GPS Contest Going Strong

Within the first week, we had a huge jump from 11 entrants to 89!!! Now, we are steadily getting people to apply, mostly from the Microsite and Twitter (Twitter does work!). This definitely surpasses our last contest. But it is not over till September 30, which means promoting is necessary.

For promoting I have followed some similar steps from before as well as made a few new ones:

1) Placed the contest widget with a related article about GPS on one of our owned microsites. From there, I submitted the link to digg.com, delicious.com, and reddit.com. There is a lot of noise on these social media sites, but the key is to follow others and build up a community. Everyday, I have been connecting and adding people to my followers. Unlike Twitter, following a number of people on reddit.com, digg.com, and delicious.com does not hurt you. Think of it like karma; you give some back, you get some back. Just remember everything takes time.

2) Tweeting it on the most popular days that I am seeing some activity. From testing, I have learned that on the weekend, actually generates more people than on the weekday. Therefore, I try to mention our contest twice during the weekend. Also, around noon to mid-afternoon seems to generate the most activity.

3) Writing articles on popular content writing websites such as Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com. First, I write an intriguing article that includes pictures, videos, and Amazon/ebay products-- generally, related to my prize. Then within the article, I include a link to the contest page. For members on those websites, they are use to and like to read intriguing content; therefore, this is the best way to advertise the contest- a link within a body of content.

If you have any contest promoting tips, please leave me a comment!

Facebook Contest Begins!

For the next contest we have decided to give away a GPS Navigation System-- the Garmin Nuvi 1350T with Lifetime Traffic included. This is definitely a larger prize than the Twitter one. First, I set up an account with Wildfire Interactive, Inc. Second, I posted all the necessary photos, content, etc. on their easy set-up page. For 100 dollars, our campaign would be promoted on their page (good for the first half of the contest, since it does slowly move down as new campaigns approach), 30 days of contest hosting, and multiple number of faucets provided -- a widget to put on our website (an orange bar promoting the contest), a Facebook page (to drive Facebook users to our fanpage), separate Twitter page (promotes people to write on their own Twitter feed that they have entered the contest), and a microsite (that we can use on our many owned urls). Looking back now, the deal was a great offer.

Also, we can easily see who came from where-- a multitude from our Twitter site and from our microsite. The contest has only been going on for 8 days now, and already 90 entrants. What a great success!

This contest was set-up differently from the last with entrants asked to answer three multiple choice answers about online financing. This offers great research to generate future content. I cannot wait to see what people say as the number one reason why they would use online financing, and the number one reason they would not use online financing (if applicable).

If someone asked me if I would recommend the Wildfire Interactive service, I would have to confidently say yes. The process was easy, and the results are there. Now all I have to do is keep it going by tweeting, posting more articles, etc.

I'll keep you updated.