In this post, I will discuss how you can run a successful blog contest. I have made a list of points which will be helpful for you before you start a blog contest in your blog.
Here are some tips on how to create an effective blog contest:
1) Duration of the contest: Make sure that you run your contest for a limited duration which is not too long and not too short. You have to give some time for the readers to create content for the contest. However, you have to make sure that you don’t give them too much time to forget if there’s a contest. One month would be ideal time for running an article writing contest. You may set more time if your contest is about photography or vlogs.
2) Set smaller but many prizes: Instead of a big single prize you can provide small prizes. That way many people will get something out of the contest.
3) Cash rewards are always better than goodies: The reason behind that is many of your readers would be in different countries. Sending gifts to other countries could be a pain. It will take time to arrange for delivery and stuffs like that. However, if you pay cash, you could do that by PayPal. Also, people like cash better than goodies. If you run services in your blog then you can also offer discount coupons for your services.
4) Acknowledge the winners of your blog contest by providing them credits: Everyone likes their pictures and bio to be published, your visitors are no different.
5) Proper scheduling: Whatever you do related to the contest try to do it in a timely fashion. If you say that you will be announcing winners on 15th, you should do that on 15th. That way your contest looks credible.
6) Relevant to your blog: Your contest should be tightly wrapped around the niche of your blog. This way you will receive relevant content for your blog.
7) Promotion by banners, buttons and widgets: You can create banners, buttons, widgets and other promotional items for the contests. That way, people can put your buttons and banners on their own blog. This is a very effective strategy to promote contests.
8) Post entries: Try to post all the unique entries you receive for the contest. This will create free, quality content for your blog.