Big Prizes - I’ve already mentioned the power of ‘wow prizes’. Impressive
prizes can really draw people in - although with more and more blog competitions
happening I suspect people are becoming a little immune to this. However a
unique prize that is worth talking about in and of itself could also be another
way to go.
Promote to Other Blogs - promote your competition to other blogs in your
niche. Email other bloggers that you have relationships with to let them know
what you’re doing. Also - if there’s some way of involving the other blog/blogger
you can increase your chances of them linking ask them to be a judge and promote
their participation.
Sponsor vs Self Funded - there are pros and cons of both having a sponsor supply
your prize/s or doing it yourself. This will partly depend upon your budget and
your blog’s profile. In the early days of my blogs I generally will fund my own
prizes smaller ones to start with but work my way up to going with sponsors. If
you choose to fund the prize yourself, be realistic about what the competition
will bring you. One thing to consider is starting with a small prize and then
adding another if the competition really takes off. Changing the rules by
increasing the prize is not going to phase anyone who enters - but downgrading
the prize from a big one to a small one won’t do anything to help your
credibility.
Do Something Out of the Blue That Will Make People Talk - how about
running a competition that is out of the blue and that will make people talk.
The problem that I see with some competitions that bloggers hold is that they’re
exactly the same as what every other blogger does. While this will be ok for
blogs with an internal focus, if you want to draw new readers you’ll probably
have more success with a competition that is new and fresh.
Relevant Prizes - it’s always hard to tell which prize will be most appealing to
your readership until you actually put one up - but in general I find that
prizes that have some relevancy to your blog’s topic will do well. While I’ve
given away some pretty irrelevant prizes on my blogs - the more closely you can
match them to the reason your readers come to read your blog the more on topic
you can keep your prize .
a competition can fun into trouble on numerous fronts the more complicated you
make it. Every extra requirement that you make on those entering decreases the
likely participation rate, every extra post you do it on it will frustrate an
element of your readers and every extra hour you spend moderating and
administering it will take you away from the core business of your blog .
Comment Competitions - where readers enter the competition by leaving a
comment. These might be any comment that they like or could have requirements
consulting workshops offer a prize for the most helpful comment.
Subscriber Competitions - where you offer a prize or incentive to those signing
up either for an RSS feed and/or newsletter.
Membership Competitions - similar to subscriber competitions - but prizes are
offered to those who sign up for a forum or other membership area
Link Competitions - where you offer a prize to someone who links to you. It’s
worth noting that these are risky competitions as Google has penalized some who
have run them.
Writing Competitions - offering a prize to bloggers who write on a certain
topics . These can be good for externally focused competitions as they can have
a viral element to them.
Treasure Hunts - where you hide clues and treasures in your archives and readers
have to find them to win a prize good for increasing page views.
