Everybody loves a Blog Engage contest!

Blog Engage RSS and Contest Sponsorship Services

One of our latest forays is into the realm of Blog Engage, blogengage.com.

We're doing this to get more hits and expand our readership. The idea is to spread the news of what the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is all about (and that's making our Valley a better place to live).

To that end, we're participating in the Blog Engage competition for the month of June. Here's what it's all about:

One of the requirements is listing sponsors, who are mostly bloggers like Sandy Nax and I.

We're all trying to develop professional online relationships and expand our readership and markets. In the case of SJVCEO, we're looking to get the name of the clean energy nonprofit out there and get some public recognition while advocating development of a budding industry.

The rest of these bloggers have similar intent. Brian Belfitt at BlogEngage.com has brought us together under his web umbrella so we could share our talents and create new awareness and synergies. How he finds the time to have an ongoing conversation with many of us, I'll never know.

I learned of Blog Engage from Alex Whalley (click on the link that says Make Money Online) and since have become a believer. I'm a traditional (downsized) journalist who started crime reporting in Alaska in 1982, when a friend of mine escaped jail outside Palmer. He tried and failed to sneak out and back to get a bunch of liquor at the Quick Rip. Snow slowed him down, he called me from jail and I started a career that lasted until 2009.

So this online linking, friending, following stuff is all alien. It took months for the basics to sink in, and new stuff pops up daily. Learning about it, navigating through the mess and profiting from the experience is what many of this contest's sponsors offer.

They're as traditional -- if that's the right adjective -- as social media master Extreme John or hip and politically aware as Angry Latino. I just shared emails with Nicole Fende, who identifies herself as chief numbers whisperer of the Small Business Finance Forum. Very friendly and supportive.

People like Alex, Nicole and Brian actually don't mind offering advice. it's what they do. And they're pretty good at it. Brian even asked me (me?) for feedback.

My advice? Get out there and blog with the best of them.