honesty. I have learnt so much from this whole exercise, lots of material for blog posts that will be helpful to others I hope.
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I am sorry you did not have success with this but I am glad that you are not giving up but learning from the experience. I was hoping that my post may help. I suppose the instructions were a little hard to follow although you did write another post explaining things in more simple terms.
Some bloggers would not want to write a post about a competition because it would not fit into their niche and they do not want to stray outside. Perhaps you could consider giving varying number of entries in a comp depending on what a person does to help. e.g. a digg, stumble, bookmark = 1 entry, a post 5 entries ….. I have seen these sort of entry conditions a fair bit.
I am very pleased to win a prize, although I would have preferred more competition for it for your sake.
Sueblimely’s last blog post..Tweetathon Tonight – Pass It On
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Suzie Cheel (399 comments.) Reply:
May 29th, 2008 at
Hi Sue,
I am surprisingly happy with the outcome, so much learning, mage new friends and I think TeamWorld has potential to be a community that makes a difference. Working with Glenda has been amazing and we have learnt so much.
Yes the competition game is interesting, I see people entering in the comment game with a couple of words which doesn’t add to the conversation.
What prize would you like? The CD I can post before I go, Des’s book you can down load it.
Thanks for the support
Suzie
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I think we all can learn a lot from this exercise. I have written my thoughts on this as a post at my blog.
http://www.webspear.com/blogging/my-thoughts-on-online-fund-raising/
Suzie because of your initiative we have learned something.
Aaron’s last blog post..My thoughts on online fund raising
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Thanks for the rules that you pointed out! This steps are very useful especially for those who are starting to blog. As long as you keep your blog simple yet quality content.
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Barbara is correct everything does happen for a reason.
SEO Solutions’s last blog post..Got More Time Then Money? Try Digital Point Forum
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I’ve read “Don’t make me thing”, it’s got plenty of good advice. I have a hard time with number 3 usually. I tend to blog like I speak sometimes, so I ramble and wander a bit. It seems more natural to me, but maybe not so much to my readers.
Top Rated’s last blog post..The Very Best Digital SLR Cameras
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Thanks for the great info on blogging and the book “Don’t Make Me Think.”
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