We’ve talked here before about running contests on your blog, and for the most part, they’ve been relatively sedate, sane, simple affairs.  Send an email, post a comment, that sort of thing.  But what we haven’t considered is making a contest into an active competition.

What we’ve been looking at as blog contests before have been little more than raffles, in which visitors file their ticket by some means and wait to see if they collect a prize.  By expanding the concept and making it an active competition, you require your readers to DO something for their prize.

An excellent example of this would be a “design a logo” contest in which you pick the best logo for use on your site.  Possibly you give prizes for a couple runners-up.  There are two critical points to be acknowledged here: one, the terms of your contest are spelled out, IN the post detailing the contest, and two, the prizes have to be worthwhile.

But if you can get your readership actively participating in a contest beyond sending an email or leaving a comment, you’re likely to get a lot more interest (plus this might be one of those great “newsworthy” events that we were talking about last week!) than without the active component.

Folks, we do a whole lot of talking around here about the kinds of things you should do to make your blog look better, look snappier, look more APPEALING to your incoming readership.

Well, the biggest consideration you need is to make it more appealing to you.  You need to make your blog “feel like home”, and this is actually a more complex process than you’d think.

Sure, we’re thinking about things like the right furniture and wallpaper and paint colors and such–the right “look” of home for your blog.  But what we’re not necessarily thinking of immediately, that we should, are things like your “address” and “location” (these are great metaphors for which I must thank daily blog tips), the content of your blog and its web address.

These are all great things to consider when you’re either starting a blog or needing an alteration.  If things are looking a little on the down side, try a little “home improvement”.

I know, it’s amazing that you can distill the thought of building your readership down to just three simple questions, but that’s what we do every day here at Slyvisions–we do the amazing.

So what are those three questions?

1. Why?  Yeah, that’s pretty simple.  But it’s a good question, WHY do you want more readers?  And no, “I wanna make more money” doesn’t count–you’ll have to be specific here.  Do you want to sell more merchandise?  Increase your advertising revenue?  Or do you just want to be regarded as a pundit so you can get a foot in the door with publishers?  Each approach requires a different strategy–know what yours is.

2. Who?  Again, simple–but who are these readers that you want to come to your site?  Are you looking for experts who’ll fire a community up with high-level chatter about the minutiae of your topic?  Do you want to make something warm and welcoming for the noobs?  Do you want ad-clickers, or stuff-buyers, or just more readers?  Again, different strategy for each.

3. How?  This is the grandest question of all.  But once you’ve figured out the why and the who, then the how will be a lot smoother.  If you want to get the stuff buyers, then offer discounts or new and interesting stuff.  If you want the ad clickers, make sure your ads draw sufficient attention that they’ll be practically begging to click.  And so on.

With these strategies in mind, you’re likely to put a serious fire under your readership numbers.

If you’ve been a blogger for any length of time, chances are you’ve seen your traffic ebb and flow at certain times of the year.  But if you notice that your traffic falls through the floor at certain times of the year, then it may well represent a significant movement, one you want to stop as much as possible.

It’s entirely possible–and it’s something you want to check–that your traffic may have some seasonal motivations.

For instance, if you run a gadget blog, maybe your traffic spikes around the Christmas shopping season but falls off after the “momdadgrad gift corridor”.  You might think there’s not a lot you can do about that, but now’s the perfect time to give your readers a new reason to come back.

Consider doing different types of pieces in this time, something that your readers wouldn’t ordinarily see and thusly not expect.  If you can give them a whole new reason to come back, then maybe it’s a smart idea.

Okay, sit down.  You’re going to want to be sitting.  In fact, you should probably brace yourself, too.  I just finished reading this article and it’s made perfectly clear to me exactly what the headline says above–the greatest blog secret of all.  Strangely, in retrospect, it’s the most OBVIOUS secret of all too.  And you get to see it right here.

Man, aren’t YOU glad you read this blog?

All right, here we go.  The greatest (and most obvious) blog secret of all:

Blogging is supposed to be fun.

It’s not something we think about a lot in the frenzy of keywords and Google rank and Technorati and trackbacks and pingbacks…but we are the forerunners of an entirely new media.  From the biggest movie blog to the smallest blog about somebody’s cat, we’re here to disseminate information and deliver brilliant commentary and we’re here to do it on a daily basis.  But sometimes, we all get a little too caught up in the business of blogging to remember that we’re a whole new generation of media and journalism.

Newspapers are crashing and burning.  Kindle is the new bookstore.  And today’s blog is tomorrow’s Time.

So remember…have some fun with it.  Be snarky, be witty, be yourself.  Have some fun with this huge new opportunity.  Your readers will thank you too.

Let’s face it, folks. You can have the best blog ever known by mankind.  You’ve got traffic monitors and more hot links than a sausage factory.  If Cory Doctorow saw your blog he would drop to his very knees in awe and ecstasy, tears of joy trickling gently down his face.

But if no one sees it, then what good is it?

Like asking the question about trees falling in the woods and the sounds they make when no one’s around to hear them, so too does your blog run on readers.

I know, this is sort of a basic-level concept, but it’s the kind of thing that you may not be thinking of in a rush of ideas about the long tail and web 2.0 and the legion of other buzzwords that you hear about blogging on a daily basis.  But it’s the kind of thing you’d do well to bear in mind.  Remember, it’s all about the readers.  What do they want to see?  What do they want to know more about?  The more you can do to engage your readership, the more they’ll do to keep you alive and blogging.  And the more your readership does, the better your bottom line as a blogger looks.

Have you considered what else you might give your readers, apart from quality posts?

It seems to be a growing trend (minimal at the moment, but bound to grow), to offer add ons from blog sites.  If you have an established or even a growing brand around your blog and especially if you have either designed yourself or paid to have a recognizable brand image designed for your blog why not exploit that ?

Sites like CafePress make producing branded products extremely easy.  These products can then be offered for sale or used in competitions.  Maybe you can use a post to setup a virtual treasure hunt on your blog.  Setting a challenge for a reader to hunt through your previous posts to find answers to questions.  The first person to post a comment with all the answers wins one of your branded items.

These types of contests are easy to setup, have a low cost of entry and if you space it over a few days, with a little promotion you can not only have some fun but increase your readership.  If you make it a success why not make it a featured event once every few months?