Shoemoney has a great, easy promotion going on right now with a contest he’s running. He’s giving away a Flip Mino HD customized with his logo on it.
And all he’s requiring to enter the contest is that you Twitter about it.
Why Shoemoney is going to get tens of thousands of new followers:
1. Contest is dead easy to enter
2. Prizes (Flip and Mac Air) are highly desireable.
How you can do this easily for your blog:
CafePress is offering to print anything that will fit on a Flip Cam. You set up the artwork you’d like in your CafePress account, grab a sample image, post it on your blog with contest rules, and once you pick the winners, simply order the cameras from your account on CafePress and have them mailed directly to the winners!
Easy peasey!
What to base the contest on:
Shoemoney based it on Twitter followers. Read how his is set up here.
But you could also do this with new RSS subscribers (if they subscribe through email). Or how about people who download your latest freebie? You newsletter subscribers? People who freiend or follow you on virtually any social site you’d like to pump new life into?
Tracking and choosing the winners:
However you decide to set up your blog contest, you will need to do it based upon how easy it will be to collect entires and throw them into Excel. You then use Excel’s random feature to pick winners from the list.
Depending on what you choose to do, you might have to enter constestants by hand, or you might be able to download, ideally, a comma separated (csv) file to import into Excel.
The trouble of figuring this out is offset by being able to add tons followers or subscribers and increasing your reach.
Promoting your contest:
If you go with the kind of contest Shoemoney is doing right now, the thing promotes itself. See how he has everyone Twitter “Just entered to win a flip minoHD. Just follow @shoemoney and retweet. http://xr.com/fliphd?”
The thing is spreading on Twitter like wild fire! This is a crucial point in running a successful blog contest. You must think about how to get people talking about it, and the easiest way is make THAT the way they enter the contest.
You could do this with Facebook or any number of other sites. For getting RSS or email subscribers, people would have to still go to Twitter and Tweet a message about your contest to enter.
Make contests a regular thing:
You could run a contest every month or every quarter. The cost of your prizes should always be a fraction of what it would cost to advertise with paid advertising, so figure out what your budget is. Flips cost next to nothing and getting a few hundred to thousands of new followers or subscribers would be well worth the nominal cost of such a prize.
No matter what, make your contest EASY TO ENTER! Requiring videos or blog posts as some part of contest entry is ok sometimes, but you will immediately limit the number of entries you get for the contest. Nothing sucks more than giving something away when only a handful of people participated!
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Jack. Good advice. We’re planning on doing a contest next week on our blog, and so this was a timely post.
BTW, I’m a subscriber of BlogSuccess and am LOVING it. Thanks for all you do.
That’s just a brilliant contest. It’s easy to enter (Usually if a contest requires anything more than one simple step, I don’t bother.). And by leveraging Twitter, he’s promoting the contest to an even larger group of people who, if they join, will promote the contest even further.
Thanks for the kick in the butt Jack! I was just thinking yesterday that I need to do a contest.
Timely information as always. I was hoping to start running a few contests on my different blogs and did not have a clue how to start. Will dig around some more in Blog$uccess and check out the Shoemoney tips as well.
Appreciate you more every day!
Kents last blog post..8 Steps to Clean Antique Furniture
This is a cool contest and yeah, it is so easy to enter without asking more then they are suppose to. Wish you the best!!!!!
Hi Jack,
Oooh… didn’t know that Shoemoney was holding such a contest. And you’re right – it’s about making things as EASY and as You’d-Be-Dumb-If-You-Didn’t-Join as possible
Asher
Ashers last blog post..20 Point Starter Guide To Professional Blogging
So, I wonder how well this would work if you have absolutely no other web presence.
So if you just sent it on twitter with say, a couple of followers, how well would this work?
Augies last blog post..Buy Houses with Sandwich Lease Options
Wow, I hadn’t thought of running a contest like this. Great idea . . . except, what sort of quality traffic would you get. I mean, wouldn’t you just get a brief bump before your traffic returns to normal?
Spots last blog post..Flying Cars Ready For Take Off
@Spot – life on the web is a series of bumps in traffic, returns to normal, with an ever increasing upward curve in what you consider “normal” daily average traffic.
What a great idea. I have been thinking about doing something similar. Thanks for the tips!
A video camera as a prize, who could not love that?
Lorraine Grulas last blog post..Online Video Marketing: Making It Easy
I’d enter!
I wonder how many people agonize about spreading the word when it diminishes thier odds of winning?
John – you WOULD think of it that way, lol! Well, I guess people would want the contest owner to be successful so they have more in the future. And by making it a requirement of entering the contest, it’s the price you have to pay. Which is another reason to make entering dead easy, since people are diluting their odds. Have to offset that by thinking your odds are really not good if you don’t enter at all.
I saw that contest from Shoe and it got my inner marketer all a-tizzy. I have done things like this before for my largest blog, and I can attest that it does work. Great advice.
David Risleys last blog post..Legal and Tax Aspects of Professional Blogging
Thanks for the tips that you shared..I only know before having a contest in a blog can get more visitors and now another information to have a better contest in a blog..
wow! thats a good following and a nice contest to win the book ..also lots of useful information on your blog . I already have a sponsor for my next contest, but it will be a while before that launches. I don’t want it branded as a contest blog
I wonder how many people agonize about spreading the word when it diminishes thier odds of winning?