Contenst / Competition

Hey,

I've basically redone alot on my forum, and to relaunch it, I'm going to hold a contest / competition.

I want to give away either something in value around $100 or $75 in paypal.

The thing is, i don't know what to give away if it's not paypal cash, and what the compeition should be about.

I don't want the standard, most posts as I don't want spam at all.

Any ideas people?

~sohan

 

gift cards usually work better then paypal cash just because it just doesn't sound as enticing. On my forum I have done where the each person you refer to the board you get one ticket put into a drawing so the more people you refer of course better chance you have of winning the prize. We gave away a $100 prepaid visa card.

 

So each person they refer, they get their name into the "hat" for each referal?

How well did it go?

 

What I did with it was when you register it has a referral box and the person puts the persons screename who referred them and we did it for 30 days. The other thing to it was that for you to get a ticket (we called it a lottery drawing) your person you referred must post atleast once for it to show up as valid and we do not allow posting from same IP so the person was an actual person not just someone spamming. It went pretty well and I might use it on a board I am developing now. It helped us get around 10 new members who posted daily and about 65 new members total which for $100 isn't bad because I made my money back and more on it. Prepaid Visa card is the best way to go I think since they can spend it on whatever. The board I had at the time was already ok size and had good Pr and good Alexa rank so I ended up getting sponsors and did it two other times so it didnt cost me a thing.

 

Offering Free domain will also work.

 

But it only has a value of a few dollars? By all means I don't mind giving out domains as I do get them at good rates, but who would actually sign up to a posting compeition for just a domain?

I was going to do Paypal / money bookers or something, and runners up get wall clocks, tshirts, mugs or mouse mats.

got a new logo btw



Edit: It's not clear on here, click it to view it properly.

 

You'd need to give a lot more out in terms of prize money if you wanted just a standard referral contest.

One site was offering $5,000, top like 5 got paid or something and that seemed to work great, it almost got me to sign up and i was his competitor lol

But like i say thats ALOT of money for a referral contest.

The best thing you can do is offer something that is specific to your niche...for example my forum is a poker forum so im not going to give away domains or text links on the homepage am i.... id give away something closely related to poker

Tell us your niche and we might be able to help rattle off a few idea's

 

Webmasters forum in general.

I can't afford more than $150 to just give away like that.

 

if you have a decent PR, offer them a homepage text link... offer them a free domain/script i dont know, anything on those lines...

its quite an easy niche to promote to be honest because theres so much you can put up for grabs...

How about a copy of Aaron Walls SEO book? that book is awesome and if i hadnt of bought it, i would of joined in a competition to try win it with some other goodies... thats only $80.00

 

Not many people know about that book, so it woudn't be appealing to alot of users.

I want to offer something useful yet unique. I've thought of physical items such as clocks, mugs, and mousepads. People don't wear the tshirts lol.

 

I recently tried a contest for $500 giveaway and a new site here on DP in the marketing section..didnt even get one response....

 

That's weird! I thought people would of jumped to that!

 

That might possibly be one of the funniest things i've heard for a good week or two...

If your members haven't heard about that book then they don't know what their missing out on... all you need to do is let them know what your offering, there are so many sites out there that have given reviews on it you can forward them to.

You say you want something 'useful' for a webmaster forum... and you think a clock, a mug or a mousepad are more useful over an up-to-date professional SEO book...

Also if your members haven't heard about it, give one away free and let that member tell everyone else what its like... then when he comes back with a good review, and i do mean when because the book is great, sign up to SEObook as an affiliate and slap your affiliate link onto the forum.

 

I think something like itunes vouchers would be more popular than clocks, mugs or mousemats

 

Point taken.

I might do that book then.