In the past, I’ve often written about why blogging is one of the best business models online. I covered many reason in my free make money online guide, and I also covered some in my recent post Making Blog Income.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons blogging rules, is viral traffic. The simple fact is that it is much easier to drive viral traffic to a blog then other types of sites.

Blogs integrate extremely well with social media since blogs are conversational and the core of social media is all about conversation.

Also, there is no shortage of viral traffic methods for your blog to use.

Some of the common viral traffic sources include:

1. Twitter
2. Social media sites (Facebook, Stumbleupon, Diggs, etc…)
3. Writing link bait
4. Swapping blog posts
5. Competitions with other blogs (i.e. A competition between two blogs to see who can get the most twitter followers in 2 weeks).
6. Giving away a free report
7. Video posts
8. Article marketing

While all of the above are great viral traffic strategies, in this post I want to highlight Blog Contests a viral traffic strategy commonly overlooked.

A blog contest is simply a way to engage your readers by letting them participate in a contest.

Blog contests are great for building loyal relationships with your readers and helping your blog generate a buzz.

When you are ready to start a blog contest you have a couple considerations. First off you need to select a nice prize for the winner(s). I recommend a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize.

Next you need to plan the contest qualifying requirements and how the winner is determined. This is where things get interesting.

If you plan your requirements correctly it can have a huge viral traffic impact for your blog.

I recommend you consider some of the following requirements for your contest. Each requirement must be met before a reader can be selected as a winner.

1. Write a blog post promoting the contest.
2. Promote the contest by adding it to at least 5 social media sites (stumbleupon, facebook, digg, etc…).
3. Subscribe to your blog feed.
4. Add five quality comments at least 5 times on any of your posts.
5. Tell at least 5 friends about the contest (Note you’ll need a tell-a-friend form on your blog.)

The above are commonly used requirements. You can add as many as you like, but I recommend using 3 or 4 that will drive viral traffic to your blog. If you use more then 4, it may be difficult to get readers to participate unless the winner’s prize is of very high value.

After you have your requirements firmed up, you’ll want to set how the winner is determined. It could be at random, but it is much better if it drives an action that helps your blog. One example may be to select the winner based on the reader that completes all of the 5 requirements above and has posted the most quality comments on your blog. It can be anything just be creative and try to drive an action that makes sense for your blog.

One last recommendation. Blog contests always work better when your blog already has a base of readers. So if you are a new blogger you’ll probably want to focus on other viral strategies before a blog contest.