This is a guest post by Akira who loves earning money online and dreams to be a successful Internet Marketer.
Blog promotion can be done by mean of paid promotion or free promotion. Example of free promotion includes guest blogging and blog walking. Meanwhile, paid promotion can be done by direct advertising, pay per click etc. But, there is an effective way of blog promotion that only a few blogger know about it or try to do. The promotion technique is called contest.
Contest is an activity where you provide an award to the lucky participant who did what you ordered. We cannot put contest in either paid promotion or free promotion category since the prize of the contest might be sourced from our own pocket or from sponsors. But instead of discussing it here, I would like to discuss the effectiveness of contest to promote your blog.
The Power of Contest
The effectiveness of contest depends on the purpose of the promotion. Are you promoting to move your Google page-rank up, to multiply the amount of comments, to increase the total number of incoming visitors, or to look for a word of mouth promotion for your website. Thus, selecting the type of a contest is very important. Before we talk about how to create a good contest, let’s take a look at illustration below:
The above illustration is an example of one of contest information organized by a blog about movie review. What can you conclude from the above illustration? The contest in that blog is organized for the purpose to produce word of mouth of that blog. The result is very effective. The indicator of the result is the total of 715 incoming comments.
Ok, if you have not understood, I will try to explain utilizing the above example. In the illustration we can see that the total number of incoming comments is 715 comments.
Do you know that the article is a contest where the participant has a chance to win Apple iPad 64GB with a condition that they have to create tweets or facebook share about that blog. Let’s say that not all of the incoming comments come from people who are interested to participate, so let’s take only 20%.
We can imagine that with a contest, this blog has got 20% x 715 = 143 tweets or facebook share directed to that blog. At the end, certainly it will affect the popularity of our blog or even increase the rank in terms of Google Pagerank. I call it as “The Power Of Contest.”
Will Every Contest Achieve Its Purpose?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. I frequently see forum posting contests or blog promotion contests with very few participants. It is because of the lack of knowledge in creating a good contest. Below are some brief and secret tips so that any contest you arrange will successfully achieve its purpose…
Brief And Confidential Tips To Create Successful Contest
1. Select A Type Of Contest That Suits Your Promotion Purpose
The above illustration is an example of a blog who creates a contest with an intention to get word of mouth for that blog. Contest of tweeting and facebook share is the right choice to incredible viral marketing. When Smartbloggerz hold Commenting Contest, the incoming comments to this blog was in the amount of thousands. Therefore, selection of the contest type is very important.
2. Offer Attractive Prizes
The bigger and more the prize offered, the more people would get enthusiastic to participate in your contest. The prize offered should not always come from you. You can find a sponsor who is willing to provide the winning prize for the contest concluded in your blog or forum, of course by returning a benefit to that sponsor, such as by providing sponsorship credits etc.
FIRST SECRET: Contest with a cash reward is more appealing than other type of reward.
3. Promote Your Contest At The Right Spot
Promoting your contest is crucial to let a lot of people know about the contest, so that they are interested to participate. Promoting a contest in other blog or forum that has few visitors is a waste of time. Promote in a forum that has a lot of member or other blog that is having a lot of visitors.
SECOND SECRET: Do you know that on the internet, there are some people who actively participate in online contests? I call them “Treasure Hunter”. Typically they have a specific blog that publishes information about contests in the internet. You can contact them, and they will gladly publish the information about your contest in their blog.
4. Completeness Of Information About Your Contest
Ensure that all the information about your contest is complete. People will get less enthusiastic if the information about your contest is not clear. What I mean by information is: how to participate, the prizes offered, the deadline of contest, when and how the contest winner will be announced. By providing this information completely, people will think that you are serious in executing the contest.
Last Words…
By adhering to the above-mentioned tips and secrets, I am sure that your contest will be an effective one and will achieve its purpose. I have seen a blog that organized a promotion contest. That blog had a page rank of 0. But, after the contest ended and Google updated its Page Rank; that blog got a Page Rank of 2. It is incredible, isn’t it? Hence, promote your blog through contest in an effective using the tips mentioned in this post.
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Article Written By akira07
I'm 21th years old boy with a dream to be a successfull internet marketer.
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Akira07, sorry I did not know before I made a comment but in the local language. Okay, this is my opinion about the contest as a promotion technique. Ok, maybe the contest will attract lots of participants if the prize is cash money. But what about me who do not have paypal? I have a problem of verification. So please give me an idea, what other gifts that are not less interesting?
Something which make people can choose their prize ownself, and that is voucher. For example is Amazon voucher.
About this, i just wanna ask if someone know how to make amazon voucher?
Unfortunately, there is no reference to whether a link from making a contest is good in the eyes of search engines or not. I already know these techniques, but I’ve never used it. Beside because of problems finding a sponsor, another problem is about search engines. I personally do not believe the link of the contest promotion will still be placed by the participants of the contest on his blog after the contest ended.
It can’t be helped. It’s their choice to keep your link or delete it. But i think not all of participant will do that. I’m sure some of them will keep the link.
I once made a contest on my personal blog, to celebrate the first anniversary. The target is a participant in the country, because this blog is targeted to local people. Gifts that I provide is money but in the rupiah, and transferred to the winner through a local bank. Contest itself quite successful, with an increasing number of subscribers as the indicator.
But I do not know that making a contest is not easy and must consider several aspects such as written in this article. If I make the contest again, I will try to apply your tips. Nice article.
Thanks for your tips about promoting a contest. About blog link of “treasure hunter”, it would be better if you contact me because the link is not just 1-2 but more than 10. So, it will be so long. But ok, i will post 2 of example :
indocontest.com
sherrycontest.blogspot.com –> Sherry is my friend. She have more than 1 blog which write about contest.
@Grand paragon : How can SEO contest increase page-rank better than promotion contest?
@4mpla : Something equal to money. Voucher is the best idea. But actually there is many ways to send cash money to the winner, even with no paypal.
@Akira07 : Nice article. I will apply it to one of my blog. Its almost 2 year, so i may make Anniversary Contest.
@All : I’m waiting for you’re guys contest. Another contest-lover is here
Yes, there is another alternative just like cheque, alertpay, etc but i think mostly people prefer to receive money via paypal. About your plan to make anniversary contest, don’t forget to tell us
Very interesting article. I manage a community forum and a blog. My blog is just writing about my life journey, so I felt no need to create a promotional contest, but it would be better if I make a comment contest. Very interesting for me to see comments from people about my life’s journey. Especially after I read your article about the huge number of incoming links, if I create a contest promotion. I fear that search engines will treat me as a link farmer. And if I create a contest in the forums that I manage, I better make a “post contest”. Thanks
hai,
i have read your article,
its quite helpfull for newbies,
but can you help me who already have market,
i’m selling woman accecories, its goin’ well till now,
but i have watch my selling cycle for over past month, i saw that every 3rd and 4th week my selling is decreasing, i would use your idea for using contest, i have thought some ideas too, but i then i think it again, i cant use the same idea for every month, what do you think ?
i think giving discount or bonus (if they buy more that 2) are more successfull than contest,
anyway good job, ^^
thx
I didn’t think contest can increase your selling rate directly. But you can make “review my blog” contest. So, participant should reviewing your blog (which mean : writing about your product, price, etc), and hopefully this can bring visitor to take a look your blog and buy your product. Good luck!
I smiled when I saw the picture, because it is a contest which I participated. Unfortunately, because too many participants, the chance of winning becomes very small. However, it remains an interesting experience. I fully agree with this article but not for the part about first secret. The example you give is not a contest with cash prizes, but 700 people participated. At other places, I saw a contest that gives only the i-pod shuffle, but it succeeded in attracting many participants. Conversely, there is a contest with the prize money, but few participants.
I can explain that things. Some blog who running contest with cash prize require people with a lot of “mandatory entry”, so their get lazy to participate. That’s why some cash prize contest is failed. In other side, mostly non-cash prize contest require the participant to do just 1-2 things and their system is random-winner (note : read about random winner vs top point system in other comment on this article).
Thanks for the tips. But a little advice for tips number 4. We actually don’t always have to inform with certainty the date of winner announcement. From the beginning, we don’t know how many participants will participate. If there hundreds of participants, I am sure even a 3-4 day is also not enough to choose a winner, especially for contest with top-points system. So, you can simply inform that the announcement of winners will be made soon.
That’s just suggestion only. In the case you can’t make sure the announcement date, then it’s OK. But as a participant, you’re also prefer the one who tell the announcement date, right?
I think “investments” by making the contest and buy direct ads are not too much different in purpose of increasing SERP. For example with $200 you can get 200 links from the contest participants, but I’m sure more than half of it is a PR0-1 blog. Indeed the position of your blog will go up but if $200 is used to buy direct ads, SERP of your blogs will also go up. Because actually you can advertise on some PR3-4 blog with $200. I think some of the links from high pagerank blog is same weight as with hundreds of links coming from low PR blog.
My web is under development, until know i don’t know about to use contest or buy ads.
That’s in the case if page rank is everything, so buy direct ads is more simple than a contest. But if in the case exposure is no.1, then go for contest because massive link is waiting for your blog
Ah, yes, that’s should be known by who want to make contest. But at least, you can saving more time by counting entries while the contest is running (in process).
Akira07, I have questions regarding sponsorship. If I had to get sponsors for the contest, what if they do not distribute the prizes to the winner of my contest? My blog’s reputation can be bad.
Thanks
If it’s cash prize, i think it would be better if you ask to get it in advance. So, sponsor should transfer the cash to your account before contest start. But if it’s something like ads, link, etc then it can’t be helped, we can only hope their are honest.
From the comments that came in, I can conclude several problems contests. First, the problem of looking for sponsors if your blog is not yet known. Second, whether the number of incoming links can hurt your blog’s position in the SERP. Third, some other opinions that criticized some tips in this article. I expect you (Akira07) create a new article that discusses the issue. I know you are an expert in the topic of the contest: P. But in general, almost all agree about the effectiveness of the contest. Most of the criticism only dealt with technical issues from the contest.
I will collect the reference especially about SERP matter. Don’t worry. I will make it as another guest post here. So, just wait
I think the title will be more interesting if like this: “Make your links go viral by contest”. This is because participants who joined the contest not only from those who directly visit your blog and read the post about contest, but also from the blog link posted on other participants blogs. I think the contest could be categorized as viral or buzz marketing. I would consider using this technique. Thanks for the great article.
You’re right. It’s just like from 1 blog become 2 blog, 2 become 4, 4 to 8, etc…..It’s just like when you’re giving away freebies, it’s also go viral like? But in contest, the things go viral is your link
Strongly agree with the secret tips no.1. As a participant, logically they would prefer if able to choose their own prize. With cash prize we can give them the freedom to buy things they want. Moreover, humans are naturally interested when hear words like “prize, gift, free, discount, etc. ..”. I could say the contest is a promotional campaign by utilize human psychology: P
I like to make the promotion contest. That’s my way to make my page rank does not decrease. I once held a commenting contest but since my blog is blogspot platform, I was overwhelmed to approve (moderate) incoming comments especially if there is spammer. By the way, there were some who questioned the problem of sponsorship. I have a solution. One or two months before the contest launching, make friends with some bloggers. Help them promote their blogs and give comments on the articles they have created. They will help become a sponsor when you request it. It’s just a matter of building relationships first
I prefer to make the contest where the prize 100% comes from my own pocket. Will be a little difficult if I have contest with sponsorship, especially when distributing the prizes. I must contact the sponsor, one by one and this will take time. Winners do not like to wait, give them the prize soon after the winner announcement. Of course, after winner claim it.
Anyway, regarding claim of prize, how much time is reasonable for the winner to claim the prize?
I think max 4 day is enough. If there is no claim, you have 2 alternative : cancel the winner or choose another lucky people.
sometimes, contest is just unpredictable .., some can be hold longer, some can be achieve in shorter time, while rest,, just flush like a wind.
What is important here, as the maker of the contest you must be honest. Distribute the prize on time and be objective in determining the winner. Because as a participant, I ever felt hurt when other people win and I’m sure there is a conspiracy at the back. Feel the consequences if you do not play fair, your blog will be “bombed”. Nice article
I never make a contest but I ever became a sponsor for a contest. Only by providing $ 5, I get the chance to make my blog link spread through the contest. This is because the requirement for the contest are: Includes all sponsor blog address. So I think, don’t worry about getting sponsorship, because people looking for opportunity to spread blog links and not the PageRank or traffic of the contest-holder blog. The contest was very nice to get links.
I think the contest is not only effective way to promote your blog (in purpose to get a backlink), but also effective in terms of time. We could get 700 + links as above by blogwalking, forum signatures, etc., but not within 1-4 weeks. With the contest, we get two benefits, 1st “getting a lot of links” and 2nd “it’s in a short time”. Another power of contest.
Contest or which can be called as a competition or giveaway is being used by a lot of bloggers lately. So I am not sure with the statement “only A few bloggers know about it or try to do”. This technique seems start to become popular. I agree if a statement is changed to “only A few bloggers know about the tips and secret to make contest”.
But it is true, some contests are not attracted a lot of participants when I see the prize is not too bad. Their just not read this article yet *haha*
Good work, akira07.
The contest was very effective to make your blog be known by many people. Imagine, for winning the contest that we make, the participants is such as “workers” that collect links to our blog, even while we sleep. This is truly extraordinary.
But to be honest I’ve never seen a contest participants reached more than 700 people such as you provide in example. It’s very “wow”.
This is a “smart tips” on the blog “smart bloggerz”. In my place, most bloggers advertise in the local PPC. Competition in the local PPC is so tight, so the method of contest is a surprise for me. Moreover, I believe, most local bloggers did not know this method. It’s a good info for me
Therefore, thank you.
If i make a contest, do you want to be my sponsor?
The contest is an investment. Could fail and could succeed also. If it fails, time and energy will be wasted. If successful, the number of incoming links is for you. And such investments, the risk of failure can be minimized. So the investment term “high risk high return” does not apply. How to minimize it? Read this article. Thx
I just learned about the contest which is intended for blog promotion. At first, I think a contest on the internet is just for fun.
The bad news, this article could make a lot of blogger make the contest. In the end, my contest get less participants, because I know many bloggers have more money to provide interesting prize. LOL
Nice article dude
Well, nice post, I agreed. Yes, contest is an effetive way to raise more expossure from the audience of the web. But, it could be a fault when the contest being held doesn’t have corelation to the main topic of the blog.
Do you mean design blog should always make design contest, or SEO blog should hold SEO contest? Why it should always related?
I had the idea of holding a contest of my own a few days ago, but I forgot about it before too long. Your post has not only reminded me of the idea, but it has also inspired me with a few ideas. Thank you.
Nice looking blog, by the way.
Robert Wenger
The contest is one type of best way to promote a blog. But beginner blogger can’t conduct the contest because they were lacking of money. If they had monthly income they can start the contest from beginning itself otherwise they need to wait until you having the monthly income. I am saying this by personal experience.
But i think a blog which already earn a stable amount of money didn’t need to make a contest because i’m sure their have a lot of traffic already. Contest is very perfect tricks to drive traffic for new blog. But yes, lack of money is a problem. But i think if the problem is a money, there is a lot of ways to solve it.
Contest on Blogs really attracts Visitors the contest that is related to the Blog Topic should be held so that maximum potential readers of the blog would follow the contest
Last contest i participated was Article Contest which held by article directory website, it’s related to topic and they claim thar their website traffic increased by 77%. Not bad, and it’s another proof of contest effectiveness. I won it and get internet modem
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