Where Did You Get The Idea for Blogging Idol?

by Daniel Scocco

questions and answers This post is part of the weekly Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.

Ben Moreno asks:

Where did you get the Blogging Idol idea from? I am sure it was from American Idol but what made you decided to do this contest?

Surprisingly enough, the idea did not come from American Idol. It got inspired from the contest that John Chow was running with Shoemoney.

If you don’t remember it, it was basically a contest where both bloggers would compete to see who would be able to gain the largest number of RSS subscribers in one month. The challenge draw a lot of attention from the blogosphere, and readers of both blogs were engaged in watching the unfolding of the strategies used on each side.

Then I thought to myself: “Interesting idea. But why limit the competition to two bloggers? Why not create a big one where anyone would be able to participate and showcase his or her RSS subscriber base building skills?”

That is how the idea for Blogging Idol was born. Blogging Idol 1 was in fact based solely on the RSS subscribe gain of the participants. This formula proved to be problematic, however, because people tried to cheat, and even the ones that played it fair were accused of cheating!

In Blogging Idol 2 I decided to add more parameters to the competition, to make it less susceptible to cheats, and more fair for all the bloggers involved, regardless of their size.

I didn’t know how to call the competition initially, though, and for that part I did get inspired by American Idol.

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13 Responses to “Where Did You Get The Idea for Blogging Idol?”

ThemeLib on January 21, 2009 12:23 pm

So do you have any ideas for Blogging Idol 3?
Life is Colourful on January 21, 2009 12:40 pm

I was thinking that it was inspired from American Idol only . Anyways, I feel proud to host the first blogging idol logo on my blog.
Daniel Scocco on January 21, 2009 12:43 pm

@Life is Colorful, you did a nice job on that one!
Four20 on January 21, 2009 1:11 pm

drew*
SEO Tips on January 21, 2009 1:30 pm

Very interesting, was never sure where it came from myself. Either way its an excellent competition which I am sure has had its benefits eh Daniel
Ben Moreno on January 21, 2009 3:30 pm

Thanks for the response Daniel. I must say that Blogging Idol #1 helped me to gain some great new friends.

In turn, I learned a lot from those friends and it helped grow my blog. I do look forward to Blogging Idol #3.
Whibb on January 21, 2009 8:14 pm

btw Daniel, who won the contest between John and Jeremy ?
Daniel Scocco on January 21, 2009 8:35 pm

@Whibb, Jeremy won with a trick on the last day. I believe he plugged his aweber into Feedburner for that. He never disclosed what his trick was.
Wii Fit Games on January 22, 2009 12:38 pm

Interesting reading thanks
gendut on January 23, 2009 7:58 am

probogger is my good teacher……many useful tips and learning for new blogger
FallOutBoy on February 3, 2009 9:38 am

Very interesting, you have ideas for Idol 3?
The make money online experiment on April 29, 2009 11:17 pm

Will there be a third contest soon? because I’m ready to eat up the competition!
medyum on July 17, 2009 2:31 pm

Thank You
Nice Post..