Need Funding? Try These Contests and Awards
This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
Also, if you’ve entered and won a contest or award listed here, let us know so we can share your news.
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We Media PitchIt! Conference & Challenge
Enter by March 13, 2012
By registering for We Media PitchIt! you get to show off your project and talk about it with influential people who can give you feedback, advice, support and, even, money. You can sign up a spot on the Demo Program or have a voice in feedback loop with other projects. PitchIt! will award $50,000 to help launch two digital media startups. Pitch your ideas. Or vote online to select the Community Choice winners.
Staples Give Your Small Business the Push it Needs Contest
Enter by March 14, 2012
Staples has launched its “Give Your Small Business the Push It Needs” contest, which will offer five small businesses up to $50,000 in free television advertising in their home market.
Small businesses can enter the contest by submitting a 15-second video about their company on Facebook.com/Staples by March 14. Five winners will be chosen to receive 15 seconds of advertising in a 30-second Staples television ad to run in their local market. Winners can have $50,000 in advertising or $40,000 in advertising and $10,000 in cash.
.Biz 10th Anniversary Contest
Enter by March 31, 2012
Today, there are more than 2.2 million .biz domain registrations and Neustar is taking part in celebrating SMBs that dared to stand out in a crowd.
Businesses can visit http://www.my.biz/10year/ and share how they used .biz to increase the reach of their brand image. Once SMBs have shared their stories, visitors will cast their votes. Winners will receive awards and a Best of .Biz seal to recognize their website.
2012 SCORE Awards
Enter by March 31, 2012
The 2012 SCORE Award categories include Outstanding Veteran-Owned Small Business, Outstanding Minority-Owned Small Business and Outstanding Green Small Business. The SCORE Awards gala will be held in August and will honor successful and innovative entrepreneurs and the small business advocates who support entrepreneurship in America. See website for nomination FAQs and entry details.
One Woman, One Franchise- #OWOF
Enter by April 6, 2012
The One Woman One Franchise contest (#OWOF on Twitter) is for a woman who is interested in purchasing a franchise, but is looking for guidance and support. One winner will receive franchise ownership advice from Joel Libava, the Franchise King, as well as a package of services to get you up and running with a franchise — including incorporation filing from Corpnet, a press release, a 6-month subscription to LivePlan, a franchise disclosure agreement review consultation by attorney Rush Nigut, online consulting from Matt About Business, and free books by Nicole Fende and Carol Roth. to qualify, you fill out the contest form here indicating in 200 words or less why you want to become a franchise owner.
Leading Moms in Business Competition
Enter by April 16, 2012
Everybody knows one. Like a super hero, she balances running a family with the heroics of running her own business. We’re talking about moms in business, of course. And now, StartupNation is conducting its third annual ranking of these astonishing entrepreneurs and the businesses they run.
Over the next few months, it’ll be your daily votes that determine the top 200 Leading Moms in Business. In addition the judges will determine special awards and accolades for moms within the top 200 who deserve special recognition.
Inc 500/5000
Enter by April 30, 2012
There are nearly 7 million private, employee-based firms in America. Only the very best are awarded the distinction of being named to the Inc.500 | 5000, the gold standard of entrepreneurial success. You’ll be listed with other leading companies at Inc.com, and your company may be featured in the September 2012 issue.
If you are proud of your company’s growth over the past three years, you owe it to yourself — and to your employees — to apply for the Inc.500 | 5000.
BBB Small Business Customer Service Makeover Contest
Enter by April 30, 2012
The contest is open to small businesses headquartered in Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island or Vermont. The winning business will receive exposure of their business, improved business practices and professional advice. The contest is free to enter and will provide a learning experience for business owner(s) and employees. BBB will provide up to $5,000 in support and material funds. See website for rules and entry details.
Downtown Ithaca’s Race for the Space
Enter by May 1, 2012
Are you an existing or aspiring retailer or entrepreneur? The winner of Race for the Space will win free rent for one year in a prime retail or office space, a one year advertising package in the Ithaca Times, design services for storefront layout and signage and more. The package is worth over $40,000. See website for details and entry rules.
2012 Lanza Enterprise Awards Program (LEAP)
Enter by May 3, 2012
Informational Teleconference April 5, 2012: (712) 451-6175, PIN-1095742#
WEDC is once again offering the Lanza Enterprise Awards Program (LEAP) to help women entrepreneurs boost their businesses to the next level. Five $5,000 equity awards will be presented to WEDC 15-Week Program graduates or participants who have completed comprehensive business plans and who meet the award criteria.
This program is a collaboration among the Lanza Family Foundation, the Women’s Research and Education Fund (WREF) and the Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC). It is designed to help women who are owners of microenterprises (businesses with five or fewer employees) achieve greater business success.
The New York Enterprise Report 2012 Small Business Awards
Enter by May 21, 2012
The New York Enterprise Report Small Business Awards is the annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of the 500,000+ small businesses throughout the tri-state area. The Small Business Awards will recognize 5 small businesses for their best practices and 3 businesses under the “Best of the Year Awards” categories.
A panel of experts in the related fields will judge all award packages. Awards will be presented to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages, revenue profits and/or long-term value. Please note the criteria and requirements listed on the awards website.
To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.
If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).
Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.
Need Funding? Try These Contests and Awards
Content Curation Course: An Overview
Content Curation and creating large content hubs (authority blogs or macro blogs) is all the rage right now.
And honestly, I feel people are making WAY bigger deal of it than it really is.
The idea is to create a blog in a niche, that you’re preferably interested in, and post interesting news and relevant content on a DAILY (or near daily) basis.
I am in the process of creating a proper content curation course / authority site guide along with a case study right now, but while that’s being created I decided to give you an overview of how you can go about content curation as well.
Let’s take a quick look at how you can setup a curated blog.
Here are the basic steps:
1. Pick a Niche – ANY niche.
Preferably something you’re interested in, since you’ll be spending a lot of time with this site.
2. Dig up Keywords!
I’ve used the term “harvesting keywords” in the past… and that’s essentially what you do. Don’t discriminate keywords based on search totals and adwords cpc figures. Anything relevant should be gathered.
3. Content Creation
On my authority blogs I don’t really try to rank for any keywords in particular (as opposed to micro niche blogging where I specifically target certain keywords).
I generally just take a look at the keywords I harvested in Step 2. Develop an idea for what I want to write about, then try to include these terms (doesn’t really matter whether the keywords have lots of search volume or not – my goal is to eventually hit them ALL).
4. Frequency
Post often. Once a day, twice a day is not uncommon on some of my blogs. My goal for most of my larger blogs is to add content at least 2 – 3 times per week.
5. Link Building
Honestly, I don’t do much link building at all. I’ll do some basic stuff that I’ve talked about for years, but I don’t go out of my way to generate links to my larger blogs.
I recently posted an interview with Fraser Cain and how he explains that it’s not about link building. You may want to take a look at that thread (and the comments there as well – including the comment by Fraser)
6. Traffic and SERPS
Search engine rankings and traffic to your blog WILL happen over time. The whole idea of “if you build it, they will come” is somewhat true here.
There are some things that need to be in place, but if your content is good visitors will come… first from long tail keyword phrases, and as your site matures, your site will start ranking from “better” keyword phrases with more search volume.
7. Recycle Your Traffic
Treat your authority blog like a business and start building a list. I know, you’ve heard it before… but I really can’t stress this enough.
If you’re creating content on a day to day (or near daily) basis and don’t recycle your visitors back to your site, you are LOSING Money and WASTING valuable traffic.
Building an authority blog is not about taking shortcuts… it’s (hard) work and dedication. But it can also be a lot of fun and fulfilling.
There are of course tools that can make things easier… but don’t rely on tools that simply help you repost other people’s content (that’s simply aggregasion of content).
Curation and authority blogging is all about providing value. And if you have seen any of my blogging products, you already know that I’ve always preached that we should provide as much VALUE as possible when creating content.
I mean seriously… why strive for mediocrity?
As Seth Godin says:
“Mediocrity is for losers”
Check out this video interview with Seth about “mediocrity”. 
Obviously this isn’t a complete content curation course by any means, but hopefully I’ve given you some direction and ideas on how you can get started.
I’ll keep you posted on my guide and the case study, but in the interim I’ll start posting some more nuggets as it relates to each of the 7 points I hit on above.
Have fun!
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The Science of Influence And Persuasion #AMDays
Editor’s Note: More hot-off-the-press live coverage from the Affiliate Management Days conference. The science of influence and persuasion is the topic in this, the 7th article in the series. This series of articles is on topics of interest to businesses that offer affiliate programs. More coverage of #AMDays.
Below is a live blogging recap of the afternoon keynote “The Science of Influence & Persuasion: Getting What You Want, When You Want It” featuring speaker John Greathouse (pictured left) a partner at Rincon Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in early stage web-based businesses.
We’re wrapping up the last session of day two.
6 Major Categories of Persuasion:
1. RECIPROCITY
- People do business with people they like, who show authority, have social proof, and install a sense of fear (of loss)
- Quid pro quo – sustained survival
- Pay it back, pay it forward
- Offer a “our gift to you” – they will pay it forward or pay it back
- The characteristics of effective gifts are significant, unexpected and personalized
- Recipients value favors less over time, where as the giver values the favor more over time.
- Give a gift, coupon, bonus and commission before the affiliate asks
- Never be shy to ask for a favour if you need to
- Create obligations by giving favours freely but return the favour quickly
- Remind a person of past favours, before asking for one
- Offer something “extra” to start the program
2. COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY
- If I tell you I’m going to do something, you have to do it to ensure trust
- People judge people based on their behavior
- Create social contracts (which can be stronger than legal contracts) and use silence to elect unambiguous verbal responses
- Follow up verbal agreements with a written reply
- Create signed, non-binding term sheets
- Communicate public affirmation via press releases, tweets, etc.
3. SOCIAL PROOF
- Popular = good. People make fewer mistakes when copying others
- “Award Winning” products, “Best Selling” authors
- People are lemmings…. it’s a survival thing – the more people do or look at something the more people will follow
- The higher the uncertainty, the stronger the social proof is
- Find a peer you can use as a reference and communicate with similar publishers who are displaying the offer
4. LIKING
- People absolutely judge you on your looks (facial expressions, body language, etc.) – this is called “thin slicing”
- Never pre-judge someone: get the facts first, listen to them, then make a decision
- “Prejudging (especially in business) is the kiss of death” – Bob Golomb
- Find similarities and commonalities that you can connect with them on – so they feel they can like you
- Similarities = liking = influence = partnering
- Same tribe = you’re cool (Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Selling – find legit similarities to gain trust, enhance liking
- Conform to our stakeholder’s realities – Bill Gates
- Tout your weaknesses = honest and trustworthy
- Mirroring similar body language increases liking
- Smiling and shaking your head in a “yes” movement is extremely effective
5. AUTHORITY
- Uniforms (doctors, military, police) instill authority
- People who dress more professionally tend to be seen as having more authority
- Have someone else introduce you on a call (even if you leave right away) – this will enhance your credibility
- Have a third party referral or recommendation on your site
- Blog, guest post, speak on panels
- Become active on Quora, Twitter, LinkedIn affiliate groups, etc. to help build your credibility
- Leverage the power of “because” – just giving a reason will significantly increase the acceptance of your proposition
6. SCARCITY AND FEAR
- Have limited access and availability of things, limited number of people for a limited time
- People always want what they can’t have
- People prefer to avoid losses rather than increase gains
- Show the value and uniqueness of your product / services
To find out more about the science of influence and persuasion, check out InfoChachkie.com.
The Science of Influence And Persuasion #AMDays
