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Contests for Traffic

How does this work?

There are two ways contests can work to get you traffic for your website.

Be a Prize Sponsor

If you have a business that offers products or services, you can donate a prize to existing contests.

I regularly hold contests at my podcast, Online Success Cast, where I give away prizes each week to generate comments, which gets people regularly interested in listening to the shows. I sometimes give away my own products or products or services of those I'm interviewing.

As you can see, these prize donors are getting free exposure from everyone who listens to the show. They are also listed on my blog and have been listed in the newsletter feed that goes out daily to my blog readers.

It's a win-win situation.

Hold a Contest of Your Own

The amount of traffic you have is one key factor in determining your success. Without visitors to your website, you don’t stand a chance in your online business. One of the easiest ways to get a quick burst of traffic to your website is by offering a really hot contest.

How can hosting a contest help you get traffic?

People love freebies and contests. The chance to do something small and win something big is appealing to the human psyche. So, use that to your advantage – in a good way, of course.

How can you host a contest?

There are several types of contests you can host on your website.

1. A Drawing:

In this type of contest, contestants receive an entry for simply providing their name and email address. You’ll receive a lot of entries if you keep it simple.

Pros: You get email addresses and many entries.

Cons: No content added to your website. Lots of freebie seekers.

2. Submit a story, tip or idea:

In this type of contest, contestants must submit a story, tip or idea based upon your designated theme. This can be a great way to add content to your website, if you clearly state in the contest rules that all entries become the property of your website.

Pros: You get content.

Cons: Less entries than a drawing.

3. Share a picture:

In this type of contest, contestants must submit a picture to enter.

Pros: Interesting and pretty looking contest.

Cons: You may not receive many entries. If the contest is via email, you’ll be receiving attachments – which could invite viruses.

4. Call in an idea or story:

In this type of contest, contestants must call a phone number and leave a message (according to the contest rules) to enter.

Pros: Interesting and fun contest.

Cons: You may not receive many entries.

Set up a Phone Recording Line - Quick and easy way to set up a line for guests to call and leave recordings for your website. This is what I use.

5. Ask for people to link to your contest on their own blog, Twitter updates, etc.

Pros: You will get your contest in front of other people as those who visit pass on the word.

Cons: It can be hard to keep track of all the entries if you're not meticulous or people don't follow directions. However, this type of multiple entry contest works well on blogs because you can ask entrants to post a new comment for each entry they have and link to their proof for each one as well.

Tell everyone about your contest.

The next step is to spread the word about your contest. Simply go to google.com and type in “Submit your contest” and you’ll find a wealth of places that will allow you to list your contests.

Tips for Having a Successful Contest

• Make it easy for people to enter. They are oftentimes in a hurry and won’t come back.

• Use the contest to build your mailing list.

• Make sure to have a thank you page that your visitors go to after they enter. You can make money on an affiliate offer or another freebie on that page.

Set up your Contest in an Autoresponder

www.moms.aweber.com – A reliable autoresponder service used by many of the top internet marketers – and a great tool for automating contest entries.

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