Comments on: How to Run a Successful Competition on Your Blog

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:52:51 +0000

Great post! We’ve started to run a competition and got some of these things working (probably more luck than judgement though!). We’ve got some great ideas now for the next competition which we’ll run from the start of May.
Thanks for your advice and guidance on this!

By: Isabel

Isabel — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:19:45 +0000

Great article Darren, just started in new post new company and my 1st project was to create spec for a competition draw for kids who complete the prerequisites for health assessment which is all done on line….I have been banging my head against the wall till I saw this article it gave me a clear example of how to define the objectives…Thank you very much

By: Film-Book dot Com

Film-Book dot Com — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:06:11 +0000

Great article Darren. Your article was just what I needed to read as I may have a contest coming up shortly.

One note though. I found a spelling error at the bottom of your article.

Where it says: Keep it simple – a competition can fun into trouble. You mean “run”, right?

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:10:17 +0000

GREAT info! Just what i was looking for! I ran a little contest on my blog when i first got started blogging and it SUCKED! This one will be much better and hopefully starting next week!

This post is just what i needed to read!

Thanks!

By: Will Fealey

Will Fealey — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:53:01 +0000

We have just run a win an ipod nano competition and its given average success, we offered free entry if you invited your facebook/gmail etc friends to our site. Got some good amounts of people via the competition.

Well worth it. For the price of £107, better than google adwords for a day!

If anyone is interested the site/blog is http://FastStudentCash.com . We will be having more competitions soon.

Cheers

By: Walter Schwabe

Walter Schwabe — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:45:05 +0000

Contests are something I’ve been thinking about and wanted to ensure I got absolutely right if I were to do one.
Since you’ve so nicely laid out the key fundamentals I feel much more prepared to move forward. Excellent work and great blog…

You can consider me a regular now…
Cheers,
Walter Schwabe
http://www.fusedlogic.blogspot.com

By: Darla

Darla — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:44:15 +0000

One thing to keep in mind regarding having sponsors give the prize is that you need to be able to depend on the sponsor being good to their word about providing/sending the prize. Some of the people in the work at home moms groups I’m in have had a problem with this. It can be very embarrassing if the prize sponsor doesn’t follow through for you.

By: Meanna Blog

Meanna Blog — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:20:19 +0000

HI Problogger. I decided to try out a blog competition myself using your eternal blogging wisdom http://www.thisblogwillpaymymortgage.com/?p=38 thanks again for all the great problogging advice mate.

By: James Mann

James Mann — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:29:39 +0000

I have decided to run a blog competition but wasn’t sure where to start until this morning. I was reading up on the feeds I store in Bloglines and came across a post on Blogging Tips by Jason Blanton who linked to post he had made at successforyourblog.com where I found the link to this post.

Now I have all the info I need to do this right. Thanks for the powerful post Darren

P.S. I noticed that benefits in your first paragraph is a typo. :)

By: Andy MacDonald

Andy MacDonald — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:29:45 +0000

Great advice. I actually purchase and read a lot of technology, marketing and web related books, and i have hundreds here on the shelf, all of which are only read once. I guess as these are in perfect condition, and as long as they are on topic, you could use things such as those as prizes in competitions you run.

Thanks for the advice :)

By: Bud

Bud — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:29:31 +0000

Thanks Darren for the great tips. My first contest went so well I decided to start a second one to help get comments on my blog.

Bud
http://www.budcalabrese.com

By: Glen(Web-Design Blog)

Glen(Web-Design Blog) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:09:22 +0000

Daren

as usual you hit a home run with your post. Your blog inspires me to do bigger things with my blog. You touched on everything I was thinking and then some.

By: PlanetThoughts

PlanetThoughts — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:38:03 +0000

Well, my competition offering a total of $750 in prizes is getting some traffic looking, but maybe people don’t want to lift a camera in order to get that money or to do some good, because not enough are participating. It is at http://Super-Cars.PlanetThoughts.org. If folks see a reason there is not more participation, please let me know! Thanks.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:03:12 +0000

we have just launched a huge competition at our site and it seems to be a great success so far!

http://www.rlslog.net/releaselogs-birthday-competition-prize-list/

By: Emma

Emma — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:20:36 +0000

@ Craig, I’m sure your question was meant for Darren. But I’m having an RSS contest right now. It’s the featured post on my blog, and I just put a message on the bottom of my feed for my subscribers. I’m sure there are more advanced ways but this is effective enough. It’s about getting people to sign up and giving something back. Emma

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:24:50 +0000

Actually, can I ask a stupid question?

How does one run an RSS competition? Is there a way to see IP addresses and advertise that or something more simple?

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:20:49 +0000

It’s our first birthday next month and we’re planning on running a month-long set of competitions to celebrate. This article couldn’t have come at a better time!

Thanks so much, Darren.

By: Thom

Thom — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:38:56 +0000

Great Article very well put.

If you want to promote your competitions think about posting them to social networking sites like Facebook & Bebo.
Give people the opportunity to share your competition with all their friends.

http://apps.facebook.com/competitions
http://apps.bebo.com/competitionsapp

By: Emma

Emma — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:54:31 +0000

All good points. Contests really do take some time to manage. I’m having an RSS contest right now. With some pretty cool prizes.

By: Article God

Article God — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:57:41 +0000

This is a great article. I gave it the thumbs up on StumbleUpon…

I think the main way to make your contest successful is to stand out from the crowd. By differentiating your contest from all the others you’ll get more people to take notice. I think building the buzz factor is what gives your giveaway the chance to go viral. Something outrageous is the best way to generate sign-ups with the least amount of effort.