O.k, I lied. It’s not contests that annoy me. I think it’s very kind that you’re offering me free stuff. It’s the fact that most of the contests I see are the same. You promote my site everywhere and I’ll give you a 1000 ec credits. The only real winner is person hosting the contest.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. ZzZzZZzZzZzzZzZz

Win 1000 ec credits + $3
Here’s what you have to do to win this amazing prize!

• Subscribe to my rss
• Put a link to me in your side bar
• Post an entry about my blog on your blog
• Post about this contest on 34 other blogs

After doing all of the above I will randomly pick a winner.


Let’s face it, the above is a crappy, overused competition! The only real winner is the person hosting it. They’re getting nice free backlinks and pretend Feedburner readers.

Now, here’s an example of a good competition. It’s to big to post on here so I’ll summarise.

1st prize $300, 2nd an mp3 player, 3rd $20. Everyone who enters gets a free .info domain name.

Here’s what you do.

• The contest holder will give you a domain name and some hosting space
• You then have to create a blog.
• The blog with the most growth will win!

For me, this is a fantastic competition. People are not running around advertising someone elses blog for pathetic Entrecard points. They’re getting creative and winning a nice little cash lump at the end of it! Plus all that enter get a free domain. It’s original and challenging.

Check out this competition Here

Look, it’s up to you how you run your competitions, but please take some friendly advice. Stop making contests that only really benefit you and give something back to your readers.

ShareThis