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.
Top 10 Search Terms:
• promotion
Any idea of where to get people to sponsor prizes for your contest?
.-= benwaynet´s last blog ..Music for the Dance =-.
You can make a post in the forum to find a sponsor, list an advantages things that people can get for being sponsor in contest.
Or if your blog famous enough, make blog post for finding sponsor is also effective.
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
The best way to utilizing Contest is to having clear defined goal! So make sure to decide on what you trying to accomplish out of this contest, for example are you trying to drive more traffic to your blog or site, or just trying to increase your links depends on this you’ll tailor your Prize and plan.
If you factor in the time it would take you to build 712 backlinks, you’re probably better off having a contest with an iPad because you could have one of the rules where each person who enters points to your blog or website.
Think of it like this:
Say you can build 10 backlinks an hour. It would take you over 71 hours to build all of those. Based on what my hourly wage and rates are, I could buy an Ipad, use it for the contest and still have money left over.
It’s a smart way to promote your blog – the cost may seem steep up front but think of it in the long run.
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..How To Make An Extra $20 Online Today =-.
That’s nice calculation, Murlu. In fact, you don’t need to provide an expensive prize just like iPad. I ever see contest with only $50-$100 worth of prize but it still give you a lot of backlink. But yes, more bigger more attractive and more backlink.
So Murlu, ready for your own contest? Inform us if it’s launch 🙂
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
contests can be a great part of the advertising process as well. great post.
.-= venkat@blogging tips´s last blog ..5 Killer WordPress Plugins You Dare Not Miss ! =-.
That;s right, venkat. So do you interested to make a contest? Just one thing : please deliver prize to the winner properly. Because once you’re scamming, then no people will trust you again. I ever participate in one scam contest, everybody there is very angry because the admin is ran away. The scammer is making new contest again in new site, then no people participate.
Good luck…!!!
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
Hey,
Really great post. I’m hoping to start some kind of contest to promote my blog soon so this is really a lot of great info. Also, this is my first time here and I really love how much great content you have. I’ve been going through the 15 plugins to … section. Great stuff!
Peace,
Darren L Carter
.-= Darren L Carter´s last blog ..Experiments in Lifestyle Design: Internet Business from Rural Japan =-.
Nice plan. I’m really happy that this article can inspire people to make contest.
Darren, i’ve seen your blog, and i find there is a lot of comment in one article. With contest, you can increase it up. Anyway, what is the plugin about?
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
Contests are fantastic! They work very well for not only getting your name out there but also link building. If you have something good to give away, having your subscribers tweet, blog, facebook about your site is awesome.
Anna
.-= Anna´s last blog ..Tips on How to Conceive a Baby Boy =-.
This is a great idea Akira. In fact I also plan this kind of technique but since my blog still young, I will reserve this strategy next time.
Thanks for sharing it.
– Felix Albutra
.-= BLOGGING ACCESS´s last blog ..Things to Remember in Choosing a Domain Name =-.
Felix, it’s nice to hear your plan to make a contest.
Anyway, what’s wrong with young blog? A contest is help your young blog to be known by more people. Don’t worry. But it’s all depend on your consideration. Once you’re ready, then launch it 🙂
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
Another good tip is to get others to help promote the contest by offering incentives.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Did The Contest Work? =-.
Nice content, Akira07. But there is a problem. Usually, people will leave your blog after the contest closed. Your blog will be silent again. Is there any solution?
See Whiztechy comment, that’s solution. Just make contest in regular basis and then visitor will not stoping visiting you, right?
But i didn’t think all participant will stop visiting your blog even there is no contest. Contest is a way to show that there is “great article” in your blog, so when their visiting your blog for contest, their also seeing other great article. However, re-visiting or no, it’s all up to the visitor.
.-= akira07´s last blog ..Kembali Kepada Real “Life is Like Kiwi” =-.
Great post. Agree with all your points. Contest is best way to attract visitors and if you want them to keep on visiting and interacting on your blog, you need to keep such contest on regular basis.
.-= Whiztechy´s last blog ..Encrypt and Hide Your Data with TrueCrypt =-.
Yeah, instead of spend $200 per month to advertise just in 1-3 place, you actually can make a contest and get your link placed in hundred spot.