So the Contest Was a Total Flop :(

October 18th, 2007 | 10 comments

It’s been up for almost 48 hours and so far only one participant. I figure the reason it flopped was one of 3 things:

1. People don’t like the books. Highly unlikely though, they are all very popular informative books.
2. You guys and gals think it’s too hard or too much trouble. Could be due to the following point though.
3. It wasn’t clear as to what you need to do in order to win. I have a feeling this is it, but if you feel otherwise please let me know!!

So to be clear, to claim the book of your choice + a copy of “article marketing domination” (ebook) + $20 via PayPal all you have to do is come up with a contest, that’s it.

If you’ve participated or noticed a contest elsewhere you really liked you can even explain how it worked. If I like it the best you win!

That’s it, imagine you have 3 awesome books to give away, how would you do it via a blog contest?

The winning idea will be used to give away the other 3 books.

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10 comments

Maurice (TheCaymanHost)
18th October, 2007 at 9:04 pm

Hi Josh

I’ve been giving it some thought, however, nothing has yet occurred to me worth posting!

My last contest was a flop too – I asked people to give me a little feedback on their hosting companies and got only one entry

Anyway, if I can think of anything remotely useful/workable, I’ll send you my thoughts
Maurice (TheCaymanHost)
18th October, 2007 at 9:14 pm

One other thought – why not try and get some additional exposure for the contest over at BloggingContest.com

Not sure how you go about it, just let them know of it I guess?
Josh Spaulding
19th October, 2007 at 1:30 am

Thanks for the support Maurice It’s really crazy how things play out with blogs. It seems like most posts I don’t expect to go anywhere are the ones that take off and those that I think are going to be popular bomb. Going to check out that contest site now, thanks.

Looking forward to your contest idea Not much competition so far, so theres a good chance of winning it.
Chuck Brown
19th October, 2007 at 1:49 am

I never pay attention to blog contests myself. I guess I’m just too busy with other stuff. But I peeked at the blog post…nothing came to mind…so I moved on.

Tonight, I had a couple minutes to think about it.

How about a “best creative idea for” contest(s)? Like…

- best cheap way to get 20 one-way inbound links
- best creative tip for increasing blog subscriptions
- best way to make a few extra bucks a day with your blog or web site that most people don’t know about or stop to think through
- best little-known resource for outsourcing stuff that takes me too much time (article writing/submission, directory submission, link building)

This way, you actually get some valuable content in exchange for your prizes.
Josh Spaulding
19th October, 2007 at 3:38 am

Hey Chuck, now that I think about it I’m the same way. I guess cotests just don’t go viral the way they used to. Or maybe I’m just going about it the wrong way, which may very well be the case

A bunch of great ideas you have there. One book a piece for the best 3 ideas or something similar. Definitely noted and considered!

Thanks
Tim (1 comments.)
20th October, 2007 at 3:02 am

Back in the day, early 2007, I had a site where I blogged about my “journey to a million” dollars. So confident in my success, I held a contest where I let members of the site sign up and guess approximately what date I would reach certain milestones along my path (in quarter million dollar intervals).

If they were correct, based on how far back they had guessed from, they would recieve entries into a drawing for prizes totaling thousands of dollars (since I would have hundreds of thousands of dollars, why not!)

Ahh what a naive internet marketer I was when I first began! *end anecdote*

As for an idea for your contest, you could throw what I like to think of as a participation contest. Now the key here in my opinion, is to make it interesting so that people come BACK and check on their standings. Therefore generating lots of interest for your site.

A good way to do this is to work on a points system. For example, a user could earn 1 point for commenting, 2 points for signing up to rss feed, 3 points for trackback from their own personal blog, 5 points for emailing you an idea that you later use for a blog post, etc. etc. etc. etc.

You can then have a block on the side with a top 10 users list, where the top 3 get prizes. You could reset the stats and hold this contest monthly if it is successful. I think this would get people really interested, and quite possibly go viral! People can be quite competitive, and instead of thinking of this participation as just to win prizes, you are actually motivating them to learn more about internet marketing! Which could lead them to buy your products!!

The only concern is say people spamming comments or posting JUST for points; however, YOU are the master moderator, and you can easily reject comments or trackbacks if you feel they are not up to your blog’s standard.

Honestly I could probably go on, but I think you see the picture here so I’ll let your imagination pick up from here!!
Josh Spaulding
21st October, 2007 at 1:15 am

Tim, thanks for the very thorough idea. I love your comment “back in the day, early 2007″ lol

The general idea does sound good. I think it may turn into a big hassle, which would be worth it if it did indeed bring in enough regular readers, but I could make it a little more basic as well. It’s definitely food for thought.

Thanks again!
Steve
22nd October, 2007 at 4:43 pm

Hello Josh,

I have an idea or two:

When you give away those books, I would put a CD in the back with a copy of the latest (AMD) report, or copy of whatever it is ( software ? ) that would make something “viral” happen. I am a health-nut – - using that word “viral” in a positive way is foreign to me. Maybe just give out part of your info, enough to make a “hook” on the CD and give folks a discount if they want to buy the rest.

Secondly, I would start a “free real book” giveaway site or blog around the same topic, with a contest about every other week or so, to give out more real free books and round up more visitors, who when they get the free books, also get your report/software on a CD in the back.

Thirdly, make the site so as it tells others how to do exactly what you are doing.

Good luck,

Steve
Cecilia
24th October, 2007 at 8:29 am

How about a last post contest? The last person to post gets a book. Everyone will be caught up in the last minute frenzy. (You could cause your server to go down if interest is greater than you expected. )

For another book, you could have a guess the object contest. And every day you could release a new hint at a predetermined time. But keep this type of sweep short or interest will be lost. Now if it were a larger prize, you could get away with a longer term contest.

You could hide a contest phrase on your site. And everyone who emails it to you will be entered.

Or you could just keep it random. With each person submitting a comment for an entry. (My suggestion)

You will need to advertise it a lot. Perhaps by going the usual route for blog giveaways. Give an extra entry for a person that posts about your giveaway on their own blog. The contestant leaves the link under the comment section. Thus they would have 2 entries. One for the comment, and a second for the link. Or if email entry is used, they could include the link in their email. Of course, the extra entry wouldn’t work with a “guess the item” type of contest.

Anyways, I know how you could get hundreds of hits (or more) on your contest. Can you handle it? But your contest will have to be simple. And not everyone will be intrerested in your sites content. But there is always the hope that interest in your site will increase.
Josh Spaulding
24th October, 2007 at 4:17 pm

Cecilia,

You have some excellent ideas!!! I thought I had a winner chosen, but I may have to rethink that, thanks!

The winner of this contest will be announced sometime today.