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Call for Prizes - Group Writing Project Coming Soon Posted: 28 Jul 2008 04:45 AM CDT It has been a while since I’ve run a group writing project here at ProBlogger so I thought it might be time to another one (if you’re new to ProBlogger and don’t know what a group writing project is I’ll describe it below). While I’m getting things ready I’m looking for prizes from up to 3 sponsors. Last time I ran a competition like this we had a lot of prizes and as a result didn’t give sponsors as much of the limelight that they each deserved - this time I’m limiting prizes to just the three best ones. What do you get for the prize you donate? You’ll be linked to and have your site/service described in the announcement post of the group writing project You’ll get promoted with a thank-you to on each daily update through the week of the project You’ll be promoted again on the final day of the project and again on a compilation page of all entries. All in all you’ll be mentioned and receive promotions each day for a week on ProBlogger. You’ll be one of 3 sponsors receiving this treatment so your exposure will not be diluted. Last time we did one of these projects we had 893 entries and it got a lot of buzz around the blogosphere. It’s a great way to get word out to bloggers about your site, product or service. What prizes am I looking for? Previously we’ve had prizes that have been anything from trips/accommodation through to Nintendos, to laptops, to cash, to iPods etc. Really anything goes - however if you’re going to submit a prize idea you need to know the following: 1. the prize needs to be deliverable to people internationally at your cost. Please consider shipping costs or be willing to offer a cash prize to an equivalent value if you can’t ship outside the USA. 2. last time I did this I had 100 or so submissions for prizes. This time I am only choosing 3 - so those prizes selected will probably be among the most valuable. While it’s not all about how much the prize is worth I want to give my readers the chance to get the best thing that they can out of participating. It’ll also get you more attention if you do. 3. please no blog hosting packages or ebooks. While these are relevant to bloggers I get hit with 30-40 or so offers for this type of prize every time. While I’m grateful to it I find that readers respond well to fun prizes (think gadgets, cash etc). How to Submit The Prize You’re Willing to Donate If you’re willing to donate a prize please do so via my contact form with the following information: Please include the word ‘prize’ somewhere in the email so I can filter the emails and make sure I see them all Your name and email address (address will remain private) Your Company/Business/Blog Name The Site that You’d want to promote if your prize is chosen The Prize The value of the prize Confirmation that you’re willing to ship it internationally You have 48 hours to submit your prize suggestion (I’ll close this at 8pm Wednesday night Melbourne time). I’ll then contact the 3 that I’d like to use with further details. What is a Group Writing Project Put most simply a Group Writing Project is a group of bloggers all are challenged to write a post on a similar theme on their blogs. The themes are broad (we’ve done things like ‘Top 5′, ‘reviews and predictions’, ‘lists’) so that bloggers blogging on a wide range of topics can participate. Once they’ve published their post they come to ProBlogger to let us know where it is. The project runs for a full week. On the first day I announce the topic and then on each day during the next week I publish a list of bloggers that participate. At the end of the week random participants are selected to win a prize. You can see the last project here. Share This

Surprise Surprise - Google Knol Ranks Well in Google! Posted: 28 Jul 2008 12:32 AM CDT Last week Google announced their ‘Knol’ service and I (among others) questioned whether it would have a significant impact upon smaller publishers ability to rank well in Google’s search results. Initial results show that Knol articles are already ranking very well (here and here for example) - and with as little as a link or two from other sites are even capturing #1 search results for certain keywords. Aaron wall from SEO book has added more fuel to the fire with some of his own testing. Update: What I think irks me the most about Knol is Google’s insistance that they’re not a media company. They host content, they pay those who write it income when that content makes money, they keep part of the money for themselves, they distribute the content…. If it looks like a media company and acts like a media company - I got the feeling that they are one. Of course this is Google’s right to do - they can set their own business plan - but I guess they need to be willing to be up front about it and name what they are doing for what it is. They also need to be willing for other publishers (many of them who are their partners in many ways) to react against them. I’ve been hearing murmurings from a few fairly large independent bloggers and web publishers today of talk of a move away from using AdSense out of protest. I’m not sure what impact this would have unless a lot of large publishers did it - but it seems like there’s growing discontent around the online publishing community around this issue. Share This

Offers for Bloggers That Will Expire Soon Posted: 27 Jul 2008 06:35 PM CDT Over the last few weeks there have been a number of offers and deals for bloggers - some exclusive to you as Problogger readers. As some of these expire at the end of the month I thought I’d give a brief recap of three of them with cut of dates that are approaching: $100 Signup Bonus from Chitika - Chitika are offering all new publishers who sign up through ProBlogger the chance to earn up to $100 as a signup bonus. Any new publisher signing up with them will have their earnings up until the end of August doubled - dollar for dollar - to a maximum bonus of $100. This is a good deal for anyone who has applied to join Chitika previous but who wasn’t accepted into the program because they’ve now widened the type of blogs they can monetize and are accepting more applications than previously (read more about this deal). Sign up for this offer here. Pepperjam Network Offer $10 SignUp Bonus - The Pepperjam Affiliate Network is offering all new publishers a signup bonus of $10 for all those bloggers who sign up in the month of July - there’s just a few days to go on this one (read more). Signup for this deal here. TeachingSells to Close Doors - The TeachingSells course will close it’s doors to new members in the coming days (midnight on 31 July). It will open again at some point but at a higher price point so this is your last chance to get in at current prices (read more about this). Get notice of more deals like these (plus other exclusive ones to subscribers) by signing up for the ProBlogger weekly email newsletter. I’ll announce a new competition in this newsletter in the next day or two. Share This

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