Blog contest is one of the best ways to get huge amount of traffic and increase the number of RSS subscribers. I have participated in few blog contests and was lucky to grab last prize $25 in one of them. And this is what I learnt about holding a contest to gain maximum benefits from it.
- Promote your contest hugely- a contest will die as soon as you start it if you do not get participant for it. Promote your contest like mad blogger. Spread it in orkut, Facebook, twitter, digg, and stumble upon, wherever you can. Dedicate a separate contest page and tweet it everyday. Include the contest link at the bottom of every post. Add your contest in contest carnivals sites. Good promotion will get you good number of contestants.
- Try to offer cash prizes- there is no such prize as the cash prizes for the winners. People love cash and if you are offering cash to the participants, you can be sure that there will be lot of entries. If you cannot afford to offer cash, try contacting some other bloggers to become a sponsor of your contest. If you get one, it will be great. But remember that before you contact sponsors, your blog should be such which is very popular and you are expecting contestants in good number. If there are only 5 contestants for three prizes, chances are that nobody will like to sponsor you.
- Give weekly updates about the contest- once in a week, updates your visitors about the contest. This makes sure that they know their current position in the contest and does not forget that they are a part of their contest.
- Interact with the contestants through comments-whenever some one comment on the contest, make sure you reply to him. Not even a single comment should remain unanswered. Even if someone is asking silly questions or talking to you rudely, be polite.
Running a contest can get you huge number of visitors and subscribers and you gain lots and lots of popularity. And it’s just not limited to the duration of contest. A good contest ensures that you have got some loyal visitors who will visit you everyday and will tweet and comment there to spread your word out in the blogosphere.
What do you think about the blog contest? Have you ever started any? What were your experiences with it?
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Article by Anil Agarwal
Anil has written 228 articles .
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BloggersPassion was started on Jan 01, 2010 on the world’s most awesome blogging platform- WordPress. This blog was started to share blogging tips and for helping you become a successful full time blogger. Blogging is an art and the more you do it, the more you perfect you become.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a very helpful post. But contests can be held by those blogs which have achieved some popularity.
.-= Vivek Krishnan´s last blog ..How to Comment on Other Blogs? =-.
but if you want quality exposure for your blog, contest will do a hell lot good
I’ve heard contests can do good things for your blog, but I’ve still never ran one before. Thanks for the tips. They’ll come in handy when I do run a contest.
.-= Mathew Day´s last blog ..11 Ways to Get Unlimited Amount of FREE Traffic =-.
i am glad my post could help you
Seems something is cooking…..What are you upto Tushar…Can we expect a contest on bloggerspassion on anytime soon?
i am still working on that Puneet….
may be in a month or two….
I feel it is tricky for a relatively new blog to hold contests.
.-= Vivek Krishnan´s last blog ..How to Comment on Other Blogs? =-.
What exactly you mean by tricky?
Its very difficult to attract the crowd unless you are giving away a cool product or a cash reward. Also people get pissed off if they dont get the rewards on proper time..
.-= Tech-Freak Stuff´s last blog ..LG Cookie pep: The Complete Review =-.
i agree that there is nothing like cash rewards but i think one should only offer what you can afford….
announcing big rewards and not giving them is the worst you can do to your blog
Any contest in your blog ???
Im ready to participate in that
.-= sudharsan @ technoskillonline´s last blog ..Badjuju just happened !? – Commentluv Problem solved =-.
i am planning to hold a one and still working on that…but still atleast a month away solely due to lack of time
Hey, nice post! Good help for me and for my contest scheduled in my blog.
Few more points..
Create connection with Email newsmarketer and take their help to make it more viral.. In return you can offer them a sponsorship or something which they like..
Wont suggest Digg, as its more like spamming..Since Digg is a place for social sharing instead of personal one…
Nice complication…
.-= Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..Shoutmeloud, Devils’ Workshop: Bridging Gaps Between Technology and Blogging =-.
that is a very helpful tip, Harsh…..it will help all the reader out there
very well information you write it very clean. I’m very lucky to get this info from you. Your site is very useful for me .I bookmarked your site!
The greater the prize you can give to the people participating in your contest, the greater support and traffic you’ll receive. You’ll have to try hard to promote your contest like no tomorrow, you want to make sure plenty of people can join in and share.
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..How To Use Twitter To Find New Blog Post Ideas =-.
On one of our network blog we undertake dontation contest every month. When people review and write about our blog / product on their own blog, we randomly choose one of the contestant as winner and donate him specified amount. This enables us to gain much more popularity.
I have always wanted to know how to run legit contents for guest bloggers to keep our own blogs active. This is a great bit of research, that I appreciate very much, THANKS.
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