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Top 5 – Group Writing Project

Posted By Darren Rowse 7th of May 2007 ProBlogger Site News 0 Comments

Top-5It’s time for another ProBlogger Group Writing Project – and this time we’ve got $1001 Cash (USD) up for grabs thanks to our generous sponsors Chitika!

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING – the process has changed. Particularly pay attention to the instruction to submit NEW posts not previously written ones. Old posts (written before today) won’t be accepted and will not be eligible for a gift. Thanks for your understanding. Also please note that there is ONE entry per participant.

update: This project is now finished. See the full list of submissions of top 5 posts submitted here.

The Topic

This project’s topic is:

‘Top 5’

Your task with this project is to take the theme of ‘Top 5’ in any direction that you’d like to. I’ve chosen this theme because it should be adaptable to most types of blogs. For example a personal blogger could write about their top 5 favorite foods, a celebrity blogger could write about the top 5 things Paris will do when she gets to jail, a tech blogger could rate their top five gadgets of the year, a productivity blogger could write their top 5 ways to save 20 minutes a day etc.

Write it in any style you like, a rant, list, poem, essay, video, pictorial, haiku, podcast….. anything.

Be as creative as you can and take this in any direction you like. You’ll have a much better chance of getting your post noticed if it’s useful and/or interesting to readers and write something relevant to the topic of your blog.

Once you’ve written your post simply follow the process for participating that I’ve outlined below (please note – to be eligible for the gifts from our sponsors you need to follow the guidelines below).

The Prize

For this project I decided to experiment with having just the one larger prize instead of lots of smaller ones.

As a result at the end of the week I’ll be randomly choosing one lucky participant to win $1001 USD in Cash which has been kindly donated by Chitika. Over the week in each of the daily summary posts I’ll be sharing a reason that I think Chitika is great (and in doing so will come up with my own ‘Top 5’.

Thanks also to those others who offered to sponsor this week. As I mentioned – there were many offers and I really grappled with which one to choose.

The Other (Real) Reason to Participate

Prizes are great – but the real reason to get involved in this type of project is that it has the potential to find you some new readers, make some new blogging friends and put your blog out there.

Every time I run these projects I get emails from bloggers telling me that they:

  • had big traffic days
  • found new blogs that they just love
  • had their posts get to the top of digg and other bookmarking sites

Of course not every entry goes viral as a result of participating – but it’s been a beneficial experience for many previous participants as hundreds of bloggers take part.

The Key to Participating

One last thing before I tell you HOW to participate.

These projects work best when those participating don’t only submit posts of their own but when they read and interact with others who submit posts. Here’s how you can do this:

  • Read the submissions of others
  • Make friends with those you like the submissions of (comment, email – get to know them)
  • Link up to those who you resonate with (some bloggers write a top 5 or 10 list each day of the submissions that they like the best)
  • Bookmark, Stumble and Vote for those you resonate with

The people who get the most out of these projects are those who throw themselves deeply into them.

How To Participate

Here’s how to participate and put yourself in the running for the prize (and to get a little exposure for your blog along the way). Please read this as it has changed slightly since last time (this time submissions are not to be sent via my contact form but via another form – please read on):

Please note – one entry per person – and not per blog. Please only submit NEW posts.

1. Write a ‘top 5’ post

  • Be as creative as you’d like – take it in any direction you want as long as it relates to the topic.
  • Give your post a good title. Once all the posts are listed it’ll only be your title that sets it apart from others. It doesn’t have to have the words ‘review’ and or ‘preview’ in the title.
  • Feel free to write your post in your own first language.
  • Please consider putting a link back to this post on your post so that your readers know you’re participating. You don’t have to do this – but it’d be appreaciated to help grow the project.

2. Let us Know about your post

  • Once you’ve posted your post let me know about it by filling in ‘this form’ (now removed as the project is closed).
  • Please fill the form in accurately as the way you enter it is the way it’ll appear and due to the numbers participating I can’t edit it for everyone! The detail that you add will appear in the post (although I’ll be moderating out spam/offensive stuff).
  • Include your post title as you wish it to appear, the post’s URL (not your blog’s front page) and your name (or alias). All of this will be published.
  • To be eligable for the prize I need a valid email address – this will be kept secure and private ad will not be published.
  • Submissions must be received by me the the end of Thursday 10 May (as long as it’s still Thursday where you send it from I’ll accept it). If they come in after Thursday they won’t be included in the list and will not be in the running for the prize.

3. I will post 2 links to your post

  • In the day or two after you let me know about your post I’ll post a link to it in two places. Firstly there will be a daily list of the submissions from the last 24 hours. Secondly there will be a central list of all submissions for the project so we can see everything on one page.
  • I’ll post my final list of submissions on Friday and will announce those who receive the prize.

4. Surf Surf Surf

  • This is where you take over. Surf the submissions received. Leave comments, make connections with other ProBlogger readers, bookmark them and enjoy reading what others have to say.

5. Link Link Link

  • There is no formal ‘judging’ as this is not a competition. Instead – I encourage you to surf through the submissions at the end of the week and announce your own winners on your own blog. Name a top 5 or so and share the link love.
  • Probably the best part of the last group project was the amount of inter-linking I see happening between participating bloggers as a result of their posts. It’s obvious that people found new blogs through it and that the benefits of participating was way beyond getting a link from me but flowed on to a lot of new connections and links between other bloggers.

6. Prize

  • On Friday I’ll randomly select the participant to win the $1001 from Chitika and will post the winner at this point. The rest of us can muse over what could have been and then we’ll get ourselves ready for next months project.

I can’t wait to read everyone’s top 5 list – don’t forget to submit it here.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. […] my entry Square Root of 25 Reasons to ‘Start my own blog’ into probloggers.com’s Top 5 Group Writing Project. Not only did I have a chance to win 1001 dollars from Chitika who sponsored the projectcontest, I […]

  2. […] A couple of weeks back I wrote 5 Inspirational Quotes For Conversational Blogging as a part of Darren Rowse’s last writing project. […]

  3. […] has a group writing project up, and I’m participating. I love group writing projects because they allow a group of […]

  4. […] to the most recent group writing project at problogger (which ended Thursday), I was introduced to several interesting blogs yesterday (I […]

  5. […] of Western North Carolina Woman. In addition, an abbreviated version of this post was entered in Problogger’s Top 5 Writing Project. Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 Related Posts from the […]

  6. […] the growth above that original level of traffic was stratospheric, and it was all because of the Problogger Top 5 group writing project (discussed below). Traffic figures for SamirBharadwaj.com in May 2007 were: Total Pages — 275100 […]

  7. […] and he received over 800 responses. He makes the contests fun by adding themes. This last one was, “The top 5″ of whatever you want to write about. He encouraged community involvement by suggesting that you go […]

  8. […] I checked out my Technorati rank tonight and noticed that it is now 179,584. Considering I started at 3,151,776 (yes I took note) that’s almost twenty times, or one order of magnitude less. What’s the secret? Write a mediocre post and enter it in one of ProBlogger’s Group Writing Projects. […]

  9. […] week Darren is running a “Top 5 – Group Writing Project” . So, welcome to everyone coming over from problogger and welcome to all my regular […]

  10. […] Yeah, that’s right, 893 of them. From ProBlogger’s ‘Top 5′ Group Writing Project. […]

  11. […] time for babylune to pick up the example set by Mommablogga and Problogger to run a group writing project. With a […]

  12. […] recently held a group writing project entitled “Top 5” in which one random entry would be selected to win $1001. The idea of […]

  13. […] idea for the project was inspired by the likes of the Problogger project that I entered with my post – How To Budget For A New Baby – 5 Top […]

  14. […] for the ProBlogger Top 5 Group Writing Project [ Via Mattjmcd […]

  15. […] post is part of ProBlogger’s “Top 5? Group Writing Project. [ Via Internet Marketing Monitor […]

  16. […] list is inspired by ProBlogger’s “Top 5 — Group Writing Project.” I’ve had this list in my head for some time, based on personal experience with the pitfalls of […]

  17. […] Group Writing Projects (11 links, 9.17 value, 0.83 average value per link)Specifically, Darren’s “Top 5″ group writing project. The volume of links was outstanding, although their relative value was diminished by the large […]

  18. […] This topic is a participation entry in Darren’s Top Five Group Writing Project. […]

  19. […] This topic is a participation entry in Darren’s Top Five Group Writing Project. […]

  20. […] post participa do Problogger Group Writing Project Vamos ver se eu ganho 1001 […]

  21. […] this week I submitted an entry to Darren Rowse’s Top 5 Group Writing Project called Top Five Reasons To Start a Personal Finance Blog.  The contest is now complete and there […]

  22. i like it very much for creative idea and props to Chitika for putting up the funds.

  23. Thank you, this worked very well for my blog.

  24. Social networking and user generated content happens to be the current buzz words in and around online circles, thanks to these two dimensions of the internet that has opened up literally endless possibilities for the service provider as well as to each of us euphemistically termed the end user. If you thought about copy writers and content specialists going obsolete with the advent of user generated content then you are partly right and partly wrong.

    User generated content has a built in Pandora box feature which upon a single act of online misdemeanor by a user can trigger a flurry of legal suits with the main keyword being copy right infringement. Many have prophesized recent high profile legal tussles between online corporate giants like Google and time Warner over unauthorized content as the death knell to social networking and user generated content phenomena. But like all other trends that survived, this also is maturing and adapting itself to the online environment that it belongs and given the rapid development and dynamism that we are experiencing with social networking sites, they are least bothered about the challenges that lay ahead.

    The internet as contrary to superfluous speculations has proved to be a one-size fits all medium that caters to people cutting across all age categories. There is some thing in the internet for everybody and it still manages to cater the insatiable craving of its users for everything from news to music and mail to research. We have witnessed the insurgence of blogs but their soulless nature has triggered a backlash in the trend and we are now seeing the beginning of the end of blogging. It’s sure, the blogs are here to stay but they will be paving the way for variants of social networking sites which specializes in areas like, art , architecture and business that others have missed. Traffic to these sites are relevant and refined which if properly channeled can return more than expected results.

    Until now and for some more time in the foreseeable future, these sites have been and will be predominantly depending on revenue from third party advertisement for their overheads. In such a traditional strategy, the website features ads placed by third parties craving quality traffic to their web pages and services. Whether the traffic they get is of any quality is the subject of another article. This source of revenue is vulnerable to fluctuations as far as the internet is not the sole medium for advertisements. The internet has its fair share of competitors like the television, print and radio but the sheer possibility of interactivity is the only excuse that makes it a class apart from others. The enormous amount of data that is at one’s disposal is slowly and spontaneously developing this as favorite and first destination for people searching for information.

    As any previous trend, social networking is also undergoing slow yet decisive changes with the nature of its content at least partially and the motive by which people come over to them. A new breed of social networking sites like zatsit.com have started revolutionizing the way we see social networking with a shift in their content from purely personal to partially commercial. After all, if people want to and can make money from socialization then I suppose no body has an objection and every body should go for that. Through this strategy, the users can convert their online presence for offering their products and services and by virtue of being in the receiving end of quality and targeted traffic, they can also expect relevant leads. A comfortable blend of personal and commercial activity is sure to make a visit to these sites worth the time and bandwidth it consumes and you can also delve into shopping if offered with quality products and services for compelling and competitive rates.

    As history have proved through the dot com boom and bust of the 90’s, it is innovation and alternative resources that holds the key to online survival for sites that do not a steady flow of guaranteed membership subscription. Contrary to the early days of the internet, this medium is spreading like wild fire in Asia and Middle East backed by robust economic growth and increasing online spending. The possibility of freelance work and other services that can be offered and referred through these new breed of sites are enormous and anybody who has a product or service to offer can do it beyond linguistic and geographic barriers which through other mediums he just can afford to. Some sites offer their services for free but others for a premium and these days, you need not know anything about html to create a quality web page featuring your and your products information which these sites will take care of. You can have your own web page minus the inevitable cost and other overheads if you are going for your own site. And what about getting it known to the world that you have this and that on offer? Relax and rest assured, that they will also make sure your page is seen by the world.

    So how do you think about utilizing the potential of these sites or is there anything that you can offer through them
    from hammadkhan

  25. […] both blogs are loved by whoever comes across them… I found romance tracker during one of Darren’s top 5 writing projects  where he wrote how to find the person of your dreams :)  I vaguely remember that I had […]

  26. was there a summary on who one this?

  27. Hi… when is the next contest….
    Have never participated before, but would defnly love to now.

    :)

  28. Very nice Darren.. thank you

  29. This sounds like a brill compition Darren, I have missed this one but will be sure to jion the next if their is one, I only started article wrighting a few months back and know I wont win any prizes but the more I do it the better I will get, and what more motovation does one need that $1000 :-).

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