What I Learned From Darren Giving Away $60,000 of Prizes in a Week
So you will do-doubt have noticed Darren Gave Away $60,000 of Prizes in a Week. You can already see Darrens conclusions, but after reading his list I had a thought I want to share and get your opinion on.
The Problogger give-away was a big success I am sure, and Darren has learned a great deal that will make the next much better, but what struck me about the prize bonanza makes me wonder about doing competitions at all.
Could competitions be a turn-off?
I don’t for a minute think Darren lost any subscribers, in fact he gained some. But for me, watching the blog, seeing all the competition-related posts fill up the RSS, made me think about the nature of competitions.
Say you have 10k subscribers and 1,000 people enter a competition with 5 prizes. That is 955 disappointed people and 9,000 people who were not interested in the first place.
Yes, you gain attention, links and some new subscribers, but how loyal will those people be longer-term when the prizes stop coming.
Perhaps the key is to combine the competition with lots of other great content at the same time so your main topic gets equal billing?
As I say, this is not a criticism of Darrens or any other competition, I just wonder if competitions in general could be damaging as well as great publicity?
What do you think?
Posted on October 12th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Marketing
I don’t think it’s just some readers that could get bored of it, it wasn’t all sunshine and lollypops for the sponsors either. I got sent less than 30 uniques by having my link dumped in with over 30 others for offering a free review on Blogging Fingers (normally costs $45). Not a very good deal at all.
Sorry to hear that Matt, I expect Darren will take note though and make sure his next project gives more attention to individual sponsors.
Agreed, like I’d mentioned in Darren’s thread, he should have reduced the number of sponsors, which would eventually increase the value of the prize being offered.
Also, since the prizes are lesser, he’d have been able to set higher standards for an entry - the only worthwhile contest was the one about charity IMHO, that’s not to say I didn’t go about in right earnest making a comment in almost all the other contests, the chances couldn’t be passed up, but I would have preferred more on the charity type - needn’t necessarily be on the same topic, anything that makes you do something worthwhile rather than comment spam!
@Matt
That’s exactly what I meant - reducing the number of sponsors would certainly have given more value for their $$$. Getting your link lost among 100 odd others isn’t very exciting.
That’s probably a good idea but from the readers point of view, the non-participating readers, do you think competitions are a good or bad thing?
For example my guest post deal, is that putting off my usual readers who want marketing and blogging advice?
I run a monthly competition that’s a random lottery for anyone who leaves a comment. I’m going on contest #4 now and would you believe every winner tells me they had no idea that I was running a contest? They left a comment simply because they wanted to! Duh. LOL
So I’m left wondering why I bother running a competition every month. It’s become a habit that I think I’ll have to reconsider after this one.
I visit Problogger occasionally but I’m not a subscriber. I stopped in, curious, to look at the competition but for me it was a bit of a turn off. There was just too much and being one of those types that starts heading in the opposite direction when a frenzied crowd gathers, it didn’t appeal. It was a bit like a boxing day sale stampede.
Overall, it has probably made me less likely to visit but I can’t extrapolate from that whether or not it was good or bad because I’m not a regular reader.
I can say that if it was on one of the blogs I read religiously, I might have been a bit p’d off. Then again, when the Grand Prix comes to town here in Melbourne, we all just avoid Albert Park for a week before returning to feed the ducks.
Or we did. Before the drought.
Why have a competition when you are the pre-eminent authority anyway? Competitions is a good idea to create a buzz with fewer resources and get a bit known. Its not the best thing you can do to create the feeling of “community” - as Darren’s goal was.
I think your tactics have to match your goals.
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“For example my guest post deal, is that putting off my usual readers who want marketing and blogging advice?”
You really can’t please everyone all the time. But your guest post deal isn’t a turn off. A few people may ignore it. But it’ll also increase the number of link backs to your blog and the traffic you receive from those other blogs. I think - its a very near idea - though quite time consuming.
I’ve decided to actually do one contest a month. By doing only one contest a month I can focus the attention on one sponsor. So far they’ve been really happy with it and I picked up a few readers.
I tried to follow the contests, but I got intimidated by the MANY responses before I even got to read the posts. So I gave up!
@Chris
No - you’ve got a point there, it would certainly have turned off the non-participants, but as Ankesh mentioned, you really can’t appease them all.
To be fair to Darren, he produces great content and a week of holding a “carnival” isn’t going to affect his reputation.
But I totally respect you for what you do - its an amazing way to increase backlinks and I’m sure its going to be one hell of a tiring job for you! Honestly, I think you provide more value than a backlink from any blog would be worth, I read the first round of the guest posts and they have been nothing short of amazing. No wonder they’re being Dugg and Stumbled with earnest.
At the end of the day, Darren wanted to have a party for the birthday, and he got one hell of a bash - of course, there would be the usual “neighbours” and your “parents” who don’t appreciate it. (Pun intended)
I agree. I was in a program that ran a contest, and when I almost won, then lost, it definitely didn’t feel good. I was surprised by my own reaction- mentally I was thinking “Hey, it’s a contest, so what?” But emotionally it left a bad taste in my mouth. I think I had echoes of high school popularity contests that had me feeling yucko.
I’ve heard advice to run contests or give away prizes for all sorts of reasons, and every time I went to do it, my heart just couldn’t get behind it. We’re giving a retreat next week, and although we have give-aways for during the retreat, we made sure we have at least one something for every participant.
I am not such a fan of contests, but I won a $600 theme design by Nathan Rice in the giveaway, so I guess as one of the winners I am a pretty happy chappy… I will be a problogger reader for life now!
I found that I just took a little vacation from reading Darren’s blog while the whole contest thing was going on. It just seemed that it took over the ProBlogger ‘community’ completely…
Your guest post deal, on the other hand, is not nudging your regular content to the sidelines. It seems to me that most of the guest posts you’ve written are in fact adding value and depth, giving a slightly different slant on ChrisG-related topics.
I think it was quite an amazing spectacle. $60,000 dollars prizes sure sounds great on paper but, inevitably and unsurprisingly, leads to prize clutter. I’m not sure a single sponsor received the returns they were hoping for.
From what I observed, though, Darren was very transparent about the structure of the competition and what the sponsors would receive. I suspect that the crux of the problem was over-inflated expectations on behalf of the sponsors of what a de-contextualized link from ProBlogger would be worth. The solution is less and bigger prizes, with much heavier promotion of sponsors — something Darren already seems to have flagged.
Competitions are at their most destructive, I think, when bloggers begin to see them as the secret key to their growth. I’ve seen some bloggers stop creating the content they were making a name for themselves with and create contest after contest, chasing in-bound links.
Compare: “I’m posting about this blog because I’m trying to win something” with “I’m posting about this blog because I honestly think it’s remarkable for this, this and this reason.” Which of those inbound links would you choose?
I think you’re right. I tried a contest by giving away a book that I received as a preview copy. Comments skyrocketed and I gained some new readers, but that’s because the contest was 1x and super-related to the content of my blog.
I learnt, to my detriment at the time, how running a contest the wrong way can get you penalised by Google.
I was also a sponsor in Darren’s competition, and have a similar impression to Matt (above). My offering costs at least £400 ($800).
Still, it went to a worthy winner, which is good.
At my recommendation, one of my blogging peers offered a contest for new subscribers to build her blog subscriber list. Although her conversion numbers were strong, they were consistent with the previous month.
I suggested that she was “preaching to the converted” and the contest would have been more effective if she’d ran it on another publication — she needed to dip into a new pool of potential readers. Not to mention, it may have left existing subs thinking “Gee, I didn’t get a chance to win anything when I subscribed two months ago…”
For over a year now I’ve personally run an on-going contest as a subscriber incentive which amounts to a free version of a professional service I offer for a fee — I often worry that the chance to win the free version competes with the impulse to purchase — rather than paying now, a reader holds out for a chance to win.
Something to consider if your “freebie” is identical to a paid product or service.
Good question.
I entered one of Darren’s contests, but that many was a bit overwhelming. It doesn’t bother me so much not to win a prize, but I am a long time reader of Darren’s blog.
Even though Darren didn’t lose me long term he lost me for a short time, because all the contests were too much.
As far as gaining new readers, contests can draw in some new readers, but I am not sure how many of them will actually stick around unless you have regular contests.
As far as the sponsors, I think having so many sponsors was bad. I think that sponsors can gain some good PR in contests. The key is having the contest focus on the sponsor!
I wasn’t at all turned off by Darren’s competition. I entered several but didn’t win anything. Yet, I knew the odds were unlikely given the number of readers he has. But I thought it was fun.
I’m actually a lot more turned off by guest postings.
Not to change the subject, but a frank discussion about turn-offs is relevant.
Jeff, you know, I hadn’t identified it until you mentioned it here — too many guest postings turn me off also.
I don’t want to single anyone out here, but I can name a few high-profile, popular, excellent feeds that seriously lost me with too many “Guest Series” and not enough of the primary author.
How about a parallel?
I have tried several different mailers to my customer base with the direct goal of soliciting referral business and have offered rewards as high as $500 per closed referral deal. None of these have been at all effective.
The conclusion - you can’t pay for relationships, all you can do is build and earn them.
@David
I just read about your plight yesterday in one of Matt’s comment threads, ironically, I was going to have a go at the same contest you had trouble with!
Good to know you’re back though
About the guest posts, that’s what they should be - guest posts, and guests don’t stay forever when they visit, just the same way, guest posts should be regulated - personally, I wouldn’t mind 1 out of 10 posts being a guest post, but I’m sure it varies with each person.
I think Darren got alot of the prizes wrong, which meant I didn’t enter most of the competitions. Things like one-on-one consultancies only suit certain people in certain positions, and I don’t think he had the caliber of people offering the prizes that he really needed. Why would I take advice from someone who has a less successfull blog than my own, just because it’s a prize. A complete turn off.
I think more tangible prizes would have been better, how about some Photoshop, Ecto, Hosting, Stock images, books, iWork or some other tools that bloggers use every day. I wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of having, what may very well be, a spotty 12 year old designing a logo for my blog. Either get some tangible prizes, or some reputable names. Or maybe I’m being a little harsh…
I think competitions need to be managed in the correct manor but are probably a nice worthwile thing for subscribers that like that sort of thing.
If I ever grow big enough to offer comps I think i’ll probably schedule them for a particular day each month so that regulars have choice to switch off for that day if they so please.
PS. I like the new design. Good job Adii.
all good feedback. As I wrote at PB - next time we do this type of thing it’ll be much different. we’ll have less prizes, less actual competitions and hopefully deliver more value to sponsors.
I’d also point out that we did have a few prizes that were open to a lot of readers (one where up to 3000 people could get something for free). The hope was to not only have some high value prizes but to give everyone a pretty good chance to win at least something - to try to get over frustrating those who didn’t win.
Anyway - like everything I do - it was a learning experience and will shape the next one we do.
Appreciate everyone’s feedback.
@Darren - I’d just like to say that while it wasn’t my cup of tea I think that you took on a pretty mammoth task and broke some new ground. It was a learning experience not just for you, but also for the rest of the blogosphere. Anyone who wants to do something like this in the future won’t have to start in a vacuum. So kudos to you.
I was a little disappointed that after I won a 10 dollar mug, I couldn’t win anything else. Some of the other prize competitions seemed somewhat offhanded… like the “link to this contest” one and the “everyone wins a free sponsored to this new link directory we’re trying to get off the ground” contest. Over all, it was fun… I mean I won something after all.
I was really turned off honestly. Prizes were exciting but then again overloaded. Darren tell lot of stuffs not other blogging blog says….i didnt visted his site just due to this.
I was also surprised at the contest, it was great fun but there were a few issues.
Month long contest with other content (like you suggested). It was too short, it kinder finished before you got into it.
Also dont have contests on weekends..
These things will lose their effectiveness once everyone starts doing them. They key is to be the first, and when you do get a great idea to do it well
Yes I think being first makes a big difference to outcome but also means that Darren as first has to hit all the speed bumps that the rest of us get to learn from.
As I said above I think the project worked out great for Darren and I think we have all benefited from his learnings.