Have you ever wished you could get insider tips on how to succeed at something?
Like how to win a contest or how to attract more clients? Well, I'm about to give you insider tips for both.
Marketing experts say that blogging is one of the most important tools for client attraction in any type of business, particularly if you don't have a big advertising budget. That advice couldn't be more true for coaches.
That's why we sponsor the Best Coaching Blogs Contest each year. Coaching Blogs offer some of the most cutting-edge information about coaching and they are free. That's awesome for the consumer and it's a great marketing strategy for coaches. The contest highlights the very best and it's an effective inbound marketing strategy for School of Coaching Mastery. Everybody wins. But not everybody wins the contest.
Winning at Best Coaching Blogs is a lot like winning at blogging. Both will attract more clients to you, so listen up!
9 ways to win Best Coaching Blogs:
1. Know your audience. The easiest audience to write for is yourself, your friends, or your clients, in that order. But if you're writing to attract more clients, you need to work harder to offer value, to be understood, to create fans and attract clients. If you're writing to win Best Coaching Blogs, remember that your blog will be read by folks who don't know you and you'll need to win over both coaches and non-coaches. They are very different audiences.
2. Know the difference between a business blog and a personal blog. A personal blog, or weblog, can be quirky, weird and profane. A business blog can be all of that, too, depending upon your audience. Generally speaking, a business blog needs to offer more service and value and build more trust than a personal blog, because you ultimately want your readers to spend not just their time, but their money with you. That usually requires more discipline and perhaps less soul-baring. Service, value, trust and discipline will go a long way to help you win the Best Coaching Blogs Contest.
3. Actively create trust. Notice that the word, 'trust' is coming up a lot? You may have already created a fantastic level of trust with the folks who know you, but if you want to attract more people (and contest votes) via your blog, you'll have to create trust through your actual writing. How do you do that? Tell the truth. Give away your best secrets. And show up consistently, meaning develop a consistent voice and blog regularly and frequently enough that people start to count on your articles. As a rule of thumb, you need a minimum of about 20 articles to create blog credibility and you should be blogging once per week or more.
4. Titles are critical. Learn to write titles that engage quickly and pique curiosity. You only have a second or two to convince someone that it'll be worthwhile to spend their valuable time reading your article. Check the right-hand column of this blog for a list of our ten most popular blog posts and you'll see examples of many of the types of posts that engage and create curiosity. If people don't read your articles, you won't attract either clients or votes.
5. Make sure the article delivers what the title promises. Piquing someone's curiosity and then immediately pulling a switcheroo to get them to buy or download something is just plain rude. It's also marketing suicide and readers will mentally blacklist you in a heartbeat. Don't use your blog to sell. Also, don't use it just to write about a product or program, unless your audience tells you they love that. Do offer something of value at the bottom of your posts for people who may want more. Treat your readers with respect and they'll come back. They may even vote for your blog.
6. Be remarkable. Thousands of life coaches write about the Law of Attraction. Don't be one of them unless you have something different to say. Write what no one else writes. Empower your readers. Help them achieve their goals. Make them feel smart for discovering you and they will tell all their friends. And their friends will tell friends. Soon, you have raving fans for your blog and for your work. Fans vote with a vengence.
7. Be Social. Success in the blogosphere is achieved through cooperation, not competition. Read other blogs and comment on them. Link to the best ones. Guest post on some. And announce what you and other bloggers are up to throughout the social media web. This advice is especially important during the contest. Treat your fellow contestants like friends instead of enemies, because in the end, the semi-finalists choose the Top Ten Winners.
8. Play nice. Every year, at least one blogger succumbs to the temptation to cheat and it's the other contestants who notice it first. That's a dumb strategy, because the contestants are the ones who choose the winners. Either play nice or loose.
9. Break the rules. Although I'm giving you awesome advice for writing a successful blog that wins like crazy, your audience may want something completely different. Pay attention to them first and foremost and your blog grow in popularity. Best Coaching Blogs is in many ways a popularity contest. Write for your readers (and voters) and win!
Go here for a related article called, Best Coaching Blogs: Why a Winning Strategy Might Not Win.
Are you a blogger or even winner in one of the Best Coaching Blogs contests? What strategies do you use that I've left out here? Please share your best blogging strategies in the comments below.
Want more ideas? Download the free How to Blog Effectively for Your Coaching Business ebook here.
Best Coaching Blogs 2010 opens this morning. Enter your blog to win!
The Best Coaching Blogs 2010 contest 'officially' opens this morning. A few of last year's participants entered over the weekend, so you can begin voting right away.
However, we will still be in the 'entry period' until the end of May, adding new blogs as they are entered. Right now is the time to enter the coaching blog contest.
How does the Best Coaching Blogs contest work?
Any self-described coach who blogs on coaching themes may enter for free. You'll get a badge, similar to the one above, to post on your blog, website, and social profiles, with a link to the contest, so your readers, clients, followers, etc., can all vote for you. Only one vote per blog entry, per IP (computer) address. And of course, you'll want to blog about it and post about it on social sites. Last year, major coaching organizations, professional coaches and even student coaches all entered - and won!
'Thanks again, Julia, for this competition. I joined for a lark, and got into the top ten! Incredible!' - Coach Gaye Wilson
How are Best Coaching Blogs winners chosen?
Initial votes are cast by the public, so be sure to mobilize yours. Final results will be determined by the Semi-Finalists, themselves, in a closed vote (online survey). Criteria for winning include the quality of blog content and good sportsmanship. A summary of the final vote counts will be made public in a downloadable PDF document. The contest winners will be announced in this blog on July 1st.
What do the Best Coaching Blogs win?
Every blog that makes it past the initial entry period will get a badge that describes what level they won (1st Place!) to display on their site, plus bragging rights. And this year, we're adding prizes - winners will receive free memberships to Coaching Insiders. More on that later.
Why should you enter Best Coaching Blogs 2010?
Well, you just might win. Last year, 50 blogs entered. New coaches, as well veterans, competed and won. There were 30,000 hits to the contest page within 2 months and visitors continue to visit the list of last year's winners, which links to their blogs. Winners also got picked up by other online lists of best blogs.
'Wow, thanks so much! This means a lot to me, especially considering the standard of the other blogs - many colleagues whose work I know well (and love reading regularly) were featured in the competition. So this is a real honour. Thanks to everyone!' - Coach Cath Duncan, 1st Place, Best Coaching Blogs 2009
Perhaps the real reason to enter is that you'll get new readers and perhaps new subscribers and clients. That's what last year's participants told me. They also told me the whole thing was a lot of fun!
'...an amazing experience. I'll be following some of the blogs from the contest and have had new people subscribe to my blog and newsletter. It's great to share with those of like mind and receive inspiration and support along the way.' - Coach Marian Kerr
Last, the Best Coaching Blogs contests are designed to spotlight great coaching and how it helps others do great things and have better lives and more successful businesses. Coaching is changing the world.
'We are very honoured to have been voted one of the ten best blogs - especially among so many other incredible entries!' - Coach Linda Dessau, editor IAC VOICE
Please share this post with as many people as you know, especially coaches. Our social share buttons at the top of this post make that easy for you. And if you decide to enter, good luck!
Over 30,000 visitors read and voted on their favorite blogs and the winners, from all over the world, ranged from big coaching organizations to new coaching students.
We're getting ready to do it again. After reviewing a variety of approaches to help us upgrade security and fairness, we realized we already have eveything we need to run another great contest.
Who can enter Best Coaching Blogs 2010? Any self-described coach who already has a blog. Please don't enter if you aren't at least a coaching student and obviously don't enter this year if you don't already have a blog.
What's the benefit of entering Best Coaching Blogs 2010? Hundreds, if not thousands of new readers, potentially getting picked up by lists of top blogs, connecting with other thought leaders in the coaching world, prizes and bragging rights (including a badge for your site) if you win. Oh yeah, and it's fun!
Right now, we're looking for sponsors to help kick in some prizes in exchange for a little promotion on our site. If you offer a product or service that coaches would be interested in and want to be a contest sponsor, let me know here. (Sorry, contestants can't be sponsors, so you have to choose how you want to play.)
The contest last year ran from May through June, but we'll be accepting entries earlier this year. Watch this blog for upcoming announcements. I recommend you subscribe by email or RSS.
Why do we hold a Best Coaching Blogs Contest every year? Lots of reasons, including:
- Reading blogs is one of the best free ways to learn about this business.
- Participating in the blogosphere is a super way to establish yourelf as a thought leader, even if you don't have your own blog.
- Connecting with bloggers and readers can bring you ideas, opportunities, collaborators and clients.
- Much, much more.
Subscribe to the Coaching Blog above right, to keep informed about this exciting coaching contest.
We have our winners for the 2009 Best Coaching Blogs Contest!
Forty-five wonderful blogs were entered and I've heard from countless people that it was a terrific introduction to blogs and coaching. Kudos to everyone who entered and participated faithfully. Watch for an announcement about next year's contest in this space.
But you want to know who the winners are, right? Here they are.
Congratulations to our top three winners!
Here's Cath's reaction to learning that she won:
"Wow, thanks so much! This means a lot to me, especially considering the standard of the other blogs - many colleagues whose work I know well (and love reading regularly) were featured in the competition. So this is a real honour. Thanks to everyone!"
Cath has a new coaching site that goes live today:
www.bottomlinebookclub.comJude's reaction to winning third place:
"Wow-I'm in Hawaii enjoying the surf, flora, and fauna of the big Island. It's hard to imagine winning third place! I feel like Woohoo! I write my blog as inspiration for others who are trying to change their lives. Hopefully,they will be pulled forward into their highest and best life whatever circumstances they are currently in."
The following seven blogs complete our Top Ten Winners:
Somedays Syndrome
Prosperous Coach Blog
Laurie Foley
All Paths to Victory
Your Web Coaches
Lose the Excuses
IAC Voice
Sixteen additional bloggers were semi-finalists. All in all, this has been a really fun project. I've been introduced to some amazing coaches and blogs and learned a lot about how to run a contest!
Our ultimate goal was to compile a list of Best Coaching Blogs that anyone can visit to learn more about coaching and personal & professional development.
Over the last 72 hours, I've communicated with virtually every blogger who entered Best Coaching Blogs.
And although most of the coaches have used words like, "thrilled" and "delighted" to describe their experience, with many reporting new subscribers to their blogs, there's no question that the voting criteria was misunderstood by some contestants. Some people voted "daily" instead of just once, so the resulting number of votes is simply not a fair yardstick for measurement.
I really wanted a "people's choice" contest for the best blogs written by coaches, because it encourages more people to read coaching blogs. From what I hear, that's exactly what has happened. (Yay!)
Now it's time to decide the finalists. However, I'm simply not willing to do that based on the votes we have. And although I tested some new contest software over the weekend, making the switch to a new, very different contest format after most of the votes have already been cast, won't really be fair, either.
So I'm going to let the bloggers, themselves, make the final decisions via closed ballot run off.
This option may not please everyone, but it means we can name the Best Coaching Blog of 2009 with pride and confidence. I've learned a lot from this contest and it will be run very differently next year!
Thanks to everyone who entered and voted in good faith this year. I hope the introductions to new blogs and the possible awards the bloggers may receive will make this experience overwhelmingly positive!
Based on the comments, it seems the rules need to be clearer and the "vote down" option needs to be removed. Plus we need intelligent protocols for checking what's going on. Otherwise, the competition is too tempting for some and too demotivating for others.
I think maybe, just maybe, I've found the solution. After a Google search (gotta love Google), I found www.strutta.com, which has some very intelligent looking contest software. I enquired about their security system for ensuring fairness and here's the speedy reply that I got:
'Hey Julia,
I'm glad you asked. This one is a point of pride for us. Here's the official company line on our voting system and fraud prevention. First, quoting Mike Holly, our Senior Developer: "Our users are required to verify their accounts (by clicking an activation link sent in an email) before voting. All new votes and entries are kept in a "pending" state until the user clicks the email verification link. When the verification link is clicked, the user is notified that their votes have been made permanent and finally redirected back to the contest site. Once at the site, the user can clearly see that their vote has been recorded.By default our software will allow one voter, per user, per entry for the duration of the contest."So Julia, some voting software will only allow one vote per IP address to prevent more than entry coming form one computer or physical location. We understand that often times several employees of one company or members of one family might wish to vote from the same IP address with different emails, so we've installed filters to alert our staff and the contest creator whenever "suspicious" activity takes place. Wherever multiple votes are cast from a single IP, they are caught in a "filter." Once one of these filters catches a pattern and alerts us to potentially suspect voting, we review each case and evaluate it using a number of other criteria to ensure that all voting is fair, and that no cheating of any kind has taken place.In the event that fraudulent voting has taken place, the contest creator is given the option of dismissing any and all fraudulent votes. It is up to the descretion of the contest creator (you) to decide whether entries should be disqualified, bearing in mind that it is not always the entrant that is responsible for the fake votes, it could just be one bad voter apple in the barrel. I hope this is helpful. If you have other questions, you can send them to us directly using http://www.strutta.com/contact.'
Given that helpful explanation, I've set up a "test" or "mock" contest and I invite all Best Coaching Blogs contestents to enter this test contest and votes with impunity. It is live until 2:30 Eastern/NY Time, tomorrow, Sunday, June 21st. There is no winner.
The point of this test contest is to get a feel for how the contest software works and how it may be confusing and to try to 'break' the security system. Go ahead and dump your cache, close and reopen your browser, vote from different computers and with different email addresses. I want to see what happens. In other words, break the "rules". Please don't invite your readers, though. This mock contest is just for testing purposes.
The layout and look is very different. You will be invited to enter "text". Enter an engaging description of your blog and a link to it. Also enter "tags", title and a short description. You must set up an account to do this. It's easy and fast. Please add comments about the mock contest to this post.
Ready?
Thousands of votes; lots of excitement. Well, we seem to have turned a corner with that. One blog recently got more votes in a period of a few hours than the number of visitors to our entire website! Hmm...if each person is supposed to vote once, then...
Today, I also received an email from someone who says she's been bombarded by bloggers who are asking her to vote multiple times for their blogs. Not cool. Not cool at all.
The voting software is designed to prevent anyone from voting more than once, but any system can be "gamed". How naive I must be to think that coaches would be above all that!
When I first caught wind of some cut-throat activity, I started watching my web analytics for irregularities and they revealed mostly positive behavior, plus some that I wasn't so sure about. I made some mental notes about how to change the contest for next year, but it meant that possibly I had missed some activities that should have disqualified a few blogs this year and it was too late to be sure. That's not good.
Now I'm thinking that I can't guarantee the fairness of this contest. That makes me really sad, but I'm not one to stand around sniffling.
Clearly, some changes need to be made. And although I was hoping for a "People's Choice" award for coaching blogs, I think it would be much fairer to let all of the bloggers vote for each other, including those who didn't make the previous two cuts. The web "votes" will now be for "entertainment" purposes,only.
I'm asking myself what I've learned here. Should I have tested the software with a mock contest? I don't think a mock contest would have elicited this result. Maybe experience really is the best teacher.
Perhaps the real lesson is that temptation can get the better of even good people, so it's best not to tempt them. Or judge them.
My hero in all of this, though, is the coach who disqualified herself and withdrew from the contest. She said it was the negative vote option that was her downfall. She did the right stuff to bring people to the site to vote for her, but others kept voting her back down, so she started adding the votes back in. As she said,
'I know the playground excuse of “She started it!” won’t fly and I won’t even try
to go there.'
Kudos. I was going to invite other bloggers to step forward and disqualify themselves, if needed, but since the contest rules are now changed, there is no need, except maybe for your own integrity. Let's all take a moment to shake off that bad ju-ju and step back into our best Selves.
Last points: The contest has succeeded in its main objective, which is to spotlight the best blogs by coaches and encourage more people to read them. And the remaining bloggers didn't necessarily do anything wrong. Most of them got to the semi-finals by writing great blog posts and inspiring their readers.
Expect more announcements about the contest in this space.
I'm really curious about your thoughts. Did
you vote? What was your experience? Were you concerned about fairness?
If you're one of the bloggers, what are your thoughts?
The Qualifying Round ended with 19 blogs being cut. Now the more competive blogs are jockeying for the first page and top positions. The option to vote a blog up or down, makes the competition particularly fluid. Not sure we'll keep that option for next year, since voting a blog down feels a little un-coach-like, but it makes the contest fun!
With 16,000 hits to the contest page in the last few weeks, votes and positions are changing rapidly, especially between the top five blogs.
The most common question that I get from owners of the blogs is, "Why isn't my vote count changing when someone votes for my blog?" There are a couple of reasons for this:
- A blog can actually have negative votes, but the lowest grade you will see for it is zero. When someone votes for it, the vote will be counted, but it won't change from zero until the net vote is one or higher.
- The system remembers your computer, so you can't vote it up more than once. In this case, your second vote won't be tallied.
- With 16,000 hits to the page, the odds that someone else is voting at the same time that you are, are pretty good. If they vote down, while you vote up, the net vote is zero. Sounds incredible, but I've seen votes go up and down dramatically in minutes and I've seen votes stay "stuck", as well. This contest is very active.
- The position of a blog won't change unless you update the page.
For readers of blogs, this is a great time to read the best coaching blogs, because they are all in one place. Don't worry, here's a strategy for finding the time to read them all. It's also a great time to cast your vote and help determine who gets declared the Best Coaching Blog in 2009.
And for those of you who own coaching blogs and are regretting that you didn't enter the contest in time, there is always next year.
In the meantime, VOTE!
Best Coaching Blogs 2009 has gone live. Vote for your favorites!
The contest went live yesterday with the first few entrants and Renee Shupe's Redhead Blog has an early lead.
By the way, if you're a coach who writes about coaching stuff, it's not too late to enter your blog and win. We'll accept entries through May 31st. It costs nothing to enter and could bring you more traffic, readers, fans and clients, so what's not to love?
Your blog will be entered at the top of the list, which gives you a good chance of getting votes and even winning. Voting continues through June 30th. Winners get badges for their sites declaring their blogs 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Top Ten, or honorable mention; plus they get permanent, high-quality SEO links to their blogs and nifty bragging rights.
Best of all, quality coaching blogs will get read by more people, spreading the wisdom and value of coaching to folks who need it, especially now, and expanding success for professional coaches. Wins all around.
Don't have a blog? Then please read, vote, add your comments and spread the word.
ENTER YOUR BLOG HERE.
Thanks for your support!
Are you a coach who writes a great coaching blog?
Want the world to know how great your blog really is? Then the Best Coaching Blogs 2009 Contest was designed for you!
Enter your blog for free. This is an awesome way to spread the word about your blog and attract new readers to it. It's also a fantastic way to engage your current readers, by inviting them to vote and give feedback. People love to get involved supporting the folks they believe in and now you can give your readers the opportunity to support you by voting, adding comments (love notes?) to your entry and inviting their friends to come support you, too!
Who can enter? Any self-described coach (Life coach, business coach, executive coach, corporate coach), coach organization, coaching company or coaching school can enter, as long as the posts in your blog are about coaching related topics. We reserve the right to reject a blog that is not about coaching or coach related topics, is pornographic or offensive, or is just an ecommerce site pretending to be a blog. (No appeals, sorry!)
Who decides the winners? The people who vote decide! We're using an automated voting system. We do not control who wins, except for one blog, our own. Our blog can be voted on (we want readers and feedback, too!), but it won't be allowed to win.
What will you get if you win? You'll get a badge for your blog and/or website (similar to the one above) that declares you the winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd Place, Top Ten, or Honorable Mention), plus a write up in this blog that includes a few cool comments left by your fans and a permanent link from this site to yours. Plus bragging rights!
Why are we doing this? Blogs are a great way to reach out to the world and engage in transformative conversations. And isn't that what coaching is all about? We see this as a cool way to spread those conversations wider and wider and exchange more wisdom with great people. Read more about why coaches should be both reading and writing blogs.
When can you start voting? We're targeting May 8th for the date the contest goes live, but nominations start today and will continue through May. Voting ends June 30th and the winners will be announced July 1st! [Update: Vote for your favorite coaching blog here.] Watch for announcements that it's time to vote!
Know someone else who should enter the Best Coaching Blogs 2009 Contest? Send them this link to enter: http://tinyurl.com/coaching-blogs Or, use the links above to share with your friends and colleagues on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.