A few weeks ago, I described how I planned to drive traffic to my blog through a Wii Promotion. The Win a Wii promotion is now up, and will be running for the next two weeks. Here, I'll briefly explain what I've learned the past few weeks in setting up the contest. Then once the contest wraps up, I'll add another post with some final learning points.
Fewer, cooler prizes are better than numerous, not so interesting ones. There are a few reasons for this. First, if the total prize value for your contest exceeds $500, your contest gets a lot more complicated legally. I could list all of the reasons why, but I honestly don't remember them. My friendly STS Internet lawyer Deena Burgess informed me of this fact, and I trust every legal word that comes out of Deena's mouth. Second, it's easier to keep track of and promote just a few prizes. When you have many prizes, you have many different people to deal with, not to mention winners to pick. Fewer prizes allow you to keep your sanity while you run your contest. Finally, big prizes like a Wii, cool jewelry (Thanks Alex!) or a substantial gift certificate (Thanks Angela) are more likely to generate word of mouth traffic.
You need to lawyer to run a contest, but this shouldn't scare you. Legally, you are supposed to have Rules and Regulations for your contest. The good news is that you can hire STSer Deena Burgess to write your contest rules and regulations. She's capable of doing something like that with about a week's notice, and her price tag is very affordable. Plus, you can do the whole transaction over email. There's no headache whatsoever.
Know what you want to achieve. Use your contest to encourage site goers to do things you really want them to do. You don't just want short term traffic. You want long term traffic, and you want traffic from folks who actually might come back again and again. So think about ways to run the contest that will help you achieve those goals. For instance, in mine, I have people earning points for telling their friends about my site, signing up for an email subscription, and for blogging about my site.
Think about every possible way the contest could go wrong. How will you keep track of the entrants? How will you contact the winners? What if people try to enter after you've already picked the winners? (Hum, a deadline for entry? Seems like common sense but, until yesterday, I'd forgotten I needed one!)
Do you want to win a Wii? How about some Golden Dotty earrings? Or $100 gift certificate to Om Aroma. Of course you do. Go to Project Happily Ever After to learn more.
Please Wait...
