Contests, are they worth it?

I am pretty sure contests are good ways to keep members coming, but remember that you have to give out a decent prize for visitors to join the contest, is it worth it in the end? Do you make profit? Do you make long term members? I would like personal experience please!

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I am not sure if you can make profit (except if your site is allready big enough) but I am sure that you can make long term members.

And the best part is that you can use a contest to 'remind' to your members the existence of your site.

I make long term members with my writing and graphics contests every other month, and I also get a lot more activity. I'm adding a drawing contest as well soon.

I don't know about money or anything like that, because I don't deal with it; I refuse to until I get a paypal account when I'm 18. But it works for quite a few sites, especially if you offer advertising space.

~Crystal

Well, you won't make money, it's as simple as that. However, forum contests can be successful. If you have contests often, visitors will remember to come back and stay at your forums. If your contests are like "best member award", your members will keep posting with or without contests.

Referral contests are risky, they may give you a ton of members that are active for the life of the contest, but as soon as a winner is announced... they mysteriously leave.

Posting contests are risky too. Although they give you forum a lot of content during the life of the contest, after the contest the forum receives far less posts, this lower's the admin's morale.

PS. A great referral contest would be for a free hosting site. The winner gets free hosting or whatever, but all referees must have a hosting account to count. Make sure that you have to post monthly or something like that so that the member has to be active to keep the hosting account - Still by all means it is not perfect, but it's pretty close

ok thanks. I am wondering about giving away prizes, like i dunno a gift card of some sort. Are giving away prizes worth it? Or should you stick with giving away one of your site's services for free (like free hosting)?

Both work well. Everyone loves free stuff

yes but do you eventually recouperate what you've lost?

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yes but do you eventually recouperate what you've lost?

I don't think that you do, but in the long term you may have got something.

Contest is like a promotion cost. You don't get it back immedietly but it helps you grow.

Ok, thanks

Nikolas is spot on. When you see an ad on television the company doesn't make money back in the sense that you or I think of it. But in the long term, their market visability enables them to get a return on their investment, and ultimately a profit. If you run your site the right way, it is always possible to recoup investments made.

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