Advice Network Founders Blog

Mira took the time to email me some questions. In my experience if one person emails me, there are 40 people who have the same question or experience and didn’t take the time, so I thought I’d answer her here.

Dear Sir or Madame,

I just found out about your writing contest to win a MacBook and got interested in it, but I have a few questions. I read about your contest in a Google group, then I checked your blog, but either ways I couldn’t find any extra details about the contest. When does it end? How long do you want the articles to be? Why have only three main categories? Should we send you articles directly, or post them on our blogs and link to you? Can one enter several times? Does that increase one’s chances?

I’d love to see what other participants wrote to have an idea, and to feel some competitiveness in the contest. It will be interesting to have a blog post about your contest (or is there one I missed? The page I read was not in the blog), and refer participants to it to comment on it with the link to their published articles. That will help you track all the participations.

Have you promoted your contest on blogs about blog contests? These should get you some linkbacks if not more participants.

I hope to hear from you soon, to get started on writing.
Mira
www.lalla-mira.com

Great questions Mira. By the way, your blog is really cute!

1. The contest is scheduled to end on 11/26, but I will let you in on a secret (don’t tell.) I am thinking of extending the contest. The full launch of Advice Network is scheduled for 12/1/2007, and I think I am going to extend the contest into December. I think that will give people a better idea of what we are building.

2. The articles can be any length, A short two paragraphs if it conveys some important advice is just as valid as a two page treatise.

3. “Why just the three categories?” Advice Network is going to be a comprehensive resource for people running a business, planning a wedding or other large event, and buying or selling a house. Eventually Advice Network will cover other areas, but we wanted to start with categories that we could cover well, and then expand. Comprehensive is the key here. Besides the Advice articles, people will be able to search for and be matched with professionals in their area. See these blog posts for more details. “What the heck is Advice Network” “Find a professional explained.”

4. To enter the contest you need to register for the contest (no purchase necessary, no entry fee charged.) To register for the writing contest go here. If you just can’t be bothered to enter the contest, but still want to submit an article, you can. In that case, you can send it to me. My email address is on the contact page.

5. Once you have registered, multiple article entries are encouraged. It does increase your chances of winning, and it will increase the traffic to your website too.

6. “I’d love to see what other participants wrote to have an idea, and to feel some competitiveness in the contest.” That is a good idea, and a good point. Because of my understanding of Google’s rules around duplicate content, I am not going to post them on the blog. However, this is what I meant when I said I thought the contest should be extended. The final decision to extend the contest or not has not been made, as I have not run it by legal yet.

7. Your last question; have I promoted the contest on blogs? Yes, as much as possible, but there is alway more to be done. If you know of any good contest blogs or any other blogs that you think should hear about us, please let them know about the contest, or let me know about then. I am happy to link back to them with lots of nice things to say. The URL for the contest is http://www.advicenetwork.com/contest in case you want to post it yourself.

Mira, thanks again for your time.

Alex

CEO and Founder

Advice Network