Create a Buzz by Running a Contest

Running or sponsoring a contest or sweepstakes is a great way to get a ton of traffic and exposure to your website. Most people love contests and sweepstakes and go crazy at the chance of winning a prize.

MichiganBusinessHub.com just launched an Online Contest with over $1,300 in prizes; while this contest is geared toward business owners you can create a contest to target your current customers, new prospects or joe average consumer. 

When planning your contest, be sure to make it super easy for people to enter, then once they have entered start marketing various ways they can earn more points, tickets or entries by completing various tasks like:

Subscribing to your blog
Adding to Technorati Favorites
Diggin’ your contest
Subscribing to your RSS feed
Making a post on their blog about your contest
Linking back to your blog
Telling their friends about the contest

You are basically having the entrants help generate a buzz about your contest while giving them additional opportunities to win the prizes.

What Prizes Should You Give-A-Way?

It’s best to offer up products that may not be related to your business, like an iPod or the latest gizmo or gadget.  You could also get other businesses to sponsor your contest by offering up a prizes related to their business.

Once you have everything in place you need to promote your contest, sites like Sweepswire.com promote contests and sweepstakes most often for free.  You can also Google “Submit Contest” and Submit Sweepstakes” to find other sites or blogs that will help promote your contest for free.

Contests are relatively inexpensive to start and if executed well, they will generate a ton of traffic to your website, build backlinks and create a marketing buzz that is priceless.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.