http://www.murraynewlands.com/index.php/blog-competition/

Quite slow now: http://likeitwinit.com. any feedbacks?

I would like people to simply subscribe to my rss feed and then i will pick a few random people from the people who signed up.

I have my feed setup in feedburner but cant see any details for the subscribers???

How exactly would i be able to see who has signed up to be able to cont act them and announce the winner??

They just want me to collect a list of email addresses and for users to answer a simple question (multiple choice). Is there a plug-in that will allow me to do this or does anybody have a creative idea of how I can make it more interesting?

Thanks,
Riyaz

Also if you want to check it out my site is http://www.budcalabrese.com

How to Run a Blog Competition to Find New Readers and Make Your Blog Sticky posted at IndianPad.com…

Personally, I have run short competition last November (http://lorinc.blog.sme.sk/c/68469/Vyhodnotenie-hier-s-komentarom.html – just mentioning it, BEWARE, it is not in English, but in Slovak), although it was not writing contest, rather set of mathematical games to be played by participants by choosing their strategy. Entries through form or by e-mail, together 36 players. No prize at that time. I was profiting from being a member of community for some time and the contest had almost no impact on the traffic. But it was fun, perhaps even more for the organizer, me, than for others.

I just launched a competition blog for the “Best Post of the Day” that I could find. This is just for fun so the the prize, a “Winner’s seal” is also just for fun. I am just setting it up with initial posts explaining the objectives of the blog.

I hope one day this is going to be a successful one.

http://postawards.blogspot.com/

I would suggest your first contest be something very easy for participants to enter and have a medium value prize to balance the risk (out of pocket expenses) and prize allure.

I only had 8 people enter the contest, looking back I think the prizes were fine but the steps required to enter were too complicated. I like the idea that Brody had of just requiring the reader to leave a comment. I can’t think of anything simpler than that!

In case you are interested, here is some info on the contest I was talking about…
http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/01/01/hacked-gadgets-new-year-contest-winner/

I started hosting a “Write-Away Contest” and after two rounds–one in January and one in February– here are my suggestions:

* I make the writing topic rather broad to encourage entries.

* I invite another blogger as the Guest Judge for the month’s contest which has helped to promote the contest and at the same time promote community–it’s been a successful aspect. Chose carefully–find someone who’s willing to take on the task and be a good sport and someone who will help promote the contest. I also do a phone interview with them early in the month then publish the interview in conjunction with the contest as a bit of link love and community building.

* Allow entrants to submit posts from their archives. Don’t require new posts, it’ll generate more entries.

* Submit your contest to competizione which lists blog contests: http://musing.typepad.com/competizione/

* Be strict on rules. If the entrants don’t make the deadline I’ll publish them anyway in a separate list so they still get a link but they’re not in the running for the prize. If you can’t enforce rules like including a link back to the contest you’ll lose credibility.

* I pick prizes that support my blog. I’m blogging about motherhood in Alaska so I try to find Alaskan gifts that you can’t find in Australia.

Here is the list of winning entries from this month’s contest as an example of what I’m talking about. I’ll be hosting again in March.
http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2007/02/our-lovely-write-away-contest-winner.html

I created one on Fan Pop if anyone is interested in promoting their own contest:

http://www.fanpop.com/spots/contests-for-bloggers/