Contests & Content - Tell Me What You Want!
5 January 2008
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10 CommentsI’m planning to host a fantastic contest in the coming weeks but I want to get your feedback. This will be the first of many contests I hope and I’m looking forward to your responses so I can make this contest a hit with all readers of not only my blog but yours as well!
Your Ideal Prize
You get to tell me what kind of prizes you would like to win. Would you like gift vouchers for Amazon? Books about writing? An e-book package? A hamper of stationary? A magazine subscription? What else would you feel could make an idea gift or prize for writers? What is it you’d love to win for yourself?
Feel free to make a lengthy list; prioritize it! What do you think would be good as first, second, and third place rewards? What sort of budget would you like to see involved? If you were running your own contest what would you want to give to the winners? How much would you be willing to spend?
Pick A Number? Quality Counts? User Poll?
I don’t want to run any popularity contests here so what do you think would be the ideal way to decide who wins? This upcoming contest would have each writer to writing (this is a blog for writers after all). But how would we go about deciding which of the entries would win?
Many fantastic writers competing against each other will make it challenging to judge. Should I use my own judgment to choose the best of the best? Would you prefer entrants to have the control with a User Poll? (this could generate traffic for everyone) Should I use a random number, roll the dice, pick a card, or flip a coin?
What other methods can you think of that would allow a top three to be chosen out of many entries? Have you seen other successful contests? What was their method?
Do You Have Contest Ideas?
I’d love to run more contests from time to time. If you have any ideas or suggestions leave a comment to let me know. I’ll see what I can work into The Writer’s Round-About budget and schedule.
I’m excited about this upcoming contest and I’m looking forward to your feedback. Your input will play a significant roll in the way contests are hosted on The Writer’s Round-About. Are you excited? You have free range here.
Tell me what YOU want!
Hey,
What a great site for writers! I’m surprised I haven’t been here before.
Contests? I love contests. As for the prize, an amazon.com certificate is always good because the winner can use it for whatever he/she needs or wants.
Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer’s Coach
http://www.workingwriterscoach.com
Each contest could be focused on a particular genre (based on a prompt)–that would provide some variety!
Amazon is a great choice for prizes. GCs for different amounts based on place would work great!
I LOVE the writing contest idea–it is a great motivator to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). You could assign numbers to the entries and then do a random pick for the top three–readers could then decide the places. Or you could choose the top entries and have readers vote for the top three. Those that don’t win could always enter again! Your goal is to make it manageable for you.
I’m not certain what sort of budget you have, but I’m certain with the traffic you get that quite possibly you could get some “freebies” as prizes. A gift card to Amazon, say $25 for first place (again, depends on budget).
A mag. sub. to Writer’s Digest for second place.
A book about writing for third (books like Writing Magic–about $6, On Writing–about $8, Writing Down the Bones–about $9 would make great prizes. I notice that people (me included) go crazy for just about any prize. I love BOOKS of any sort!
If you have a bigger budget, writing software would be cool. There are products that range from very affordable to ridiculously expensive (check out: http://creative-writing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/).
Other prizes would be digital recorders, journals, writing implements, organizational materials (I LOVE office supplies–it is a strange obsession).
Yikes, I could go on, but I’ll stop here. Looking forward to the contests–thanks for holding them!!!
@ Suzanne: Welcome to The Writer’s Round-About, Suzanne! I’m glad you found it! It sounds like amazon is a popular vote and it is an easier option for me than physical goods because of the international shipping that may be involved.
@ LaskiGal: *chuckles* You’re sounding a LOT like my recent post Amazon’s Having Pre-Christmas Sales. I raved about stationary, magazine subscriptions, books and gadgets too. Those are the things I love so I guess many writers are like me in that regard.
@ Everyone: Should I have asked for donations of prizes? That is a great idea. It would be an opportunity for marketing and advertising to donors. It would also mean a bigger budget in the sense that any donations could build on top of what I can afford to spend (which is modest but not miserly).
Great suggestions so far! Keep them coming. *grins*
I think Amazon is a great choice also. I love Amazon I just purchased a lot of books about freelance writing. I also like the idea of donations. I’m planning something similar on my main website.
I’m happy I found your website.
Hmmm… I think the Amazon gift certificates or books would be great. I agree the subscription to WD would be nice as well. I’ve seen other blogs have ebooks donated as a prize. That’s an option.
Whatever you decide, Rebecca, I’m sure it will be great! Don’t feel pressured to present outrageous prizes - your blog is a prize in itself!
Ooh, I love contests! I definitely vote for Amazon gift certificates. You could do $25, $10, and $5 for first, second, and third places.
Hmm, random contests, not so much fun. More like a raffle and relies more on luck than skill and talent. I’d like to work for my prize, heheh! Nah, random drawings are alright (I guess).
You can start the contest by posting a prompt or query, and everyone enters by commenting. Then, on another post, you can use a poll to figure out the winners. I’m thinking that some of your readers won’t enter but would vote, and the poll allows for anonymous voting. You might try to find a poll that doesn’t allow double or multiple votes from one IP address.
You can actually get quite a few posts out of this contest:
1. This post
2. Contest Details and entries
3. Voting Post
4. Results
5. A feature or guest post for the winner?
Well, those are my ideas. I’m looking forward to the contest!
It sounds like Amazon is the clear winner. It is the easiest option but hardly creative. Amazon gift certificates could even be used to subscribe to Writer’s Digest.
I think I will go with the poll idea. It gives readers a chance of more interaction and contest entrants the opportunity for more readers.
Meanwhile, I’ve got a few loose ends to tie up before I can launch the contest but it is definitely coming soon. Thanks for all your feedback and if anyone else has more ideas or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Yes–I think you could easily ask for donations–in exchange for a mention in your blog or a little ad space. Why not? From what I’ve observed since I started blogging (I’m relatively new), it seems that exchanges like these happen quite frequently.
You could consider asking some of the blog designers to donate a “free template” or “free header design”–people love to personalize their blogs–in exchange for advertising them on your blog.
Hitting up independent booksellers would be a great idea as well. Editing services, office supplies (gosh, I’m an addict) . . .
Thanks so much for the fantastic ideas, LaskiGal!
[...] of our new design I thought it would be fun to also launch our very first contest. Last week, I asked you what you want from a contest, what prizes you’d love and how you wanted to be involved. The response was wonderful and it [...]
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