How To Host A Contest
In the contests that I have hosted in the past and my current contest held by Market Leverage I can say that I know a thing or two about contests. Not to forget, that I’ve won several of them and I have seen several of them that didn’t go so well. I think that aside from the rules that bloggers set out for entrants, they need to follow some rules themselves and considering that this is a major issue, I’ve decided to talk about it. So lets take a look at some contest hosting rules for the bloggers themselves:
1) Be Fair - I think this is a major issue. I’ve heard many stories or contests being biased and run unfairly and so its critical to be fair if you are hosting a contest. You can’t have special rules for one person while not offering it to others. I don’t think anyone would like it if they found out that a contest they participated in was rigged from the get go. Its unethical and you shouldn’t do it no matter what the reward is.
2) Make It Easy - Making contests easy to enter doesn’t only help you get a lot more entrants but it also makes you look a little less demanding and greedy. If you’re looking for contest entries that require people to fork out money towards your donation fund or have them dedicate a significant amount of their time then it really doesn’t look good on you. Make the contest entries attainable and try not to be too demanding.
3) Stick To Your Schedule - If you say that you’re going to post the results from the contest on a certain day or that the contest is going to end on a certain day then don’t delay it. You can wait upto 48 hours before posting results but let your readers know. Its somewhat upsetting to readers if they have to keep checking back only to know that there arent any results and no posts mentioning the delay either.
4) No False Advertising - If you say you’re giving out a Wii, make sure you have one on hand before you make that claim. I saw a contest where an iphone was promised and all the winner got was a knockoff. Its not the same thing. If you’re giving away great prizes then please make sure that what the winners receive is what you advertised as contest prizes on your blog.
5) Dont Cheat - I saved the best for last and that is not to cheat your readers and contest entrants. There have been many contests that have come and gone where the winners were never awarded or there was always something fishy about the person that won the contest. Not to mention the $2500 contest where the winner of the contest was probably the blogger himself. Its not something new to host an extravagant contest to gain link backs and rankings and then not having to give out a prize. It is deceitful and is definitely not the way to go if you are hosting a contest.
In the end, its all up to you how you run your contest and whether you choose to be deceitful or not but do realize that sooner or later, it will come back to bite you and you probably won’t like it either. So, I hope that you liked this post. I’d really like to hear some of your comments about this or any other contests that dealt with issues like this. Thanks for reading!
