Competitions – More than just generating buzz

Everyone loves free stuff. The bigger the give away the bigger the crowd it attracts. Contests have been marketers secret weapon in the offline world for a while now. Everything from cereal boxes to chocolate bars to TV shows use free give aways to draw in people. It does not take a genius to realise this concept is very effective online as well.

I personally have recently used a high value product give away in order to aid the launch of a new website. If you are able to generate some good publicity, the extra element of the competition is a sure fire way of helping yourself spread the news.

The competition can do much more than just generate buzz though. It is a bargaining chip. You can get something in return for the chance to win. This is where the true power of the competition lies. Typically we use competitions in order to gain details such as telephone numbers, email addresses or subscribers. These details we can use at a later date in order to direct attention onto a new product or service, or simply back to us in general. For blogs, the subscriber count is often key when it comes to determining a blogs success and therefore the cost of advertising.

The internet marketing niche is very crowded and new blogs have a hard time having an impact. The competition has become the weapon of choice for new guys wanting to make it fast. The right competition can put your name out there and get you instant fame. With recognition comes the ability to earn.

There are two great examples in recent times; Alan Johnson and Gyutae Park.

Alan Johnson of The Rating Blog had a big competition, with prizes ranging from $500 cash to $200 advertising accounts to $100 Amex card. These prizes as you can well imagine attracted a fair bit of attention. On top of this Alan worked non stop guest writing for many popular blogs and encouraged people to promote his contest tirelessly. The result was quite remarkable with Alan gaining 1000 subscribers in a month.

Gyutae Park of Winning the Web has become a household name in the last few months. He attributes his success to his competitions. His first contest offered a John Chow review and did well. Winning the Web are currently running their largest contest yet. This time prizes include numerous cash prizes the largest of which is $650 as well as a conference pass to Affiliate Summit East, membership to sites, and many other fantastic prizes. The buzz already is huge. If this does not prove contests are worth it, I do not know what does.

Barely a day goes by without new contests being announced. Each being bigger and better than the previous one. Bloggers strive to outdo each other in order to gain the all important internet currency – traffic. Competition amongst competitions has got to be healthy right?

Have you run any competitions? If so how did they work out for you? If not, give it some thought. It does require some planning, but can really speed up your progress.