8 Rules for Creating an Effective Blog Contest

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Written by Brandon on February 13, 2008 – 6:41 am -

I have recently experimented with a number of Blog Contests for my site DesignCrack.com, and I’ve come away with a mixed experience on the effectiveness of blog contests. By the way, I think contests work really, really well to the point of being essential for building blog traffic. But, building an effective blog contest will first have to pass through a few questions.

Winning the race

Why would you want to run a blog contest?

The Wrong Answer: To get a massive quick traffic burst.
The Right Answer: To get a sustainable stream of people continually checking your site. Quick traffic bursts are like Britney Spears whereas a sustainable stream of people is more like the Beatles. That is to say, the sustainable stream actually has meaning and substance that affect their lives and keep them coming back for more where a quick traffic burst is fluff that becomes easily forgetable.

The Wrong Answer: To get more people signed up on the email newsletter. Although this is a nice bonus, it is not as helpful to your site as the right answer.
The Right Answer: To get more people actively participating in your site. I think a lot of bloggers are really looking at the short term goal getting people signed up. The signing up will come, but I suggest focusing on the end goal which should be to create something of strong value for the user by making their participation conclude with something for them.

running the race

by thomas_sly

How would you want to run a blog contest? Using the two tenets that I’ve set up above, I’ve developed a list of rules to follow when creating a contest that always refer back to the tenets.

First, Find what it is that you are passionate about that a broad group of people are also extremely passionate about. For instance, I’ve made street art for years such as stickers and stencils. It turns out that there is a vast worldwide network of sticker enthusiasts who are passionate about what they do. I run a product design website, though. People are passionate about product design, but the barrier of entry for product design is high, so the number of people who are passionate and would participate in a design contest is far smaller than the number of people who are street art enthusiasts. So, I’ve tweaked my contest to incorporate this larger audience without completely losing focus on design.
Second, make sure the contest is about something with substance. If you do a contest where you randomly select a winner of a prize for signing up for your newsletter, say, this won’t really drive people to tell other people about your site. If you run a contest where you ask people to submit their art works, people will respond and they will tell their friends to enter, first because people respond better to challenges rather than bribes, second because competing with people you know seems to be a human trait. Also, making a contest with substance drives people to create items of value for themselves even if they don’t win the contest. So, if you were to create a piece of art for a contest you now have another item for your portfolio. If you win the contest, you have something for your resume.
Third, unless you are a well known authority, don’t make the barrier of participation too high. That is, make it relatively easy for people to enter and feel good about what they’ve contributed. For instance, if you were to run a design competition, you may want people to design a T-shirt instead of designing a piece of complex architecture. Nobody is going to spend the time designing a whole building unless you are a major publication like Architectural Record.
Fourth, really think about who the audience for the contest is and pursue them vigorously where they congregate. Back to the art contest as an example. It turns out that there are tens of thousands of people who are members of street art groups on Flickr. In these groups, they share photos of their work and others work. So, if you were to only send out the contest announcement to your email newsletter alone, you might end up with zero entries. If you create a Flickr group for the contest, and then announce the contest to every art group and major contributors to those groups then you will be well on your way to creating a phenomenon. My current Fickr contest, for instance, has received 50 entries in 24 hours and will surely see exponential growth over the next few days because Flickr is the place to be for this contest and my site is not. However, you can easily link back to your site from the contest site.
Fifth, never pay for a prize. This is something you will never ever have to do. You want to cross promote your blog and partner with someone. So, let’s say a PR person wants you to write a review of their art book for your blog. Ask for two copies. One to review and one to give away as a contest prize. Run a contest related to the book’s subject. This will make the PR person happy because they will get great exposure without a lot of work, and you get to offer cool free stuff in exchange for interacting with your site. If you don’t get that kind of offer, then approach the PR person first. They will often oblige with lots of free stuff.
Sixth, consider having the audience be the judge of the contest. Having the audience judge can create a firestorm of activity for your site because when a person enters the contest, they will surely notify all of their friends to vote for their work. Yes, this degrades the contest to be based on popularity, but that’s why you might have a people’s choice award as well as a judge’s award. This will maintain the impartiality the participants crave and still allow for a popularity contest to exist on the side.
Seventh, give props to as many participants as you can. Let’s say you have 100 entries and only one prize to give away. Then I would suggest making 19 “verbal prizes” as well as one grand prize. The verbal prizes are where you call out a person’s design for a particularly wonderful trait without actually giving them the prize. Even the acknowledgement of a job well done will keep people coming back for future contests.
Eighth, thank everyone profusely for participating and bait them with the next competition. Anyone that’s going to spend the time to enter your contest needs some sort of recognition even if it’s thanking everyone. Don’t forget to do this.