We are developing a small social site and are looking at doing a contest for joining the site, making friends, posting images, etc for the launch. Winner will be randomly selected from the members on the site. If you took part in this contest what would you think people would want to win? cash? some product (name the product)? Thanks,
Well, I think Apple products are very popular and interests both young and old people, otherwise console games is a good choice too. You can also consider offering reductions for shopping sites like Amazon...
Yeah i anything!! iphone, ipod, ibroke after this contest ;-) Seriously people love the apple stuff, i give itouches away all the time!
The ipods work the best people are crazy to get these always and if ur budgt is high a laptop would do wonders
Thanks for the feedback, going to give away a iPad for the next three months on the Q&A site in my sig to see how it performs. Thanks once more for the input!
I honestly do not think that will work, yes, people may show up for a time thinking they have a chance to win a free ipod, but once it is gone, so is everyone else, then your forum is left empty again...as long as you have something expensive to give away, then you have just as many friends...I would not give away anything unless my customer made an order, otherwise it would not really be appreciated, order $50 of merchandise, and get a free entry to win an ipod....at least I would have some way of paying for the ipod rather then giving one away, and still be left with an empty forum....trying to buy people do not always work, they maybe on your forum for a short time, but after that, they are gone like the wind....
I would have to somewhat agree. However the hope is some percentage will stay and build out from that point. Right now I'm testing it over 3 months, so far we have been talked about on SEJ and ClickNewz and picked up somewhere around 38 members more or less. But that is not due to the ipad. It is a longer shot but the key point is the sweeten the pot to get people to register and post with a chance of winning. The goal is to build some level of PR and content, continued growth will take time. While some will join just for the ipad other will join because they like the idea of the site, and would not mind winning a ipad. If it was a service,member site, or product offering, then yes the buy and win idea is solid. It gets customers to prove themselves. However a forum or Q&A site has only the site's free service of answering or getting answers to about SEO/SEM in this case, so the user can only buy in if they take part of the community as there is nothing for them to really buy like you would in the other example. Hopefully time the three months are up, the site will be in a good search position I'm looking for.