How to Host A Blog Contest
- 1). Give the contest a purpose. Every contest should have a purpose. It’s not enough to simply state that you are hosting a contest to give something away for free. You need to tie the contest into an event, a product line introduction or an action.
- 2). Know your state laws. Every state has laws set in place when it comes to holding drawings, sweepstakes and contests. Knowing these laws can keep your company out of legal trouble.
- 3). Spell out the rules. Contest rules tell contestants what they can and cannot expect. It also protects the company and the blogger from any legal actions that may result from mishaps with the contest or product defectiveness. A few rules to consider are: age limit; who may or may not enter the contest; how many entries one can submit; how one is to enter your blog contest (a comment on your blog a or post on their blog with a link back to yours); contest deadline; reservation rights, such as reserving the right to change prizes should something prevent the original prize from being available; disqualification rules; promotion rules such as being able to use the winners name and/or photograph when announcing the contest’s end; and who pays taxes and shipping on prizes.
- 4). Pick a prize. What you offer the winner(s) will help define the success of your contest. A pair of plastic Harry Potter glasses for your bookstore’s pre-launch party isn’t going to draw very much traffic, but a copy of the new book, a pair of glasses and even a Harry Potter costume just might—especially if you can get the book signed by the author or one of the actors!
- 5). Take action. It’s not enough to host the contest on your blog, you need to draw traffic to your blog through press releases, blog carnivals, forums, free contest announcement sites, and yes, other blogs. Just remember that spamming isn’t an option.
- 6). Pick a winner. The best part of any blog contest has got to be picking the winner. It’s very important that you announce the winner on your blog. You can do this by posting a comment in your post’s comment area, by adding an addendum to the end or top of your original blog post--or by making an entirely new post. Just remember to keep the winner’s address, phone number and email confidential.
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