Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom noticed that contests were not being used in product reviews, and large contests appeared only on large sites (Janice and Susan run a unique “mom” social networking site that that is also a shopping resource and entertainment blog). It’s within their blog’s goals to provide reviews and contests for their readers. They noticed that their product reviews got very little attention until they changed them into contests. That’s when they became a “main stage attraction.”

Based on my own observations and outreach efforts, incentivizing promotions that aren’t product review-based have often been necessary in order to get bloggers to be receptive to your pitches. In all obviousness, the idea of receiving “free stuff” is what ultimately appeals to people. And providing them with a small token of appreciation for sharing their opinions is certainly a small price to pay, especially when a high level of influence is involved.

But Janice and Susan, while always looking for new ways to engage their readers, take “incentive” to a whole new level by creating these contest giveaways. They feel this tactic provides their readers with a chance for personal gain, whereas a generic product review only provides them with information. And although there is never a guarantee for everyone to receive swag with a contest put into play, the general idea of having a chance to win something has been seemingly just as appealing as actually getting it.

They have received hundreds to thousands of entries for these contests including bloggers, non-bloggers who are active online in other ways, and participants from both Canada and the U.S. With their readers in mind and their goals and tactics at-large, Janice and Susan are highly regarded in the mom blogging community.

While we at MS&L Digital have had the privilege of working with these fun moms for several campaigns, we have helped to coordinate several giveaways. Some of these items have included household and food-oriented products to high-ticket items such as electronic gadgets and DVD box sets.

So the next question is, how does everyone benefit from this? Take a look at what 5 Minutes for Mom does…

In order to grow their contests, continue building traffic for their site, and help promote the sponsoring company even further, 5 Minutes for Mom asks the participating bloggers to link back to their contest as well as to the company, providing free, top quality, word of mouth advertising!

With the excitement and craze of all these contests, you’ll notice when doing online searches or even navigating through other mom blogs that these ideas have taken off with the mommy blogging community, as other mommy bloggers are adopting these techniques for their own blogs.