As a blogger you live and die by your traffic. It doesn't matter if you're in the travel niche, fashion, finance or sports, your traffic dictates your success. But the good news is that there are a number of ways to drive traffic to your blog, one such method being blog contests.
Blog contests are one of the best and fastest ways to drive traffic to your site, not too mention also a fun way. However there are a few guidelines which you can follow to help make your blog contest a roaring success, see details below.
Write Your Blog Post
The idea has entered your mind and you've decided you want to host a groovy contest on your blog. Now you need to come full circle with your idea and decide on the specifics such as the who, when, where and what. Do this via writing your blog post which will announce the contest to your readers and visitors. Be sure to mention what type of contest it is, the beginning and end dates, what awesome prize the winner gets, how many winners there will be (if multiple), how to enter and how and where the winner will be announced.
Once you write the blog post, schedule it so that it coincides with the beginning date of your contest.
Gather A List of Places You Will Promote Said Contest
What good is a giveaway if no one knows about it? This means you need to promote your contest on as many places and sites as possible and let all your blogger friends know as well. Email your list if you have one, send a tweet, link to it on your Facebook fan page and so on.
However one of the best ways to advertise your contest for FREE is via the numerous sites on the web solely exist to promote various contests. Sign up, send them an email or otherwise fill out their contact form and let them know of your upcoming blog contest.
3. Have A Good Prize
This is key and can make or break your contest. If you have a low cost or cheapish prize it will not stir up the excitement and eagerness you want in readers and visitors. You want people excited about your blog contest and not only that, you want them shouting it from the roof tops. You want them to tell their friends and their friends to tell their friends and so on. The only way this will happen is via a kick-butt super awesome prize. Think about the blog contests which you have entered? What made you fill out the form, tell others about it and most importantly - what compelled you to enter? Think about it for a minute then try to emulate this for your blog contest on your site.
If you have never run a blog contest on your site, now is as good a time as any. Follow our three tips above and then come back here and let us know how it went. We know that if you do indeed follow our tips above, you will have an excellent experience and raving fans all over the web - such as on Twitter and Facebook - promoting you and your site via your awesome contest.
Have you run a successful blog contest? If so, share your personal tips below on what and how you did it. We would love to heard your feedback.
Rachel writes for a car hire Brighton web company on the net and also covers various car hire topics in a variety of niches. She has run a variety of blog contests to promote her site and is partial to caption contests, which can be very rewarding and loads of fun to run.