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Sunday 4 April 2010

Tutorial - Challenge Blog Etiquette

I thought I'd do a post on the general etiquette of taking part in challenges on blogger. As it becomes bigger rules are changing so I'll show you the basics of how to enter into challenges and what to watch for.
If you're an experienced blogger you'll know the ropes so just scroll down to the COMBINING CHALLENGES section as there's some changes you need to be aware of.

Some blogs are far more stringent than others but remember the worst that can happen is your entry is void so to avoid disappointment follow some simple steps of what is expected.


LINKING TO YOUR CREATION


All challenge blogs will ask you to link to your actual creation, by this they mean the actual blog post with it in and not your entire blog. You can understand this rule as you may make a post a day and the challenge blog may not get round to viewing your creation for a week or two and have to scroll through looking for your entry which consumes a lot of time.


Some challenge blogs will not even consider your entry if this isn't done correctly so have a quick read of the photo tutorial of how to do this, once you do it once you'll know exactly what to do and won't encounter any problems or void entries.


Tutorial - Linking your creation to a challenge


LINKS BACK TO THE CHALLENGE

The next thing the challenge will ask for is a link back to them or at the very least a mention. It can be confusing for a new blogger how to do this so I'll show you a step by step photo tutorial below, have a practice at this and once you know how to do it you'll remember :)
STEP 1
After you have added your card and done your write up on your blog you need to identify the challenge(s) it is intended for. Type in the challenge name then use your mouse to highlight the text.
STEP 2
Once you've highlighted the text click on the LINK ICON and a pop up box will appear. You need to type the web address of the challenge blog in here (or copy and paste it from the challenge)
Your text should look like below on your blog with a clicky link through to the challenge.

If you don't at least mention in the post it is for that challenge then when they visit they will not be certain the post is for them and your entry may be void.


COMBINING CHALLENGES


Some challenges allow you to enter as many others as you like whereas others have a limit which is usually stated in the rules on the blog.  Please check individual rules for this when entering challenges.
Crafty Cardmakers and Spotlight challenges have a limit of 10.
NUMBER OF ENTRIES PER CHALLENGE

I personally thought it was one entry per challenge until I started to run here and got multiple entries for the same challenge so I had a scout round and asked friends who run blogs and the rules differ. It will differ from blog to blog so again look for the challenge rules and if not stated clearly please ask the blog owner.
Some places are you can enter as many times as you like so long as the projects are different i.e. one card, one ATC, one altered item etc.
If in doubt about the rules of any challenge ask the blog owner, the worst that will happen is entries will be deleted.
To quote our previous special guest Cindy Royal - "The paper crafting police will not come to get you."

We will allow multiple entries at this stage as the team feel you may wish to have several gors at something.


I hope you have a fun time on blogger as there are hundreds of fantastic challenges you can take part in and just have a go at.

Happy blogging!

13 comments:

  1. Doesn't combining challenges depend on why you're doing it? If you're actually doing it for the personal challenge and not for some ulterior gain, then it's fine :) Sometimes it's just nice to have to 'think outside the box' for the sake of it and to make something you may not otherwise make. When there's a prize and you're interested in it, then that's a different matter, of course, lol. Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons...

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  2. Thanks for all the great info. I have only been doing challenges for a short time. I did get booted once. I didn't really care about not being able to win the prize, most are random anyway's. What bothered me is that that particular challenge was the whole inspiration for my card. I don't really give a hoot about any of the prizes. I do like to enter the challenges just to be more creative and they are fun....Thanks again...Marjo

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  3. Thanks for all the info. You've helped me loads already. A quick question - does one link & comment or is just the link sufficient, or does that also depend upon the challenge? I've been doing both just in case as I didn't want to offend anybody. I was quite mortified that I'd entered a challenge with two different cards (it doesn't happen very often as I'm not that fast a crafter) & then saw a posting asking everybody to take note of the rule that a second entry was only permissible if in a different format (ATC, LO if card entered first). I felt better when I saw that some people had entered many many times with very similar cards.
    Paula (PEP)
    http://pepcraftchallexp.blogspot.com/

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  4. Great post, very well written. Thanks for taking the time to refresh our minds. I'm a comment hog, so that's why I usually combine a few challenges.

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  5. There are so many challenge blogs out there now that it is easy to get confused so thanks for clarifying some things, especially for those who are new to challenges.
    Most of the time I join in with challenges for the fun factor and if there is a prize on offer then that's a bonus - my problem seems to be in remembering to go back and check for the winners announcement LOL!

    Luv'n'Stuff
    Max
    xx

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  6. I rarely care about a prize. I do care about the challenge though and I think if the blog site has a design team to judge how the participants did with the particular challenge then they should award a top 3 or a top 5 to demonstrate what they were most looking for and to make me strive to come up in levels. Which is what I ultimately want in a challenge to strive to get better and use new techniques.

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  7. Just been directed to this blog by someone else and will be following, I've learned loads in the last five minutes while having ice cream what an efficent use of my time hehe, about the only efficeient use all day
    See you all soon
    Tracy

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  8. This site was recommended by a crafts beautiful member, and I am so glad I dropped by x You have cleared up some things I was wondering about, and prob would not have got round to asking x Thanks I am now a follower x Leigh x

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  9. Thanks so much for all the info on this blog, I have entered my first ever challenge - on another blog - but will be entering here too. I spent 3 hours last night trying to find out how to add a 'blinkie' or image to my sidebar and was tearing my hair out until I came across the tutorial on here, so simple, thanks so much - I couldn't find how to do it anywhere else. I look forward to entering many challenges here. Thanks xx

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  10. Thanks for the info on entering blog challenge's only created my blog this week and your info is really useful thankyou, hope to do it right
    ang

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  11. Thank you for the info on entering blog challenge's. I only created my blog a few months ago and your info is really useful thank you, hope to do it right
    Dottie

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  12. thanks for all the info (Mandy informed me of this site)
    I'm just starting out with challenges so this info is very useful xx

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  13. So well written. It will be beneficial to a lot of people.Kudos to you for taking the time to write this.

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