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
700 + links just by making one contest is awesome. I can not wait to try this method and see the results. The first step I would like to do is to find a sponsor. But the question is, whether they are willing to sponsor a contest on a blog that is not famous like… mine?
The contests are the best way to promote your blog and to get some great content too. But again this will only be working best on high traffic websites as you will be getting many sponsors very easily. If you have a newer site, then it will also work but no one will be sponsoring you and you will have to spend the money from your own pocket 🙂
.-= imran@earn online money´s last blog ..Earn Online Money By Selling Ad Spaces On Your Blog =-.
Hmm, i see. But i think you can still get a sponsor even the prize is not a big one but something just like 125x125ads or something like that. It’s better than nothing. In the case there is no sponsor for you contest, it can’t be helped. But believe me, your investment (spend money for contest) will be worth.
I Agree With You That Contests Are The Best Way to Attract New People And 50% would Become your regular visitor…i came first on smartbloggerz because of one contest only…but i am still subscribed to it and read articles in Google reader 🙂
If the Top Prize is Cash then Its Very Easy to Attract Visitors to Participate But the Entry In the Contest Should Be Very Easy to Gain More Participant Like Just A Retweet And Fb Share 🙂
.-= Lucifer@Blog Is Blogging´s last blog ..15 Things You Didn’t Know About Steve Jobs =-.
Haha, so is it your reason to not participate in this guest post contest? (the entry is quite hard :P). Yes, more easy, more participant, more success. Only if your blog already bigger and famous, you can make another variant of contest (just like Typhoon with his guest posting contest).
Wow quite nice. But I think its best to use contests on larger and more successful blogs with quite a lot traffic. My blog is not quite there yet.
.-= 1gn1t0r´s last blog ..Links for 2010-06-04 [del.icio.us] =-.
I ever find a contest which hold by new blog, it’s also attract a lot of participant. I will search the link for you. Just wait 🙂
Great post. Contests are really great for encouraging your visitors to do something for you, whether it’s write a guest post or link to you.
.-= Trafficke SEO Consulting Services´s last blog ..Correctly Writing An Optimized Page Title & URL =-.
Yeah, that’s mean : More requirement = more advantage. You can make requirement to participate in your contest : facebook share your link, blog post your link, tweet, digg, SU, reddit, etc….And imagine if 100 people do it all. Your link is now everywhere 😛
Last time, i win VGA Card from contest from one blog on internet. It was so nice, and i become loyal visitor of the blog. I think you can keep the participant on the contest to stay in your site, even the contest ended. The solution is giving away freebies as thanks for their participation.
Ah i ever participate in contest which giving away e-book for all participant. It was so nice. I think that’s nice solution to keep visitor.
Interesting content. I have a blog with 100-200UV every day, I think the contest is a good idea. I am planning a commenting contest. I was afraid to hold a contest in which participants must create a link to my site. Remember about the google sandbox?
I already think of it. Don’t worry, i never find a blog who hold a contest and jumped into sandbox. I think google system is smart enough to know if the the site/blog should be go to sandbox or no.
This article is very timely for me. I have been considering running a contest for my blog. I have not yet worked out the details, but I think a contest will be coming in the near future on my blog. I just want to make sure that I understand what I am trying to achieve and how to make the contest meet my goals.
Thanks again,
Jenn
I ever make a contest, but it just for fun. I didn’t expect contest as a way to promote your blog. But maybe yes, because after my contest ended, visitor to my blog is better than before i hold a contest. Haha, i just aware it about it now. Ok, i will consider to make contest again. Please participate =)
maybe it is true that the contest is the fastest way to get top ranking in google search engines, but for a blogger who was still a beginner and have not had the funds for the procurement of the contest, this will become an obstacle. Are looking for sponsors is the only way to do?, Of course it depends on luck. At least I am grateful for the existence of this article, I got the idea to hold a contest with prizes that are not too expensive but unique and desired by most Internet users.
Yeah i know it, a lot of people ask about it too. Let me answer now : For the first, maybe it’s hard to find a sponsor, but it’s not that bad to spend from your own pocket. Once your blog is famous enough, you can get sponsor more easy. However, getting sponsor is not by only writing “Hi, i’m planning to make a contest. Be my sponsor, please!”. The good info, i just read an article about “Why sponsoring a contest?”. That’s article for everyone who want to be sponsor. But as a contest-holder you can also read this article to get information about “What is people look from contest-holder site before their are decide to be a sponsor or no”. The link : techuse.net/2009/03/why-sponsor-a-contest.html