How to promote an API contest?
asmithmd1: The contest looks to be these guys:
http://www.dandyid.orgWhat, exactly, are you offering with your API?  A quick look around makes me think you are trying a two-sided sale.  
First side: get users to create a DandyID to use with all the DandyID enabled sites.
Second side: get websites to use your API to let all those users who have created a DandyID sign-up to their site more easily.From the users perspective it looks like there is exactly one application - a wordpress plugin - so why should I trust some random site with my credentials?  So I can then install a wordpress plugin of unknown quality on my server?From the website side I would guess after you subtract all your test accounts the number of live DandyIDs is in the dozens.A two sided sale like this is very tough.At first I thought you were offering the ability to look through all the sites you have aggregated (scraped?) by username - that could be useful.  When I saw the need for a DandyID account before the API was useful I realized the API was not very useful.To your original question:  "Apply for an API key" is a little off-putting.  If I am cool enough maybe you will give me one?  And when you click on the link:http://www.dandyid.org/beta/apiprofileyou get this:Whowzers! Lets try that login again.
You must be logged in to do that!I guess if I clicked on that signup link, gave up who knows what kind of info, I could then "Apply" (oh please, please let me in)but at this point I am gone.You are essentially asking developers to work for you for free.  The developers are doing you a huge favor - you have to have that attitude.