Long time lurker... OK, so I've been writing an NBA previews and predictions blog for about 4 weeks now, and am currently averaging 25-30 views a day, with a peak 2 day period where I absolutely abused social media, with a result of just over 100 views for those two days. My question is, has anybody had any success with gaining views, email subscribers, through running of competitions for a blog? I thought of running a “closest to the margin” score prediction competition over a period of 5 days to keep people engaged, and allow me to offer something other than just a daily write-up. My thinking is that people surely love things that give them something back, other than some tips and a short read. I love writing the blog, but it’s always more rewarding when people read it, obviously. Seeing as though I write it nightly, it can be a little frustrating to only see minimal views. So far this is my routine: Write the blog each night. Make the blog live on that night, or the next morning if I run out of time. Promote on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Have been optimising as best I know for SEO for my chosen keywords “NBA Picks and Parlays”. Just started some off page submissions. Including directories etc... I have paid to “Boost” Facebook posts for each article, with very little success. But I knew that would be the case I guess. Has anybody had any success running prize/competition as promotions for blog engagement I guess is the question and are there any golden rules. Here is the blog itself : http://themidfield.com/nba-bets-spread-712/
I think it would depend on who you are trying to reach out to. If they are internet savvy. i.e. have blogs and will share your contest on social media sites, etc, then it could work.
Your blogs should be about other internet products or services. Through this, your success rate will increase rapidly