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The Blogging Idol contest is live! There are more than 100 participants that joined the contest and I would like to begin by wishing them good luck. In fact, developing a successful blog is not something easy. It requires lots of time and effort. Thus, I’m very glad to see that many bloggers demonstrate audacity by participating to this contest. I hope them all to increase their readership significantly!

An Admirable Cause

This said, I’m personally ready to face this challenge but I’m not facing it alone. I would like to communicate that I decided to make this challenge a way to serve a more admirable cause. In fact, I’m actually in contact with the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. The mission of this foundation is to raise funds to contribute to the advancement of teaching and research as well as financing the acquisition of cutting-edge medical equipment. But the most important, to my own opinion, is that all this knowledge and equipment then benefit to sick children.

On my side, I would like to help them by sharing the prize of the contest if I win. Since the money part of the prize is 800$, my goal would be to give them the whole 800$! However, note that I will highly consider selling other parts of the prize if more than 800 readers subscribe to my blog.

I particularly care about this foundation because it is related to sick children. As the father of 2 healthy children, I believe that giving donation to this foundation is just something natural. We are generally not thinking about these children when ours are healthy, but I think we should. I don’t want to be moralist here; everyone is living with their own values, and mines goes to children.

The Rules

You may be aware that the winner of the Blogging Idol contest will be the blog that will accumulate the highest number of subscriber in one month. The challenge started July 1st and will end July 31th. If you want more information about this contest, take a look at the original post.

Obviously, if I want to give this money I have no other choice than winning! However, I would require your help to achieve this goal. So I make the rule quite simple:

I will donate 1$ to the Children Foundation for every new subscriber on my blog.

Note that in the case I win, I won’t be looking who subscribed and then unsubscribed after the contest. I commit myself to give this money if I win, period! Also, concerning this commitment, I have to say that I’m still in discussion with the Children Foundation to obtain a letter or something to certify that my commitment is real and concrete. I’ll let you know as soon as I get it.

The Benefits to Subscribe to my Blog

Of course, subscribing to my blog will worth 1$ for the Children Foundation if I win, but there are also other benefits to subscribe. First, you’ll get quality and free tips to improve your blog directly to your inbox. Second, you’ll get the chance to win a free 125×125 ad spot above the fold every month. Get more details about this last item here.

In Summary…

For sure, the Blogging Idol contest is a great opportunity for me to increase my readership, but I thought that it would be much more honorable to share the prize with a greater social cause. From now, you’ll be the only one to know if you will subscribe or not. However, if you still hesitate, one suggestion would be to subscribe to take a look at the future posts and simply unsubscribe if you don’t like them. Easy, isn’t it?

You Want to Help me?

Here are some actions you may consider if you want to help me:

1. Subscribe to my blog. Your tips could be delivered either on your inbox or on your feedreader.
2. Writing a post about this story.
3. Submitting this story on social media sites.
4. Creating a link back to my blog or to this story.
5. Sending this story to your friends.
6. Writing a supportive comment!

To everyone that help me in any way, I will do something for you. Of course, I won’t be able to give you 800$ – even if I would like to – but I’ll do something worthy for you. Note that you will have to contact me and tell me what you’ve done. As a fast suggestion, I’m thinking to make a special page that will list everyone with a link back to your blog or website. In fact, it would be something like a “Thanks” page for all the contributors. I’ll give me some time to think about other possibilities.

To get more information about the Children Foundation, please visit their website.

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As you probably notice, the whole blog was in maintenance mode several times this week. The main reason is because I had in mind to make some minor redesign to add some essential elements and remove some others.

Here is a list of the main changes with some comments.

The Header Sections.

This section introduces 2 new and essential elements: the most popular articles and how to get connected with me. As you probably notice, I tried to make some artwork for the section titles. In fact, I hope to have some comments on that since I would like them to get the attention of new visitors. If you have any feedback, don’t hesitate.

Most Popular Articles. This section is essential to demonstrate to new visitors what people before them appreciate from your blog. These articles give them a good idea about your writing style and your skills. Hopefully, these articles will convince them to give you their vote and subscribe to your blog.

Get Connect With Me. Blogging is all about relationship! Social Media networks are the most powerful tools to build relationship. In addition, they are the best platforms to efficiently distribute your content. Don’t hesitate to add me as your friend; and don’t hesitate to contact me. Note that I’m just beginning with Twitter so you’ll notice that I’m not as active as I should be! Time will help me in that area!

Full RSS Feed. This section already existed, but I think that this small redesign may help to make it more visible. By the way, I would really appreciate to get your vote and to count you as one of my subscriber. You may subscribe via my feed or get my post directly on your mailbox!

The Core Audience Corner.

Last month I published an article titled Be Part Of My Core Audience And Get A Place On The Top!. In this article, I said to my core audience that they will get the first place on my blog! I’ll let you read this article to get the details about how to get your place in that special section.

The Poll.

A new poll has been put in place. I would really appreciate if you can participate and let me know about your favorite social media network. In fact, participating doesn’t require anything special. It’s just a matter of 2 small clicks! Thanks in advance!

The Top Commentators.

This section already existed, but I want to bring your attention to the fact that it will be reset at the end of every month. Take a look at this article for more details.

BlogRush.

As you will notice, I remove my BlogRush widget. There is not that much to say on that. The results weren’t there so I just decided to uncluttered my sidebar!

Don’t hesitate to leave me your comments and your feedback. I’m really open to hear what you like and what you don’t like, and I would extend that to everything about this blog. Do you like the design? Do you like the content? Do you like the blogger? What would you like to see here? What type of content do you prefer?

I would like to hear it or at least to read it!

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Also, if you like what you read, I’ll really appreciate if you could share it on Delicious, StumbleUpon or Digg using the links below. Thanks!

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My article of April 4th was related to the Guest Blogging Contest of the Search Engine Journal (SEJ). In that posts, I was saying that you cannot loose by participating; you may only be a winner!

The contest is now started and I guess you may want to read the article I submitted. As a bonus, you’ll see my picture! The URL is the following: The Secret to Developing a Popular Blog

Of course, I would highly appreciate your support. The best way to support me is to read the article and to distribute it everywhere you can. It can be by sending it to a friend, twitting, commenting, make a post on it, send it to social media like Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, reddit, etc. Also, as usually, I will highly appreciate your feedback!

Thanks in advance to all of you!

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Also, if you like what you read, I’ll really appreciate if you could share it on Delicious, StumbleUpon or Digg using the links below. Thanks!

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Social Media are essential in term of content distribution. In fact, this is one of the most efficient ways to get visibility. Obviously, the more visibility you get the more chance you have to build a popular blog.

In term of visibility, the most effective spot is clearly the Digg Front Page. Many bloggers tried to break the Digg code by doing some experimentation. Late last week, Invesp.com published an article titled: Secrets Revealed: Breaking the Digg Code. This sounds quite audacious for me, but I think it worth the reading. The secret isn’t reveal in the blog article but in a 20 page PDF report. In fact, Invesp.com claims that they were able to get 63% of their submission to the first page of Digg in 2007. Note that the report is exclusively available for their feed subscribers. So, if you are not currently one of them, you’ll need to subscribe to get your own copy. The report outlines a 4 weeks step-by-step instructional program. It is clean and well done.

Keep in mind that this report is the result of an experimentation. Note also that I really don’t support social bookmarking games. Social Bookmark sites are founded on quality values which make them exceptional platforms for any kind of valuable content. Reading this report to satisfy your curiosity seems to be fair for me, but then, you’ll be the only judge about what you will be doing with it.

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Also, if you like what you read, I’ll really appreciate if you could share it on Delicious, StumbleUpon or Digg using the links below. Thanks!

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Last Monday, Search Engine Journal announced an original Guest Blogging competition with more than 9000$ in prizes. Since then, the prizes value increases to more than 10 000$. Of course, the prizes are quite interesting and I invite you to take a look at them on their website. However, I would like to focus on the most interesting point with this competition: by submitting your article and participating, you already are a winner!

In fact, this is right if you follow the instructions carefully. When a commenter asked the following question:

“Will you accept all the guest posts which are submitted ? If not , then the ones which you decide to accept and publish, will you inform the authors before hand ?”

Loren Baker answers the following:

“If all of the guest posts are relevant to blogging or search marketing, yes. And, I will inform the authors of the guest posts which are not using.”

This is particularly interesting because whoever you are, you will benefit of a wide exposure of your expertise. This competition is largely promoted and I expect a large number of competitors and readers. This is your chance to demonstrate your ability to convince the readers about your value. This is not an easy task, but keep it simple: be clear, relevant, creative and unique.

I would recommend to everyone interesting in that areas (blogging and search marketing) to participate. To do so, follow the instructions on their website. Note that you must send you article before April 15th. You still have some time to write a terrific article! Don’t miss your chance and catch this opportunity to demonstrate your expertise to a very large audience.

I wish you the best!

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Also, if you like what you read, I’ll really appreciate if you could share it on Delicious, StumbleUpon or Digg using the links below. Thanks!