I saw lots of contests on different blogs those days so I also got a plan to organize a similar contest in my blog.I organized a contest in my blog for twice distributing some cash prizes,Entrecard credits and other gifts by searching lots of sponsors.Though the contest was not so much successful but it helps me to learn some useful lessons that i must need to learn so that in future I could organize a successful contest in my blog and help other to organize successful contests.1. Show the reason
Whenever you organize any contest you must show the clear reason that why are you organizing the contest or for what occasion you are organizing the contest.For example you may organize the contest on the occasion of increase in your Page Rank or other rankings.You may organize on the occasion of your happy birthday,some special festivals or on the blog's happy birthday.If you show the clear reason of organizing other people will have the reason to believe you.
2. Search for less no of Sponsors or none
If you have got enough prizes with you then you don't need to search for any sponsors or If you don't have sufficient prizes to distribute or want to make your contest bigger then don't search for large no of sponsors.If you get lots of sponsors in your contest then you will get lots of problems while distributing prize to the winner.It will be hard for you to contact with the sponsors again you may not be able to communicate with the sponsors which will ultimately may not fulfill the promised prizes.This will ultimately leads to decrease in the reputation of your blog.
3. Don't make it too Lengthy
Here Lengthy refers to the time duration.Whenever you organize the contest don't make it too lengthy because people will find it too boring to wait to the date of result and they may feel bore to participate.Therefore there must be small gap around 7-15 days from the day of announcement to the date of result in our organized contest.
4. Don't make your Participants your Slave
This means you must not include lots of tasks to be performed by the participants to participate in your contest.Some contests include lots of task to do like posting about the contest,Subscribing to their feed,following them at twitter, favoriting them at technorati,Digging their post and many more tasks.If you include lost of tasks to be performed by your participants then you will probably get very less no of participants.
5. If you got then include cash Prizes
According to some posts in some blogs it says that 80% people do blogging for money.It clearly shows that people will love to participate in the contest which has got cash prizes other then entrecard credits,Ad slot for one month or free back .Therefore you should include cash prizes as the main priority in your contest.
These are the five main lessons which i have learned by organizing the contest for twice.If i organize the contest in future then i will surely try to overcome the problems and try to run a successful contest in future.Till then wait and see.
