Contest Prizes for your members?

Discussion in 'Member and Staff Management' started by Zerth, May 28, 2013.

  1. Zerth

    Zerth Regular Member

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    Well, I think if you hold contests regularly, you're sure to get members joining.

    But I'm wondering, what do you think is the best contest prizes to be given out?
    Of course money would be at the top, but what else?
     
  2. ConfabIt

    ConfabIt Regular Member

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    We've started holding regular contests, but we get no new members. xD

    Erm, well whatever you offer should be relevant to your forums theme I guess; if it's a general forum then you have a somewhat difficult time due to member's varying interests. I had a few games lying around which I tried to give away, but I didn't get much interest in those.
     
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  3. Soliloquy

    Soliloquy Regular Member

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    Amazon gift cards are always a popular choice. For the contests I'm planning I've amassed a number of cupcake recipe and idea books, jewelry, notepads, etc. If there are any businesses present on your forum, you might try asking them to sponsor the contest by donating items.
     
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  4. andyred

    andyred Regular Member

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    Loads of stuff can be given as prizes, If you have a Niche specific Forum then anything to do with that would help get more interest than just general stuff. Like if your forums is about Painting then give a away a Free Paint Set, or if your a fan site for a movie franchise then give a way a copy of the film or something. If you run a general forum then I would suggest an Amazon gift card or something like that.
     
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  5. Sylvain

    Sylvain Regular Member

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    In June I celebrate my forum 1st anniversary. I've contacted few companies for prizes. I collected more than 500$ in prizes for the members. The main goal being to thank members for their contribution to the forum.
     
  6. ConfabIt

    ConfabIt Regular Member

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    I did some competitions with prizes being a few Steam games I had. It didn't generate much interest, but it helps. I'm just trying not to make big purchases atm.
     
  7. ProSportsForums

    ProSportsForums Regular Member

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    I give away signed sports memorabilia but members have to qualify for the contests.
    The last thing I want is a bunch of fly by night members who only register for the free stuff.
    I also find that offering a choice of a prize or cash half the value of the prize works well.
    Would the winner rather have the $500.00 autographed jersey or $250.00 cash?
     
  8. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

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    Contests should give away something relevant to your content. I also suggest Amazon GCs. As you can just post a picture of something that is related and then say to be awarded in the form of an Amazon GC worth XXXX. But, contests are great things to use to secure yourself a business relationship with people you would want as sponsors on your website. Go to people who sell things you site is about and ask them to donate prizes in exchange for direct to consumer advertising. Companies love direct to consumer advertising. Getting their ads directly in front of the people who are interested in those things is invaluable to them. Another good idea is to allow them to send you contests prizes and in exchange you promise the winner will review them. You can get some pretty nice stuff if you start doing reviews on Youtube as for as products are concerned. May end up with a partnered channel and start making a nice income from it. Always ways to make money if you put in the time and effort. And contests can server so many purposes for a website :) Hope this info helps.

    Contest types.
    Posting Contest. - Get content and give out prizes
    Referral Contest - Get members and content give out prizes
    Raffle - Get money for your site and give out prizes
    Pools - Who will win survivor type stuff. Get money and give out prizes
    Review contest - Get people to reviews 5 content related items and make videos and such, Have a sponsor pick the winner, give out prizes

    So many things you can do ..Just couple off top my head
     
  9. thebrad

    thebrad Regular Member

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    Currently i'm hosting a posting contest to win £6 may not be much but for me it is i'm not rich so that is a lot to give for a forum of my current forums size we have 9 members and about 200 posts so when it gets more popular i plan on about £10 - 20 - 30 - 40
     
  10. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    When I run posting contests, I giveaway $100 to the top poster of the month. It usually results in a lot of activity on my forum. I've ran three different $100 posting contests since 2011 and they all worked out nicely. I ran them when I was running vBulletin 4 and had a top posters mod. I haven't found a top posters mod for Xenforo yet, so I haven't ran another one recently.
     
  11. Wonko

    Wonko Regular Member

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    Try this mod http://xenforo.com/community/resour...s-contest-winner-page-of-day-week-month.2831/
     
  12. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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  13. Sylvain

    Sylvain Regular Member

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    Yes it works, I just downloaded it few seconds ago....
     
  14. Jack Rouse

    Jack Rouse Regular Member

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    I've run competitions in the past of varying types, from posting comps to fantasy league, but never had a large take up, I found it didn't encourage new members, and didn't really succeed, maybe I did something wrong. ?
     

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