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) . . .

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.

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!

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!

I’m happy I found your website.

@ 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*

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!!!

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