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?

How to Print Blog Articles the Smart Way

8 Effective Ways to Increase RSS Readership

How to Add More Sidebar Text Widgets

Display User Welcome Message

Make Money with a Poor Man’s BANS

Are you planning on writing any holiday or seasonal material? Now is the time to think about markets and find their deadlines. You might be surprised to find that you’re almost certainly too late for Valentine’s Day for most pubs. Mother’s Day? Maybe, but it could be close.

Ralan is a great source for market info, both paying and non-paying.

The West Virginia Writer’s yearly contest is getting underway.  I’ve been told that some of these categories get rather sparse participation, so it might be a good way to get a win under your belt.

• Subscribe via e-mail and get 2 chances.
• Subscribe via RSS reader and get 1 chance. This one is on the honor system. You’ll need to leave your email in the comments to THIS POST so I can keep track of your entry.

The contest is open today (Jan 22) through Sunday (Jan 27).

In short, you enter and review other entrants blogs. You’re also asked to do a review of Online Tech Tips as well.

You can win one of three prizes, a review on John Chow’s site (that’s a BIGGIE), $100 or $50.

The real “win” here, in my opinion, are the links. Every time I’ve participated in something like this, my traffic has really jumped, and some of those people stick around. Once the contest is underway, look for my review to show up here, and I hope you jump on board too.

You can read about it here as well, on Gather’s site.

If you’re interested, I believe they’re starting a second round.

My husband actually chose this theme. Since it wouldn’t be quite fair to give him the prize, I just chose someone randomly from those who submitted themes.  The winner is Sharonda. I have your email; just let me know if sending your Amazon certificate there is okay.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted themes, and thanks for your patience as I get the kinks worked out of this one.

Once I’ve settled on one, I’ll announce the contest winner. Thanks for all the suggestions!

I’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions so far, but keep ‘em coming!

Leave a comment here, in the original post, or email me at cs AT cornerscribe DOT com.

I’ve already gotten some great theme recommendations, but I haven’t settled on one yet. Thanks to all those who are participating!