** CONTESTANTS START HERE **

How to Compete:

This page contains everything you need to know about competing for the Gushcloud and UBL Small Business Marketing Blog Outreach Blogging Contest SMBContest Cash and Non-Cash Prizes.  To keep this simple, only the steps required to compete in the contest are published here. For additional details, see the Participants page.

1) Register as a Participant:

1. Register to be an author here.  (Click this link, Enter a username and email address and click register.)
2. Check your email for the login page, username and password. If you don’t see it in your inbox, check your spam folder as it is more likely to be there than in your inbox.
3. Log-in using the information emailed to you and fill in your profile. Many of the fields are optional so just fill in what you understand. If you have questions contact Gail for assistance.

NOTE: Because of spammers, you will not be able to submit a post
until your account is upgraded to author.

Leave a comment in this post OR contact Gail directly for access.

2)  Write a post on your own blog about the contest:

1. On your own blog, share with your readers why you’re participating in this contest, what you hope to get out of it, and why they may want to compete, too. Link to this page and/or the about SMBcontest page so your readers can find out more about the contest.
2. Your post must include a list of the sponsors with hotlinks to their sites to make it easy for your readers to click through and see what each sponsor that interests them has to offer. We encourage you to visit our sponsors so that you can learn more about them. You can do this now or later during the contest. To make it easy for you to include the sponsors, just copy this code, switch from visual to html editor and paste it into your post where you want it. If you need assistance contact Gail.

3) Write your contest posts:

Your posts must ‘Share Your Best Small Business Advice’
or be about any of our sponsors, their products or services.

1. Use the login information you received when you registered. The login page is here.
2. If you are not familiar with WordPress you can write your posts in your own blog, save them as drafts (do not publish), switch to html view, click select all and copy your entire post.
3. Point at posts and select “Add New”.
4. Write your post as you usually do in your own blog directly on this blog OR switch to html view and paste the post you wrote into the new post you created here.
5. Adding images or a video makes a good post into a great post. Be sure to only use images you created yourself, photographs you took or can provide written permission to use, or that you obtain from Free Digital Photos (Windows Only) or these Free Stock Photos.
6. Click Submit for Review. You CAN edit your posts after you click Submit for Review, but will not be able to edit them after they are published, so be sure to proof read them. is
7. You may write as many entry posts as you wish. Depending on how many bloggers participate and what they choose to write about, multiple posts will probably be required to win the cash prizes. One post about any non-cash prize enters you in a separate contest for that prize.

The odds of winning non-cash prizes will depend on how
many other bloggers choose that particular prize.

Your odds of winning non-cash prizes are very high compared
to most contests, so do be sure to review all of them.

There could be prizes you would really love to have that
only have a few entries competing so don’t miss out!

Post Guidelines:

1. Guest posts must be at least 900 words, not to exceed 2000 words.
2. You may have as many links as you wish in the body of the content. However, please limit links to your projects or websites to your bio. Relevant affiliate links are allowed, but must be disclosed and are subject to review.
3. Including at least one image near the beginning of the post so that it is visible without scrolling is highly recommended. If you do not know how to add images, select one to use and then contact Gail who will show you one-on-one how to add images. This is avaluable skill every blogger can use to improve their own blog. You must be sure to only use images you created yourself, photographs you took or can provide written permission to use, or that you obtain from Free Digital Photos or these Free Stock Photos.
4. You must fill out your bio and have a Gravatar. Either a photo of yourself or a logo is permitted.

4) Promote Your Entry Posts:

We have made special arrangements with several sites to enable bloggers to promote not only their entry posts but their own blogs as well. Because these are so beneficial to you and we don’t want you to miss out, we are making it mandatory for participants to create and use accounts on these services. We sincerely believe you will keep using them long after the contest is over if we can just get your to try them out.

BlogEngage

All participating bloggers will receive a free membership to Blog Engage (normally $9.99) and FIVE lucky winners will receive a full year as a Gold RSS feed member (normally $4.99 per  month).

1. Sign up for your free account. See the BlogEngage FAQs for additional tips on getting the most out of your account.
2. Fill out your BlogEngage profile. See How-to Edit Your BlogEngage profile.
3. See How to Submit Your Posts to BlogEngage.  Why not try it out right away and share one of your favorite or most recent posts?

BlogInteract

BlogInteract is free to join.

1. Fill in the simple Create a Blog Interact account page.
2. Find the confirmation email (don’t forgot to check your spam folder!) and click the link to activate your account.
3. Click Submit Story (top right side of the page) and paste the URL of your page or post.

Using Twitter

Every blogger should have a Twitter account because
Twitter is how influencers send you more traffic.

See How to Use Twitter to get started.

EasyRetweet

EasyRetweet is giving every participant 15000 credits to promote their contest entries. If a blogger chooses to write about EasyRetweet as one of their entry posts about a sponsor, they are eligible to win one of these additional non-cash prizes to promote your own blog:

• 25000 credits, 15 day featured slot to first place winner
• 12000 credits, 7 day featured slot to second place winner
• 8000 credits,2 day featured slot to third place winner
• 5000 credits to 4th-10th winners
• 2000 credits to 11th-20th winners

See How to Use EasyRetweet to register your account and start using it.

JustRetweet

JustRetweet is giving each participant 1000 credits to use to promote their contest entries with another 100 bonus credits to promote any entries specifically about any of our sponsors. If a blogger chooses to write about JustRetweet as one of their entry posts about a sponsor, they are eligible to win one of these additional non-cash prizes to promote their own blog:

• 1000 credits for the first place winner ~ The first place winner will also have their site featured on JustRetweet.
• 500 for 2nd
• 250 for 3rd
• 150 for 4th-10th
• 100 for 11th-20^th

See How to Use JustRetweet.

See the Judging tab for information about how entry posts
and social media shares will be scored.

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