Are Blog Contests Real?

The past week, I received a comment from pehpot inviting me to join her contest! The steps are rather simple:

• Simply write a blog post about the contest
• Leave a comment with your first url here
• Write another post listing their major sponsors
• Leave another comment the with your url here

For this, I will get a chance to win a prize of some sort. They're giving away more than $500, and the contest runs until February 28, 2010.

Wow, a chance to win something!

My first inclination was to delete the comment, attributing it to spam. Of course, being from the New York area, I tend not to believe anyone, especially those who write in another language (because I don't know what is being said). So I thought:

Is this a Scam or Is it Real?

I really don't understand why a group of strangers are willing to give me money, but of course, it's a contest, so there is no guarantee that I will be awarded anything.

What do the organizers get out of it? Well, certainly a bunch of related blog posts that point back to their sites and a lot of comments. I guess that if you're trying to increase traffic, that's a great way to do it.

And, will they really be giving away money to those who enter? Who knows for sure. If there is a pot of cash, perhaps it will only be redistributed amongst themselves.

As I was thinking about today's post, I realized that this discussion should qualify as my first requirement. Although it's a skeptical viewpoint, it does talk about the contest and does display creativity.

So, I'll take the time to follow the remaining instructions and then wait and see. Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised and indeed win a prize and learn that it's truly real, and not a scam!

JL....................