A Blogfest Tutorial

Just four more days remaining until my High Drama Blogfest/Giveaway on Saturday, August 7th. Are you getting excited? Do you think I am? Duh!!

One of my fellow bloggers who posted a piece promoting my event had a comment left there that has given me the idea to take some time and explain just what this thing we call blogfest is. There are plenty of newbies out there who still getting acclimated to the blogosphere and everything it has to offer, and if they’re like me the first time I read the phrase blogfest they probably didn’t know what to think. So, let’s do a little educating today.

Basically, the goal of a blogfest is to provide those who wish to participate with an avenue to share their writing with a broader reading base then what might normally visit their blog. Anyone can host a blogfest…and anyone can take part in one. The host usually establishes the topic to be written about, which can cover a wide-spectrum. Anything from scenes involving a first kiss, bar scenes, fight scenes, the first page of your manuscript (my personal favorite so far), and in my case… anything involving dramatic tension. The host also imposes any rules to guide the event (word count limit, PG language, original material only, etc).

The mechanics are fairly simple. The host uploads his blog post announcing the blogfest (complete with scheduled date, topic and rules) and at the bottom of that post is a sign up form (widget) to record the blog addresses of everyone who intends on partaking. These widgets come in many different versions, some are free to use and some charge a minor fee. They can display the links to the participating blogs on the original blog post of the host, or store those addresses at another web-site. On the day of the blogfest, all those who registered to be involved post their contribution on their own blog with a link to the host site so their readers can seek out similar stories. Blog interaction at its finest!

I hope this little tutorial was helpful to some of you. My blogfest is a little unique in that I have combined a prize giveaway with it. This is definitely not expected from those holding a blogfest and its just a little something I’m doing to crank up the excitement.

Before I go, I need to make a slight modification to my own blogfest rules. Originally I had asked that participants to limit the word count to no more than 500 words. I wanted everyone to make the rounds of all the entrants without having to feel like they just read War & Peace. But even I’m struggling with that restriction. If you know me at all, you know my opinion on rules…and I’m not above bending my own. So if you need to stretch your entry by a couple hundred words, go ahead. I’ll tell the word police to look the other way. :)

Oh yeah…have you linked your favorite blog post on my Blog Recycle Station yet?