Blogging for Prizes

Have you ever considered starting a blog? There are several promotions around that can ONLY be entered by publishing a blog post, so by writing your own blog it will give you a great chance to win these low-entry comps! Some of the most recent blogging competitions I've entered have only had a handful of entries for prizes like holidays and VIP Olympics trips. Sometimes the blog post only needs to be based on a video or a photo, so you don't need to write much at all, and often the prizewinners are chosen at random, so you needn't worry about having perfect spelling or a professional writing style.

To get started, the most popular free providers are Blogger (which I use over at SuperLucky and Wordpress - you can sign up and use a ready made template, all you need to do is think of a name! Try and keep it short and memorable - and choose a Twitter name to match if you can.

If you're not sure what to blog about, you could start off like I did with SuperLucky, just keeping a diary of prize wins - or blog about your favourite money-can't buy prizes or holidays. It doesn't even need to be comping-related; blog about your hobby, your children, your dreams - maybe you could go for a really unusual angle! A few of our PrizeFinder regular users have started a joint blog called A Winning Touch, which features this entertaining advice on how to squeeze as much comping as you can into your day!

If you decide to blog about parenting issues, you'll find your blog eligible for the annual MAD Blog Awards which have fabulous prizes - you can also sign up at Britmums and Tots100, both of which run competitions exclusively for parent bloggers.

Here are a few of the best current comps for bloggers to enter:

At All Baby Advice you can win a canvas print of your favourite photo - to enter, all you have to do is post the photo on your blog and include a link to the competition page. Enter here - this one ends on 22 August 2012.

Easyjet Holidays are giving away a week's holiday in Majorca this Summer! To enter, you need to write a blog post about your love of Majorca clubbing - this can either be on your own blog or as a guest post on someone else's. Read the details here - closing date is 10 August 2012.

If you like photography, you could enter the Travel Supermarket comp to share up to five photos on the theme of colours - red, yellow, blue, green and white. The photos will be judged with the best one in each category winning an iPad, and the best blog post overall getting £2000 of travel vouchers! Read more here and enter by 29 August 2012.

Immediate PR are giving away a Mulberry clutch bag in their Silhouette hairspray competition - to enter, recreate a famous style silhouette of your choice and post a photo and styling instructions on your blog - read about the competition here - ends 3 August 2012.

Britmums always have great linkys to win prizes: post a blog on the required theme, and add your post URL to the 'linky' on the Britmums site. They currently have 3 nice comps running:

• Five bloggers will win a year's supply of milk by blogging a pre-holiday checklist. Read all about it here - there are only 9 entries so far! Ends 3 August 2012.
• Win £500 cash or a year's supply of Rice Krispies - get your child to colour in one of the new Rice Krispies boxes and post the photos on your blog! Read more here - ends 31 July 2012.
• Win a £250 spa day in their Raising Olympians competition - enter here before 3 August 2012.

If you do decide to set up a blog, don't forget to come back and post your link as a comment here so I can follow you…