The 2009 Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest: Frequently Asked Questions

I don’t plan to make the contest the only topic I’ll blog about in the next few weeks, but I think it’s important at this stage to give you an update about a few questions that were asked (even if you’re not an edu blogger yourself – you should share the information with the ones you know, they deserve a chance to win some cash).

So, here’s a quick FAQ post about the 2009 Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest:

1) I am not a blogger, why should I care?
This contest is open to all edu bloggers – that would also include your student bloggers or anyone blogging at your institution about topics related to education. Make friends, share the info.

2) Why would I add a badge to my sidebar pointing to the contest page that could lead my readers to believe that I’m supporting Online College, the sponsor of the contest – or that they are advertising on my blog (especially for free)?
Ok, so I made a mistake on this one when coming up with the contest rules.
I’ve talked to the sponsor after listening to your feedback, and they’ve agreed to waive this condition. To be part of this contest, you just need to write a post about online education (or education online), add to it the badge linking to the contest page and fill out the online form on the contest page.

3) The first phase is a “popularity contest,” the judges won’t even read my entry if I don’t make it to the top 20 blogs referring traffic to the contest page between March 18 and March 30, 2009. Why your Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest is not just about the quality of my blogging – Period?
When there is a total amount of $2,500 to win with no entry fee, it’s safe to expect a large number of entries. Stewart and Matt, the 2 other judges are volunteers (so, the participating bloggers get a chance to win most of the money), so I couldn’t asked them to review dozens (or hundreds) of posts just for the beauty of the deed.

4) I understand there was a need to select a manageable number of entries for the first phase, but why didn’t you use a public voting to find the best?
I had the choice between setting up a public voting (where your readers or friends would pick your blog on the contest page and click on the “vote” button – 2 clicks for them, 1 vote for you) or figuring out these votes by the visitors sent to the contest page from your blog (just 1 click for your readers – or more if they really want you to win, if they are really passionate about your blogging, they’ll do anything and passionate readers should count more, don’t you think?). I chose the second option as I believe they are both similar at the end of the day. Both are popularity contests. Period.

5) I have a question about the contest that wasn’t addressed above. What should I do?
Post it in the comment below or email karine@collegewebeditor.com, I’ll post the reply by updating this post.