How do i set up a blog party?

[girlzmama2002]

  Sorry girls...it took me a day or two to get back over here.  I am so glad my info seems helpful!

As for who/how I contacted sponsors, I browsed links on many of my favorite Mommy blogs for retailers.  Once I found an email addy for them (sometimes challenging!) I introduced myself, stated I was preparing for a terrific blog party and wondered if they would be interested in....well here, this is actually what I wrote:

Hi!
 
I am having a week-long pre-summer blog party called The 3 Ps in a Pod
Super Summer Vacation Giveaway  http://www.threepsinapod.blogspot.com . 
It will run starting next Tuesday, May 6th and run through May 13th.  I plan to run a variety of different giveaways during that time.

I am writing to see if I could interest you in sponsoring one of those giveaways in exchange for some super publicity.


How We Like to Manage Things:

I will promote your giveaway at other various contest sites such as 5 Minutes for Mom, Laura Williams Musings, Mommies United, Prizey, Prizeatron and more. 
The item to be given away is completely up to you.  It could be a specified item, a gift card or a set amount of credit to allow them to purchase merchandise from you.
The contest will require all participants to visit your site and extra credit is given if they choose to link back to you.
The winner will be randomly selected and I will notify them after which I will email you their contact info and you should make arrangements with them to distribute their prize.
Sound Interesting? Great! Please keep reading!

To sponsor a giveaway:

Reply back to me as quickly as possible so that I can begin the publicity.
Include the name/link of the item you’d like to give away or the monetary amount of a gift certificate.
Please let me know if you would you like to open up the giveaway to anyone world-wide or just to US addresses. Either way is fine.

That is all there is to it. If you need more info or have any questions, feel free to contact me as well.

Thank you for your time!

?Alyson LaBarge

Blog owner

Don't Miss the 3 Ps in a Pod
Super Summer Vacation Giveaway
May 6-13
 http://www.threepsinapod.blogspot.com 
**************************************

As I said before, the people who replied were so kind and very generous.  I provided some of the giveaway gifts myself so even if no one had replied, I would have been okay.

As for a blog you can get ideas from, Angela at 7 Dogs and a Baby held an awesome first birthday for her Connor about a month ago.  Check her blog at http://www.sevendogsandababy.com/

If you have more questions I can answer, holler and I sure will try.

Also, I will be more than happy to help advertise on my blog as I have an upcoming events area so let me know.

   
 

[berriesweetest]

thx so much allyson!
I will wait to see on monday if i get any responses, but it not, since i am coming up short on time, i may hust ask people to sign a birthday card of some sort(maybe a sticky post?) and then choose a winner from there.
i have some prizes already since i do the reviews on a regular basis...so if worse comes to worse, i'll just hold off on posting some reviews and use those.
and thanks for the letter-i will have to copy and save that for future reference. this year's blog party might be small, but next year is going to rock the blogosphere!

[berriesweetest]

i am posting info on the blog party in the contest thread.
stop on by!

[ArmySister]

I've joined Buttercup's Party!!  Hope it goes great!!

[berriesweetest]

Thanks so much Army Sis!
Listen up, am I doing something wrong? I know pwople have until the 21 to sign up, but I only have like 3 people who signed in to Mr. Linky so far and I am a bit disappointed with the response so far. I don't know what I expected, but am I supposed to be doing something different to get a better response and more traffic? Cuz I have more prizes than people by like a long shot right now.
Three P's? Can ya help me out? Anyone have any ideas? Or can someone just tell me to chill and that everthing will go well and that I just need to relax?

[ArmySister]

I'm not really sure. I think it all looks great. It may just be that you don't have that much traffic yet automatically? Do you submit to things like Digg and Blogsvine?  That may help.  I would also put a direct post to it in your signature here if that's acceptable.  Something else to consider is maybe browsing for other blogging forums and maybe contest forums and if it's acceptable by their rules post a link to it.

Oh and MomBlogNetwork is another. If you let me know I'll go vote on each of those (and I bet others here would too) to help you get noticed.

[berriesweetest]

Hmmm...I have seen "dig this" at the end of posts on other blogs. but i have never heard of blogvine.
I tried stumble upon and haven't figured out how to get past the sign up. Seriously, I am clueless with coding.
I'm guessing that part of it is that word has to spread and there is still time. But the funny thing is that if more people do not enter, three people are going to be very freakin' lucky with prizes.
 

[ArmySister]

I noticed you use blogspot and I haven't used it before but I'd be happy to help you with digg, blogsvine, or momblognetwork. With all of them you'll need to sign up and register the blog first.

I tried stumbleupon too, but didn't really care for it.

[michellew]

i am posting info on the blog party in the contest thread.
stop on by!

Am I too late for Buttercup's Birthday Bash? I have been meaning to link up all week, but I have been so, so busy. I am sorry.