Need traffic? Have a contest!

People love to compete. We can't help it, it's encoded in our DNA. The superbowl was watched by millions of people world wide and billions of dollars were gambled on its outcome. So its natural that as the internet became popular, all kinds of contests started popping up. A simple search on google will turn up dozens of sites that list nothing but other contest sites. Its simplicity is brilliant, because everyone loves to win.

Website Traffic

The main point of having a contest on your website is to increase your visitors. Depending on the site, the other primary goal may be to increase sales, ad revenue from page impressions or make money through an affiliate link(s). Gaining that traffic can be accomplished through a variety of different ways. Established sites that already have a strong user base usually don't need to do much promoting at all, their users do it for them. A good example is the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest, sponsored by Real Estate Webmasters. A forum participant came up with the idea and pitched it to the owner of REW. He liked the idea and announced it on his blog. The goal of the contest being to have your site in the top spot on google for the term, greatest real estate agent in the world. Other sites picked up the announcement and chimed in with their entries and comments. A quick google search shows that a blog entry, ericonsearch- greatest real estate agent is currently in the lead out of 877,000 results. Some of the listings in google's results aren't actual entries, but are posts talking about the contest. Some of them are favorable, others aren't. Which brings up a good issue that you need to consider when running your contest, the possibility of negative press, which is something I'll talk more in depth about later on. To get the maximum return on your investment (prize), its essential that you create a literal traffic storm surrounding your contest.

Promotion

Even the best contest ideas will fail if no one knows about them. The key to having a successful contest and promoting your business is promotion across a wide range of mediums. A simple announcement on your site will not be enough (unless that site is Yahoo!). Start with the basics. Contact your existing users and let them know what's going on. Build the excitement level with those that already like what you're doing. They'll help turn your campaign into a viral one. Don't discount offline media if the contest is local. Traditional media can still be effective in driving visitors to your website. There are lots of websites that you can list your contest on for free as well, but they may not drive the kind of visitors you want to your site, so exercise some caution. Forums are a great place to promote your contest on, especially with so many niche forums available. You'll be able to focus your search down to the exact types of visitors you want. Press releases can also be effective for short term traffic boasts. You might also want to consider running an adwords or similar campaign to start off the contest and get the word out. Lastly, social networking can lead to huge amounts of traffic, but can be tricky. A great contest should bring in lots of traffic from social networks, because its natural that users would digg it, stumble, etc.

Feedback

Don't be surprised if not all of the reactions you get are positive. Its not surprising that competitors may not be to keen on your contest, but others may frown on it as well. Bloggers are always giving their opinions, and they may not be favorable. Dealing with negativity is always a delicate issue, but it may also work for you as well. Controversy does generate its own buzz, but it can have a backlash. Handling criticism poorly or not at all may destroy any momentum that you've gained. Thanks for stopping by and good luck with your future contests.