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What Is Blogging Idol All About … and Have I Earned the Title?

This coming week will wrap up an exciting (yet exhausting) competition for me and I want to share what I have learned throughout the month of November.

The point of me competing in Blogging Idol has been two-fold: (1) to encourage me to “launch” my blog and treat it as a business and (2) to compete with other bloggers for the coveted title, “Blogging Idol,” which if earned will be worn proudly forever.

When I started the competition I had no idea what I was going to do to win the competition. I knew there were 3 categories to focus on: (1) RSS gain, (2) the vote of the readers, and (3) the vote of the judges.

As mentioned by the host, Daniel Scocco, the RSS gain can be easily manipulated so that’s why, in the spirit of fairness, this season he added the other elements. It’s also easy to understand that established blogs with 100,000+ monthly visitors would have an advantage over blogs who see only 1,000 monthly visitors … right? There is no way to hold a completely “even” competition so I think adding the voting and judging evened out the playing field nicely.

Traffic Went Up

My traffic has risen from about 50 visits a day to on average about 150+ per day (with occassional spikes for Stumble, interviews, etc.).

My Subscribers Grew

For the RSS portion of the competition I decided to grow this naturally and steadily. As seen in my Feedburner account as my traffic grew my subscribers grew right with it (I started with 52 subscribers and I’m at about 300 now … a 600% increase! Not bad!). I read dozens of blogs and articles on the subject and after reviewing my own blog I decided on the following to achieve this:

1. I decided to give away my upcoming “Blogging for Bucks BootCamp” for free for those who subscribe to my feed.
2. I created a “Sponsor Directory” for those who subscribed and blogged about my quest.
3. I have concentrated my content on blogging and gaining RSS subscribers to teach others what I’m learning through this.
4. Added a related posts plugin.
5. Added Comment Relish (it sends an email to first time commenters ~ in the message I’ve been letting them know that I’m giving away my BootCamp for those who subscribed to my feed).
6. I’ve been out meeting other bloggers in my niche and growing these relationships (not just for the contest sake … but because I enjoy it and truly believe we can achieve more as a team than we can as competitors).
7. I’ve become even more active in my social communities and I’ve been letting them know about my BootCamp offer and the competition (Twitter, The Mom Bloggers Club, My WAHM Space, Twittermoms, CWAHM, WAHM, MySpace, Facebook, etc.). This effort even lead to me being interviewed on a Blog Talk Radio show.
8. I recently added the “What Would Seth Godwin Do” plugin. It puts a box with words before every post. I added the wording about the free BootCamp there and it has worked out great – this increased page views to my BootCamp page (and thus subscribers) immediately.
9. I added an RSS subscribe image to the bottom of each post
10. I have emailed all “Unverified” RSS email subscribers to see if they are still interested in subscribing.
11. I emailed past commenters and invited them back to my blog and told them about the BootCamp and the competition.
12. I also decided early on to share all of my strategies along the way with my readers (and therefore my competitors too). Some said I was crazy for doing so but I disagree. Although I’m very competitive I also believe in doing the right thing … and in this competition we are all trying to become better, more successful bloggers and sharing our ideas is what’s best for all.

Now … with all that said I knew it would be very tough for me to win the RSS portion of the contest so I decided to focus heavily on the other areas of the competition as well (voting and judging) by using “branding” and “name recognition” techniques. The voting and judging is to be based on the most “clever” idea to gain RSS subscribers ~ whether or not it was successful.

I want my name (Suzanne Franco) to be synonymous with “Blogging Idol.”

I want to EARN that title … it’s a competition … so I’m not afraid or ashamed to put myself out there. At the end of each American Idol show … the judges vote … and the competitors ask their viewers to vote for them … right?

Vote Suzanne Franco the next Blogging Idol Now!

Everywhere I go online I’ve been using, “Suzanne Franco ~ the next Blogging Idol?” as my signature line, my anchor text, etc. This is not to be cocky … but, again, to build that name recognition and tie my name with the “Blogging Idol” title.

I also went out on a limb and did some video invites to some “heaver hitters” in the internet marketing and blogging world. Of the six I invited to come by my blog so far three have shown up and one (John Chow) even blogged about my quest. Now, understand … this idea was to get my readers involved and to have some fun with it … and that some of these guys showed up is just icing on the cake.

I also feel that to be a “good” competitor where someone is hosting a competition and many sponsors have given their time and money it’s important to promote the competition and the sponsors as well. I strategically placed links and brand recognition back to the competition whenever possible to “give back” to those who have made this whole contest possible.

See the Sponsors of Blogging Idol 2 Here!

As we move into the final week I will give it my all. I have a drawing/contest launching on Monday, November 24^th and my sponsors have really stepped up and donated some great prizes … over $2,000 worth so far!

I will require an email subscription to be entered into the drawing. Readers can also earn entries for blogging about the contest, by voting for me, and for adding an “I Voted for Suzanne Franco” button to their site.

With the voting opened up I will also be out reminding everyone who said they’d support me to go to the polls and cast their vote!

So … what do you think? Have I truly earned the title, “Blogging Idol?” What could I have done differently? What should I still do this last week to earn the title? Have I earned your vote yet? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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