When using Entrecard, I have noticed that many bloggers are using contests to promote their blogs. This is an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, especially when you give extra contest entries for other bloggers to promote it. However, there are some problem areas that you should avoid.
If you want to have bloggers write a post about your contest and/or your blog, you CANNOT ask them to use specific terms in the link back. This is considered Black Hat SEO and will cause you to lose page rank. This happened to David Airey last year. If you wish to know more, please read How I reversed my Google ranking penalty.
One other problem area is the mega-contest with prizes from a gazillion different people. It may be difficult for bloggers to claim their prizes if the contest blog says something like, "claim your prize directly," which basically leaves the winners out in the cold. Personally, I have won three different prizes I never received. I would suggest that if you are going to offer prizes from other people, that you somehow control the process so that your readers receive their prizes.
Keep your blogging friendly and stay out of trouble with the search engines.
The Problem With Blog Contests
3:02 PM
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