Contesting is an amazing viral tool that gets more exposure for your blog provided you use the contest strategically to leverage growth for your blog.
The objective of any contest should be to create a viral effect and increase usership for your blog.
Tips to make a blog contest successful :
1 ) Don’t rush:
– Don’t start a contest as soon as you launch a blog, get at least about 30 – 40 good articles on your site before launching a contest, ensure you have decent amount of traffic to your blog at least 25 – 35 visits a day to your blog, ensure your content encourages interactivity from your readers in terms of comments at least about 4 – 5 good comments per post.
Once you have the above you can start to work on a contest as you have now created a solid foundation for the contest to be successful.
2 ) Keep the contest simple:
– Keep focused on the objective of being viral, keep the contest very simple. Let the user do a maximum of 5 action oriented things to gain an entry in to your contest. Anything more than 5 will not go well with the user.Respect your users time for contesting.
3 ) Create a viral buzz:
– Ensure that you give entries or points to users to create a viral buzz for your blog. You should leverage social media sites like Stumble Upon and Technoratito favourite your blog, gain visibility and increase ranking.
4 ) Ensure a link strategy for your contest blog:
– Incentivize users with entries to link your contest post to their blog. This is the best natural form of getting noticed by Google. This will result in high Google ranking and high PR in the next update depending on how many sites link to you.
5 ) Use forums effectively:
– Use webmasters forums effectively to ensure that your contest post is visible. Create a contest thread for your blog on these forum to leverage traffic and entries to your blog. Use at least 10 – 12 webmasters forum for this activity. Ensure that each thread on each forum is different, the will help you in not posting duplicate content for your blog online.
Every webmaster forum has a Contest sub section, make use of this to promote your blog.
6 ) Ensure reputable sponsors:
– Good sponsors and prizes are always an attraction for any contest. Ensure you tie up with reputed blog and sites to build attraction for your contest. High the value of the prizes better the response to your blog contest.
7 ) Get high commenting:
– Ensure that you comment intelligently on top traffic blogs in your niche and drive traffic to the contest post instead of your home page.
Let’s see how WebTrafficROI performed on the above points in terms of traffic and readership.The figure below indicate the before contest and after contest scenario.
RSS users : 38 122 ( till last night, not sure what happened to the feedburner this morning, its only showing me 40 RSS readers )
Alexa ranking: 3,85,000 2,18,000 ( the blog is moving rapidly below th 200 k mark )
Technorati : 62,300 35,630
Google PR : 1 2
The contest has shown that it can significantly improve your blogs ranking and traffic in less than a month. You need to ensure that all the above factors are well executed.
The blog did not spend any money on advertising the contest on any blogs nor did I comment on blogs leading to the contest page.
The traffic and readership for the blog was a natural and viral progression of effectively leveraging the contest post on the blog.
If you like this post , you may want to subscribe to my Email or RSS feed.
23 comments
Lots of great tips, here ZK. I’d be really interested in knowing how you find your sponsers for your contests.
Joan Yankowitzs last blog post..How to Make Sure EzineArticles Accepts Your Articles
Great tips ZK, I will use them for when I run a contest!
JRs last blog post..Blog Traffic – 100 RSS/Blog Submission Sites
Hey, how much did your traffic increase due to the contest, and did your results (traffic / subscribers) continue after it was over?
Study Babess last blog post..College Webcam Girl
Hi Joan : I sent an email to my top commentators asking them to sponsor a prize for the contest. I wanted to include them in the contest. This strategy will help you in rewarding your commentators and also will help them to get exposure for their blogs.
Hi JR : Always a pleasure to have you here, i ll be gald if it helps you run your contest 🙂
Hi Study Babes : Good to have you here 🙂 My daily unique visits went up from about 70 to more than 160 and its been that way since I started the contest. I ve mentioned the RSS subscriber increase in the post.
ZKs last blog post..Tips to make a Blog Contest successful
Very well done ZK! I can see that this contest has increased your readership a lot and this is a pretty good thing! It’s good to write a little something to share your experience with other bloggers who might want to run a contest too.
Good job!
The Frogs last blog post..Jumping on the Blog Comment Blueprint!
Hi Ben : I thank you for your support as one of the key sponsors of the contest 🙂
ZKs last blog post..Tips to make a Blog Contest successful
Hi ZK ~ perfect timing for me with this great article! I’m launching my contest next week when the voting starts … I’ll keep you posted. *SmiLes* Suzanne
P.S. I also wanted to know if the gains “stuck” after the contest and did you post on any “blog contest” sites?
Suzanne Franco ~ Next Blogging Idol?s last blog post..21 Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers
Hi Suzanne : I am glad you liked the post, I wish you all the best for being the Next Blogging Idol 🙂 , its an interesting question you asked I was not sure if mentioning this on the post would be appropriate, since you have raised this question I ll answer it here, once I announced the contest winners, I got about 8 – 10 % of users unsubscribing from the blog. I am not sure if this is a high figure as I dont have any statistics to back this, if any of you experienced this please let us know if this is a normal user behaviour.
However, I am not worried about the unsubscribed users as they were not serious readers of my blog, I would rather have a small and serious userbase than have a large number of RSS users who subscribe just to win an occassional freebie or contest offer.
The effort is to build a sustainable userbase by offereing unique value to the blog, contests are just one off things to reward the readers for being loyal.
ZKs last blog post..Tips to make a Blog Contest successful
Contests are usually a good way to create buzz about your blog. Having the increase in RSS means that you have some sustainable readership base for the long-term..
ZK ~ thanks for sharing that … and since I don’t have any experience (yet) I can’t really say how those numbers look. Truthfully, I thought it sounded like a low “churn” rate (the ones who unsubscribed) so I’d say it was a success. I too would much rather have a loyal following and not just have the “numbers.”
I will do this contest expecting the few who will come by and jump through the hoops to win a prize … but I’m OK with that for now.
Of course I’m acting differently than I will ever act agian (hopefully LOL) during the Blogging Idol contest … so for now … I’ll take them any way I can get them! LOL
I will try to keep good track of my numbers so I can report back with my before and after stats too. Thanks again for sharing! *huGs* Suzanne
Suzanne Franco ~ Next Blogging Idol?s last blog post..21 Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers
Hi Blogging Banks : I am glad that the contest has worked and there has been a significant increase in my traffic and RSS users. I would like to thank every reader of mine who made this contest a grand success. I Thank you all 🙂
Hi Suzanne : It would be great if you could share the number of user who opt out once the contest is over. It will help us benchmark opt outs at a different level. I look forward for your contest and all the best wishes on participating in the next Blogging Idol 🙂
ZKs last blog post..Tips to make a Blog Contest successful
These stats are very impressive. My Blog is still a bit new for something like this but I hope to run a contest like this in the future. I’m going to subscribe to your RSS right now. 😉
SEO Tips Blogs last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
The alexa ranking changing by so little and being so high compared to your Technorati ranking. Have you looked into why that is?
Michael Henrys last blog post..Lifestyle: Current Monday to Friday Schedule
Awesome stuff ZK, I just opened a contest blog!
Dennis Edells last blog post..2 NEW BLOGS Unveiled! FINALLY!!
Hi Michael : Thats a very good question , I have not actually calculated the percentage change value.
Alexa ranking from 385 k to 218 k is a significant change in 30 days. Only traffic can influence Alexa ranking whereas Technorati ranking can be influenced by pushing your readers to vote for you on Technorati. The contest was strategically used to influence the Technorati ranking, I am assuming the contest enties has pushed the site to a higher Technorati ranking.
But lets check what is the percentage decrease in both the rankings.
Alexa decreased by 43 % ( 385 K to 218 k ) and Technorati by 42.81 % ( 62 k to 35 K )
Both the ranking showed very similar percentage changes. Thanks for asking this question. It got me thinking and added a new dimension to the interactivity for this post 🙂
Hi Dennis : I checked your blogs , I am hoping to win some cash on the cash contest blog 🙂 Congrats on launching two new blogs 🙂
ZKs last blog post..Tips to make a Blog Contest successful
Good luck!
Dennis Edells last blog post..2 NEW BLOGS Unveiled! FINALLY!!
Congratulations! I’m a huge fan of blog contests. They have a lot of good things to offer in our blogs. You have to do it right though and you have some great points here
Blogging from Scratchs last blog post..Monetize your blog too soon or too late?
Hi Dennis : Thanks for your comments
Hi Blogging from Scratch : Thanks for commenting and I am glad you liked the post
ZKs last blog post..The Power of Twitter & Live Blogging during the Mumbai Blasts
Wow, great info, exactly what I was lookin for! I’ll be using this on my own, thanks for sharing.
digga lives last blog post..Successful Directory Submiting
Hi Digga Live : I am glad you liked it , I hope it helps you in your contest.
ZKs last blog post..The Roadmap To Become A Blogger
This strategy will help you in rewarding your commentators and also will help them to get exposure for their blogs.
Got about 8 – 10 % of users unsubscribing from the blog. I am not sure if this is a high figure as I dont have any statistics to back this, if any of you experienced this please let us know if this is a normal user behaviour.
However, I am not worried about the unsubscribed users as they were not serious readers of my blog
.-= DotComSecrets Review´s last blog ..Frank Kern’s Mass Control 2.0 Review =-.
These stats are very impressive. My Blog is still a bit new for something like this but I hope to run a contest like this in the future. I’m going to subscribe to your RSS right now. 😉
Comments are closed.