When I first learnt about this blog contest, I was astonished because I was actually planning then to hold a contest in my blog probably to give away free stuffs. So, instead of going ahead I decided to follow this one and see how it will fair.

The truth is that this blog contest is one of the best thing that has happened to internet marketing in Nigeria from my own perspective, at least with my 5 years experience in internet marketing.

Actually, the organizer have good motives in organizing the contest I must say, but there are some issues I think need to be clarified before this contest is brought to an end. In order to make this contest end up a “contest” and not just a blog “concept”, we all have a role to play.

The Roles of the Organizer

The organizer Fastecash has done much to be sincere with this contest.
However, there are some issues they need to address so that the aim of this contest can be realized.
If you look at the blog rankings, you will see that there is a high margin between the top blogs and the bottom one. There are numbers of reasons for this. Apart from fastecash users, others who just visit for the purpose of voting are limited to the top 10 sites. You know the cost of browsing can be very high in Nigeria, so these people are limited to the top 10 sites every time they visit. Besides, some vote with their phone so they will not want to waste their money and time opening a lot of pages. So, my recommendation is that fastecash should at least display all the blogs instead of the top 10 in the home page. That will help casual visitors to spread their votes. DonÂ’t forget too that it is not all Nigerians that are good at navigating through web pages.

On the issue of voting, I will like the organizer to publish an article to clarify what constitute a fraudulent anonymous  vote. From the answer they give to the question “Is there anything I can do to influence my winning?”, the participants are encourage to advertise their blogs so that many people can visit their site and vote for them. But they said they will detest you influencing people's sincere votes. The truth is that you may not be able to dictate what others can do sometimes to make you win especially if they are your die-hard fan. The question is, how many anonymous votes will sound suspicious? Or could any anonymous vote just count as far as it comes from different IP?

I just read Tony Ogbona's article on FBC II Hijacked by fraudsters! I think the organizers have tried to make it a fair game. However, the truth is that voting fraud is a global problem. I read an article on DJ Mag readers' poll of the top 100 DJs worldwide for 2007. Below is an excerpt from the article in italics to show what the publisher did to stem the problem which I think fastecash can also do.

After weathering a little voter fraud, red-faced PR releases from a few quarters, and a bit of "it's all bollocks"-style Internet grumbling. This year's poll provided more than the usual drama as publisher James Robinson decided, for the first time, to count the e-mailed votes personally. What he found surprised him and embarrassed Christopher Lawrence (#4 on DJ Mag's Top 100 for 2006) and DJ Dan (#5 in 2006).
“In both their cases, a script was used to bypass our security system,” said Roberston in a press release. “Not only did we get multiple votes from the same IP address, but we got multiple votes from multiple IP addresses — in other words, we received in excess of 50 votes from the same IP address on over 20 occasions.... The chances of the same person getting voted for by 50 different computers each having been allocated the same IP address within a week would be billions to one.”

So, Fastecash may also need to analyse the result manually. Besides, some site have been voted negatively to force them down the ranking. I think such voters should be banned.

The Roles of Participants

I think the problem with some of the participants here is that they are looking at the money aspect of this blog. The truth is that the results of contest go beyond prizes. Until we all realize that every participant is a winner, we will never be able to get anything out of this contest. Let me say that a blog may end up no 1 and get the N50,000 but may never get more than that. Recently, I read in one of the national dailies that PC2PC forum became a major distributor to Acer laptop. Why do you think that was so? Why didn’t they choose one of those big computer outlets?  It is because they have created a readership for themselves and a brand - take note online.

The reason why many of the participants focus on the money is because they do not properly monetize their blogs. When I visited some of the blogs, I noticed that all they put there is some Google adsense. The truth is that you cannot make money from your blog if all you have there is Google adsense. At least not until you start having up to 10,000 visitors to your site. You see, I know what I am saying. Around February this year, I started a free blog and I used it to promote one of the business ideas I have in mind. Do you know that without spending a dime, this blog have generated up to N300,000 in less than 6 months so much that I was forced to register a business name to promote it. So, what I am trying to say is that if your blog is properly monetized, you will focus better on improving your blog than being too conscious of your blog ranking. If your blog has something great to offer, just tell your visitors to vote for you in the blog contest. You may be amazed at the result! There are many ways to monetize your blog more than just Google
adsense, but I will not discuss that here.

The Roles of Voters

The voters actually determine if this blog contest will end up a ‘contest’ or a ‘concept’. I have little to say to the voters. It is not just about voting; it’s all about what you learn from these blogs. Personally, I have taken my time to go through most of the blogs and I have learnt many things along the line. Infact, I have documented some of the things I have learnt. So, instead of just voting for one site, why not try and visit all the sites even if it is one per day and cast
your vote as you visit them. With that you may be able to know if your favourite site have been updated or maybe it’s not the best after all.
 For you to vote properly, you may want to look at the answer to the  following questions again. Ensure that you consider this in your vote.
How will the voting be conducted?
Here are 5 consideration elements that people will check out to vote for your blog.
1.      The design and development of your blog. (The template, theme, design, plugin etc will be considered by voters.)
2.      The creativity you injected into the blog (What makes your blog unique from others will be evident through the creativity you injected into the blog)
3.      The contents of your blog. (How consistent is the blog topic?
Are you posting quality contents? What is the originality of the content? Are the contents other persons' materials or your original work? Though you can refer to other works, but your posting must have it's originality. )
4.      How often you update the blog
5.      Monetization of the blog. (This is the strategies you have implemented to make money with the site like Google AdSense)

I hope to see you at the end of this contest. I hope you would have learnt something along the line. Whether this contest turn out to be a real ‘blog contest’ or a ‘blog concept’ depends largely on your sincerity.

From Olowole Jetro
http://NigeriaUniversitiesUpdates.com