Have you held a contest? Was it successful?

[wahmsuzanne]

If you have ever held a contest ... was it successful? Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

What were you looking to accomplish? RSS subscribers? Commenters? Backlinks? Something else?

If you've had a contest ... please share how it worked out and give some pointers about what you would do again ... and what you would do differently next time.

Thanks! *SmiLes* Suzanne

[navjotjsingh]

I last held a contest 1 year back. It was mainly for some increase in backlinks and rss numbers. It did boosted my rss numbers and almost doubled it from around 50-60 to 100! If I ever had to host the contest again, I would like to get some big sponsors this time. Last time I had only $100 cash to give away out of my own pocket. This time I would like to get some good sponsors(Not Entrecard credits) with some great prizes and make sure the contest grows bigger and better. 1 year back not many people seemed interested in contests but nowdays I see more contest blogs to promote your contest and more people taking part so holding a contest has more benefits now as it had 1 year back.

[wahmsuzanne]

I last held a contest 1 year back. It was mainly for some increase in backlinks and rss numbers. It did boosted my rss numbers and almost doubled it from around 50-60 to 100! If I ever had to host the contest again, I would like to get some big sponsors this time. Last time I had only $100 cash to give away out of my own pocket. This time I would like to get some good sponsors(Not Entrecard credits) with some great prizes and make sure the contest grows bigger and better. 1 year back not many people seemed interested in contests but nowdays I see more contest blogs to promote your contest and more people taking part so holding a contest has more benefits now as it had 1 year back.

So, in your opinion, was the hundred dollars worth the return on investment? Did the subscribers stick around after the contest? Were the backlinks quality links and/or helpful in any way?

On a side note ... how is it going solicitating prizes for your upcoming contest? I'll let you know if I come up with anything. *SmiLes* Suzanne

[navjotjsingh]

I have now 11 Sponsors with me in just one day of announcement of my contest. I am optimistic and plan to rope even more sponsors and make it a good and grand contest on November 1. :D

Yes the money was worth its investment and really boosted my traffic and rss in general. And only 1 or 2 people unsubscribed after the contest and I could retain them all even till now. Though I think its time now for another boost to it.

[athlon24]

Yes, it boosted your rss and traffic but in a business perspective, are there any return of investment made. It doubled/trippled?

[navjotjsingh]

Nope that did not happen since I was not monetising my blog then and have opened private ads only recently. Adsense was there but it does not work on such blogs more so because my audience is very tech-oriented and they all use adblockers and hardly anyone would have noticed adsense on such a blog.

[silent_thunder]

I never contested a contest!! People come to my site to read and download stuff that I put up for free!! SO they are getting a deal right there!! I feel giving things for free gets you more people than contest!! try giving some free stuff on your website

[fatherblogger]

I held one small contest when I was a member of Entrecard. I gave away 1,000ec for the best one who can make a post out of my post that they choose, which means they should copy my posts. For all joined in, I gave 100ec each. Of course, all entries should have a link to the original post.

I think it was successful enough. Besides link building, that's a good promotion on on my part. The good thing was, the contestants was "forced" to read my posts.

I doubt if members can do that now since they are only entitled to send 1,000ec a week.

Hhhmmm...

[narendra.s.v]

well i hold contests atleast 3 months onces. All the time i look forward to boost link backs and to be Top 10k in Technorati and am already in Top 20k but contests doesn't gave much boost then to quality post link backs :) And also there will be 1000 Business cards give away soon in my photoshop tutorial blog :D

will there is not i do
Just make the contest BIG
BIG in terms of worthy prizes not just LIST
Just make the contest short n simple to enter
Just a contest post cant drive participants or link backs
We have to promote the contest post too, here are few things i do:
Submit your contest to fellow contest blogs(i do for some 20 blogs or so)
Do some comments in the blogs we participated in your past contest
Post in Forums
Get few bookmarks from your friends

Here you can see my ongoing contest Win $200 - $1000 cash in August-December Contest for Best Article! (http://www.techtreak.com/2008/08/16/win-in-august-september-contest-for-best-article/)

[navjotjsingh]

Narendra....seems your current contest has not gained much entries. Maybe because requirement is not the type people would like to fill.

And timeline is too long for anybody to wait for a prize. You have set dates for this contest for more than 4 months which is not a good sign since you extended the deadline midway. You should have give more thought to the contest.

And did you submitted this contest to any contest blogs because apart from my own blog, no contest blog came forward to advertise this contest as appears from comments?

[akira07]

I never held a contest, but actually i'm in planning to make a contest, thats why i'm making thread about contest. Well, i'm planning making contest not for make my blog become popular but i wanna do research about relation of contest and PR. If this contest give me good result, i'm planning to make e-book to be on sale about contest :D

[athlon24]

that's a nice plan. Go for it. :D

[narendra.s.v]

The contest is held by my friend, he held it for a month but no entries and so we extended it but still have not got fair entries. Yeah i haven't submitted it as i dont have much time but will do it soon!

[athlon24]

trying to come up with contest if you don't have much readership or exposure yet is another problem. And if you extend it because there's no entries, it just made the situation worse. Because, those who made their entry and expecting that the winner will be announced soon are probably pissed off and may loose their trust to the contest holder. So before coming up contest, make sure to plan for its exposure.

[akira07]

anyway, it's good to make prize "ads 125x125 on my blog" but my blog is not popular? Will someone interesting to participate my contest?

[athlon24]

@akira, what's the price in your contest? and what do we need to do to be able to join? Until now, I don't now what's the address of your blog. And I'm actually curious to know about it. :)

[akira07]

I'm still keep it secret, because i'm embarassing --> my blog is not good yet....
Just wait for the time, i will tell it...!!!!

[athlon24]

Ok... that would be fine... I'm also a non-native english speaker so, it's fine to me..
Just feel free to open it up and maybe we can all help each other to improve...
*Cheer*

[akira07]

well i have no big budget to held a contest with a great prize, maybe i will looking for a sponsor. I will place sponsor ads in my blog, and they contribute a prize for the winner of the contest. From my pocket, maybe i dare to provide prize $50, it's enough/no?
$50 is divided into 3 prize $25, $15, $10.