4 Elements of a Successful Blog

alt="4 Elements of a Successful Blog" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/blog-500x271_c.jpg" />

class="alignright size-full wp-image-6307" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/blogging-platforms.jpg" alt="blogging platforms" width="350" height="233" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/blogging-platforms.jpg 350w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/blogging-platforms-300x199.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" />

Good writing is at the core of any good blog, so is timely and accurate information, and good presentation. Anyone who’s ever started a successful blog did so with these three basic principles intact. However, a lot of unsuccessful blogs also started under the same conditions, but either ultimately failed or never even got out of the starting gate.

Sadly, good writers have not always embraced modern technology in ways that make complete sense for their particular skill, and that explains the difference, in many instances, between successful and failed blogs. By themselves, good writing skills are almost never enough to carry the day href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-create-a-successful-blog/">when it comes to creating a flourishing blog.

Below are several tools and additional steps considered mandatory for any realistic hope at href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/10-killer-strategies-to-win-more-traffic-for-your-blog/">creating a widely-read blog.

Will The Search Engines Find Your Blog?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

You can have the most useful blog in the world, but if no one knows it exists, it’s of little use to anyone and you’ll quickly tire of the endeavor. href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/seo/tips-for-maximizing-the-impact-of-international-seo-and-content-marketing/">Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a natural process used to create high visibility for your blog in search engines through the proper use of keywords.

The term “natural” is used to describe the method because there’s no paid advertising component attached to SEO.  High placement of your blog in any search result can be achieved through the specific use of keywords in the HTML code used to create your blog, the headlines of each of your entries, and the content under each headline.

When considering the keywords you will use, it’s important to think about the words or phrases someone is likely to use when they begin their search. It’s okay if your list of potential keywords is extensive. However, short and concise phrases are your best bet. Your chances of a searcher using an exact two- or three-word phrase are much higher than with an eight-or ten-word phrase.

Title Page

Beginning with the HTML code that will describe your page, identified within the “<title> and </title>” tags, describe your blog as accurately as possible. If your expertise is documenting bicycle adventures through the United States, your description should be right to the point:

• US Bicycle Adventures | Bike Tours Throughout The United States

This information lets users and search engines know the exact topic of your blog. Your title also includes likely keywords and phrases someone interested in bike tours will enter as a search string:

• Bicycle
• Bicycle Adventures
• Bike Tours
• Bike Tours US
• Bike Tours United States

Headline

Similarly, when considering keywords in the headlines of your blog entries, you’ll want to stay with these types of keywords. If you’ve ridden extensively throughout Georgia, include the word Georgia and any relevant city or trail name in the headline for any blog entry dealing with bike tours in Georgia.

Use this approach to identify any key information about your post if it’s information likely to be searched, such as:

• Road Tour
• Family Tours
• Family Casual
• Off-road Trails
• Scenic Bike Tours
• Aggressive
• Casual

Terms like these are not only relevant to your headline as they’re quite descriptive, they’re also the exact sorts of things potential blog followers will search for related to their interest.

Body

When writing content, it’s important to not overuse your keywords. Search engine algorithms sniff out gratuitous keyword usage, and as a result your work will be “penalized” as it will have the feel of “spam.” If your particular article is about casual, family-oriented scenic bike tours in Savannah, Georgia, then those are pretty much your keywords. Use such keywords two or three times throughout your article:

• Family Oriented
• Family Bike Tours
• Casual Bike Tour
• Scenic Georgia
• Savannah
• Georgia
• Savannah, Georgia
• Georgia Bike Tours

These are very likely keywords and keyword combinations someone will use when searching for a casual, family-oriented bike tour in Georgia. You are giving your blog a high probability of being found through a search engine because you’ve used keywords relevant to both your blog and potential readers, and you’ve used them on your title page, in your headline, and in your article.

There are different approaches to creating SEO content. Becoming familiar with various key concepts will serve only to improve the visibility of your blog through search engines. Do your homework. There are plenty of online and offline resources available.

Let Your Readers Respond

Don’t bore them

Lecturing is a form of communication best left to law professors and upset parents. For successful blogging, however, it’s a quick path to finding a new hobby.

Successful blogging is as much about creating a dialogue with your faithful readers as anything else you’ll read on this page. Providing a way, or ways, for your blog readers to communicate with you will not only give you the feedback you need to fine-tune your content, it’s also the best way to ensure you’re not boring them to the point of leaving your blog.

Readers want to respond with relevant information, or legitimate critique, or just to say hello, or to add anecdotes of similar experiences. Creating a true dialogue with your subscribers involves them in ways they deem important, which is part of the reason they’ll have any interest at all in your blog.

Getting reader feedback is also a way for you to keep your content fresh, to get new ideas, and to network with others who share your expertise or interests. Most pre-configured blog hosts offer the ability to add comments to your blog in a variety of different ways, including:

• A general comment section for your overall blog
• Comments attached to each separate post

Additionally, comments can be sent to your email or your smart-phone as a text message. You can also respond directly from these sources, giving you the ability to respond as quickly as possible to any comments on your blog. This is a standard feature of any successful blog.

Push Your New Content to Readers

Once you’ve created a good blog using good SEO methods, you’ll want your readers and potential new readers to know about each new bit of content as you post it. There are a few tools readily available designed to push your content.

RSS

One of the most tried and true methods of getting your newly published content in front of your regular readers is to deploy a technology known as RSS, sometimes referred to as Really Simple Syndication. In a nutshell, RSS provides blog owners a simple and automated way to deliver ever-changing content to regular blog subscribers.

If you write a daily sports blog and use RSS, your regular subscribers will automatically receive an update in their RSS Reader each time you update your blog. This is a convenient way for your regular readers to stay up-to-date on information of interest to them, and an equally convenient way for you to self-promote your blog.

Blog hosts

Most preconfigured blogs, like Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Xanga, and Weebly include RSS widgits and capabilities as part of their service offering. Just a few minutes reading through their documentation will help you get familiar with how to use RSS, and how to ensure each new entry is being automatically delivered to interest followers of your blog.

RSS Readers come in many different formats, and are frequently included as a part of a larger communication package.

• Google Reader is a built-in part of their popular Gmail electronic mail program.
• Outlook, an email program included with Microsoft Office, includes a built-in RSS reader
• Mozilla, the makers of the popular Firefox web browser, offers a built-in reader with email client called Thunderbird

Regardless of the specific RSS Reader used by the regular followers of your blog, the content on your blog will be sent to readers every time you publish something new. In an era where everyone has a lot of choices and outlets for getting their various news and information, RSS is an excellent and simple way to keep your blog in front of your followers. Consider it a key element to any successful blog.

Attracting New Followers

FeedBurner

RSS includes online functionality called href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank">FeedBurner. This allows you to publish your blog to your regular subscribers through the RSS “feeds” in the previous section. It also helps you publish your blog content and updates on much larger sites, particularly news portals and aggregators.

Blog readers, news hounds, and information junkies use FeedBurner to create an “aggregate” of content valuable, informative, or otherwise of interest to them. When you use FeedBurner with your blog, you’ll have the best possible chance of being included on websites dedicated to collecting, aggregating, and publishing lots of content.

Digg

href="http://digg.com/" target="_blank">Digg is an online tool designed to help bloggers create a following and get their content published to a much broader audience. The Digg, or DiggThis button or widget can easily be added to your blog content.

When you add the Digg widget to your blog, you’re basically telling your readers that you want them to submit your blog content to Digg. The Digg widget includes a counter, which lets you, your subscribers, and anyone looking at your content on Digg see how many times your article, image, or video has been clicked on.

This is an easy way for you to instantly determine the popularity of a particular blog post. The larger the number, the more likely others will click on the link to see what all the fuss is about. It’s a self-perpetuating marketing tool, and it’s included as part of the pre-built template at all of the most popular blog hosts.  Digg is also readily available as Java- and HTML-script, and easily integrates into your existing website.

Consider FeedBurner and Digg, another set of indispensable tools for your blog.

Page 25 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Build A Long-Term Successful Social Media Campaign

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Focus on Your Brand First

Before you begin a campaign- or enter the realm of social media marketing in general, be sure you understand EXACTLY who you are, what your brand is, what you offer customers and what the benefit of your art or service is to your potential customer. Know this well, speak it clearly and embody it in everything you do.

“The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation. They don’t have a brand, they don’t understand the outcome they provide, and they have absolutely no way of differentiating themselves from the competition.” – href="http://zenofsocialmedia.com/" target="_blank">Zen of Social Media Marketing.

It may sound simple, but every action you take- both offline and online- is a reflection of your brand.

Leveraging Your Expertise To Build A Long-Term Social Media Campaign

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Social media platforms are simply the tools that amplify your message to the world. In order for you to impact your potential audience and bring them into your world- your online personality must reflect your true self. Your authentic voice- and thus your artistic brand- must be in close alignment with who you are as an artist.

And your visual brand identity must clearly reflect these truths.

Be sure that your logo, website, social media profiles and photos all clearly reflect you and your artistic brand before truly diving into the deep end of social media marketing.

“Authenticity is critical. The message conveyed by each platform must pull in the same direction. Text styles must be uniform. Even the paper stock between print projects must remain true. When these factors vary, trust suffers. But if potential customers recognize a consistent, authentic message across multiple platforms, trust flourishes – and they’ll be far more likely to engage,” excerpt from the Brand Played On. Agency Access published an amazing resource for artists and the branding efforts they must undertake for their business to flourish.

Find & Connect

class="alignright" alt="Social Media" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0530-2.jpg" width="350" />

After your brand is clearly defined and represented in all of your online platforms, it is time to connect with your audience. Connecting with href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/building-a-tribe-around-your-art-one-lovely-person-at-a-time/" target="_blank">your Tribe, or the people who truly support and champion your art, is your next major hurtle in tackling a social media campaign.

Identify

Identify who will benefit and connect most with your type of artwork. Study the means in which this community uses social media to communicate and enter the conversation in their territory.

For example, if you create hand-woven rugs for personal spaces, you might have a large number of high-end interior designers who both support your work and incorporate it within their own businesses. Find an active online community of interior designers who use blogging and Pinterest to share their work and scan their Twitter feeds or blog comment sections for questions that you might be able to answer regarding custom flooring, color palettes or fiber textures.

Communication

With this example in mind- and not to be redundant here- your online brand is key to opening that door of communication. If you contact a high-end interior designer and engage them in conversation, they are more than likely to reply and continue the conversation if your social media avatar is a smiling face (rather than a sterile logo) and if they follow your links to your web site, your platform needs to reflect the caliber and quality of your work for this designer to take your advice seriously. In this instant, an effective and distinct brand will lend additional support and legitimacy to your advice and give your voice more strength in this new community of potential fans and customers.

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to create a means of opening a deliberate and permission based direct communication channels. You need to convert a casual visitor of your social media space to someone who actively want to receive information and specials from you. Use an incentive based conversion option for opt-in newsletter subscribers on your website.

Furthering our fiber artist example, once the interior designer has clicked through our artist’s Twitter profile and landed on her website, she’s enthralled by the artwork she has found and wants to learn more. She notices an email subscription offering a free downloadable PDF booklet about interior fibers and custom rug design in exchange for a newsletter sign-up. Our interior designer recognizes the value of this free information and wants to receive more information and specials about this artwork that her clients will love in their homes.

Our artist now has the permission of a new fan and future customer to send product specials, custom rug tips and design advice. The artist can now cultivate this relationship over time by providing value to her new fan.

Amplify

When used strategically and mindfully, permission based marketing will convert customers and develop quality relationships that support the artist in many ways. The artist also has an audience who has stated that they want to hear from you and will likely purchase from you in the future.

Amplify this effect by scanning social media channels and engaging in conversations with people who are likely to connect with your art. Use the basic search tools of each social media channel to help you better scan conversations.

Our fiber artist will want to monitor hashtags related to her artwork and her potential buyers. She’ll want to use a tool like href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">Tweet Deck and create special columns with a hashtag for each term she wants to search. Her terms should be somewhat broad, but not overwhelming. For example, if she searched “#design” the conversations would be rapid and too diverse to focus on targeting conversations where she might participate. By changing the term to “#urbaninteriordesign” or “#fiberart” she might find people talking directly about her area of expertise.

Another excellent tool for scanning blogs in href="http://www.google.com/blogsearch" target="_blank">Google Blog Search.

Simply enter a topic and Google will scan for blogs that address this area of interest. Setting up a Google Alert for specific terms, such as “interior design in Manhattan” might help our NYC based fiber artist find local interior designers to connect with. The Google Alert will email daily with search results pertaining to the terms entered in the Alert. This is also an excellent tool for an individual to use to monitor conversations happening about them or their product.

Building Relationships

Now that the brand has been clearly defined online and an audience has been identified and targeted, it’s time to cultivate the emerging relationships. Depending on your approach, this will include continuing the conversations using your preferred social media platform, finding new points of engagement, emailing tips, information or specials to your newsletter list and looking for additional methods of providing value to your community.

With this in mind, href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-launch-a-blog-for-under-100/">stepping into the world of blogging might be the next logical step. Many artists might already have a basic blog associated with their website and for many, blogging is more sporadic without a clearly defined goal or purpose. At this step, you have already clearly defined your audience and understanding if a blog is appropriate should be obvious at this point.

If your audience and potential buyers continually seek a certain type of information from you then there is a need in the marketplace for your expertise- beyond the artwork that you create. Identifying this need and speaking to this specific gap in the marketplace might provide you with an opportunity to connect with even more people who relate to your work.

class="alignright" alt="BlogCastFM" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0530-1.jpg" width="350" />

The main aspect of a href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-create-a-successful-blog/">successful blogging campaign is to be consistent and concise in what you are providing to the community. This step does require a greater time commitment and might not be appropriate for all artists, due to time or industry constraints. But bear in mind that writing is not the only means of communication for your blog. Many successful artists who use blogging as a main method of identifying and communicating with their audience use multiple forms of communication. Video, audio podcasts, webinars and visual essays are all effective means of providing valuable information to your community. If blogging is on your list of possibilities, visit href="http://blogcastfm.com/" target="_blank">BlogCast FM and listen to some of the leaders in the blogging community for tips, advice and strategies for self-publishing.

Our fiber artist has noticed a distinct gap in the online community for information regarding fiber textures, color pigmentation techniques and care of custom rugs. Interior designers- and now regular customers of hers- are constantly asking similar questions and show can see a place online to provide a valuable service to her fans and grow her potential customer base. But she hates writing. So, our artist purchases an inexpensive FlipCamera, finds a nicely lit corner of her studio, sets the camera on a makeshift tripod and starts speaking to her community about fiber textures using examples from her studio.

She uses a basic video editing program to place her logo graphic and an introduction at the beginning, uploads it to YouTube and places the video on her newly created Tumblr. She linked the Tumblr to her Twitter and Facebook accounts when she set up the blog, so it automatically send her new video post out to all of her online community. People begin to ask her additional questions in the comment section of the blog and her interior designers start to forward the video on Tumblr- also known as “reblogging” in the Tumblr world.

Soon, her video is spreading all over social media platforms and since the interior design community is strong on Tumblr, she’s gained new followers to her blog, Twitter and more newsletter sign-ups. She also has her next video topic based on the additional questions from her comment section.

And this is how the connections work in the online social media world. For many people using these platforms to expand their reach, the building takes time, deliberation and creativity. But the rewards are tangible and can be seen over time with increased web site traffic, engaging conversations throughout the day and loyal customers and fans. By investing in building your brand from the start, you can successfully make a name for yourself online in your area of artistic expertise and build an engaging social media marketing strategy.

Site note: Also read Crystal’s previous article on href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/building-a-tribe-around-your-art-one-lovely-person-at-a-time/">Building A Tribe Around Your Art; One Lovely Person At A Time.

Page 24 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Create A Successful Blog

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With millions of blogs out there and hundreds that are already famous, is it possible to start a new blog that can succeed? How can you stand out from the crowd and be sure that readers will pick your blog? You can give yourself the best chance for that if you start planning before you even write your first post.

Here are 4 steps you need to do before you start that can help you create a successful blog.

1. Discover Your Niche

If you want to have the best chance at creating a blog that has reach and influence, you should develop a finely tuned niche. You can blog without a niche, but you will find it far more difficult to drive traffic. A niche helps you target your audience and craft content that speaks directly to their goals and interests – and the smaller the target, the greater the impact. You will have less competition creating a highly visible blog. You can use long tail search engine optimization techniques to find drive traffic and engage with highly targeted forums, groups, and events.

Whether you are still trying to find a great niche or think you have it locked down, I’m going to give you a few words of advice. Make sure your niche is something you can shine in without a whole lot of trouble. For example, perhaps you’ve decided to be a frugal blogger. Wonderful! We can’t have too many of those, I’m always looking for ways to save money.

But that’s the catch: we already have TONS of frugal bloggers out there.

What you need to do is narrow it more tightly. What is the one thing you really enjoy or like that can be addressed with frugal blogging? For example, a less cluttered area would be “frugal blogging for dairy-free products.” If you happen to be dairy-free, this would be a perfect fit, and your content will be highly sought and valued.

If you are struggling to determine your niche, find your passion or something unique about you, and focus on an area of that idea that is a unique concept. You may need to spend some time brainstorming and researching what’s out there already to see where you can be competitive.

2. Self-Hosting: Yes or No?

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Self-hosting is when you pay for a unique domain name (URL) and subscribe to web hosting services to house your blog’s files. The other option is to use a service like Blogger or WordPress.com, where all the backend is taken care of for you at no cost.

Self-hosting is definitely the way to go if you want a blog that is professional and are interested in eventually doing advertising, getting sponsorship, and writing reviews. It only costs around -15 per year to register a domain name and you can get hosting for as little as -10 per month. Keep in mind that you will need to also be responsible for setting up your blog, theming, updates, security, spam control, and backups. All these things can be done with the proper plugins or if you hire a web designer or developer to do regular maintenance.

I know these items sound overwhelming, but some simple training will get you started and before long, they will become second nature. Many web hosts will give you an option to set up a WordPress blog automatically, and give you a selection of free themes to go with it, plus some basic plugins activated.

(Note: I always recommend using WordPress, as it is the most-used, most supported, and easiest blog software available, in my opinion.)

However, if you’re not sure that blogging will take off for you or are still nervous, you may not want to self-host, at least until you get used to the work involved. In that case, I recommend using the services of href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress.com, so that if you decide to self-host in the future, the switch will be easy and flawless. Be aware that if you do host on WordPress or Blogger, it will affect your domain name: www.yourblogname.wordpress.com. Your URL will be longer and more difficult to remember.  It also will mean that while you will have better maintenance support, you will also be limited in terms of plugins, themes, flexibility, and will need to abide by any rules they have in place, whether or not you agree with them.

If you’ve made the decision to self-host, there are some great resources on web hosting, including excellent bargains for a number on hosting services. Check out the great deals on our href="/bargains/">bargains page!

3. Do Your Research

To create an authoritative blog, you will need to find content that will not only feed your target audience and relate to your niche, you will also need to make sure that those sources are trustworthy. When researching any topic, search engines naturally are your first tool but finding reliable resources is not so easy. Some tricks can help you with this:

• Avoid Wikipedia. Remember that anyone can edit the information there so it is frequently biased and can be inaccurate. If you use it for general data, make sure that you fact-check that with more reliable sources.
• href="http://www.snopes.com/">Snopes.com is a resource that dispels myths and debunks urban legends. This is a great stop for checking up on anything that sounds fishy or too good to be true.
• Use href="http://scholar.google.com/">Google Scholar. This neat tool will help you find peer-reviewed articles, legal documents, and other articles that have some authority to them. There is a downside, however. If you are researching a controversial topic, new developments, or cutting edge research, you may only get the side of the story from established, traditional sources.
• Check your sources in depth. Many “news” organizations that you find online aren’t really unbiased news, but are actually pushing some kind of agenda. When you find information from a site, click around the content you find there. Some red flags that I’ve run into include posting very old news as if it’s a recent development, articles based on information that is taken out of context, and inconsistent data. For example, if the site touts itself as a holistic health site, a contentious article on guns or taxes is out of place and a clue that there is probably a political agenda behind the site.

Unfortunately, this makes your job more challenging, but if you write with journalistic integrity, you will build trust and that will help you title="Why Good Content Matters" href="http://www.webrevenue.co/content/why-good-content-should-be-at-the-heart-of-your-link-building-campaign/">drive traffic and create a successful blog.

4. Select the Right Blog Name

Your domain name is an important consideration when setting up a blog, for a number of reasons. When choosing a name, keep this in mind:

• SEO: A blog name can drive search engine traffic, so if it’s possible, you’ll want to get your niche into the name. It won’t be easy unless you have a very rare topic, but you can combine things like who you are, what you do, or where you live with your topic. You can’t get GlutenFreeMom, but you may be able to get GlutenFreeInCA. Think outside the box for combinations that will drive SEO. My blog, Mom-Blog, frequently is the first or second result on Google for “mom blog.”
• Memorability: The blog name should stand out and be catchy so people remember you easily and what you’re all about.  “MusingsOfAHousewife” or “OperaSingerInTheKitchen” really tell you what those sites are about, are easy to remember, and are intriguing to the right audience.

Take a little time to sit down and hash out ideas, then run them through title="GoDaddy " href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/godaddy" target="_blank">Godaddy.com to see if they are available.

Things I’d avoid in selecting a URL name include:

• Words with multiple spellings.  If someone remembers the wrong spelling for your blog and gets to the wrong site, they won’t visit you.
• If you do use such words, find the URL with the most popular spelling, such as “mama” rather than “momma.”
• Using a dash or hyphen. My blog has a hyphen in, and when I’m on speaking, it’s very difficult to communicate that symbol.
• Using anything other than “.com.” If the name you want has been taken in the “.com” version, you’re only going to get confusion if you go for “.net” or one of the other options. I’d say about 90% or more of the bloggers I know use “.com.” The ones who don’t cause me considerable confusion because they are that rare.

If you want to create a really stand out blog, take the time to explore these four steps before you start blogging. They put your blog in a position for success!

P/S: If you are a first time blogger who wish to read more, Jerry’s title="Blogging Tips for Beginners" href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/47-blogging-tips-for-beginners/" target="_blank">47 Blogging Tips for Beginners is a really good read.

Top image courtesy of phanlop88 at href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net" target="_blank">FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

7 Surefire Ways to Have a Successful Social Media Sweepstakes Campaign

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One way that companies reach out to those on social media is by offering contests.

There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind when holding a contest. First, you don’t want to fall under the label of “lottery”, which would be illegal. According to href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-promotions-and-the-law-what-you-need-to-know/" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner, there are three things that make up a lottery versus a sweepstakes.

• Some type of prize
• Chance – the winner is chosen randomly
• Value from entrants – this can be something like forcing them to join your mailing list or go to a website to enter

So, to run a sweepstakes campaign that is not an illegal lottery, you must either not offer a prize (you won’t get many entrants), not leave it to chance or not require anything at all from the entrants in order to enter. The easiest thing to do is to not require anything to enter the contest. In addition, states have laws about contests, so be careful. It is also best to avoid alcohol, tobacco, firearms or any other regulated items. When in doubt, check with an attorney to be sure you aren’t violating state or national laws.

Tip #1. A Prize Worth Having

You’re running a contest, so the first thing you need to do is figure out what your target demographic would like to win. Are you aiming your contest at teenagers? Think electronic gadgets. Perhaps your target demographic is men 55 and older who play golf. In that case, you’ll want a prize that golfer would enjoy.

Of course, there is also the tried and true prizes, such as gift cards, free credits for online sites such as Amazon or other items.

Perhaps the best prizes come from your business, thus giving you promotion by offering the contest and promotion by the sheer giving of the prize. Let’s say you own a car detailing business. A prize you could offer would be a free car detailing. Or, if you own a jewelry business, you could offer a free jewelry item or a gift certificate for a set amount of jewelry of the winner’s choice from your store.

Keep in mind that you want the prize to be worth at least or most people won’t bother entering.

id="attachment_10130" style="width: 760px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">class="border wp-image-10130 size-full" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sweepstake.jpg" alt="Valero's Rumble with Bumblebee™ Camaro Giveaway" width="750" height="490" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sweepstake.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sweepstake-300x196.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />class="wp-caption-text">Valero’s Rumble with Bumblebee™ Camaro Giveaway

How to Run a Successful Blogger Giveaway

alt="How to Run a Successful Blogger Giveaway" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/easterbasket-500x866_t.jpg" />

id="attachment_10942" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright">class="wp-image-10942 size-medium" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/0920-giveaway-300x284.jpg" alt="rafflecopter giveaway" width="300" height="284" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/0920-giveaway-300x284.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/0920-giveaway.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />class="wp-caption-text">The Rafflecopter dashboard to set up an exceptional giveaway.