Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going - Part 4 of AnAudLife dot Com

In the previous post Planning Our Subscriber Traffic Strategy I talked about planning out our strategy for growing subscribers and today I want to talk about a fantastic method that works very well for not only growing subscribers but also getting lots of buzz and activity going about your blog.

Before I get into this however, I want to bring up an important point that I really want to set straight. Your job with your blog is not about trying to sell things to your visitors and you need to remember that. No one likes being sold to and what you need to do is look at it like a Doctor or Teacher. The good doctors and the good teachers are the ones that truly care about helping other people, they genuinely care about the people they interact with. Yes many of them… well in fact I am sure 99% of them would not be there if it was not for money but the point is they do not look at their patients and students as money. Focus on being a trustworthy resource to your site visitors that truly wants to provide value and they will trust you and come back again and again.

A Contest or Giveaway?

Contests and giveaways are very different from one another, a contest is a competition where a winner will be chosen because they have acheived the best results. Giveaways on the other hand are open to anyone that wants the participate and everyone has an equal chance of winning.

Contests (competitions) are great but I do not recommend them for a blog that is just starting out and the reason is it can limit the amount of people that may participate based on feeling unqualified to participate… but this of course is just my opinion.

What Does Your Audience Want?

I feel like I am beating this to death but this is another reason blogging about something you are passionate about it so much easier. If you do not really understand the market, if you do not understand the needs and wants and desires of the market then it is hard to understand what types of things would be of most interest to them. When having a contest/giveaway on your site you want to offer something that your audience would appreciate and you would be surpirsed to know that money is not the usual #1 choice.

Funny thing about money is that we all want it but it is not as big of an incentive as you would think. Offering $150 in cash will 90% of the time be less effective compared to a physical product of equal value. I am by know means certain as to why but my best guess is getting money is usually put directly to paying a bill or an expense of some sort and getting a prize… well that is different. For example, I would never buy a MacBook Air… yes they are cool and fun but they are just not very functional and practical but I would absolutely love to win one.

So the very first part is to understand what you are going to give away. You will need to come up with the initial prize because for a new blog the chances are you are not going to have people jumping at the opportunity to sponsor your site.

Remember that you look at the investment it is costing for the contest as advertising and you could blast through $100+ pretty darn quick with adwords, sponsored banners and numerous other strategies that would disappear as soon as the money stopped. The cool thing with contests is if you do it right the initial expense will be paid back over and over again for the long term through backlinks and subscribers.

This is why i mentioned in a previous post about understanding your resources available and you will want to be able to budget money towards this. What you need to do is figure out what you can afford and be careful not to stretch yourself thin… do not think that going into debt for a super prize will be much more effective then a less expensive prize.

Target Your Audience!

Over the past few months I have recieved a lot of sponsor requests and what I have found absolutely surprising is the markets some of these sites are in. Having a blog on gardening that is giving away a banner ad on a “make money online” blog is not what I would call ‘Targeting Your Audience’.

I think part of the problem is that people see what appears to be working on JohnCow.com and try to mimic it but fail because they are net stepping back and focusing on providing value to their readers, instead they are focused on marketing. You need to be sure that the prizes you are giving are prizes that your target audience is interested in.

The other reason for this is return on investment. Lets say you have a gardening blog that offers a grandprize of a sponsor ad on Johncow. This may be attractive to some gardeners that run a website but I would guess that 95% of the gardenign market does not own a website or need advertising.

Summary:

• 1. Decide if you want to do a contest or a giveaway

• 2. Understand what types of things your audience want (for example with An Aud Life, “Pain Relief” is what the majority of people in this market desire, so our prizes will focus on that).

• 3. Know how much you can afford to invest.

• 4. Put together a package that targets your market.

In the next post on this series I am going to talk about how to plan the criteria of your contest/giveaway so that it encourages people to spread the word and also helps promote your blog to various locations. It wil be a couple more posts about the contest side of things and then I will move on to the search engine part of promotions.

So what are your thoughts on this post… got anything to add?

• Part 1 - Planning Your Promotion Strategy
• Part 2 - Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
• Part 3 - Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
• Part 4 - Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
• Part 5 - Planning the Contest Criteria
• Part 6 - Protect Yourself Before You Start a Contest

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