Will a competition work?

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by WCMU101, Apr 9, 2009.

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  1. #1
    Hey all, I'm trying to get my site started up lol It has been up for a year now, I get the regular 100 visits per day from Google, but nobody participates i.e posts, comments, votes etc. Also stupidly when i started the site I only really attacked the "funny things" keyword lol as it turns out this brings very little traffic and most of the time it's traffic not looking for my content lol %50 bounce rate usually.

    So I'm thinking of running a competition, something along the lines of most points gained in a month wins $X - you get points for participating etc.

    But I was also thinking that I could maybe get the users to do some SEO for me. For example - You get X points for each digg your posts get...

    Anyway I'm looking for any advice anyone has for running competitions - like will it work? And any problems I might run into. Also any comments about how I could get them to do the SEO for me would be awesome!

    The site I'm referring to is: whatcracksmeup.com

    Thanks heaps in advance, Nick :)
     
    WCMU101, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  2. copper12

    copper12 Peon

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    #2
    Contrary to popular belief, mostly among the inexperienced, those do not work.

    Once the contest is over, they are gone. What few who do come in for it, anyway.

    What works is having good content, advertising it, and producing even more good content to keep them coming back.

    Period.
     
    copper12, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  3. WCMU101

    WCMU101 Peon

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    #3
    Yeah I have heard that before, It makes sense also.

    But exploring the whole SEO thing a little more - Do you think it is possible to create a competition with the main purpose of SEO... Like if I ran this competition and put emphasis on getting diggs on your posts, do you think this would help with the search engines?

    I'm going for the big keywords now, so SEO is gona be a lot of work!

    Any advice would again be greatly appreciated! Nick
     
    WCMU101, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  4. BradM

    BradM Peon

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    #4
    They really don't help much... if at all. The freeloaders will forget about the site. You need to build community.
     
    BradM, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  5. BelissaC

    BelissaC Peon

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    #5
    Create good content and you'll get good traffic. Starting a contest is temporary. Once they get all the freebies, they'll be gone in an instant. So try to create more value, something that will drive readers to visit your site regularly.
     
    BelissaC, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  6. copper12

    copper12 Peon

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    #6
    It's not really known for sure. It's mostly assumptions by others who think they know. The way I look at it is, when in doubt, do it anyway. It can't hurt. ... And just hope for the best.
     
    copper12, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  7. WCMU101

    WCMU101 Peon

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    #7
    Ok :) Thanks for all the advice! I'm really happy I asked now!!!

    Building a community is harder than I thought it would be haha I'll keep working on it :)
     
    WCMU101, Apr 9, 2009 IP