Does it ever strike you, why so many bloggers have increasingly started holding blog contests? And are ‘you’ running any contests on your blog? Let me tell you that if conducted properly, contests are a complete win-win situation for you: They get traffic; They win you popularity; Help you promote products; and Increase your readership.

After having run several successful contests, I learned the techniques to make them more effective and attract a mass audience. That’s why I point out that there are all possible chances that while attempting to get started with organizing contests, you get confused and puzzled.

There are a few things that you must keep in mind before running any campaign and making it reach heights. One thing that you must bear in mind is that before running any contest, you must make yourself visible on some iconic social media sites like Facebook; Twitter; Orkut etc. This would help you and the sponsor gain confidence about the expected traffic.

Next, you need to find companies that want to give away products or services. To get started with, you must try the following formulas:

- Contacting your advertisers would provide you more exposure, than putting your contest information in a simple banner.

- You must also contact the affiliate companies, in case you have any affiliate ads on your blogs.

- You can consider including a button on your site, which redirects to a page explaining the advantages of donating prizes for contests. Have a button on your website or blog that leads to a page explaining the benefits of donating prizes for a contest.

- Prepare a list of all the items you think your audience would like to win. The products must be related to your niche. For example, if your niche topic is health, give away some health products as prizes.

• After finalizing the items, contact the company briefing them about your contest, clearly indicating what you expect of them (what you want them to donate), and mention what you would be offering them in return (like a link on your website; or promoting their site; placing their ad on your website etc).
• Show your web statistics to the companies, using Google analytics.
• Clearly explain how the contest will be conducted and links you would be providing to their site.
• Discuss your plans to publicize the contest, providing all the vital details.
• In case they are donating prizes, keep them informed during the contest. There are chances that you earn some traffic as well, from them.
• Do not forget to send them a Thank you note.

- You can also consider giving away your own products, as a prize. Your audience would want to win your products.

After having the prizes, now you need to think about organizing the contest. What? Where? When? How?

Where To Host Your Contests?

Blog – I always recommend holding the contests on your blog. You can use the comment section for entries.

You can also consider holding contests on Facebook & Twitter.

Forums – Forums can be an excellent venue for holding the contests. But since all people would not be able to see your contest, you can rather opt for publicizing your contest on the forums.

When Should You Organize The Contest? What Should Be The Duration Of The Contest?

Now there isn’t any rule of thumb for this. It all depends on your traffic.

I would rather start the contests on Tuesday and Wednesday (they are the peek volume days); and close them on Sunday (lowest traffic day). This formula works pretty well for most of my websites.

You can consider starting a 1-day contest, which forces the people to participate right then. It can goad huge amounts of traffic for you.

I generally do not prefer to start 2-day contests, as they start & end in prime time. I do not see any reason to end the contests in a prime-time, when I can hope to get maximum traction.

How To Allow People To Participate?

Concerning participation in the contest, you must make it as simple as possible.

Usually, what I do is, I ask a very simple meaningful question. To enter the contest, people need to submit their answer to that question.

In case of organizing some photo contest, or drawing contest, you need to very clearly provide the instructions as to where to upload the photos or drawings, etc.

Something really exciting that you can do – offer additional entries for spreading the word about you, or joining your Facebook Page, or following you on Twitter.

How To Publicize Your Contest?

There are numerous ways to do that. Assuming it to be a blog contest, you must try the following (I too do the same J ):

Provide a link to the company offering the prize(s).

Post to all the social media networks used by you including Twitter, Facebook, Orkut etc.

Offer extra entries to those participants who spread a word about you.

In some cases, I even send the newsletters carrying the essential information about my contests.

Do not forget to include it in your site’s RSS feeds.

Keep the option open for the companies, donating the prize, to also participate in the contest.

How to Chose The Winner(s)?

You can randomly pick the winners, or based on content, or through voting (I prefer a random pick, but occasionally also use the other methods).

If your contest involved providing expert tips for acne cure, the ‘best tip’ or the ‘best treatment method’ could be your pick. This is a time-consuming process.

Voting: Often, whenever I conduct some photo contest, I funnel down some 10-15 best entries, and then open them up for voting.

Random Pick. Often I employ this method to pick the winners. This is less-time consuming.

When To Announce The Winner(s)?

Your audience must know where and when would the winner(s) be announced.

Either announce the winners on the blogpost or alternatively you can also announce them on Twitter or Facebook (I do that occasionally).

I am sure that you must have picked some useful information on conducting contests. Not all methods work for all the contests. So, innovation is the key. Keep inventing new ideas and see the results.