Game MyBlogLog Contest And Be Rewarded
TheSpotter on November 23rd, 2007 ![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.howtospoter.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet ThisA few days ago MyBlogLog has announced a contest with an offer of the prize. Rules were simple - get most community members during a specific time period and get some rewards. Honestly I didn’t even pay much attention to exact rewards offered as I was viewing this contest as a simple means of increasing visibility of my own community.
I’m hoping to gain people who are actually interested to read my blog and perhaps participate in discussions here. Well, apparently some bloggers have taken this Contest very seriously and what I’m seeing now is that communities directly offering rewards for joining community are moving fast to the top and they do it legally!
To me this is equal to invitation: “Game MyBlogLog Contests And Be Rewarded!”
After seeing this I decided to write this post. I have no intention to offer anything for joining my MBL community except for featuring the members as I have already promised. I actually want only people interested in my information to join my community, so please Don’t Do It for Wrong reasons because…
I fail to Understand What MyBlogLog Is Doing!
If you remember in July of this year MBL has offered a new functionality “Community Mass Message” option which generated quite a controversy and I have spoke my piece on the topic as well as many well respected bloggers: Snoskred posted commitment Not To Spam Via MyBlogLog, Andy Beard Has spoken his mind, Meg has blasted the new feature and has lots of great comments, Rob at Yack Yack makes his opinion known, Avinash has a great post on this feature as well as many other bloggers spoke up …
They have taken some things into consideration and provided us with a way to opt-out from receiving email notifications whenever broadcast email was sent. Problem was and still remains - that effectively prevented me from receiving other messages but oh, well… I learned to leave with it.
But now I’m coming to main problem. All arguments by us were countered on MBL blog with one simple question: Why would you join a community you are not interested to follow and receive emails from. Quite frankly a good question and has a good reasoning behind it.
Fast Forward to now… This new contest is beginning to generate a few entries where bloggers reward other people to join their community, so they could Win the the main prize. Kudos to them and a huge minus to MBL, because I didn’t find anywhere within Contest rules that states - this shouldn’t be done!
Now, when you offer $2k in prizes for joining the community - you are most definitely guaranteed to generate some membership (and get highlighted on main communities page, which also helps) and I think its a great strategy by the blogger who came up with it. But the questions that keep bugging me…
- Would all those people join it if not for the chance to get rewarded?
- How does this strategy goes with the question posed by MBL stuff to us when we argued the “Community Mass Message Spam” issue?
- How does MBL manage to work like this: state one thing and then encourage a completely opposite behavior?
I really fail to see the reasoning behind MBL actions and while I understand the need to generate buzz and create excitement around their network I have personally decided:
No More MyBlogLog Contests For Me…
Building a community for the sake of numbers is not in my best interest and I decided to not pay attention to this contest anymore and not to participate in the race which has very little meaning in my eyes.
While this is obviously a decision that relates to the current contest only - I will be a lot more careful before I join the next one (assuming such opportunity will be provided).
I do appreciate everyone who became part of my community and will continue to do so - I only hope you do that because you actually liked my blog.
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Matt Ellsworth (5 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
I saw this contest - but I really wasn’t too sure the point of it - since if people like your site - and use MBL they will join your community if they are interested in you.
Matt Ellsworth’s last blog post..An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Starting A Blog
TheSpot-er (971 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
Matt,
I agree and as I stated for me it was a chance to get more exposure for my community
it does generates solid quality of traffic when people who join are actually interested in your community … the rest is described in my post 
Alex
Meg (1 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
MyBlogWho? It just hasn’t been the same since the community spamming - I rarely even visit, and usually do so just to clean out the spam on my page. I think it’s a desperate grab to create more engagement at the site, as I suspect people are using it less and less.
Meg’s last blog post..Blogosphere Lethargy
Jason A Clark (4 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
Yeah, you know people are definitely going to abuse this new feature. I think the contest is a bad idea, but it’s really a bad idea to not put in rules stopping people from giving away huge prizes…it’s going to get crazy. I never have been too active on MyBlogLog anyway, though.
Jason A Clark’s last blog post..Official “Cloverfield” Poster Released
TheSpot-er (971 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
@ Meg - I agree, I don’t use it that much myself anyway and already canceled my subscription with them for the premium membership. I do think you are absolutely right and this contest is an attempt to re-engage the community and generate the buzz, sad it is done in the way we see now …
@Jason - I actually think Contests are a great idea but it has to be clearly defined as to what is permitted. I spent about 20 minutes reading through “legalize” of the contest and failed to find a single place that prohibits one to offer prizes in order to win the prize.
I actually think it is a great thinking on the part of bloggers who took advantage of the MBL failure to specify clear cut guidelines - it’s just not something I’m willing to do
Saedel (1 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
I agree with this post. To be honest, I don’t pay attention to such contest. I joined MBL when I started blogging. If some members join my community then that’s good.
My setting is automatic, if I frequent a site I like, MBL puts me in their community. It’s fine by me.
-Saedel
Saedel’s last blog post..Don’t Let Your Diversions Take Over Your Job
Blogtommy (1 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
Hi Alex. I’m a relative newbie to your blog but subscribed to it for content. I subscribe to all my blogs for that reason. Incentive based crap is just that. It dies in the end and doesn’t do anyone any good. As I struggled through the host switch I searched for some stuff on Hostgator and voila…there you were offering some much needed support and solid content. That’s what blogs should be. This other stuff…well…whatever…
Content is King my friend…Always has been…always will be.
PEACE
Blogtommy
Blogtommy’s last blog post..Some Hosts Barred
TheSpot-er (971 comments.) (Who Am I?)
11 months ago
@Saedel - I actually think Contents are an awesome idea, when done right. It helps generate the buzz, raise awareness about your blog/site, help promote it … I just got disappointed with the way MBL did it. I could be wrong … but hey, its my opinion.
@Blogtommy - well, I got something cooking for later that you might like even more
Thanks fr comments guys!
Alex