Daily Blog Tips has a post about a guest blogging contest you might be interested in.
Here are a few tips for participating, and doing well, in a blogging contest.
- Follow the rules. You’d be surprised, but a lot of people get disqualified simply because they missed a simple rule, like making the deadline or word count, etc.
- Revise! Put together your post and let it rest for a day or two. Even if you usually don’t, take the extra step this time. Get someone to read it for you if you can. Regardless, you need to spend more time revising for a guest post.
- Check grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. After you revise to get your point across as well as you can, spend time cleaning up your post. Judges can be put off by simple errors that a bit of proofreading could have fixed, even when the post is great otherwise.
- Get the right subject and voice. Read the blog you’re posting for, and make sure your post fits not only the content but the voice as well. Is the tone irreverent, humorous, serious? While you don’t want to lose your own voice, a radically different tone than the site you’re blogging for may put you out of the running.
- Use humor. Posts that are informative and humorous tend to do well. If you can successfully mix the two, you’re likely to get some positive attention.
- Tackle tougher subjects. In my experience, people who are willing to write about the difficult topics tend to do well. It’s obvious when someone has spent a lot of time putting together a great post, so take the extra time with this one.
- Add visuals. Try to add pictures, diagrams, drawings, or screenshots, if they’re appropriate to your subject.
Do you have any other tips on how to do well in a blogging contest?