Thepisstakers.com blog made a new blog widget for blog contests. Yours truly is one of the blogs used to power its posts. This way you can show off contest posts from all over on your own site. Give it a look.
We have been inspired by ProBlogger's 31 Days to building a better blog and decided to try and contribute with some advice on blog contests.
Blog contests can be a great way to build traffic and get your readership excited about your blog. Run badly, however you can confuse and even anger your existing readership. Here are some helpful pointers for running your next contest.
Have a Goal
Why are you having this contest? For more RSS Readers, Linkbait, Increase Comments, get rid of crap, etc? Pick a reason and make sure everything about your contest promotes and serves that goal. Having a comment contest probably wont help you get more RSS readers, or build link backs.
Be Clear
Make sure to specify the date/time of the ending, and also when you announce the winner. It is possible you end the contest one day, but make the announcement the next.
Be doubly clear what the reward is. Don't say $100 prize when really it is $100 of linkback advertising. It isn't the same thing. If you are paying cash how is that payment made? If it is a physical item, are you paying for shipping also? Is it new?
Perhaps most importantly be clear regarding the rules to your contest. Do you require a link back? Do you require specific text for the link? If it is the typical 'write a post about me on your blog and link to mine' contest then give a sample acceptable blurb so people know the tone and direction you are looking for. Mess this up at the beginning and you will spend lots of time directly talking to contestants who did it wrong. Wasting their time and yours.
Make people feel comfortable that you will follow through. Talk about past contests and link to the winners, show a photo of the item you are giving away, etc. If your a brand new blog and giving away a free house people are going to be skeptical.
Easy Participation
Way too often the contest will get out of hand and you will lose any way of keeping track of entries, and people will know if they are entered properly. For every entrant into your contest contact them via email (automated or otherwise) to let them know you got their entry, it was valid and you appreciate their support. Come up with a plan for how to calculate the winner. Be it a spreadsheet, updated blog entry, etc. If you have the skills, build a nice little form to automate it, store the data in a db and output the list so others can see their status and how many they are competing with.
Advertise Your Contest
Let people know! Contests are successful when lots of people participate. Make sure you tell all your typical blogroll friends, and ask them to blog about it. Post it on relavent forums. Also find the many blog contest sites such as this one and alert them so they can post to their readers. If possible find a way in your contest rules to enforce the promotion of the contest. For example, a contest where people comment on your blog is fine, but it doesn't help promote the contest outside of your blog. Getting people to recommend friends, post links from their blog/site, etc will help your exposure. Also make sure your prize is unique. It will help in the promotion. Find that unique angle and then leverage it!
The Winner
Let people know who won. Make sure you email the winner directly. Often people forget about the contest by the time the winner is announced. Or maybe they miss your post announcing the winner. Be nice and email the person specifically to let them know they have won. Have a follow up post once the person gets their prize, preferably with a photo of them wearing it/using it/spending it.
With any contest or promotion it is very important you have a good way to track the contestants or participants. Not only that, but you need a good way for them to contact you. Otherwise it is easy for people to participate and follow the rules only to find out later they were not counted.
I have had at least two instances where I have entered a contest or linkback promotion, only to have the author contact me a week or two later to encourage me to sign up. Either they have forgotten or they don't have record that I signed up in the first place!
FYI, I am bad at this as well, its a pain to contact me right now and that will be fixed today!
Step One: Set up a good contact form or allow blog comments that are easy for you to track.
Step Two: Reply to every direct email thanking the person for signing up and letting them know you got their entry.
Step Three: If appropriate supply a list of participants or some means for users to confirm they are entered and got the right number of points alloted.
I think a widget should be made to help this process. Something that people can post to their blog to automate the steps and make the contests more fair and transparent. Anyone know of anything like this already available?
Here are 8 tips for holding a blog contest.
Have a clear goal.
Having a contest for the sake of a contest is just silly. Instead have a clear goal in mind. What is it you want as a result of this contest? 50 new subscribers? Lots of inbound links and a better technorati rating? Bucket loads of spam comments? By defining exactly what you want that should help focus on how to run your contest. It will also allow you to better measure its success or failure. This way you can improve for your next contest.
Prizes don't always have to cost you money.
You can have additional prizes that are of value such as:
Sometimes having a blog contest that ends a month from now isn't always a good thing.
There is little immediacy when the contest ending is so far away. As a contestant I will likely completely forget. Try having a shorter contest with less money for a prize, then have it more often. Costs the same amount but you should get more activity and return visitors for it.
Try to give away something unique.
How many ipods have you seen given away in a contest, or $25? Buzz can be created by having a unique prize. Recently we saw someone giving away an iphone. Good way to catch general buzz and go with it.
Prepare ahead of time.
If you get a lot of contestants it can be a pain to keep track of things. Figure out what your system is before you start. I have had a few contests now clearly misplace my comment for my entry. Very frustrating from an end users point of view.
Use visuals.
Take photos of the item and use them in the post. It makes it more real. Create a story about it.
Better promotion.
When having a contest don't just blog about it. Ask your contestants to help promote it. Through blog posts of their own, but also ask them to digg it or to stumble it. Sending more traffic to the contest page and upping participation that much more. Get creative with it. Also let the half dozen or so blogs like this one know about your contest. Search out all the blog contest blogs out there so we can post about it. We have people subscribe to our feeds just to learn about contests. (do you subscribe? do it now!)
Don't ask too much from contestants.
Having too many requirements for your contest can be a barrier for users and net you less participation. Use common sense and ask yourself if you would be willing to go through it all, or maybe ask a peer to give feedback before you post the contest. Remember, the easier you make it the more people will be likely to do it.
Blog Contests, Linkbacks, and More ...
