Monday, April 21, 2008

To organize contests, or not?

9 comments
How long have you been reading blogs? Do you follow blogs that blog about blogging and related topics? If you have been reading blogs that blog about blogging for quite some time, you should have realized one common thing about all those blogs. Most, if not all, organize contests in their bid to attract more visitors and followers and improve their site rankings.

There are many blogs that blog about blogging, so there is no shortage of information available. Besides, if every other blogs are running contests, and one blog doesn't, it will certainly lose out in comparison with the others.

This is in contrast with the situation in the yesteryears, where blogs about every niche are pretty scarce and they are more valued by their own groups of readers. Although the number of blog readers at that time were small, those who follow blogs do so with pure interest and sincerity. They do not follow blogs just because there are weekly lucky draws or monthly contests with great prizes to win.

So, does this mean that a blog with good content won't be followed if it doesn't run contests? No, definitely not! The blog readers still have a tendency to follow the blogs with good content, but between 2 equally great blogs, it is more likely that they will participate in the one with more activities and great prizes to be won.

Am I for or against contests?
This is not a simple question. When everyone is organizing contests, they will be a tendency by some people to concentrate purely on organizing bigger and better contests, to the point of neglecting the original direction of their blogs. As a result, there will be more posts with no useful information (or so called spam posts) online while production of beneficial or resourceful posts are halted or delayed. However, the running of contests is still under control so far, there are no excessive contest posts yet (among millions of pages in the internet!), and there are certain bloggers out there who still refuse to buckle to peer pressure and continue producing useful posts, ignoring fancy gimmicks of the competitors. Considering this, I am in favor of contests at this moment, they attract attentions, convert blog readers to loyal followers and when there are more followings, there will be improvements, among the blogs that blog about blogging as well as in blogosphere in general.


I guess you guys will forgive me for talking too much about contests on this blog after I dedicated this whole post to explain why I am in favor of contests. Anyway, do check out the above contests if you haven't heard about it, I am one of the sponsors ... Try to spot the prizes that I offer :)

What is your opinion about contests? Do you favor contests or are you against them? Why? Share your views with us please, we will like to know.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My name is Abigail. If I'm going to organize a blog contest, I wouldn't do it for the cash or the potential visit-counts. The contest itself will be my main concern. Having that said, I wouldn't organize a contest, if I myself wouldn't want to be the judge or a participant in it. I wouldn't organize or join half-hearted contests just for the cash or visitors.

BobbyT said...

Thanks for commenting Abigail. Nicely said, a contest should be well thought out, sponsored and run appropriately :)

what about having an interesting contest and through it, you also earn more cash and visitors? hehe, that will be Utopian mindset!

Tekkaus said...

Hmmm...I'm not sure if i can organise one. But, perhaps not right now. Need a little more time to plan a contest. Anyway, all the best for you if you wish to hold one. =)

BobbyT said...

thank you christopher. yeah it takes a lot of work to organize a contest, and in my opinion it is easier to organize one on wordpress than on blogger, at least all commentator's email will be available to the contest organizer...

Anonymous said...

normally i don like contest,i don participate too. I feel that those blogger only give 10 prize and want 100 or more people review about them... not fair and sound like cheating.

I mostly do offer, I open to 50 person, and every one get the prize. Whole world happy

Anonymous said...

I'm actually testing out a weekly draw thing right now. My hope is that there will be people who at first visit just for the weekly draw, but then eventually realize that they like my content as well. We'll see how that goes :)

Unknown said...

I'm agaist contests for new blogs. I started a contest a week into blogging, giving away 100 ecs. Only one person enters after I extended the deadline. So, one needs a good reader ship before wasteing prices. I would have been better off waiting till a holiday to start a contest. But, I see the worth of a contest. Great post, keep up the work!

Anonymous said...

Doing contests is one of the best ways to advertise your site, but i think you should only do it if you have good prizes, no one's gonna enter your contest if you offer them like $5 etc...

so i guess what i am trying to say is i'm in favor

BobbyT said...

Yeah it seems that we all agree that contest is good provided that there are good prizes, many participants, many sponsors and many winners hehe!

And if any of you are planning to have a contest, don't forget to ask me whether I am interested in sponsoring a prize or two :) Thanks first!

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