Chances are you won’t win, and then you just spent time writing and promoting something that may not be your normal content, or something you’re not passionate about. Many companies are sponsoring contests that pit bloggers against bloggers in order to dangle a really big carrot in front of the bloggers as motivation while drawing upon our natural competitive spirit. But what I’ve seen happen to other bloggers is that this friendly competition somehow turns into something they don’t want to be a part of. Questions are raised about if votes are being obtained fairly in the contest. Most companies never write “Official Rules” for these contests and make them up as they go. Bloggers may feel like the outcome of the contest was influenced or predetermined by the sponsor.
Most bloggers that participate come away disheartened, not necessarily about not winning that big shiny carrot, but about participating in something that didn’t feel good (and probably wasn’t the best promotion for their blog). That’s because in these sponsored contests of blogger vs. blogger the real winner is almost always THE SPONSOR and not THE BLOGGERS. No matter how big the prizes given away, the sponsor just cashed-in on bloggers sharing sponsored content purely to try to win something. It kind of feels like bloggers are being tricked into these things. Please think twice about participating in this type of contest because your time may be better spent promoting your blog (and not a sponsor).
Although I’ve won a couple of blogging contests, I’ve invested a whole lot more of my time and integrity in others that I didn’t win. Lesson(s) learned. Thanks for posting!
I agree. Very well said.
Love it, very well said!
I agree…I hate popularity contests in real-life, so I refuse to participate in them via my blog.
I agree, and thanks for saying so. These kinds of sponsorships are set up for the sponsors, as you say, and not the bloggers, so you have to be really careful.
Love this – thank you for posting. I think more bloggers need to hear it.
Word!
LOVE THIS! I swore that I participated in my last blogger contest after Cheap Sally. It was horrible and will no longer do it. I hate companies that do this. – Consumer Queen
AMEN!! :)
I feel like your blog also get lost in all the blogs that are participating in the contests. I participated in one that was free. They offered a $100 Amazon GC and promoted your Twitter account. I gained a ton of new followers – close to 1,000, but when I was trying to go through and thank the followers I noticed that every tweet they posted was to win a contest. In my opinion they only had a Twitter account to enter giveaways not to find new things to hear about. I don’t mind participating in the free ones because I didn’t do much work for it and if my blog gets lost it’s ok. My revenue for this month has gone up a little this month but I don’t know if it’s from my new followers or the content of my posts. It’s definitely not something I want to pay a lot of money for. Thanks for your insight. I was wondering if I was the only person who felt this way!
Heather, you just hit the nail on the head. This is exactly why we don’t participate in any of these “contests” or events!