What Did The Wii Do For Me?
Several months ago I snatched up a Nintendo Wii with the knowledge that I was going to use it as a prize for a Holiday contest on this site. Why? Well, they were practically impossible to find then and I knew that they would be even harder to find right now. This all meant that giving one away would definitely help my site. Boy was I right. Let’s take a quick recap on the success of the contest, as well as where I plan to go from here.
The Goal
This is the first time that I had ever held a contest on any of my Websites, and going in I didn’t exactly know what to expect. All I did know was that a blog contest is just like any other blog post. No matter how well you write, your prose could rival Shakespeare, without proper exposure even a Wii contest would be bust. So I spent some time browsing blogs dedicated to online contests and submitted my giveaway to a bunch of them. Special thanks goes out to the following sites for picking up my contest: Blog Contest Central, Blogging Contest, The Contest Winner, Contest Beat, Contest Blog Cat, International Freebies For All, The Link Bait, Mr. Prizes, My Blog Contest, The Prize Blog, Pro Blog Contester, RevieWow, Wii Contests, and Wiizer Size.
The Outcome
Participation: Thanks to all of the contest blogs across the web, over 100 participants entered; nearly 30 of them took the extra time to write a blog post about it. I greatly appreciate this. Some of the entrants really analyzed Truebluetitan, and provided useful feedback. I read every one of them intently. Some of the suggestions recommended have already been implemented on the site.
The winner of the contest, How2Blogger, turns out to be a really great guy. We’ve exchanged a couple of emails since he was announced the winner, and the prize could not have gone to a better guy. He even took the time to write a “How To” on writing a special thank you note to me on his site. This is one guy that I hope to stay in contact with in the future.
Search Engine Ranking: There are several keywords that I want to rank well for in search engines. I targeted one specific phrase for this contest and it paid off. Before the Wii giveaway, I showed at the top of page 3 on Google. Today, Truebluetitan.com is displayed near the bottom of page 1 and hopefully it will continue to move up in the rankings.
It’s common knowledge in the Search Industry that 100% of searchers view listings on page 1 of Google. 15% of searchers make it to page 2, and only 5% of people view results on page 3. So you can see why my climb up the listings is a big win for me.
Technorati: At the onset of the contest, Truebluetitan was ranked over 360,000 by Technorati. Today, Truebluetitan is ranked 121,630. In just two weeks, Truebluetitan increased it’s rankings by over 200,000 blogs. I’m chalking that up as another success for this blog and the contest.
Unique Visitors: Like I said previously, it doesn’t matter how well you write. Unlike baseball fields in Iowa, in the world of blogging, if you build it, they do not always come, so I’m on a never ending mission to increase the amount of traffic coming to my site hourly, daily, monthly.
Surprise! Surprise! Giving away a Wii helps. As a result, I’m on pace to have the highest amount of unique visitors in a month ever. On December 15, Truebluetitan already surpassed the amount of unique visitors for the entire month of November. Does it sound like I’m smiling? Because I am.
RSS Subscribers: At the onset of the contest, Truebluetitan had 36 RSS subscribers. My goal was to increase the number of subscribers to 100 before the end. After only a week, the number of subscribers already reached my goal. By the end of the contest my RSS subscription had climbed to 133.
I have to admit that I was incredibly afraid of what was going to happen after the contest. People came from far and wide to participate and I just was not sure how many people were going to unsubscribe. Early in the morning on the day after the contest I received a couple of emails stating that I had users unsubscribe, and began to sweat, thinking negatively about what my subscription stats would show the next day. Was my lovely subscription chart going to take the shape of a bell curve?
No, the sun rose and set and the next morning I awoke to find out that my subscribers had climbed to 151. Amazing. I’m pleased to see that you guys are sticking around. I currently have 148 subscribers and want to say “Thank you!” to each and every one of you.
What’s Next?
Well, I’m incredibly close to launching another one of my sites, with 4 others impatiently waiting on the back-burner. At the same time, I’m also preparing a contest that will help to kick off 2008 on the right foot. So stay tuned…good things are on their way.
It’s good to know these things of how to improve your hits. Good post and congrats on getting a large amount of subscribers / viewers.
Damn man, that’s a nice steady rise in subscribers! Clearly you’re doing something right so keep on doing it ;)
Looking forward to meeting up sometime next week!
Thanks for the mention Rob.
We contest blogs are a growing niche and are glad we are of help to the blogosphere.
For myself, I have plans to slowly provide a special niche within the contest blog community and hopefully that pans out nicely.
Great job man, keep up the good work!
Keeping growing and going man! I wish I could get as many RSS subscribers, that always seems to be a problem with me…;)
Congrats TBT. I did not find your site until after the contest, but your results are inspiring. I believe your success in keeping your RSS readers is that you offer solid content.
I’m planning a contest as well, but am waiting until Spring when lawns wake up!
AL
Thanks guys!
@Ryan: If you want it badly enough you’ll get there. Blogging isn’t a sprint. You gotta be in it for the long haul. You can do it.
@Allyn: I really appreciate that. I’ll be on the lookout for that Spring-time contest!