A lot of times in emails or comments I get asked why sites have contests. Usually phrased like “What do you get out of having a contest?”
I try to just have fun with contests and they usually have a way of working out. I am a huge fan of contests. We have innovated lots of different types of contest from the successful current comment contest to some diasasters like the “Can you outrank me for shoemoney” contests a couple years ago. Then there was the RSS Contest with John Chow which we did some really creative contests on our side.
How To Get Sponsors
First off you are going to need sponsors if you are going to have a contest. IMO its a bad idea to try to fund it yourself. There are tons of companies willing to sponsor contests. I wrote earlier this month about how to get sponsors for your blog and the same concepts can apply to contests.
Be Very Clear On The Rules
Lay out the rules for people very clearly. Have your friends, (the shadier the better) go over them and try to find holes. It SUCKS when the contest comes to an end and you have several people claiming they won because they misinterpreted your rules.
Get Prizes From Sponsors Upfront
The first couple contests we had here we got stiffed when it came time for the users to receive thier prize. We of course ended up covering and paying it out of our own pocket but make sure if its a tangible item OR cash you get it before you announce them as a sponsor. Its embarrassing to me when a contest winner does not receive their prize from the sponsor. I always cover it out of my own pocket and write it off as a loss but I wanted to write about what dirt bags these companies were that left us hanging like that. It costs me more to track down the company and connect them with the user then just to do it in the first place. ANYWAY the point is to get the goods upfront 
. Don’t risk your reputation with your users with some fly by night company promising a big screen TV only to never hear from them when the prize is awarded.
Rules and Regulations
Always check with your local laws and your attorney if possible about your contest. There are many laws regarding contests, sweepstakes and raffles. I know people who have been fined for having a internet contest which was interpreted as a raffle because of the rules (they required users to do something to get a chance at entry) and they were fined over $75,000.00. I don’t think you want to take a hit like that so please be careful and check local laws. You should probably also have a terms of service and a ton of legal jargon people agree to. I have never done that and hopefully that does not come back to haunt me some day.
Don’t Require Links
This is just a tip from the many contests we have had. I have never demanded someone link to me for a contest. If the contest is good people will link and talk about it on its own. I know ShoeMoney.com readers are pretty savvy to Google’s policy on Search Engine Manipulation and demanding links is a way of ranking higher then you normally would and a bad deal. Especially in our industry I think its a lose, lose situation for the contest participants (who can easily be penalized for taking part in the linking scheme) and also obviously for the contest holder who is soaking up all the link juice.
Take Good Care Of Your Contest Winners
Send them an email personally congratulating them. Most winners are very proud of their winnings and will be a fan for life! Every night we give away a t-shirt in the comment contest and every night an automated email is sent out congratulating the winner. If people miss that email or whatever and find me through twitter or other means I respond usually within minutes with the original email.
You are building reputation with your users for future contests and these people who have won take this very seriously and so should you. Its your responsibility to take care of them.
Contests are an incredible way to gain new readers/visitors to your website or blog. I highly encourage you to try them.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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9 Reasons Why Your Online Business Will Fail 
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{ 171 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post on contests. I know alot of people that want you to write a post to win a contest, which links back to the contest creators blog.
Like this one we did at Shoemoney.com where we had the chance at winning a trip to the SEO ThinkTank 2008.
Just busting your balls. No hard feelings.
I find that asking people to link to your contest helps out… but, just a bit. But asking them to subscribe usually works wonder!
dont do that, chow was banned by google for this..
Nice article, hope u bring lots of contests daily
Was Chow banned because of that? I didn’t know of that one.
Getting your readers to subscribe is always king.
Steven, i agree with you.
Didn’t you mean “busting your bubble”? Just curious, hehehe!
You still haven’t figured out the difference between ‘there’ and ‘their’, but I’ll let that slide because this was a good, useful post. haha
So it’s not just me who messes that up everytime..
for me “it’s” and “its” is the one that kills me.
I always have to think, is it its or it’s…
i’ve got the there and their down…
My spell checker fixes the it’s problem usually
That’s the one that messes me up too.
what about ware, where, and were?
There – a place
Their – a possession
They’re – Mix of “they” and “are”
I can’t understand the relevancy of your comment.
Thank you “Mr Brown”, the English teacher. We’ll remember to mind our language. Lol!
Nazi. Don’t lie.
SMM Guru, that’s just uncalled for.
lol… dam a lil joke and people get all sensitive.
LMAO!
Amen! I was beginning to worry with all these Cashinator, pimp a magazine, here’s a t-shirt posts.
This is the sort of stuff for which I love reading Shoemoney.
Thank you Jeremy.
wow, who cares
Yeah, that makes me go nucular.
Ha ha, I don’t think he cares..
The syntax police has spoken. Playing with language and words is great fun. Look how much response this comment has generated.
Great info! Thanks for the tips on having contests. Since Blog World, I’ve been thinking about how I can tie contests in to “swag” giveaways and all. I look forward to testing this info out.
Thanks!
Comment contests seem to be a hot ticket lately. That would be a good way to promote yourself.
The t-shirts work great though because they have your logo and site on them, and some people even ware them around.
I’d love a t-shirt, but I never seem to win no matter how much I comment!?
if you fit in a medium danny, i’ll send you the one I got. hey, what are colleagues for right?
apparently your (i mean the your’re) the comment nazi!!!
Want a SMM Guru t-shirt?
Well don’t give up, just keep going at it. You’ll soon find yourself being a proud owner of a “ShoeMoney” t-shirt. Lol!
The blog sphere is growing rapidly and becoming one of the best marketing outlets which is why all these campaigns such as “comment contests” are booming.
Traffic is king! Analytics look good when there are loads of virtual feet through the door!
I agree that all information is well presented and in detail.
I think your point about not asking for links really hit home for me, your right, if the contest is as good as you say people will link naturally.
Totally agree mate! I hate the formula like “1 point for subscribing to the feed and 7 points for blogging about this contest”. What? One point for reading you every single day? Offer good stuff, the rest will come naturally.
Most people link from blogs that arn’t their many anyway, so it’s useless on that front too
Use a diff. photo – you look like a goof.
In that case all my photo’s look like that
He is a goof anybody that would spend this much time commenting on 1 site has to be crazy.
Better than no photo at all, sunshine. You appear to be a branded sheep……
Damn, now that was cold.
EIsh wena! Hola heita!
last thing you want is the big G coming down on you either
I was surprised when I noticed it at first but then I realized that it’s better not to do this because you don’t want to risk loosing your ranks in Google and other search engines. Having a lot of websites suddenly linking back to you would look suspicious. I’ve noticed a lot of blogs doing this though and wouldn’t it still help because I would get a lot of backlinks?
A $75,000 fine for having a contest? That is good to know for anyone who might be having a contest.
Yup, and don’t even think about holding a genuine, full-blown raffle without a lot of investigation. The rules on those vary from state-to-state and get deep pretty quickly. As far as I can tell, most states rank raffles as a near cousin to gambling, so they regulate it pretty hard.
Where I live school children have raffles at fairs and stuff
Non-profits are generally the exception. Schools probably fall under the safe category as well.
Many of my ventures end up as no-profit… but I don’t think that counts
good point… fine line between raffles, contest, sweepstakes and it is usually based on your local state laws or “void where prohibited” just get some legal advice if you are unsure.
Thats a hefty fine for most…. Im sure we will start to see a lot more online related fines. The gov, knows the internet is an untapped source of income.
Yes it is. The net is rapidly increasing and making a lot of people rich without a proper online monitor the gov can use to track how these people are really making.
I think a major turn off is when people try to give away advertising. Chances are, you have a new blog with limited traffic so the advertising is really of no value unless you have a large site. Just give away money.
Ya. And people who are big shots like Darren Rowse and John Chow aren’t going to be entering blog contests, it’s smaller guys. And a big thing I’ve read is that if you are a smaller guy in the blog world is to keep advertising to a small amount, if any at all.
Much better to keep pics of girls in the sidebar like your blog
much more aesthetically pleasing.
Ya. Hot ladies are awesome.
Agreed, real prizes are where it’s at, people inflate their prize pool with crap and then wonder why people don’t care..
Exactly… Its all about creating value for the people working on doing whatever it is the contest requires.
The point about the linking to a contest is good. It is one of the main reasons I hate contests.
Thanks for the tips as I should soon have a contest coming up.
I hate that too, when people insist you take your blog completely off topic just to help them gain some traffic.
Yup, a contest does sound like a great idea. I have a new blog I’m working on, so I’m taking as much tips as I can to optimize it once it’s up and running.
blog contest can invite the visitor and give the prospective visitor to joined a blog contest. more interesting!
comment contests or anything that can become viral is great, BUT, you’ve gotta have a really good blog tech to help you because if you’re pages, links, or functions have issues, it could be a mess.
i am looking for a good blog tech, anyone out there? please don’t say UBD … too slow.
I have made a post in 14 points about that 2 months ago. I also added a list of Contest blogs too.
How To Organize A Successful Blog Contest
I just bookmarked your contest rules page Steve. You had some really good tips on there. I also found places where I could advertise my contest for free. Thanks! I disagreed with one of your posts that said not to require your members to subscribe to your RSS feeds. While it’s true that a lot of members will end up unsubscribing there is still a chance that they will stay. It just depends on the quality of the contest that you post during the duration of the contest.
Thanks
For the RSS, it could be a strongly suggested but not
be force onto the participants. Give them the choice.
That is correct. I know people who are developing their sites through competitions.
One blogger that I sponsored had 125 RSS readers
before. After, he had 250 readers.
Now, he has 700 RSS readers.He did a few other contests after that.
since then.
In his case, it help him very well in just a few months.
Contests are great indeed. I plan on holding one in the next couple weeks. Got a few sponsors lined up.
how did you get the sponsors lined up?
The best way is to email them directly, saying how the contest will help them gain exposure for their brand, and all that jazz.
I would recommend e-mailing them from your website’s e-mail address and showing them the statistics of your website. Show them proof of your website traffic like your monthly pageviews and unique visitors and your feed count. Also tell them how they will benefit from sponsoring your blog. You have to convince them that sponsoring your blog will breally benefit their business!
Interesting timing on this post. I’m having a blog traffic seminar and holding a little competition to see who refers the most traffic to the sign-up post. I didn’t specifically say anyone should link to the post, but they have to in order to refer traffic to it.
I won a Shoe$ shirt and hope it comes real soon, so I can take a picture of me wearing it and put it on my blog.
PS – people, quit hassling Shoe about his grammar. He knows it’s not the greatest, and so do we. No big deal.
I think they were just playing around, not intentionally hassling him.
Yes, I think they were playing around. Even big people like Shoemoney and I make mistakes! No one is perfect. Except Chuck Norris.
Another important rule is OUT OF COUNTRY and SHIPPING issues. Nothing sucks more than sending out a bunch of prizes, then having to pay nearly half the cost of the prize to ship out of country.
And taxes, sometimes the people who receive the prize have to pay tax, especially on electrical items.
Get your sponsors to send it out
Thanks Shoe for the things to think about. Contests are always a great way to get people excited about something and also it lets them know a little more about the person who is throwing the contest. THanks again for the words of warning …. 75k is a little heft to pay for over looking something
Why pay? Just read the rules of the game. -))))
Great post Jeremy. I never really agreed with the whole link to my contest post to be able to compete in it. Like you said, it creates a huge link scheme with links coming from everywhere all of a sudden and it doesn’t look very good in Google’s eyes.
I have never run a contest on my personal blog but I do know that it is a good way to gain readers/traffic.
You could say that, but isn’t that what some kinds of link-bait do?
Really good list, I’m planning on launching my own competition soon to celebrate my one month of blogging. Although I don’t think I’m going to have any chance of getting a sponsor
It all depends on what kind of prize you are looking for, like Jeremy would have no trouble getting a laptop or two, while we may struggle getting a t-shirt
I am also a big fan of contests, I just started a fitness blog about a month ago and as soon I have better traffic coming to my site, I will also host some kind of contest. I think its a great way to interact with the readers. And i won a Shoemoney T-shirt this week, thanx.
I hope to have a contest soon on my newly designed FemaleRacingNews.com site… These tips will help me do that, thanks for posting it
I think the most important thing that gives competitions – the increase popularity of the site attendance.
When we can have 1 million dollar contest… I waiting shot me a email Shoe
1 million, why stop there, what about a billion!
Wow I never knew you could get fined for that much money for having a contest, that is good to know so I can avoid it
I think that was just one example, I’ve never heard of any other cases before now, I think it was local laws.
I know some websites have fake contests and pick a fake winner who they pretend to give the prize to
Man you should report those sites or something, that’s crazy.
Now that I know how to give stuff away I just have to figure out how to get people to the site. Even a winner won’t stick around forever in an empty room.
The best way is to create some great ‘pillar articles’ that way people will stay around even after the contest..
Yeahhh, I got a contest going on right now for a chance to win a free blog review from me if people sign up for my rss by email, but I didn’t require anyone to link back to me talking about the contest or anything.. The contest had a phenomenal success in the first few days and continues to be successful.
So I guess I will say this, CHECK OUT MY CONTEST GUYS lol!
I don’t want to put a link in my comment, so just click on my name and you will be taken to my blog.
Lol shameless advertising
At least it’s on topic though!
haha yea its on topic, its always great to find out about
new contests
Contests are an awesome way to get your visitors to your site but can be tough if you don’t have enough traffic to get the word out. Starting small is good if you need to, but a huge contest could kick start something big. It is all about risk and reward!
I agree completely, it also depends on what types of readers you have, for example some people are not willing to jump through hoops to win a camera or a gift card.
yea the bigger the prize the more people will participate so
its true more risk does equal more reward
I’ve had a few contests on my site, they were pretty successful! I should do another one soon. I’m gonna read your sponsor post!
Good post as usual and it’s true, I won a shoemoney t-shirt but I missed the mail so I commented in a post then I got a mail right away that say that the shirt has been shipped.
:
I blogged about it
http://www.zakshow.com/2008/10/05/i-won-a-shoemoney-t-shirt/
You lucky son of a gun, I’ve been trying all week and still no success.
We are actually looking to start doing a few contest soon. Very timely.
I appreciate the mention of the previous article about getting sponsors too.
Ben
http://www.drbenadkins.com
Post right on time as your current contest is going on…
Usefull resources too..
I have a feeling that wasn’t a coincidence.
awesome tips, thanks shoe
Yeah, you have some great contests.
Thank you for the advice!
I’ve tried to have contests on my site as well. I have also run into the trouble where the sponsor doesn’t end up sending the goods, so it is important to get the items beforehand. (Though this way you have to pay the shipping to the winners.)
If you don’t have enough visitors coming to the website/blog it can be hard to find enough winners unless you have a really extravagant prize. I have had this issue as well.
Contests can be quite a good thing for a website, but it is good to know what you are getting yourself into.
Awareness is the primary goal of driving force in making money.
I always wonder whether a contest holder actually awards a prize…
Excellent Post. I just think blog contests are tough to manage if you want to run a successful one, but then again, my glass is half empty at this point.
Don’t forget to list your contest at http://contestcompare.com. This is a site that lists a lot of contests. Could be handy for you guys!
Dude, that’s a really cool site.
Just signed up for like 5 contests through it.
thanx! We do our best!
I’ve been getting my contest news from ABC Contests Blog. I think that’s the name.
Guess, it will help me to find contests to participate also.
That is some solid advice considering how many blog contests are being held every day.
Free gifts are always welcome.
speaking of contests, i got my shoemoney tshirt today
Great tips… couldn’t have said it better myself. Blog Contests benefit the blog owner and other bloggers/readers alike so I’m all for them.
Great post Shoe!
This is excellent for anyone who’s about to run a contest or anyone who owns a blog.
Great contest guide, thanks!
Well, contests have calmed down now after the last few months where every single blogs started a contest. I think this post would be a great tutorial and you should add it to the top
-Mike
Yeah, it was the winningtheweb contest that did that..
Thanks for sharing your experiences with this stuff. I have someone trying to convince me to do a raffle on one of my community websites, and am very leery about doing it. The stuff you wrote about reinforces my reluctance to run with it. Thanks
nice to have contest like this but to finding sponsored it hard for me though.. see do contest to attract people to come, but o find sponsored you must have many visitor so if i already have many visitor there is no point to create contest, but of course for long term is good, i ever do some contest for two or three times, but result is failure only 3-4 people join.. sigh.. have any thought about my problem?
Have T-Shirt contests with your logo on it. People will enter, and maybe advertise your site during the contest and then when they win your prize(s) they’ll still be advertising your site by wearing the T-Shirt.
These are great ideas for setting up contests, and maybe it’ll spark a few more!
Thanks for the contest tips, some useful info. Hmm maybe you should have your blog hosted in a foreign country with lax rules.
I tried a contest, and had only 1 entrant! However, that winner later provided great content.
I wish we could get more people to enter our contest. Currently for a brand new 4G ipod nano in color of yout chioce.
Dude I don’t see any ipod contest on your internet web site.
That’s because their name linked to some other site.
This is where you’ll find the contest for the iPod:
http://www.seidesigngroup.com/blog/
Rule of thumb: you should not have to go digging to find the contest.
Fantastic …….greatest practical tips .
Thank u so much
Excellent post shoe! I think its also important to specify the start and end date/time of the content clearly. (Including the Timezone) as participants can be from all over the world.
I really agree with you on this one Saad. A lot of contest starters forget to set a deadline and then the contestants get upset waiting for the contest starter to announce the deadline.
feel like winning although never won anything
thanks mate really appreciate!
I would be so psst to be fined for a blog contest….SOOOO….psst..I’m glad you put that snipet in there shoe….I wouldn’t have even been thinking about a fine.
Thanks
As long as you play it safe and don’t cheat you won’t be fined! Make sure you clearly outline everything in the terms and conditions and don’t deceive anyone.
I once conducted a contest in my old blog, it was a real failure. Now I know why.
I was just thinking about starting a contest on my blog when I noticed this post on Shoemoney. Thanks for this great post Jeremy! I’ve seen people offer a lot of “virtual” items in their contest instead of physical items, and those contests don’t really get as much participation as contests with physical items do. Offering an appealing prize would really attract a lot of people to enter.
Great post! Never tried having a contest held yet as i never get a good idea on what it should be, that’s the hard part for me. I’ll try to learn more for now. keep on posting shoe!
Hmm great contests shoe.I gonna join it
sorry Good tips for contest Ill try it probably
Contest, contest do you really mean Contest…
No thanks I don’t need a contest.
But actually I need 6 figures every month do you mind some tips or tricks. Whatever can bring me up my 6 figures I tired and sick with 5 figures.
I am going to organize a competition on my website and I’m also going to attract a sponsor.
Yeah cool , contest actually can bring alot of benefit and traffic to us especially bring more subsriber and backlinks, but i still don’t have an idea to make it on my my blogs mybe somday i wil,l who knows
. great post i’ve been looking this kind of topics to know more about contest thx
Shoe did bring the legal part here.For example many contest in Canada are not available for Quebec resident. But those have rules made my lawyers.
It also depend on the total amount of the prizes.
Many mentioned that they wanted sponsors or preparing a contest . If you had taken the time to click the link on my first comment, you would had noticed that I sponsor contest and offer more tips useful for you. Click my name.
I have seen all sides of the contest. I do contest, promote contest( contest blog), sponsor contest(my software) and participated in contest.
That being said, my software(btw in the MMO field) require a serial number and I only give it to the winner. It’s not negotiable and most understand.
I’m not against linking to get more tickets. Even if it’s a good contest, you get more awareness this way from the readers of the participant.
The goal is to have fun.
Just reminded me of the Halloween contest I was going to have this month, it’s not too late though, I’ll just have to run it for the last week of October or something….got some work to do!
We absolutely love doing contests, and plan on having more in the future (hopefully with you soon)! It’s a fun way to interact with people and get the word out about the network. Plus, we find some pretty cool gadgets we like to share!
Your suggestion on “Get Prizes From Sponsors Upfront” reminded me of an incident of my school life. We arranged a raffle draw in a picnic but we had to give the prizes from our own pocket as the sponsor didn’t send money on duw time. This post is a must read for arranging any kind of contests – online or offline.
I am a contest hound, I have won so many over the years that I am starting to forget what I have won.Best one that I won was a week in the Bahamas from KMPS in Seattle. (1995)
Thank you Shoe for a very informative post. I was actually flirting with the idea of having a contest on my new blog I’m currently working on. I’ve been researching tips on how to optimize your blog. I have to say that this site has been of much help to me.
I personally think that Shoe’s comment contest is a great one. I’ve never seen a better way to gain some fans.
I’ve been thinking about running a WordPress theme contest for a while now, thanks for this great advice.
Thanks for the tips Shoe!
cool guideline, planning a contest soon with some unusual prizes
That somewhat reveals the deal behind the intention of starting a contest.
I have been part of contests where I had to work for my heart out for a month and I don’t even win a consolation prize.Finally,even if I think I am unlucky,I was shocked to see that the winners never made a comment on the blog.They just subscribed to the blog(seem to) and won prizes worth thousands..That was heart-breaking..
So,people,especially new comers must be careful in taking part of these contests.
The last message is the best, take care of your visitors. Just like a bricks and mortar store, people who come to your site are the same as people coming through the door. Give them what they came for and take care of them. Traffic is very hard to get, and to get someone to visit a second time is precious. Treat them that way.
I don’t think he cares…
Thanks for sharing these tips.. some good insights for me..
Great info – saved us from some mistakes… plan to launch a contest in about a week.
Thanks – great stuff!
Good post. Thank u.
Nice post! I like the last advise “Take care of your visitors” I will surely take note of this!
I started my new blog, Life With Rachael, to chronicle life with my wonderful wife, Rachael. Some of the stories are hilarious, some are heart-warming, all are true. I just want your opinion to make the blog better. Answer 3 questions after reviewing some of my posts to be entered into a drawing to win a $10 Starbucks Gift Card. Go to http://lifewithrachael.blogspot.com/2009/08/contest-anyone.html to enter. Thanks! The Poor Husband
Conratulation – the organizers of shoemoney.com conest for having come up with new objectives and incentives in your conest – Unique is always sweet but make sure you are sincere and spread out your wings to more sponsors.
We as your fans need even those little dollars even for a single comment it is better making little dollars for comments than taking bad drugs to pass time.