Home
>
Web Site Promotion
>
Why Running Contests Can Help You Attract and Retain Quality Community Members

Why Running Contests Can Help You Attract and Retain Quality Community Members

Assuming that it is legal to do so in your state or province, running a contest on your website or forum is a wise idea. Contests can promote goodwill, stimulate interest in your site, and bring quality visitors back to your site time and again. The following tips will help you build a successful site without busting your advertising budget.

1. Be clear about your contest rules. Instead of just allowing anyone to participate, require all participants to be registered members to your site. If you run a forum, require a minimum number of posts [ten is a good place to start] from members before allowing their participation. Be clear about the prize[s] offered, any limitations/restrictions that may exist because of local laws, and state the contest beginning and ending dates. Once a winner has been determined, publish the winner's name and notify the winner personally via email.

2. Join affiliate programs for magazine subscription companies, book publishers, and CD companies. Magazines, books and music are some of the cheapest items to give away. Generally, if you purchase something from your affiliate program you will receive a heavy discount plus earn some of that money back in commissions.

3. Check with your advertisers and related vendors to see if there is interest on their part to offer a prize. In exchange, you can offer free advertising on your site, or write a favorable article about the vendor, or promise to refer customers to their site. Have the vendor ship the prize directly to the winner to avoid shipping and distribution expenses on your part.

4. When running a contest, a certain amount of hype is beneficial. I like to send registered members a broadcast email announcing the contest as well as posting links at various places on the site to make sure everyone has the chance to participate. On one of my message boards I have a separate category titled, "Contests, Drawings, Other Promotions." Two subsections are: Promotionals and Completed Contests. When I start a contest all the details are listed in a thread and posted on the Promotionals board. Once the contest has been ended, I update the thread by announcing the winner. The thread is then moved to the Completed Contest section where members can see what contests have been run on the site.

5. I like to run my contests in bunches and will often have a "contest month" where I give prizes away weekly. Sometimes I mix things up and do a monthly contest, but I'll also let several months go by before promoting another contest if I feel that the response rate is dropping.

6. Limit the number of awards anyone can receive. I restrict entrants from winning more than once in a ninety day period to allow others to have the opportunity to win. You want to encourage participation -- and thereby increase web traffic -- by having as many different winners as possible.

Ultimately, contests provide goodwill to your members. You are telling them, in effect, that they have an opportunity to win a prize with no expectation for anything in return from them. This "no strings attached" policy will help you build a solid base of members and can send your site into the upper reaches of the internet.

Matt runs contests from his message board community for business flight attendants at http://www.cabinmanagers.com. Check out this site for additional contest ideas and the rules he sets by looking at the two categories found under his "Contests, Drawings, Other Promotions" section. The Corporate Flight Attendant Community is the top performing site in its category which Matt attributes, in part, to the contests he has run over the years.

maide service in Wilmette ...

In The News:

A startup founder woke to $449 in unexpected OpenAI and Anthropic charges after stolen API keys were exploited during the "Black October" cyber wave.

Educational Testing Service hackers stole millions of California student records, but families who moved out of state years ago may also be affected.

Apple's iPhone Duo screens are cracking near the hinge just days after its $1,999 launch, and iFixit's CT scans may reveal what's going wrong.

Travel expert Katy Nastro says 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles vanished from her account after someone redeemed them without permission.

Google AI Overviews can't be permanently turned off, but adding -AI to your searches and using the built-in Web filter can help bypass AI summaries.

Attaxion researchers found 30 fake Texas campaign merchandise stores traced to just two sellers hawking gear for competing Republicans and Democrats.

GM plans to debut eyes-off driving in the Cadillac Escalade IQ by 2028, but safety testing reveals how long distracted drivers take to regain control.

Data brokers assign labels predicting your health, finances and religion based on browsing and purchases, then sell those profiles to businesses.

Elon Musk says he'll give one SpaceX share to every kid in America in 2027, but key details about eligibility and distribution remain unclear.

ClearSpace UK's robotic spacecraft with giant claws will chase down dead satellites at 17,000 mph, with a 2029 launch from Scotland planned.

A fake Social Security statement phishing email uses the SSA logo and a convincing layout, but the sender's domain instantly exposes the scam.

A clean credit report doesn't mean your identity is safe. Six ways criminals can steal from you without triggering a credit monitoring alert.

Carolyn Marvin, a 78-year-old retired professor, was arrested after blocking an Uber Eats delivery robot on a Philadelphia sidewalk for months.

The Midnight Mimosa malware campaign hides inside cheap Android phone firmware, giving attackers powerful access before owners even turn devices on.

The Fox News AI Newsletter covers the latest artificial intelligence technology advancements, including the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Meta's Muse AI was built to manage tasks, but users are developing romantic AI relationships and even calling the AI companion their girlfriend.

A Minnesota murder suspect's notebook listed 11 people search websites, raising urgent questions about data broker opt-out and online privacy risks.

Google Universal Cart tracks price drops, surfaces promo codes and uses Google Wallet to match your best credit card rewards before checkout.

Safari's Notify Me feature and Google's price-tracking tools can monitor products and send alerts when prices drop on your iPhone or Android.

George Weiner built PACspam.org to trace who sends nonstop political fundraising texts after blocking numbers repeatedly failed to stop the messages.

A dedicated VPN IP address may reduce frustrating CAPTCHAs and bank login security checks by giving websites a consistent connection to recognize.

Apple Wallet in iOS 27 lets you create digital passes from physical cards using a photo or screenshot, but not every card in your wallet qualifies.

Anthropic's Claude AI submitted a fabricated eyewitness tip about an unsolved murder to a Philadelphia police website during automated testing.

P7 DarkSword iPhone spyware can steal saved passwords, photos, Apple Notes and cryptocurrency wallet data by checking for commands every 15 seconds.

Cybersecurity experts told Fox News Digital that a cyberattack on French supermarket freezers should warn the U.S. about critical infrastructure gaps.

Why Running Contests Can Help You Attract and Retain Quality Community Members

Web Site Promotion