Blog Marketing and Promotion : Conceptualize Interesting Online Contests

I just came across a weekly online fiction writing contest that lasts for 5 minutes! Whoah! Squeezing creative juices under time pressure with great talents as competitors would surely give one an adrenaline rush and make the tiny little braincells all tingly wanting to shoot at different directions  at the same time. The heart rate pumps double its normal pace as you try to control your excitement and focus on your spontaneous plot, all the while berating your fingers to keep up with the race as you punish your keyboard!

But that's just my imagination because I actually did not join it :)) However, I was able to read the latest entries for the week and was awed by the writers' tremendous talents , I think they scared me and got me envious at the same time. I have great respect for fiction writers' ability to draw a clear visual with words as their medium. It's magical how they can paint this way! Such artists!




The contest is called #5MinuteFiction by @LeahPetersen who I just recently followed on Twitter as #ff by @MakeAnEbook.

The 5 Minute Fiction Writing contest happens every Tuesdays at 1:30 Eastern Time hosted on Leah Petersen's Web Site. She gives a prompt via tweeter to signal the start with the word or the phrase as the subject for the week's competition, which should never leak beforehand for obvious reasons. The entry must be posted as a comment to where she posted the "prompt." Contestants are actually given a total of 15 minutes to submit their entries. 5 minutes for writing your piece of poetry or prose in any style or genre (keeping away from hate speeches or similar, as noted by the host) and 10 minutes for any technical mishaps like accidentally deleting your entry (Bwahaha! *evil laugh, my bad!*). She also has a guest judge every week to nominate 5 finalists which is very wise to avoid bad feelings by sour losers (read: Unfollow Clicks LOL). Then the roster of finalists will be posted the following day for a poll for the voters' active participation. The poll will close at 9:00 EDT with the declaration of the winner.



What's the prize? Sometimes there are giveaways but mostly it's all fun and glory!

As the host puts it:  "What’s the prize? Well, nothing, obviously. But we’ll all agree to tweet and/or blog about the winner of today’s contest so their fame and fortune will be assured."

Above is an example of an effective blog marketing and promotion that benefits not just the host and the contestants but also the readers like myself. It was truly a pleasure reading the contestants' pieces, generously shared for free!




As for me, would I dare join? Hmmnn, I'll probably stick to my feature writing and come up with my own blog promotion. What about a #5MinuteProductReview Writing contest with my "prompts" as branded products and services that consumers have tested? A proof of purchase must be submitted along with the entry to ensure that they actually used the products and therefore qualified to make a review. In view of  fairness, negative reviews will be accepted for the product-in-review's improvement and taken as constructive criticisms. Advertisers are welcome to have their products be "prompts" for review and sponsor the prizes. Nice concept, eh?

Let me know what you think. :)