Launch An Incredible Blog Contest
Starting a blog contest is one of the most exciting things to do. Many believe that these competitions attract huge traffic. Utter nonsense! If you are one of these believers, I am sorry to say that you don’t know much about blogging because traffic is just a diminutive part of what you get out of these competitions. It involves substantial brand publicity, a steep rise in sales, and just about everything you ever wanted as a blogger.
Am I exaggerating? No, I am not. You can actually achieve these things but only through rigorous planning. A minor gaffe while planning the contest can jeopardize your vision and dreams. But don’t fret because here are few things that will not let you dreams die, if you consider them while planning.
Prize money or reward
Prizes are the most important thing, at least from the contestant’s point of view because that’s the only thing they will participate for. Hence, deciding the prize while planning is crucial. You need to ensure that you give away something that will quite useful for the participants as bloggers. For Instance, if the participants are from MMO niche, distribute Wordpress Themes as prize or free ads on various blogs. If you can provide them something useful, you will definitely get quite a lot of constants.
How to get sponsors?
Probably you wouldn’t want to spend hundreds for prizes from your own pocket. You would be fool if you do so because you can easily attract sponsors.
I agree getting sponsors for your contest is quite complicated. Most of the people aren’t able to do it. I can say this because lately many people have asked me about the technique to attract sponsors. Okay. There is not super-technique to attract them. Simply send mails asking them to sponsor. Prior to this, you need to identify and create a list of companies or blogs that you think will be enthusiastic about sponsoring the contest.
These are some of the points that you need to cover while drafting the email:
- There will be direct link to your page and a paragraph of description about you.
- The promotion of this contest will be rigorous and on a large scale.
- The participants can win entries by posting, tweeting, and commenting about the contest on their page.
- You will receive enormous traffic, brand publicity, and boost in sales through this contest.
I am sure many companies with show interest in sponsoring the contest.
The Type of Contest
This would be this most significant element of the contest. According to me, keep it uncomplicated and quite easy entry procedure. This will ensure that the number of contestants entering the competition will be quite high. The very common, accepted and popular formats of contests are:
- Posting comment:
In this kind of contest, people keep commenting on your blog. The one who posted highest number of comments is declared winner. However, to attract so many contestants, you will have to advertise about the contest without anyone’s help. - Retweeting:
The post of your preference would be tweeted by numerous people (the link there directs back to the contest page). This is a great tool of alluring traffic as scores of interet users are tweeting your URL’s. Here other people are advertising on your behalf. So most of the work is done by them and you don’t really have to work that hard to attract traffic. - Subscring to RSS feed:
This type of contest will help you to increase the number of RSS subscription substantially. You will notice a huge amount of people subscribing for RSS. However, most of the new entries will leave the list as soon as the contest finishes. - Posting about the Contest:
Here, people post the details of the contest on their blog along with your link. This also, sometimes, has sponsor’s links. So you can expect a huge traffic in this kind of contest as well. However, many people will be hesitant about posting your contest on their blog. I would definitely not do it.
You can choose any of the above types, or combine a couple of them. It’s your competition, so you make the rules, right?
Just remember, planning the contest is the essence of the contest. Before releasing the first post about it, make sure you have considered all the drawbacks and planned efficiently.
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Chris,
Planning is crucial. I hosted my first contest a couple of months ago and gave away a couple of Premium WordPress themes as prizes. As soon as I mentioned it to blogging friends, I had numerous people offer their services and other types of prizes. I ended up having 10 prizes.
I’m holding my second contest now.
The other thing to mention is the work required afterwards to actually pick the winners. I put all the names in a hat and video’d the winners being picked. It took a lot of time to do that but the response I got was very much worth it.
Andrew
Andrew @ WeBuildYourBlog.com´s last blog ..Free – The Income Blogging Guide Contest
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 3:15 am
Hey Andrew that’s really great. Yes, picking up winners is quite difficult and requires authentic assessment. However, the ‘names in a hat’ and ‘videos’ is really a cool idea. I guess, after a couple of years, blogging contests would be far too common and contestants would participate in few selected ones that offers such innovative techniques.
Thanks for sharing such wonderful ideas. Your inputs are valuable and important. keep commenting.
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Selecting Prize for the contest is really important.Many people prefer cash as the best prize to be kept in contests.
Blogging Tips´s last blog ..How to add Blog Engage vote button in blogger
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 2:17 am
True. Money works as instant motivation. But offering prize that helps them promote their blog is worth nothing less than money. It will eventually bring money more than we can offer as contest prize. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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Simply send a email. Thats works pretty well. I am conducting a contest and I just emailed some bloggers to sponsor and most replied positive.
Agent Deepak´s last blog ..448$ New Year Bonanza Contest
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 2:22 am
Yes, that’s a simple, professional way to approach sponsors. Explain the benifits of being a sponsor as i have mentioned in the article above, to get better response and avoid subsquent misunderstandings. I hope the contest goes well. All the best Deepak.
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Contest blogs are great way to get exposure, everyone always wants to win prizes, since they are free
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You don;t have the right to talk about contests. You already have cheated people like me by telling that we are the prize winners and then will not give the prize and all. You simply a cheat.
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Hi Karthik,
This site is for readers interested to know about blogging and internet business tips. Genuine people with genuine interests. If you like to use profinity on blogs not known to you, please stay away from this site.
bloggingwithchris.com has 22,222 readers; the site has 1,420 followers and it ranks 68 in wtw ranking ( http://www.winningtheweb.com/im-top-blogs/ ) – a proof of authenticity. What about you? Any evidence supporting your allegations?
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Karthik Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 8:33 am
I am surprised to see that you are blaming me. You want proof? Well definitely I can provide you. You just check out our post about your previous contest results and see what have you announced as a prize for me($50). Still now I am waiting for your reply and you have approved all of my comments in your blog where I have requested you to reply for my emails about the prize claim. But you sadly didn’t even look out my mails it seems.
Well don’t claim that you are great in rankings and all. On these days, anyone can get such rankings without doing nothing. Simply reply to my previous emails. I will be happy atleast if you learn what’s the problem behind your contest.
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Chris Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 1:22 am
I am not Blaming you Buddy. Why should i do that since i have absolute no reason to do that ? I have sent all necessary communication to Winners of the Content and given them price on time. You can also ask all the winners if you want ? If you think any one can do it then i guess you should compare our blogs & see where we are standing as Internet entrepreneurs ?
Pharmacy Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Had a look on your blog rankings and rating overall at winningtheweb.com/im-top-blogs/
i dont know about contest money but yea nowadays anyone can get rankings like Chris is having there. Getting that Alexa rank, subscribers, followers and more is easy to get. nothing much with it. A new blog with few months old can also get better rankings then this blog is having.
Anyways no offence, just my review on this conversation.
Planning is the first thin you need to focus on. And it’s quite sad that most wannabe pro bloggers think blogging contest is just another traffic-generating “trick”. It’s not.
# Chris, could you share one or two of the best “blogging” bloggers when it comes to offering top-notch contests?
One of them comes in mind – Copyblogger… who else?
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Hi Raviaa,
It isn’t definitely a trick. However, it does attract readers and bloggers to your blog. People become aware about your presence. And the “best blogging bloggers” don’t really need to attract traffic and declare their presence. Thanks for sharing your viewpoint.
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From my point of view, as long as we have wonderful prizes for the contestants, then big chance the contest will be a successful one. Most of the contestants check on the prize and see what prize they really want, then only they will join it.
I’ll be holding another contest very soon, will keep you updated to see whether you would like to sponsor something.
Cheers,
Lee
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Chris Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 3:05 am
Very true Lee. Contestants are definitely enticed by the prizes. You need to offer them something useful and alluring to attract them. Thanks for your suggestions lee. Keep sharing.
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Pharmacy Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 5:03 am
cash prices, premium themes, site review are the best prices offered in contests. Actually i like those prices, lol and yes most of others as well like earning $$ from contests
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Very helpful information! I’m preparing to launch my first blog contest and wonder how I can ensure that I get contact information from each commenter, so I can notify them if they win? I don’t want to them have to post their email addresses publicly. I haven’t seen this covered anywhere.
Thanks!
Kathlene
BodegaBayLife.com
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i had a contest on my blog, and gave my readers the option to vote. people chose a popular cosmetic store gift card over money, though it was close. but then again I guess it depends on the audience
Bombchell – in Atl´s last blog ..My New Makeup Look – Products used & trying Individual Lashes
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