What do you do when your contest hasn't taken off?

OK guys I need your advice again! I ran a referral contest on my parenting forum the end of April for 3 prizes, 1st prize $50, second prize a bracelet and 3rd prize a voucher. My forum is only a month old and I was hoping it would spur on the members to refer, ummm nope I have referred 6 members and I am the only one, though I know 2 members are trying to refer to take part - prob is the contest is due to finish on the 31st June.

So what do I do, just keep extending it? cancel it on the 31st June if no one has won as I cant reward myself lol or what?

The forum is to run monthly contests and I have put the monthly contests on hold why the referral one is open but I dont know what to do with it now???

 

$50 isnt much to "spur" people on matey.

You need a larger prize.

Save some cash up, and really offer somthing good.

And save enough up to offer the same prize for atleast a few months -- that way people who join, will also be able to give it a go the next month.

 

I have never had any luck with contest. At one time I gave away a $150 prize for a single article - and only got 2 entries.

A few months later I tried having another contest, and had the same results, only 2 or 3 people entered.

My forum is getting well over 1,000,000 page views a month, around 600 members visiting every 24 hours and around 1,600+ members visiting monthly - and I still can not get people to enter a contest. And you have 48 registered users - do not expect any kind of results from a contest.

Instead of holding contest, I do random drawings at the end of the month. My daughter or wife will pick a name from the list of active members - then that person gets a gift worth about $20.

At the end of every month I post an end of the month report. I will post how many post we got, how many new members, how many new threads and in that this report I will post the winner of the monthly random prize. This is a whole lot less stressful on me. And since the drawing is random, anyone can win.

If the winner is outside the US, I give them a couple of months in the paid membership group.

Overall, contest fail to give the results that forum owners hope for and are really a waste of time. If you want to give something away, give a random prize away to a random active member. This will give people a reason to visit your forum on a regular basis. If they visit, they will post.

The random prize is a whole easier on the pocket book. You can give away what ever you want, whether its a $5 gift, or a $20 gist - its called random for a reason.

 

first of all, dont just make it cash, make it something unique and related to your site

second, you should do them only on special occasions, maybe even once a year, and hence, do an even larger give away

like they said, 50 is much ... but if you had a special item, which was directly linked with your site, and had a value of 250 plus, im sure lots of people would be interested.

also, don’t make them do hard thing, like write a huge article ect, make it basic


my 2 cents

 

This is really great advice and thank you so much for taking the time to reply and help!

As a new forum owner I thought this would be a good idea and wish I had asked your advice earlier!!!

So what do you think I should do now, just end the contest and give the prize to the most active member?

I have had lots of donations from people offering me gift vouchers, presents etc to use in my contests and so I have a few things I can use without it being just cash - though $50 may not be a lot to some, to me its a big amount to spend out.

I think I will do what you have advised and instead of running a monthly contest do a random drawing instead.

As for the prizes I have a parenting forum and so things like vouchers and little 'mommy' presents are good which I have already. A few of my members have asked for member of the month to be added and I am in discussion with my moderator on this too.

So abandon the contest at the end of the month and give out the prizes??

 

No way, don't run the same contest again, but rather make a new one (which can have the same cash prizes and whatnot). That way, people think it's something different even though it's the same contest phrased a different way

 

Thanks no I am not re-running it - I wanted to know what to do with it LOL as its still open and 3 members have said they have posted their referral link but theres nothing happening from it, so I wanted to know what to do with it lol whether I should just cancel it and award the 3 members that tried to get involved.

 

Give away an iPod or an iPhone and you'll get people fired up. People love contests for this crap.

 

What to do when your contest hasn't taken off?

Uh, you learn from your mistake, and don't do it again.

What you have seen is normal. That is the result from doing contests for the purpose of getting members, visitors.

Your goal is to make money, not give it away.

 

This is true, but you really do have to spend money to make money. A contest is just a form of advertising. If you don't already have a popular site, it's difficult to get people to enter contests.

 

Thanks everyone for your advice - and some not so good answers LOL anyway I have learned my lesson but hey new admins and new forums have to learn the hard way and therefore a lesson well learned!

I have closed the referral contest and the two members that did participate have been awarded and I will be doing the end of month suggestion as I think that is great - I have plenty of donations for prizes which is great as this is a forum to raise money and awareness for Endo and PCOS (Womens things lol)

I agree I am trying to make money not spend it and thats why $50 was actually quite a lot as the 1st prize - there were 3 prizes all in all but now I have distributed the cash earnings and the 2nd price can be used for the end of June - so not all a big loss

 

Kev offered advice from experience, and I echo his sentiments.
I've been maintaining forums a LONG time, and always swear to myself I'd never run another contest of any kind....ESPECIALLY site referral contests.
People have limited time to read and post, let alone actually work at something.

Take your lumps, and put that money to better use with advertising.

 

deffinitely need a larger prize

 

*sarcasm switch turned on* Yeah, that's the answer. And also do seo. You'll shoot right up to the top. *sarcasm switch turned off*


http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=651670

Much of it is how how the big message boards got big. Like the ones listed over at big-boards.com. But many of them mainly did it through advertising and word of mouth.

I'm a bit of a smartass in this one, but I'm getting counseling for it. ~

 

Yeah, that IS the answer. Why do you think millions of people play the lottery? Its for the MASSIVE prizes.

If you offer somthing worth having a go for -- and smaller prizes even if you dont get the big one -- people will have a go.

But it does need to be BIG.

Other sites -- other people are not going to give you any mention if you dont have a big prize. Also -- you have to put some publicity out about the competition, otherwise, how will people know about it.

If the prize is big enough -- people will be willing to do all types of things. Look at when amor games, or newgrounds have a comp -- people make whole games for them.
But its because they have a large membership that it gets seen and heard about. If you dont have lots of visitors / members - you need to advertise your competition.

 

No really I agree with Perry Rose, I am so tired of hearing give someone millions! I mean come on a new forum, with a few members and someone like me is a new admin owner doesnt have millions to dish out!

Talking of lottery - do you know how big/sponsored/distributed that is to offer millions to winners

Thanks for the people that have given 'real' good advice and lesson learned no more referral contests or contests to win big money - I will continue the advertising and build up members and just stick to the end of month report for a small prize at least then I know members are there for the forum and not the 'millions' on contests lol - I can send them to play the lottery.

 

What's your url that you did this in, cocomonkey?

 

I've given away a trip to Las Vegas (airfare, hotel) and an exotic car rental, with VIP Tickets to a Vegas show to get a community going... Sent out an expensive press release, got picked up by a few newspapers and authority sites.

Still... no one entered. Just having a 'BIG' prize isn't going to get people to do what you'd like...

 

Just wanted to say thanks for all the information about contests. I am just in the very early stages of my new forum, and had was going to run some competitions to get new members and people posting. Back to the drawing board I think.

 

Jscowen - I really like the idea of End of Month rewards and this has gone down really well so thank you for the poster that gave this great suggestion - I changed my referral contest to EOM and have had some great responses, I am looking forward now to the end of June to see how much interest comes in from this