This is the first submission we’ve received for our “How to” contest.  It is titled: “How To Have The Worst Blog Contest Ever.” You’d think the guy is making fun of us – but not really.  Read the article, and you’ll understand. 

Article from Brian Aldrich at The Prize Blog:

Blogging competitions are becoming more commonplace these days. Having a contest can often lead to increased popularity and not to mention it will help you build a better blog reputation. But it is not easy to have a successful blog contest that has easy marketability. Focusing on the negative may help you understand the do’s and don’ts of having a blogging competition. So listen up bloggers, if you want your contest to fail miserably – keep the following ideas in mind.

First, do not give away any cool prizes like electronics, unique logo designs or even cash. You should just look around your house and I am more than sure you will find something every blogger would want. If that fails, there is a little place we bloggers call the dollar store. It does not matter what the prize is, people really do not care too much about the prizes anyway – people enter contests for the experience. You could also just promise a prize and then simply not give one away, nobody will know.

Second, make your contest as hard to enter as possible. Any people who decide to enter should be required to write about how great you are. Maybe make them post a photo of you or a quiz about your blog. Also, please do not be shy to sell extra contest entries to people directly through PayPal… now that is classy.

Third, at the end of the day it is your blog contest and you can change it whenever you feel like it. If you want to change the competition end date, prize offer or any other specific contest information for that matter, you should just go ahead and do it. Nobody will ever care, especially considering how most bloggers are naturally simple-minded and really would not notice any changes like that.