Please Brainstorm: Contests

[tsheridan]

I've seen several threads here which suggest that running a contest might be a good way to attract new members and/or get 'em to post on your forum.

I'm undecided in my opinion about that: on the one hand, I agree with the people who say that there is the danger that members may post useless one-or-two-word garbage posts just to run up their tally, or people may register just to get a chance to win something and then disappear from your forum forever when the contest is over. But, I also can see the logic behind the running of contests and I think they would indeed attract attention.

Any thoughts on prizes other than cash or private forums?

I heard a contest on the radio today offering a gift certificate to a local bookstore as the prize. I suppose you could offer a gift certificate to "Amazon" so that it would be useful to members from out of town too.......I know that my members would not understand the offering of access to a private forum or such stuff: they would shrug that they could always email each other if they wanted to chat privately or whatevah, so what's the big deal? I would not offer avatars or signatures because they get so horrendous after scrolling through a dozen or so threads of blinking blinding tapdancing graphics- YEEPS! It might be a reward for the winners but it'd be a punishment to the rest of us!

;-)

How about whether it'd be better to have a running contest, with a less expensive prize every month, etc, as opposed to a one-off contest with one bigger prize?

Any thoughts on prizes, rules, or whatever, in relation to contests?

[rogerd]

How about logowear from your forum? Like a logo shirt, cap, etc.?

This can be very inexpensive, and promotes your forum, too.

[tsheridan]

Hiya rogerd!

Great thinking as usual.......the clothes, otherwise, *heehee* I can see it now: a bunch o' my members lurching around in teeshirts that read,

"I WON THE WIDGETFORUM CONTEST AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEESHIRT"

:-P

[tsheridan]

Oops! Somehow I censored myself - my post immediately above should have said,

"Great thinking as usual.......but I'd better make sure I have a snapdazzlin' logo for the clothes, otherwise, *heehee* I can see it now: a bunch o' my members lurching around in teeshirts that read:

"I WON THE WIDGETFORUM CONTEST AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEESHIRT"

:-P

[wheel]

I've run busy forums before and given away prizes. However the prizes were always just really a return of some of the advertising money we brought in, I never attempted to get people to come and post out of it.

I've just started a new forum that's slowly getting some background noise. I've posted a $100 prize for the best industry marketing tip in the next three months. Two weeks in and it's pretty quiet in the thread. Perhaps it was to early and I don't have enough posters.

Either way, for me the jury's out. I think standard traffic and forum building techniques might work better than prizes and contests.

[viggen]

i give away allot to my members, actually i give away stuff for free on a weekly basis, however only books and only if i get a review of that book, (meaning i get in return a nice content page).

The twist to that is that you have to be in a special user group to qualify for that free book. The only way to get to that usergroup is to make an article or write a review, so i get even more content. Now many members in the lower user group try to get quickly into the higher usergroup, hence writing articles or book reviews...

It startet out slow, but after two years i am in a postition were my book of the month always tops the amazon ranking (in my niche of course)...

so to sum it up, i put into my community about 25% of my profit and it has been a great success for me...

(i am aware that not every niche has the advantage of about 50 new published books a month and reading is very much part of the niches culture)