Another question - What have been your most successful blog contests?

Free wedding?

Random commenter picked to win something?

For someone like me that has only a handful of people checking my photography blog, how do I get the word out for a blog contest? I have seen other photog blogs that have done something like this and had very little response (even for a free wedding or something like that)... I can imagine it could be pretty discouraging.

The only people I know around here are neighbor-friends and church-friends. I don't mind sharing with them about my biz and/or "specials" or whatever happens on the blog, but I want to tread very lightly and carefully here. These are all new friends, very very new ones. I don't want to do anything that could scare them away or cause an awkwardness that is so unnecessary! Know what I mean?

Am I just being too timid business wise or are my concerns/hesitations legit??

oh come on.... I know many of you have done blog contests.... don't hold out on me now!

I've done a couple before either for free sessions or discounted products but I never get much response. I figure either my photos suck or people don't like free/discounted stuff

Sorry that I'm not much help. Hope you get some other responses.

I'm still getting a handle on this, but we decided to run one contest a month, and it goes out with our monthly email newsletter, so at least all of our current clients (and their families that access their galleries), get word of it. Each contest is completely different, and really, is meant to appeal to all sorts of different people. I'm learning that you need to advertise your contest if you want anyone to see it. Search out local forums, blogs of influential people in your community, bulletin boards (physical ones, like at the grocery store--people do look at them!), local publications, etc. I think they work best if you plan them far in advance, switch things up from time to time, and get word out in a variety of different ways.

My most successful blog contest involved getting clients to get their friends to come to the blog to vote for their holiday card design. It was a very long, drawn out contest, but in the end, I think it easily generated over a thousand unique blog comments, and I'm completely booked for the year.

It wasn't easy though. Starting in January, I put up each client's card design one by one, and not necessarily day-after-day, but just randomly. This was good because it gave me something to blog about in the slow months. And it gave readers something unique, yet expected, to come to the blog for.

FREE FAMILY SESSION CONTEST
A current CLIENT could win a free family session for commenting on each card design that I posted. If more than one client commented on each one, they'd be entered into a tie-breaker contest. That meant they had to look at my blog every day for however long the contest lasted, which was about 4 months. In the end, 2 clients had posted in every design, and 3 had only missed one. Those 3 were given a discount coupon for their next family session. The 2 who tied were given a tie breaker post. They had to answer questions, and in the end, I gave them both free sessions.

$150 PRINT CREDIT CONTEST
In a separate contest, the three card designs that received the most comments from unique visitors each were entered in a finalist round. Four designs were actually in that round because two of them tied. That contest resulted in over 300 unique visitors within a 2-week period, and my phone was ringing off the hook.

So, what happened?
* Clients who had ordered cards checked out my blog regularly to see who commented on their card.
* Clients emailed their friends to go vote for them
* Then, clients who were in the finalist round emailed their friends AGAIN to vote again, and this would have been at least 2 months later than the first email the friend had sent.
* Clients friends who had received their card had my name in front of them again, and my phone number, and it prompted many of them to call to book a session for this year.

It was a lot of work for me, and I probably won't do it again, but it was definitely a great traffic generator, and got my clients used to the concept of posting comments.

try to get it on the radio.

donate a session to someone in need ... take nominations yourself & tell the radio personalities about it (walk in w/a hand-written letter),

OR

do some homework & find a radio station w/a charity they work with regularly ... then show up at the station w/a hand-written letter for the radio personalities, offering to donate to that charity w/your work somehow ($$$, free session, something) & ask them to partner with you to get the word out.

It works. I've done it multiple times.
It also works on TV, but radio is easier to break into.

Has anyone done like a 'Bride of the Year' competiotion?? getting people to vote for their favorite bride you shot that season? How did it work out?

My Birthday Promo


We gave away a 2500K order!

those are all really great ideas! thanks for sharing!

Bumping this to get more input and ideas.

I just did my first contest and I have over 300 votes for the couples (only 3 of them, haha) in just a few days. I am excited by this and I want to run more contests. So I wanted to ask some questions.

1) How many contests do you run per year, if any?
2) What is the average value (if you were selling it instead) of the prize?
3) Name some other contests, maybe, if they aren't listed in this thread already.

Add anything else you want to tell me.. I advertised my contest on my Facebook, MySpace, on Craigslist, I emailed my past customers.. I just feel like I got a small response because I asked too much people, I asked to tell me an interesting story about how they met, and I guess most people don't feel they have an interesting story? I was trying to think of simpler contests to do to generate more interest. Like, take a silly snapshot and write a haiku. I dunno. I want it to be fun and a little original in some way.. If there is such a thing.

I await the great genius of OSP to respond ..

we've only run one contest so far and it was a HUGE success. we asked couples to send in stories of why they should win and a picture and the winner got a free engagement session and a free custom guest sign in book. brides are bonkers to win so we had something like 1500 votes. and voting was only open a few days. it was bonkers. we did the book because it benifited us. we're getting in on another wedding. all the guests will see our work. i like the idea of doing something simple though...

Amber.. I did something kind of similar, but I asked to tell a story about how they met.. So I think people may have felt that they weren't interesting enough. I guess just saying "why should you win" makes it easier. Thanks for the feedback.

bump! Any more ideas?

I put a simple contest question in just about every client blog post. The person who posts the correct answer sometimes wins an iTunes gift card, but sometimes just "lots and lots of blog praise." The CLIENT featured in the blog post always wins a free 8x10 or a free something else worth about that much. So, people come to the blog post after the client told them to go there to see the pictures, then the friend posts a comment.

It's really just a traffic generator, plus gets people used to the notion of commenting. Once they do it once, they feel more comfortable doing it on some other post.

I probably won't be giving away big stuff anymore on the blog. It was good in the beginning, but not needed anymore. I'd rather save the free sessions for big fundraisers, like to donate a free family session gift certificate to the school fundraising auction or something.

This isn't my idea, I saw it on a child photographer's blog that I stalk and thought it was clever.

This photographer seems to have a standing arrangement with some type of kid-orientated business in her town, I don't know if its a daycare, store, ballet studio, play place, etc. but she frequently has a large canvas print there to help decorate the place as well as advertise for her.

On her blog she held a contest for her clients (and their friends) to vote for which picture should go on the canvas. Her clients emailed their friends to tell them to vote for their kid's picture and the winner got to be printed on the canvas. The canvas hung in the business for a little while as her advertisement but then the family got to keep it.

I thought it was a neat way to roll advertising and a blog contest all in one. The contest had a lot of votes so I bet that those who were in the running were emailing everyone they know telling them to go to her blog and vote for them.

oh i love all these ideas!!!
totally using them when I re-launch my blog!!!

Oooh, I like that idea. Now I just need to find a willing business partner in this venture... my town's "downtown" lacks, um, charm, in the kid-oriented market.

oh love the large canvas idea.
i have some great places downtown
that would be TOTALLY into this . . .

These are all great ideas! How do you think you go about asking a business to do this? I've wanted to but have been a little nervous on how to approach it. I will be moving to georgia soon and need to figure out ways to get out there, so this would be perfect.