Blogger Buster is holding its first competition where you could win the ultimate blogging package by telling us what features you would most like to use in Blogger.
To enter this competition and participate in a community project, please read the original competition post and ensure you validate your entry!
In this post, you can read more about the prizes on offer in this competition, along with some ideas for your own entry based on what others have posted so far.
About the competition
This competition has been launched in celebration of Blogger Buster's first birthday, and is part of a community project to raise awareness of the features which we (the Blogger community) would most like to use in Blogger.
For the chance to win the ultimate blogging package or one of five runner up prizes (see below), you will need to write a post explaining the feature(s) you would most like Blogger to add, then post a comment on the competition page with a link to your entry post.
Be sure to read the entry requirements and rules on the original competition page, and post your entries there!
First Prize: The Ultimate Blogging Package
The main prize on offer in this competition is The Ultimate Blogging Package: a selection of useful products which I have hand picked as the most useful products and services which are tailored to the needs of Blogger users.
The Ultimate Blogging Package includes:
- A unique, professional Blogger template (which will not be available for public download)
- A copy of the Problogger book
- A complete blog tune up
- One year domain name, email address and basic hosting package from GoDaddy
- A set of Moo Mini-Cards
- A one month 125px advertising slot here on Blogger Buster
Here follows a full description of each element in the package:
The Unique Blogger Template
I have designed a unique Blogger template as part of the main prize:
This is one of the best templates I have ever designed! It is based on a new design concept I've been working on for Blogger Buster (more news about this in coming weeks) so you can be sure it is optimized for SEO, loads very quickly and has loads of other great features including built in tabbed navigation (I finally figured out the method!).
This design will only be available to the first prize winner of this competition. It will not be released as a download here at Blogger Buster (either free or paid).
As an extra benefit to the prize winner, I will personally install this template in their blog.
In the event that the winner does not require use of this template for their own blog, the winner will still receive the copyright for this template and are permitted to offer this as a download from their own blog instead. However, I will only install this template into a blog owned or operated by the prize winner themselves.
A complete blog tune up
To complement the Blogger template offered to the winner, I will also provide them with a tune-up for their blog which will further optimize their blog for search engines and ensure it loads as quickly as possible.
This part of the prize is not transferable, and will be provided only to the first prize winner.
A one year domain name from GoDaddy (Includes basic hosting and email)
Blogger users can associate a custom domain (eg: www.yourname.com) with their blog. A domain name purchased directly from GoDaddy comes complete with a basic hosting and email package, allowing extra flexibility for bloggers who need online storage for their images and scripts, and also a professional email address.
The winner of the ultimate blogging package will receive a voucher to purchase the domain name of their choice (.com, .org, .net only), and if required I will help set up their custom domain, hosting and email account (not transferable).
You can read full details of the domain package here.
A copy of the Problogger book
ProBlogger the book
Written by Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.net) and Chris Garrett (ChrisG.com), this book is a bestseller of the blogging genre and has received excellent reviews.
Unlike other books that are big on potential and theory, ProBlogger provides results based on the authors own experience of what really works through practical, tried and tested advice.
No matter which genre you write about through your blog, this is an essential book for your reading list!
A pack of 100 Moo Mini Cards
Moo Mini-Cards are a fun and practical way to promote your blog offline. Unlike regular business cards, you can personalize each Moo card in your pack using pre-made templates or your own designs.
This prize includes international shipping, and details will be sent to the winner in the form of a voucher to redeem at Moo.com.
A one month 125px advertising slot here on Blogger Buster
The first prize winner will also win one month's free advertising here on Blogger Buster in the form of a 125px square ad at the top of the sidebar to assist in promoting their blog (worth $30).
5 Runner Up Prizes
As the winners will be drawn purely by luck, I felt it was only fair to offer a small selection of runner up prizes too. So in addition to the ultimate blogging package, five runners up will win:
500 Entrecard Credits
Entrecard is a new and highly useful social network which allows members to earn points which can be used to advertise for free on other members' blogs.
Each runner up will receive 500 Entrecard credits transferred to their account to help towards advertising on other blogs in the network.
One month 30px square advertising slot on Blogger Buster
Each of the five runners up will also receive a one month advertising slot in one of the new 30px square slots which I've introduced to the site.
These slots are currently available through BuySellAds for $10 per month; the size of these ads is similar to a large Favicon and link to your blog (or a page within your blog) using title tags to explain what your site is about.
Ideas submitted so far
If you're looking for ideas for your own entry post to this competition, why not take a look at some of the entries already posted? So far we've seen some really great suggestions, including:
- The ability to upload images and have them display without size modification (from Theresa of Eyebald)
- A comment form beneath posts (from Kazi of Free Software for PC)
- Tabbed navigation built into Blogger templates (from Fernandoo of Randomness)
- A (purely comical value) instant coffee machine! Thanks to La Blogueria for that one, which really made me smile :D
Your feature suggestion need not be unique! Through this project we are trying to encourage the Blogger team to develop the features which we would find most useful. Writing about these suggestions and promoting through this community project is more likely to make Blogger take notice of our needs and work towards developing these features which can only benefit the community as a whole.
My hope is that the prizes offered through this competition will offer you all more incentive to join in!
How the winners will be chosen
As explained on the main competition page, entrants should write a post on their own blogs about the feature they would most like to use in Blogger. To verify their entry, a comment including the link to their blog post should be made on the competition page.
The competition closes on Friday the 4th of July at 10pm, GMT. Winners will be drawn at random soon after the competition closes using Research Randomizer, with one draw to determine the overall winner and a separate draw for the five runners up.
Winners will first be contacted about their prize and announced later in a follow-up post.
Please be sure to read the full details (including the competition rules) on the main competition page. Entries should be submitted on the competition page only to ensure your entries are verified and included in the draws. Please do not add your entry URL on this page as your entry will not be counted!
Best of luck to you all!
Just to confirm some of the questions asked by readers:
- Your entry can be in any language, and will be accepted so long as it follows the rules of entry!
- You must provide a link to your entry post by leaving this in a comment on the main competition page!
Don't forget, this competition closes on Friday the 4th of July at 10pm GMT so be sure to validate your entries before this time!
I wish you all the best of luck for this competition, and look forward to reading more entry posts!
To receive further updates about this competition, and also helpful articles about using Blogger, please subscribe to the Blogger Buster feed.
.png)
