Howdy, I'm starting up a programming forum, and need ideas for some contest prizes. I need a few at different levels, right now I've thought something like a subscription to oreillylearning.com for a year (giving the winner access to all the books). Not sure if this would do the job in attracting visitors, and visitors to sign up - just a bit dull - and people who are posting quite a bit wouldn't necesarrily find the books a whole lot more useful. I need something that gives a bit more 'bang for buck' - can anyone think of any? What would get your toes all tingly and signup? It's going to be for a mixture of things, like posting, referring, helpful articles/blog mentions. Cash is a bit boring on itself, I will be giving out cash prizes but don't want all the prizes to me cash. Any ideas would be most greatly appreciated
A new mp3 player to listen to my podcasts while I drive / work etc... maybe a subscription to some exclusive podcasts to go with an ipod... Where is this forum going to be, sounds fun.
phpclasses does something similar, they have a monthly code contest with prizes. These include One downloadable copy of Komodo Pro, One book of choice by SAMS, One book of choice by O'Reilly, One downloadable copy of Roadsend PHP Compiler, One subscription to the PDF edition of the magazine by PHP Architect and One book of choice by Packt.
I've got number 1 sorted. I've decided to just give away cold hard cash and people can do with it what they will. As for number 2 - maybe a custom user title? Thanks
That's definitely the best way to go about getting prizes but if you are just starting a forum you'd have to be a master negotiator to get anything of value.