A lot of people have contests on their blogs which can bring in a nice little influx of visitors, but the one thing they do and don’t realize, is make the rules too hard to understand. Especially for the baby bloggers, or people who are just getting started.

Let me say that in one of my more recent posts, I made this mistake and it was brought to my attention as to why the contest may have not have performed as I would have liked it. So I did a follow up, and realized that if I made it just real simple and easy, that people could read it quickly and accomplish the task to get a link. With that in mind I want to give five solid points that will help you when you have a contest or prize give away, that will make it a lot better.

1. Use bullets or an ordered list that is numbered with requirements or steps.
2. Make the sentences as short as possible.
3. Make the important main points stand out with bold.
4. Don’t create multiple steps in one paragraph or say, “if this happens I will add this or do this”.
5. Make sure to tell when you will announce the winner so people know when to come back.

If you follow these steps you will have more success with participation in give aways as well as competitions. This leads to more links to you which leads to… well you know what I mean!