Once you have a blog up and running the challenge is to come up with new and interesting ways to drive and increase traffic to it and one of the popular ways to do this is hold some kind of competition or contest, with a quality giveaway prize at stake – but what exactly should you offer people to entice them to take part?
There are a number of options which you could think about – it really depends what type of blog you run, what business area you work in and also, most importantly, what would appeal to your audience and potential customers the most.
Blog Contest Giveaways Ideas
A free product
Clearly you would want the product to be related to your blog topics, so if you write a blog about health, you could give away a free subscription to a health magazine, or a gym, for example. The choice is up to you but the bigger the product value, the more buzz your contest is likely to make and the more excited people will be to take part in it. If you sell products it could be one of your own, but it should be something related to what you write about on your blog. If you can’t give away one of your own products, try giving away something branded. You can find loads of ideas at http://www.promotionswarehouse.com.au/
A sample product
If your blog has a big enough following you could work with another company and offer a sample of their product as your prize, in return for mentioning them within the contest. They will benefit from the exposure while you gain the extra traffic. Many companies will be happy to take part in this type of promotional exchange deal so it’s worth asking the question.
Time with you
Depending on your area of expertise, you could offer your time as a prize in the form of a free coaching session, review, or consultation session. This type of offer could be extremely valuable to your blog readers since they are already following you so respect your experience and knowledge in your industry already.
A free book
Why not give away a copy of the latest must-have book in your field as your contest prize? This shows you are up with the latest trends as well as giving something which your readers will find of value. You could also offer the person who wins the chance to review the book on your blog afterwards as a guest post.
A voucher/gift certificate
While it is preferable that the prize is related to your blog topic, it doesn’t have to be. Everyone loves receiving vouchers or gift certificates so you could make your prize a voucher for a popular high street store, or perhaps something more personal depending on your audience, like a free spa voucher.
There are many other kinds of giveaways you could think about – you just need to use your imagination and bear in mind what your audience would like without breaking your bank at the same time.
However, if you are hosting blog contests to drive traffic, there are a few things you need to think about before you start handing out the prizes so here is a quick checklist:
#1. Make sure your contest is legal
In some industries there are strict rules about competitions and what can be given as prizes so make sure you are operating within the law. There are also different rules for contests which require skill, vs those which are just random guesswork so make sure you check the rules first.
#2. Plan the timing and promotion for your contest
While the giveaway is the ultimate reason for people to take part in your contest, nobody will unless you tell them about it so you need to plan how long the contest will last, how you will promote it and how you choose the winner. All of this information needs to be made very clear and available for those taking part.
#3. Keep it simple
There are third party tools out there which will run your promotion for you and collect all the data so keep it simple and make it easy for people to enter, and for you to collect the information. You don’t want your fantastic contest to end up being a complete headache.
Running a contest with a giveaway can generate a great buzz around your blog and help to drive traffic and increase readership and awareness, so why not be creative, come up with a unique prize which your readers will love, and then push the details out there. With software tools to help you run the contest it needn’t be too time-consuming to set up and run, and could generate significant results. Promoting the contest widely will be the key but if you choose a great giveaway, you will get everyone talking naturally and spreading the word.