Students registering for the January session of the blogging studio course, Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune will have the opportunity to win a free premium theme from StudioPress. Over the holidays, StudioPress had a contest for a free premium theme and I won! Lucky me

I already have a Pro Plus All Theme membership for my freelance work so I already own all of the themes. So, I asked permission to transfer the theme to a lucky student and StudioPress graciously agreed. On January 16, I will randomly select a student from the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class to receive a free premium theme. The lucky student will be able to select any theme from StudioPress that best meets their needs.

In the Blogging Basics course, we focus on the widely available free themes but there are some situations where a premium theme can be advantageous. This is particularly true for photoblogs and for when you want your blog to be an integrated part of your web site. You can utilize WordPress to control your entire web site with one of these quality themes.

These themes retail for an average of $60, so don’t miss out on this opportunity. Registration closes on January 6th, so register at LVS Online today!

Blogging contests can be a fun way to promote your blog while discovering other blogs that might entertain, inform or offer insight. There are three main ways to benefit from a blog contest:

• Explore a lot  of posts on a topic of interest to you. Blogging contests consolidate links from posts all over into one central place, making it easy to browse. In this example, it is a consolidation of pet pictures.
• Increase the number of visitors to your own blog. Once your link is part of the contest, it becomes part of that central resource, making your post easier to find for those interested in your topic.
• If you host a blog contest, you benefit from the traffic drawn to your site for people searching on that topic. Most contests require a link back or some kind of button like the one below. This brings attention to your blog, as the contest host, on every blog that enters.

• Some blog contests offer prizes other than just bragging rights. These can range from free services from the blog contest host, to money, to free products, to gift certificates.

Here is my entry for this week’s I Heart Faces blog contest on pets, with an optional theme “The eyes have it”.

Here is Ebony, my service dog, as a puppy looking adoringly at Fergus. She was absolutely devastated when Fergus passed this fall. He was her everything and this picture captured the adoration, trust and respect she had for him.

How it works

1. Check the contest guidelines. Here are the guidelines for the pet photo contest this week.
2. Prepare your post according to the contest guidelines.
3. Submit your post to the contest. Be sure to submit the permalink to the post, not your general blog address. Most contests will have an entry form on their web site to enter your permalink.The entry form for the pet photo contest is a form on this page at I heart faces for week 4. NOTE: This page and form make not be available after the contest closes. They host weekly contests, but only accept submissions Mon-Wed. No entry form will be available Thurs-Sun.
4. Browse and comment on other entries in your spare time.
5. Check back at the end of the contest to see if you won. If you have time, it is nice to congratulate the winners.

Let us know if you are participating in any blog contests. We would love to see what you are doing.

The theme for the 2008 World AIDS day is leadership so I decided to show some leadership and start a Blog Carnival. The Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune students are learning about Blog Carnivals right now so it seemed appropriate. Blog Carnivals are kind of like a magazine, bloggers submit their articles on a set topic to a publisher and their articles are assembled into an issue with notes from the publisher. The word carnival comes from the fact that in most carnivals, different bloggers take turns hosting the carnival, like towns used to do.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has impacted most of us in one way or another over the past 27 years. Although we have made a lot of progress since the first World AIDS Day 20 years ago, there is a lot more work to do in terms of prevention, awareness and treatment. Read more about the Bloggers Unite for AIDS blog carnival at  and you can submit your articles and artwork at the Blog Carnival clearing house

This is an excellent opportunity to promote your blog, learn a new blogging skill and more importantly, address a important public health issue. In addition, unlike most blog carnivals, there will be prizes available.