Looking at the enormous response to the Veranda Blog, a brilliant idea occurred to me. (All my ideas are brilliant ideas until proven otherwise!). It was almost like a Eureka moment! Just that I was not in a bath tub and I didn’t shout Eureka! Eureka!

What is the IDEA?
The idea is to have a blogging contest for everyone in the content team and anyone who wants to participate from the Tech team, SEO team and other supposedly useful people in the organization like PMs, Management team, etc… In short, anyone can participate.

What will you write about?
You can write about anything that you are passionate about, but you will have to get the topic approved by the judges. This is to ensure two things 1) there is no repetition of topic 2) We have an even enough criterion to judge. You might argue that it is almost like what Henry Ford once said – “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black. “ Well, there cannot be any argument about this because.. I am the one who gets to set the rules because I am the one who had the brilliant Idea.

Topic can be in following areas( These are just suggestions.):

1. Social media marketing
2. Content writing –Passion or ART or Job
3. Tips for writing tips etc
4. Content management systems Drupal Vs Joomla etc

Other rules -

1. All the blogs that you write will be published on Veda Blog
2. Judges will look at a) How interesting your topic is b) How comprehensively you have covered the topic c) Of course, grammar and other content writing principals will be looked at d) Copy pasting will immediately disqualify your blog entry. We will check it through copyscape. e) You blog post is interesting enough that we read it completely etc. f) Size DOES matter!
3. Judging criterion will also have your say in it i.e. everyone will be allowed to select their three blog posts (other than their own). Posts that get maximum votes as number 1 etc will be preferred by judges.
4. Last date for topic submission is Jan 21. Last date for Blog post submission will be announced on Jan 21st.
5. Judges are

• Harish ( Man with the brilliant idea gets to be the judge)
• Vikrant ( Friend of man with the brilliant idea/ He also has a choice of participating instead of judging)
• Piyush ( Man with the brilliant idea has many friends and he keeps all his friends happy, besides I know Piyush will never write a Blog post by the last date)

6.)    Prizes are

• Winners will be instantly famous
• 100% salary hike promised (read the fine print if you can find it..)
• Beyond this
  • First prize – Will be announced on Jan 21 - 2009
  • Second prize – Will be announced on Jan 21- 2009
  • Third prize – 2 Gold class tickets at PVR for movie of your choice (Gold class is only available at Select Citiwalk - Saket and Ambiance mall Gurgaon)

I could have announced this contest in fewer words but the idea of the contest is about creative writing, and I wanted to increase the word count also I didn’t want to sound boring. I am open to other ideas etc. You can comment on this post with any ideas that you have.