We all know how a simple “yard sale” sign can increase a neighborhood’s traffic flow almost instantly. In addition to being listed in
search engines and appearing on our business cards, web sites need tools for attracting visitors, too.
"Although there are many sites competing for attention these days, appealing to people’s competitive nature is often the winning ticket to
boosting online business," says C. Hope Clark, editor of the FundsforWriters.com website and newsletter and author
of The Shy Writer, An Introvert's Guide to Writing Success 
“I can look at my website traffic and see the difference when I run the FundsforWriters Annual Essay Contest,” says Clark. “Website hits
rose sharply in the two months before the contest deadline when I was doing my heaviest promotion. E-book sales rose and newsletter
subscriptions increased. That's great, because the contest runs July through October and summer is my slow time.”
Publisher, genealogist, and freelancer Betty Dobson, editor of InkSpotter.com, uses door prizes given out on other websites—chat
rooms in particular—to help draw new visitors to her site, which often results in new subscribers to her flagship newsletter, InkSpotter
News, and helps attract new clients. “By offering a door prize, I stand out from the other chat attendees, even though most of us are
trying to promote our individual activities.”
In 2000, the now hugely successful CandleVision.com, based in North Carolina, used contests and giveaways to boost traffic during
the first year of its site launch, inviting visitors to sign up to win a $30 gift basket of the company’s products. As is typical with
such contests, entrants could also elect to provide their e-mail address in order to receive information on products and specials.
Owner Paul Hoge first blended wax with seashells in his mother’s kitchen and sold shell candles to tourists in his hometown of Naples,
Florida. In time, he was designing handcrafted candles for such retailers as Hallmark Cards and Walt Disney World. Within his site’s
first successful year, Hoge viewed the approach of using contests to draw traffic as “our main advertising vehicle.” The company’s
escalating web traffic increased orders steadily within the first few months. Even today, with an inventory of more than 700 products,
the site still hosts a daily prize-basket giveaway.
While increased web traffic is good, how do you ensure that it’s the right kind of traffic to benefit and truly promote your business?
"A big part of this depends on where you advertise your contest," says Clark. “You selectively choose the market and venue to reach the
appropriate participants. FundsforWriters promotes finding ways to make a writing career successful financially. Success is all
over the website. So our contest is success-oriented in essay form. It calls to the traffic we care to groom.” A contest needs to help
“brand” the sponsor or provider in this way, she notes.
“So far, my contests tend to be either autographed books as door prizes (donated to other sites) or straight-up writing competitions,”
says Dobson. As a publisher/writer, she finds both types of contests to be great fits for attracting the sorts of visitors she seeks.
Contests and other “surprise” elements can be part of the eye candy that helps to refresh a web site so that return visitors stay
interested, too. Contests are also a great way to cross-promote from one product to another, Dobson says. “For instance, I used my
Writing the Bottom Line column about the downside of self-editing to promote my Heritage Writer newsletter. The first
reader to spot a typo in the article won a year's subscription.”
CandleVision’s contests also help shape the company’s product design by surveying entrants about their favorite varieties of
candles and then using that information to create products that would attract different types of customers. The entry form also asks
visitors how they heard about the site, helping to track how the company is drawing its web traffic.
Running a contest typically has three main components:
- setting up the contest itself and featuring it at your website, which includes establishing the rules and providing information about
them, together with information about prizes and contest deadline;
- tracking and maintaining entries; and
- delivering the prize to the winner.
Generally, you need to have a form added to your site to catch, at a minimum, the entrants’ first and last names and email address. As
CandleVision discovered, this can also be a good venue for capturing other helpful customer information. When you notify winners,
it may be necessary to also fix a date by which you need to hear response from them before another winner will be selected.
For some contests, you’ll need judges to assess entries according to whatever criteria you establish, or you’ll have to do this yourself.
Random-drawing contests are easier to run, of course, and you can have someone draw the winner from the entries received, or even assign
numbers to the entries and use an Excel or MS Works program to let your computer choose the winner.
Based in Nova Scotia, Dobson chooses to run skill-based contests since “Canadian law is very particular about contests that rely purely
on chance when selecting a winner. If I were to simply draw names from a hat, I would have to obtain a lottery license. By basing the
contests on writing skill, I avoid being classified as a lottery.”
She funds her annual Finding the Right Words Flash Fiction Contest through a small entry fee and her site’s monthly Literary Lapse
contest is funded out of her own pocket..."which keeps prizes more modest," she says.
Clark also draws prize monies from entry fees. “In earlier years, the fees did not cover the costs and I used my own writing income from
ebook and article sales to supplement the prizes. I have had sponsors offer products as prizes but they have yet to offer cash awards. I
consider the prize money a cost in my business expenses, just as I do writers' payments for articles I purchase for my newsletter. Since
I am a sole proprietor, the expenses are simple to define.”
Clark also simultaneously offers contests with and without an entry fee, with two sets of prizes. “Those who feel contrary to entry fees
have an option. Those who wish to compete for the higher prize money have an option, as well. Everyone is happy. The contest has helped
our reputation and credibility, which we highly cherish.”
For non-fee contests, business owners often offer their own products or services as prizes, or rely on prizes donated by others who are
also looking to promote their work or services in this way, as Dobson does.
Clark and Dobson agree that so many publications and sites seek contests in their newsletters and online databases that the free
listing possibilities are too numerous to count. Neither has yet had to pay for a contest listing.
“When my prize month reaches that of more acclaimed contests I'll consider the cost effectiveness of advertising in a place like
Byline Magazine
or Writer's Digest,”
says Clark. “But with our contest participation increasing each year as it is, I see no immediate need for paid ads. This year, we had
174 entries. Last year, we had 124.” Those numbers were up from 75 in the previous year and 24 the year of the contest’s launch.
“The word gets around pretty darn well without handing out a nickel!” says Clark.
About The Author:
Phyllis Ring’s articles and essays have appeared in a variety of magazines. She runs a freelance editing business from her
home and is also an instructor for the Long Ridge Writers Group of the Institute of Children's Literature. More information
about her work is available at PhyllisRing.com.
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