Mar 23 2009
My First Ever Contest Here at Nonfiction Lover!
So I’m way excited about this, can you tell? I am holding the first ever give away here on Nonfiction Lover, and I hope that you all will join in! 
To qualify, all you need is a blog or website that you can post on (I apologize to my readers without a blog or website, but unfortunately for this contest, you do need to have a blog of your own).
First, the prizes!
** 2,000 EntreCard credits [**please see note below**]
** Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger (a book review: Simplexity)
** Before the Scalpel by Panchali Dhar, MD (my book review: Before the Scalpel)
** $5 gift card to Starbucks
** $5 gift card to Barnes and Noble
It’s one prize per winner, which means you’ll have five chances to win! (Note: I will pay for all shipping and handling charges as long as you reside within the US, making your prize completely free. If you live outside of the US, you can still enter into the contest but if you choose one of the books as your prize, I will require you pay the shipping charges to receive it. Sorry in advance for that, but hey, I am a poor college student.)
The first person’s name pulled out of the hat gets to choose their prize first, the second person chooses second, etc, until I run out of prizes (or names, heaven forbid.)
To enter into the contest, it’s simple - simply link from your blog to mine. Every post with a link is worth one entry. The more you link, the greater your chance to win an ultra-cool prize! (Okay, okay, so it’s not a Wii or an iPod, but remember: Poor college student! This is as good as it gets ’round here.)
Here’s the nitty-gritty details:
When you link to my blog, I need you to use at least two out of these three words in your link: nonfiction book review. So your link can read as “nonfiction review,” “book reviews,” “reviews of nonfiction books,” “great nonfiction book reviews” - any combination of those three words (and any adjectives that you want to throw in, like great, interesting, well-written, etc) is what I’m going for.
For those who want an example, here’s a sample sentence:
blah blah. Also, for any readers who enjoy nonfiction, be sure to check out a great nonfiction book review site that I have found. blah blah
When you link this way, it tells Google that my site is a place to go for great nonfiction book reviews. If you link like this: “Be sure to check out a great nonfiction book site by clicking here” then you’re telling Google that my site is the place to go when people search for the word “here.” Not exactly helpful.
I also do NOT want the phrase “Nonfiction Lover” used as the link - Nonfiction Lover is the name of my site, yes, but it is NOT a popular term when it comes to people searching for information through Google.
If any of that doesn’t make sense or you want more info on SEO (search engine optimization) please email me and I’ll be glad to tell you what I know.
That’s pretty much it! Feel free to link to individual reviews of books (Example: Be sure to check out the book review of Marley and Me) or to the main page. Just remember to include at least two out of the three words in the link: “nonfiction book review.”
After you’ve linked, either send me an email through my contact page or post a comment on this post, and give me the URL’s of the links so I can verify them. Links in blogrolls also count - please tell me in your email/comment that the link is in the blogroll so I know where to look.
Remember, each post counts as an entry (plus a link in the blogroll), so feel free to sprinkle links throughout several posts, or go back and edit old posts to add my link. Either way is fantastic!!!
The contest will run until April 14th, 2009. I will draw names on April 15th and announce the winners on my site plus send you an email asking you for your contact information, so please be sure to use a valid email address.
Thanks and hope to hear from y’all soon!!!
Havs
**NOTE: Since putting this contest together, Today.com has told us we can no longer use EntreCard on our blogs because of a conflict. My first thought was, “Should I drop the 2000 EC prize?” but I decided to keep it in. My thoughts are this:
If you are a Today.com blogger, you may have an outside blog that is not in the Today.com world that you can use the EC’s on.
There is also the possibility that you do not have an outside blog but that you do keep your EC account active, in which case you can use those credits on the EC marketplace to buy reviews of your blogs and lots of other really awesome things. You are not required to have an EC widget on your blog in order to have an EC account, so you can keep your account without keeping the widget.
And of course, if you are not a Today.com blogger but you do use EC, then none of this matters and you would happily use 2,000 extra EC’s. 
If you have any questions, please ask below - thanks!
What do I get for being just all-around awesome?
Hava,
I think I figured it out. I have you on my blog in two spots.
Good luck with your contest.
Sari
Sari, you’re faster than I am, LOL! But, looking at your site, there’s just a little problem with the links. I’m going to email you right now using the email address you used to comment on here. Watch for that right now!
Thanks for taking the time to do this!!!
Havs
Sari, I’ve sent the email. Check for it in your inbox.
Havs
I amended my blogroll link to read non-fiction book review. (It had been non-fiction lover.)
Hm. Tempting, though that’s going to be really hard to sneak into my work without sounding artificial, and this week’s definitely a no-go. Too much writing ahead already done.
Will have to think harder, I suppose.
I like contests…
http://www.newsday.today.com/
aw2500, where WERE you last semester?! I was taking a college copyright class from the teacher from Hades, and I almost killed her with my bare hands. I would have paid good money to have a site like yours handy back then.
Anyway, thanks for changing your link - it’s my fault, really. I should have picked a more SEO friendly URL (like nonfictionbookreviews.today.com) and the stupid thing is, I knew that when I was picking out my website address. But nonfictionbookreviews.today.com was just such a BORING name that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I chose Nonfiction Lover instead. Darn aesthetics.
Ravyn, it’s situations like yours that made me set a deadline that is fairly far away instead of giving this just a week. I know that a lot of people have their blog topics all lined up ahead of time (not me, EVER, but I do know that some people do do that, just like some people really do balance their checkbooks, strangely enough) and so I wanted to give people plenty of time to work this into their post(s) naturally. The last thing I want is a post about tomatoes and gardening, and then see it finish by saying, “Oh, and you should check out a great nonfiction book review site. K, good night” and finish their post like that. I want the links to look natural and be natural.
skwguitar, just checked out the site - thanks for the link in the blogroll. Very nice. And I left a comment while I was there - I think you and I probably have a very similar political outlook, which is kinda cool.
Thanks everyone!
Havs
Hm….this sounds like a veiled attempt at a “Google-Bomb” lol. If I still ran my blog, I’d do this in a heartbeat! I wonder though, will my myspace or facebook blogs count??
Hi there. Did you see the notice today, that we Today.com bloggers have 2 weeks to remove our Entrecard widgets?
I’m going around to record the URLs of my favourite Entrecard blogs, and while I was here, I thought I’d mention it if you hadn’t noticed their announcement.
Chris, yes, a modified version perhaps, but this one doesn’t include the name “Bush.”
Unfortunately, MySpace and Facebook (I believe) both use no-follow links, which means that linking from those sites doesn’t tell Google anything at all. If someone knows otherwise, please, tell me.
And anyway, you’re right there with Ann - you’re blessed with being able to work with me. What more could you possibly want?
Of course, you don’t have a wedding coming up in 40 days, unless there’s something you’re not telling me….
Bookish, I did see that announcement this morning. I just finished editing my main post to reflect that new info. Read it and tell me what you think.
Are you going to do my little contest? *hint hint*
Havs
Thanks Amber! I appreciate the link.
Today.com is taking EntreCard away because EC has recently changed their system to letting paid ads come through; ads that the bloggers can receive money for accepting on their sites. Although EC has given the bloggers the ability to turn down these paid ads, it would take way too much time from the point of view of the admins here at Today to police that, and so there would probably be bloggers that would allow those paid ads through and Today wouldn’t know it.
Then they would be double-dipping - receiving payment from both Today and EC. That’s not going to work. Today needs to be the only ones offering ads on the sites. Ergo, goodbye EC.
I have really enjoyed EC - I have never been as faithful about it as other sites, but it’s definitely been a great way to bring new readers to my blog. So I’ll miss it when it’s gone, but I don’t think it will be the cause of any major drop in visitors to my site. The vast majority of my visitors either comes from Google or from people bookmarking my site and coming back to it regularly. I know that there are other people who depend on EC a lot more, and I feel for them because the drop in their stats is going to be rough.
Havs
I put you on my blogroll and since you helped me a lot when I was getting started it will stay there until one of us quits blogging.
Thanks
I am confused, can you give me in elementary terms what to do and I’ll link? I love Starbucks!! Please e-mail me.
Thanks
link added!!!
www.pennies2dollars.today.com
www.smallbizstartup.today.com
links added
izzydaniels.blogspot.com
izzysmoneyontheweb.blogspot.com
Thanks for the contest
Thanks Carrie, Alt, and Izzy. To Izzy: I checked out the two blogs you listed, and only saw a link in the Money on the Web one. Is there a link in the first blog and I just can’t find it?
Thanks again you guys!
Havs
Hey - I found a book in your list to the left on Mount St. Helens and I linked to it from my post on Volano Redoubt. The link is here to the post.
http://sciencefun.today.com/2009/03/26/redoubt-erupts-event-summary-for-week-of-march-22/
Thanks
Thanks for the link, Paul! Looks fantastic!
Havs
Just sent you an e-mail, Havs. Thanks!
I blogged about it!
http://ajedismusings.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-contest-time.html
I’ve already got you on my blogroll for my book-review blog, although as Nonfiction Lover, so I’m going to go change that. And…done. Actually, I was also wondering if you’d like to exchange links–I need to expand my blogroll and ask others I’ve already linked to if they’d link back to me, especially now that I can’t use EC anymore, which is sad. Of course, being the total SEO newbie that I am, I hadn’t really thought to ask for a link name other than the title of my blog, and I’m not sure what I should be using. Generally I’m reviewing fiction and they tend to be YA sci-fi and fantasy, but not all.
So…yeah.
Getting excited to see who wins!!
Hi Hava!
Please count this as one entry?
http://azlynne1972.blogspot.com/2009/04/1st-quarter-book-review-pictorial.html
I’ll see if I can enter more before the deadline
Cheers,
*lynne*
Hi Hava-
Today I was approved for a Today.com blog to switch my blog over to, but I am wondering if you think it is worth it. There is a whole lot of work involved for the money. This is a great tip you have on here. I will not be linking to anyone on the word ‘here’ anymore! Do you have any other tips you can give me?
My blog is http://imlostinbooks.blogspot.com
Thanks,
Rebecca
Your link will be popping up tomorrow (actually three links!) at http://www.sniffydog.today.com in a discussion of Marley & Me. I’m trying to get posts written in advance this week for all sorts of reasons. With luck this is a double whammy for both of us, since poor Marley is such a hot topic!
To Journeys and Adventures, Ruthie, Story Beader, Jo, Lynne, and Tracker, thanks for the links!!! I cannot believe what a great response this has garnered. I have got such an awesome group of readers.
100 indecisions, I just checked out your site - somebody’s been paying attention to my SEO posts, eh? I’m loving what you did for your site. Much more optimized. I hope it helps you increase your traffic!
I would love to swap links with you - just tell me what keywords you want me to use in the link. One thing to keep in mind - you can make up a list of keywords that you’d like Google to associate with your blog, and then ask one group of people to use a certain phrase, and then another group of people to use the other phrase, so that you get links for both coming in. I personally am going for “nonfiction book reviews” and then after I rank well for that phrase, I am going to change my request for any new incoming links, to link to me for other helpful phrases like “nonfiction books” or “book reviews” or “humorous nonfiction books” or whatever. But first I want to focus on my single key phrase and get ranked #1 for it. Only 17 more spots to go, LOL!
Send me an email and we can chat about this more.
Rebecca, I think the name for your blog is adorable! I am lost in books all the time!
I just finished writing up an SEO for Book Blogs Part II post so be sure to read that. I think that covers almost everything you need to know. I’m sure I’ll think of more later, though, and I’ll have to write up a part three. 
As for blogging with Today, it really does depend. I like it, and the money is secondary to me, but your needs may be different. Right now, I’m assuming you’re not blogging for money, so blogging at Today means that you’re now blogging for just a little money.
LOL! This does mean, however, that you don’t have as much influence over your site, however. Today has a certain set up for their blogs, and you can’t edit it (like the ads, the layout of the columns, etc).
I would try it out and see if you like it. If you don’t, you can request to close your account and you will get all of the money you earned up to that point. So there really isn’t anything to lose.
Hava
PS altfreestyle - ME TOO! LOL!!