July 29th, 2008
Blogging Idol Contest: Learn How to Get 500+ New Subscribers in a Month
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Quick Summary: Check out the ‘Blogging Idol Contest’ on ‘Daily Blog Tips’ to learn how to get as many as 500 new subscribers in a month.
Daniel Scocco of ‘Daily Blog Tips‘ is not only one of the most influential “bloggers who write about blogging”; he also hosts some of the most interesting collaborative blogging activities.
I had earlier participated in a collaborative blogging project hosted by him where 48 bloggers had shared their blogging mistakes.
Now, I have submitted ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ in Daniel’s ‘Blogging Idol’ contest where 108 bloggers are competing to see who can increase their feed count by the most numbers in the month of July.
If you aren’t aware yet, ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is my year-long book-as-a-blog experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.
On March 23, tired of buying and owning too many things that I didn’t need, I decided to stop buying things I didn’t need, go off consumption for a year. Then, on July 4, realizing that not buying things was not enough, I decided to give away almost everything I own.
I have been so busy with managing the going away/ giving away logistics throughout the last month that promoting my blog has not even entered my mind.
However, the other bloggers have used a number of innovative techniques to increase their subscriber count, such as –
- Increase your blogging frequency to more than one post a day.
- Start a new series on your blog with deep content.
- Write a few longer pillar posts as linkbaits.
- Display subscription options, including the e-mail subscription box, prominently, preferably on the top right hand corner.
- Add the ‘What Would Seth Godin Do?’ plug-in to display a subscription prompt to new visitors.
- Run a contest, with giveaways (including link-backs and free e-books) for new subscribers.
- Ask your Twitter/ Facebook/ Friendfeed friends to subscribe to your blog.
- Ask the subscribers of your other blogs/ mailing lists to subscribe to your blog.
- Become active on social sites like Digg/ StumbleUpon/ Sphinn.
- Comment on other blogs and forums in the niche.
- Participate in a blog carnival or a group blogging project in your niche.
- Submit your feed to RSS directories.
- Guest blog on other blogs in the niche.
I see all these tactics as part of three sequential strategies –
1. Content: Increase the quantity and quality of your posts and mix shorter posts with longer pillar posts, or a series, or even an e-book.
2. Design: Fine-tune your blog design to prompt visitors to subscribe and make it easy for them to subscribe.
3. Promotion: Promote your blog using both pull (guest blogs) and push (request to online and offline friends) tactics.
I suggest that you head over to the weekly update posts for the ‘Blogging Idol’ contest to see which of these tactics have worked for the participants –
- Blogging Idol week one update
- Blogging Idol week two update
- Blogging Idol week three update
I have spent some time on the participating blogs and some of them are really good, so I also suggest that you sample some of them and, maybe, even subscribe to them –
#1 Standout Blogger
#2 Stock Market India
#3 The University Kid
#4 Crenk
#5 Winning the Web
#6 Girl Robot
#7 Tech at Hand
#8 Home Design Find
#9 Phat Mommy
#10 Rose’s Life
#11 The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption
#12 Economics Help
#13 Groovy Vegetarian
#14 Big Marketing Online
#15 Final Dog
#16 Rajaie Talks
#17 The Paparazzis
#18 Techie Buzz
#19 Concholakeaz
#20 I’m Blogging That
#21 Absolutely Bananas
#22 Shed Blog
#23 Everything Everywhere
#24 Umar Siddiqi
#25 Dev 102
#26 The SW Geek
#27 Techie’s den
#28 DSP Log
#29 Winning Startups
#30 Book Club Classics
#31 Trying to Blog
#32 Indian Devs
#33 Inspiredology
#34 Talking With Myself.com
#35 I Blog to Blog
#36 You Are Living
#37 Kia World
#38 Back-links
#39 Sellotape and String
#40 Work Happy Now
#41 Catch the Posts
#42 Distilled Rose
#43 eBook Informant
#44 Viper Chill
#45 Melvin Blog
#46 And Another Thing
#47 Web Master Plaza
#48 Job Mob
#49 Pinoy Webstartup
#50 Apocalypse Picture Book
#51 Neo Blue Panther
#52 Learning Nerd
#53 Get One Billion Euro
#54 Jungle of Life
#55 Ad HD Guide
#56 e-Book Informant
#57 Love Reads
#58 Tech Treak
#59 Dancing About Architecture
#60 Monkey Blogger
#61 Mr. Javo
#62 Review of Web
#63 Teen Blogger
#64 Ward on the Web
#65 Abundance Highway
#66 Romeuy
#67 The Net Fool
#68 Log Home’s Cabin
#69 Crime and Crooks
#70 Eavesdrop Writer
#71 Debit versus Credit
#72 Roshan BH
#73 40 Redux
#74 Digital Photography Blogs
#75 Marketeer
#76 Adam Pieniazek
#77 Solid Smack
#78 WP Theme Designer
#80 60 Mile Walk
#79 Debby Banning
#81 Money Bites
#82 Coffee Sage
#83 Web Dev Lounge
#84 Theme Playground
#85 Techno Tip
#86 Techno Diary
#87 Elite by Design
#88 Revenue Reservoir
#89 Historical Side FX
#90 Free Birthday Treats Blog
#91 Mommy Meryl
#92 Pursuit of Your Boyfriend
#93 Ledgerpad
#94 Rue the Day Blog
#95 Benson Bear
#96 Shake the Salt
#97 Hoei
#98 Asio Groups
#99 The WM Blog
#100 Protycoon
#101 Discovering Dad
#102 Debiz Blog
#103 Apple Quack
#104 Life with Harper
#105 Stock Market Guide
#106 Messaoud
#107 The Serendipity Effect
#108 Blogging is Not a Crime
Finally, if you haven’t subscribed to ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ yet, please do subscribe, either in a feed reader, or by e-mail –
Thanks for the link! Your site looks great… Good luck!
[Reply]
What an interesting take on the experience. I have found it fascinating how different blogs have taken different tactics. I have not been so successful in the contest, but it has encouraged me to take a more professional approach to my blogging. I have more readers, and have developed a better community of comments and followers.
This has not occurred with a huge increase in my subscriber count, but simply through concentrating on building good content and better marketing.
I won’t win the $3000, but I have developed a much more rewarding blogging experience.
[Reply]
Thanks for the link and It is much Appreciated
[Reply]
@Kristen/ Dexter: The pleasure is all mine.
I have always wondered why participants in a group project like this rarely link to each other, when they write about the project.
One exception is the ‘Age of Conversation’ collaborative book (1 and 2) where the authors have generated tremendous energy by promoting each other.
So, with that as my benchmark, I always link to my fellow participants when I’m blogging about a group project.
Dr Cris: Yes, it is indeed fascinating to see 108 blogs experiment with different tactics to increase their subscriber counts.
[Reply]
Thanks for the link! Appreciate it!
This contest has been a great experience, and a motivation for me to grow my RSS subscriber. By the way, I launched the “Reciprocal Subscription” initiative for the sake of the contest : When a blogger subscribes to my RSS feed by email, I do the same. Those interested are welcome.
[Reply]
thanks for the links!!!
All the best
[Reply]