Forum Moderators: phranque
Recently I've thought about holding weekly contests on one of my new sites. The reward would be cash, but not a whole lot (at least not at first). Probably about $25 each week or something.
The contest would be geared to have the contestents basically create me some content. A sort of weird "pay for content" type of scheme while building up a community I guess you could say. Contest topics would be "write the best article about topic X" or "photoshop me up something cool about topic Y" or "write me a poll question to put on the front page about topic Z". That type of stuff.
If I went through with it, I would also probably advertise the contest on relevant high traffic message boards to boost traffic to my site. In the end, I think this could be a great way to kickstart a site for very little cost.
The cost of running the contests would easilly be remade via AdSense or other advertising in no time I'm sure, and as traffic goes up, I could afford more valuable prizes.
So, a few questions for you to answer:
Has anyone ever run contests on their sites for members? If so, good experience/bad experience?
Are there any potential legal problems I need to worry about?
Can I even legally run a contest with cash rewards? It just seems like I need a license or something to do so, but I know that also sounds absurd.
I would think that it varies depending on where you are. Or maybe even where your contestants are. I would see what an hour at a lawyers would be and make an appointment.
Legal questions are tough to answer as the answers change depending on where you are.
Any others run contests before?
