Daniel Felice

Time For A Competition?

// July 28th, 2008 // Project Blogger

I have been reading a lot lately on creating blog competitions and how they can be good for your blog. Most of the major bloggers run competitions, offering prizes and what not. I have been thinking of running a competition on this blog for the past week or so, but it is too early?

The blog is nearly four months old and while it does have regular traffic, I am worried that only a handful of people will sign up for it, making it a complete failure. The last thing I want to do is to run a competition with 3 prizes, and only three people enter. That would be an embarrassing failure.

But on the flip side, it might be a good way for the blog to increase its traffic. New readers may flock to the site to join the competition, and then realise they like what they see and become a loyal member. It also has the potential to appeal to existing readers and help create more of a community around the blog.

Prizes on offer will also have a big impact as to whether the competition will succeed or not. If I am offering LCD screens, iPhones and Digital Cameras then it will definitely take off. Word would spread and I think it will bring a lot of people to the site making it a success

I don’t have the budget to support such a competition. I am not sure what I would be able to offer my audience without spending ridiculous amounts of money. At the moment the blog is not sponsored by anyone so I cannot even approach them to provide prizes. Whatever the prizes may be it would have to come out of my own pocket.

I could offer some web design services such as a custom WordPress theme. I could buy either Domaining Manifesto or The Blog Adrenaline ebook and offer them as a prize. Maybe even add domain names to the NameSeek showcase.

There are a few things I could do, but I want to make sure it is properly planned and thought out before I jump into it. I will have to sit down and work out the pros and cons, and make sure it isn’t going to be a complete failure.

As well as the prizes, I also have to decide what the competition will be. I have seen a few lately that just require the users to comment on a post and that will enter them into a random draw. Others require users to blog about the competition on their own blog and then provide a link to the competition. Along with the prizes, the method of the competition would also have a big influence as to whether it becomes a success. Users don’t want to have to work too hard to enter, especially if the prizes aren’t too spectacular.

What do you think? Is it time to run a competition? Or do you think it is too early? At this point in time, I am thinking that it is too early. But let me know what you think!