Of course, if you want to use a contest to help increase the amount of communication taking place on your website, you have to put some careful thought into your contest and how you will implement it.

The first step in hosting a successful contest is to come up with a prize or prizes that would be attractive to your target audience. If your blog is experiencing some success already, you may be able to talk a company into providing you with the prizes for free. If not, it is a worthwhile investment for you to purchase an item that would excite your target audience and make your audience members want to participate in the contest.

Once you have determined the prize, you need to find a creative way for your readers to win the prize. Some ideas include:

• Giving the prize to the person who makes the most relevant comments over a certain number of days

• Giving the prize to the person who posts the most recipes, tips, photos, etc over a certain period of time

• Giving the prize to the person whose recipe, tip, photo, etc is voted number one by your community

When determining how the contest will be won, be certain to keep the content of your blog in mind. If your blog is about being a homeowner, for example, you might ask your readers to post cleaning tips, home improvement tips or even money-saving tips. If your blog is about baking, you might ask readers to post their favorite cake recipes.

By having your community members vote on their favorite entry, you can further get your readers involve in the process. Just keep in mind, however, that voting on things such as which recipe is the best can be difficult because you may get dozens of entrants and your community members won’t have time to try them all before the contest ends.

Hosting a contest on your site is not only a good way to get lurkers to start leaving comments, it is also a great way to boost site traffic. After all, as word spreads about the great contest you are having, more people will decide to visit. If you do a good job of posting interesting and relevant content throughout while the contest is in effect, you just may be able to hook your new visitors into coming back even after the contest is over.

You can expect over $2500 worth of awesome prizes to be won. As they always say, ‘This is one contest everyone should be excited about’.

The Grand Prize

A ticket to the Event Apart which is held in the USA. The Ticket is worth about $1,000.00 and will be good for any 2008 event. Courtesy of PB from Piss Biscuit

Winner #1

1. 12-month private membership at LifeFoc.us, courtesy of FullTiltBlogging.com, the brain child of Aaron Abber (Worth $324)
2. 30-min live blog consultation by Rockfuse.com (Worth $30)
3. 1 month 468—60 Ad Spot from Tech Suave (Worth $30)
4. 3,000 Entrecard Credits from Brian Hawkins @ Extreme Ezine

Winner #2

1. $500.00 dollar credit for Blog Re-design courtesy of Piss Biscuit.
2. 30-min live blog consultation by Rockfuse.com (Worth $30)
3. 1 month 125—125 Ad Spot from Piss Biscuit (Worth $40)
4. 2000 Entrecard Credits from Brian Hawkins @ Extreme Ezine

Winner #3

1. Blog Review courtesy of Piss Biscuit (Worth $100)
2. 60-min blog consultation by The Net Fool (Worth $60)
3. 1 month 125—125 Ad Spot from Etienne Teo (Worth $25)
4. 2,000 Entrecard Credits from Jay @ DatMoney.com

Winner #4

1. 1 Copy of Premium Theme from WooThemes by Piss Biscuit (Worth $100)
2. 1 Custom Banner Design (468—60 or 125—125) from DatMoney.com
3. 1 month 125—125 Ad Spot from Yours Truly, Blog for Beginners (Worth $20)
4. 2,000 Entrecard Credits from Jay @ iBlogtoBlog.com

Winner #5

1. 1 Copy of the Revolution WordPress Theme from Brian Gardner (Worth $80)
2. 1 month 125—125 Ad Spot from Etienne Teo (Worth $25)
3. 1 month sidewide PR3 link on both DatMoney.com & iBlogtoBlog.com
4. 1,000 Entrecard Credits from Michael Aulia’s Tech Blog

Bonus Prize

The contestant with the highest no. of points (both maximum and referral points) will win 3,000 Entrecard Credits from WP Beginners

Dont’ Miss this One!

There are some great prizes available split between two winners:

Contest Winner:

• $100 cash via Paypal
• 125×125 Sidebar Banner for August

Contest Runner-up:

• 125×125 Sidebar Banner for August

Before I announce the winner of the new Problogger book, I wanted to share some items with you about my new image hosting site.

So far, ImgSlot.Com is kicking some serious arse…on only it’s second day, we nearly broke the 1000 unique visitors mark!! How cool is that?

Getting traffic to it is pretty easy, and the best part about image hosting sites is the fact that once you get people going to it and using it, it starts to become an automated process. A month of solid promotion should set it up for the long run, although I’m not the type to stop promoting…what’s the fun in that?

Right now, I have Adbrite ads running on it, due to the fact that you get paid by the amount of impressions (although they have cpc as well) you show, and so far, it’s actually earning! It’s only made a couple bucks, but hey, for being around 48 hours old, and not even at it’s peak traffic wise, I expect a pretty good ROI, so I’m going to stick with Adbrite for quite some time to see what happens. It’s a really clean and easy to use ad network, and I strongly recommend using it on your blogs. I’m actually going to replace the Adsense ads on this blog with Adbrite – it just seems like you get higher CTR’s with Adbrite. I guess people are burned out on Adsense, who knows. If you’re interested in trying out Adbrite, just click on the banner to the right to get started, like I said, it’s extremely easy, and may be worth your time to try it out

Winner of the Problogger Book

Now on to what everyone has been waiting for! After a random draw of subscribers, I’d like to congratulate:

leadpal@etvoi*****.com (email address partially censored out for spam control)

Congratulations!!!

Please get in touch with me to finalize the details.

For the rest of you, I ask you kindly not to evacuate or get mad that you didn’t win, because I LOVE to give stuff away, and typically only my subscribers have the opportunity to win, so stay signed up if you want a chance at more cool free stuff in the near future

Thanks to all who participated, and I hope to see you back!

The Problogger book, written by Darren Rowse of Problogger.Net, and Chris Garrett of ChrisG.Com, is an unbelievable information packed resource of how to make a realistic income with your blog. And yes, it’s a “real” book! The pair are certainly qualified to write such a book, and their extreme knowledge and expertise when it comes to blogging and marketing is something that all aspiring blog marketers should soak up if they want to succeed.

Anyhow, I thought this would be a good contest to make up for the last, and best of all, it’s a prize worth having. I was tempted to keep the book for myself, but I have another one on the way that we’ll be giving away next week sometime (or sooner if we’re feeling froggy).

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Here’s How To Enter

Entering this contest couldn’t be easier.

All you have to do is click the big orange button below to subscribe to my feed via email, and you’re in!

COMPETITION CLOSED, GUYS

Although it’s not necessary, if you enter, drop a comment below and let me know. That way I can get a quick idea of how many people are entering If it goes over well, I’ll give away another one, hell, maybe a couple more! (Then I’ll definitely have to keep one for myself!)

The contest will run for exactly 1 week, so next week on Friday, May 23rd, I’ll pick the lucky winner!

Also, for a bonus entry, write a quick blurb on your blog about this contest (doesn’t have to be lengthy, just a mention would be fine), and I’ll count it as an extra entry! This certainly isn’t necessary, but if you really want the book, it will boost your odds of winning!

Up for grabs on ClubBlogger’s first contest is a super cool, cobalt blue WordPress coffee mug. This thing is sharp, and would look great on any desk, whether you’re at home or at work. It features a footed base to avoid those pesky spills that fuel the keyboard industry (I should have bought stock in keyboards a long time ago!)

Anyway, to get your hands on one of these super cool mugs, all you have to do is subscribe to our RSS feed, and leave a comment saying you did so!

Deadline to enter is May 4th! Winner will be announced on May 5th in the morning time!

I’ll trust that if you enter, that you’re telling the truth – after all, most people are good in my book

Hope to see some entries, and if you have any questions, just let me know!