Match a simple contest with a nice prize and you’ll be the winner. Pick an easy to understand and easy to enter contest that fit’s your target market. Promote it everywhere and give it time to work, two to four weeks for example. Get it rolling and keep the momentum during the entire promotion.

Contest Ideas and Examples:

1. Generate visitor participation by allowing them to enter the contest by commenting on your site.

2. Build links and traffic to your site by selecting a contest winner from the best site review or blog post about your website. You could even let people enter the contest by simply linking to your site.

3. Build your list by making it a referral contest. Many affiliate programs use contests to boost the efforts of their affiliates and joint venture partners. Grand prizes for big ticket products from well known marketers can be as extravagant as a computer, paid vacation, big screen TV or even a car.

4. Increase your newsletter open and click rates by having a ‘find the hidden word’ or similar contest within your email publication.

5. Help your sponsors get the most for their money by creating a contest based on their site or product. You could offer your ezine readers a free ad in the next issue if they can answer a question found on the sponsor’s sales page, for example.

6. Need a website designed or a new logo? Setup a Logo Design or Site Design Contest. Give a permanent link to the winner’s website as a prize. Offer a grand prize that’s of real value in the form of a download or software.

Point System

Many marketers take full advantage of their contests by using a point system. Just recently I reviewed a site that offered points in this manner:

Purchase a Banner Ad (50 Entries)
Blog about the contest (20 Entries)
Subscribe to their RSS feed via E-mail (10 Entries)
Comment on the contest post (1 Entry)

There are multiple benefits for a point system such as that. The competition is covering a lot of bases by building traffic, selling banner ads, generating one-way links, building their feed subscriber list, and getting site visitors to participate by posting comments! Wow, who can ask for more?

Get Other Sites Involved

You can build both the contest and promotions very quickly by partnering with other sites. Allow other sites to contribute gifts and prizes in exchange for sharing in the benefits. Now your prizes are bigger, your promotions are bigger and everyone wins if planned and administered correctly.

Get legal advice

Always cover yourself legally. Consult with a professional or attorney before launching your contest or give-a-way campaign. Even a small mistake can cost you dearly. That’s why we see terms such as, “This contest is void where prohibited by law” or “All submissions become the exclusive property of whatever company”. What if one of your contest winners violate copyright laws? Are you legally authorized to give the prize or product away? Do your rules and terms violate another site’s rights? Save yourself the trouble of defending yourself later by getting legal advice before you launch.

Online Business

Contests, sweepstakes and give a ways have been a healthy part of business marketing for many years, way before the internet. Online business is perfectly suited for this type of competition. With the ability of offering instant downloads and the availability of worldwide payment processors you’re not restricted to one country or region. Costs can be minimal if planned well. No shipping costs, prizes in digital format can be purchased at very reasonable rates and advertising can be very cost effective.

Whether you run a very small site with one product or your online business involves many employees and sites, contests can help you achieve your business goals. A simple program can be up and running within hours so jump in and get started.

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Would you like to use this article on your website? See our EzineArticles.com bio page for details and a list of available articles. You must include the author resource box below each article published and please make sure each link is ‘clickable’. Don’t forget to come back here and leave us the page the article is on using the comments feature of this post. That will give you a search engine friendly link back

So you have until the end of today, Wednesday, April 30, 2008 to get your design in. Tomorrow afternoon we will announce the winner and award the prizes. Those prizes include a permanent footer link in ExtremeEzine.com, 1,000 Entrecard credits to use on EntreCard.com and a site/blog review by ExtremeSitePromotions.com. I’m also including a one year free Pro upgrade to YourAdTracker.com. See the contest details here: http://extremeezine.com/logo-design-contest/.

Each participant with a qualifying entry will get the image displayed on ExtremeEzine.com along with a search engine friendly link back to their site. By qualifying entry we mean images that fit the size, color and format requirements.

I wish everyone good luck and I’m very excited to see the new Extreme Ezine Logo. Submit your entries to http://extremeezine.com/logo-design-contest/.

Thanks,
Brian

UPDATE: I have decided to expand our Logo Design Contest. Now you’ll have a chance to win even more prizes. I’m also moving the applicant deadline to April 30th, 2008. I may at another point in time, decide to make extreme changesto the logo again.

Prizes:
One header logo will be selected as our Grand Prize Winner. Our grand prize is as follows (So far):

Permanent Footer Link – The contest winner will be selected by me and will win a permanent footer link in ExtremeEzine.com. Your Link will be as follows below our copyright info:
Extreme Ezine header image designed by: (Your Site Name and Link)

1000 Entrecard Credits – The contest winner will win 1,000 Entrecard credits. We will send you a coupon code that will add 1,000 credits immediately to your account. If you are not familiar with Entrecard or you don’t have an account you can get the details from their site. (Sorry, no substitutions)

Site Review From Extreme Site Promotions – The contest winner will also win a site/blog review from ExtremeSitePromotions.com. We will review the winner’s site within 30 days of receiving the site URL in the form of a blog post. The review will become a permanent post in our archives as long as the site stays online. The review will include a direct link to the winners site that is search engine friendly without the ‘no-follow’ tag.

Every Applicant Wins:
Every legitimate applicant will be mentioned, along with a link to their site in a follow-up blog post once the contest is over and a winner is announced.

Logo Guidelines:
Logos should include the phrase “Extreme Ezine” somewhere in the design. Image should be in .GIF, .JPG or .PNG format. Dimensions should be 390px by 91px with a black (#000000) background. No animated or flash graphics please.

Submissions Details:
Submit your finished logos by placing a link to the image in a comment below for everyone to see. Make certain I have your contact info in case you win. Don’t forget to subscribe to our feed to learn who won right way.

Legal Stuff:
This contest is void where prohibited by law. All submissions become the exclusive property of Common Sense Communications, Inc. Entries must be received by April 30, 2008. One grand prize will be issued to the top winner only. All top entrants will be recognized on this website in the form of a blog post. The entry must be your original design and not subject to copyright laws. Your design also must not include any copyrighted images that you do not own.

Current Header/Logo Applicants:
by Valleyken

by Byron Westcott

by KCee

by Tom

Enter your design below in our comments section…

NOTE: This contest has obviously been closed for way over a year. The post was so popular the comments was pushing it up front even a year and a half later. I have decided to close comments and move all comments already posted to an archive below. That way there is no confusion with new visitors and those kind enough to comment don’t lose their links. Here’s those comments:

 “Logo Design Contest”

Two weeks left. I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to enter the contest.

Good luck!