I have another blog that I have been working on for about four years. The traffic wasn’t so good. I tried using a variety of methods to get myself more traffic, but it just wasn’t where I wanted it to be. It was then that I discovered blog events. I had hosted small giveaways on my blog before, but I would only get a handful of participants. When I realized that I could partner with other blogs and we could drive traffic to each others blogs, I was thrilled.

How Blog Events Work

Blog Events/Giveaways are hosted by one or more blogs. There are basically two types of blog events: prize provided by hosts and prize provided by your blog.

1. Prize Provided by Hosts: In this type of blog event, the hosts determine the prizes to be given away and the blogs participating pay a fee to the hosts that goes toward the prize (and sometimes towards administration fees). Each blog will get a number of social media links (such as FB, Twitter, Google +, GFC) on the giveaway form. When a participant fills out the giveaway form, they do certain tasks to gain entries into the giveaway. These tasks can provide likes to your blog’s Facebook Page, followers on Twitter and Friends on Google + or Google Friend Connect. Usually all of the blogs in the event include the giveaway form on their pages harnessing the power of their readers in providing more traffic and social media connections for your blog.
2. Prize Provided by Blog: Some blog events/giveaways ask that you provided a prize for the event. This prize is given away on your own blog. You provide your own giveaway rules and decided what you want participants to do to enter the giveaway. The benefit is that there is a link list of blogs provided by the hosts that you included with your giveaway post. This link list allows participants to “hop” around to each of the blogs participating. You can gain more traffic and social medial connections as people visit your blog from other blogs on the list.

Sometimes hosts ask that you provided your own prize, but they will have a grand prize as well. There is usually a fee associated with these, but you are also allowed an entry for the grand prize.

Providing a Prize

It would be awfully expensive if you had to provided prizes for all of the events in which you participate. Instead, think about getting a sponsor for your prize. Contact companies that have products that you feel passionately about. Tell them about the blog event and how it will generate exposure for their product. Ask if they will donate one product for you to review and one for you to giveaway to your readers. Be prepared to tell them about your blog and your interests. You may have to contact a number of companies before you get a response.

Finding Blog Events

If you would like to participate in blog events, I have set up a database of blog events that I know about. Are you hosting a blog event? Fill out this form to be included in my Big List of Blog Events!

My Results

Before I started focusing on Blog Events and Giveaways, I had 100 Facebook Fans, 55 Google Friend Connect Friends and 125 Twitter Followers. I was only getting about 1,000 pageviews per month. Now I have close to 6,000 Facebook Fans, 2,000 Google Friend Connect Friends, 5,000 Twitter Followers and over 25,000 pageviews per month.

A Word of Warning

Getting involved in blog events and giveaways will give your blog a boost, however, you must also be focused on providing great content on your blog as well. Make sure that you also blog about things that interest you, products your like, recipes you have tried, or whatever you wish the focus of your blog to be. Good content is what is going to keep the numbers going!