Running a Contest on your Blog

Not all freelance writers are bloggers, but I’m willing to bet that a fair number of you guys and gals know your way around WordPress (or another platform). Blogs are all about driving traffic, and one of the best ways to drive that traffic is to run a contest on your blog.

Image: sxc.hu

Unfortunately, though, many bloggers who try to run contests get a total of three entries – and one of the is from Mom. Contests can really fizzle, and that’s not good for you if you shelled out money for a prize. It’s even worse if you found someone to sponsor the contest for you and they saw no traffic or publicity for their donation. It’s all about ROI, people.

So how do you ensure that you have a great contest?

• Pick a great prize. I don’t want an envelope of coupons or an old ebook, in most cases (yes, there are exceptions). Give your readers something they can really use or a gift card from Amazon or Visa.
• Don’t make your contest overly complicated. Give them a single task that involves leaving a comment after visiting a sponsor’s site or subscribing to you.
• Broadcast your giveaway on blogs that specialize in contest postings.
• Don’t hide the contest within another post – make it really clear that your post is about winning something.
• Offer extra entries for people who comment on other blog posts, subscribe to your twitter, post about your giveaway on their blog, etc.
• Make the contest open to people world-wide if possible.
• Follow up the contest post with a really great post that is relevant to your target audience. You want the top post on your site to be fresh and interesting so people consider becoming a daily reader, not just leaving after entering your contest.
• Give a clear end date to the contest. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t do this!

Contest sometimes still flop after you follow of of these tips. That’s just the nature of the blogging world – readers aren’t always easy to, well, read. I don’t recommend a contest to kick-start your blog. Instead, build up readership in other ways, and use a contest to add to that readership. That way, hopefully your regular readers will jump in to enter the contest, giving you a boost without any work.