I have a new site that gives away free sports picks via email. As a way of getting the ball rolling through signups I am looking to hold a contest where each entrant will get a unique entry id which tracks how many people they send and sign up. I was just wondering besides from here where do you think I could find people to sign up to this competition? Also I have $1000 cash prizes to give away do you think this should go $1000 to 1st place or $500 to 1st, $300 to 2nd and $200 to 3rd or should I use some other way? Thanks for any help
why don't you try facebook fan page , you could make a design something that would be simple but very interesting you could millions visiting your page and promoting your idea
There are many blogs that allow you to submit your contest, apart from this you should send it to your mailing list and also announce it on relevant forums.
You can write some articles relating to this site. I personally like the idea of breaking down the money to $500, $300 and etc.. More people will participate.
In terms of advertising the site itself, try a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Facebook's awesome for reaching a highly targeted audience - it gives you the opportunity to create fan pages appealing to a wide variety of users. You can interact with them and ensure that there's a "core" level of participants interested. Similarly, in terms of Twitter, you can definitely increase the number of people visiting your website - this isn't as interactive as Facebook, but it compensates by providing you with a larger audience.
Facebook Fanpage should be your #1 priority. Leading the visitors to your own landing page. Then announce the competition with social ads and twitter update(s). Try contacting the top 100 bloggers with most followers. Contribute and engage your users!