Recently I’ve been involved in blog contest and the situation I’ve been put in was anything but pleasant. I’m not going to use names since all I want to do is to tell you what you should be aware of when running or sponsoring a contest. The following story is an example on how not to run a blog contest.
The story
Since I’ve started Blogsessive I got in touch with a lot of people that share similar interests with me and so I came to “virtually” meet the character in my story. I must admit that I enjoy the way he writes and the energy he seamed to put in the things he got involved in.
Based on that, when I learned that he launched a new project and held a contest to create a bit of buzz in the blogosphere, I offered my help as a sponsor with one of the things I really enjoy doing – logo design. And not one logo, but four identity packages containing logo, business card and letterhead design. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how expensive such things are when they don’t come as a prize.
All good, contest was launched and after a first episode, a winner out of four was picked. Wanting to not lose time, I contacted the guy asking for the winner’s contact details to get in touch and give her the prize. The answer I received was:
Sure, I’ll send them in a few minutes.
And that was the last I heard from him, no matter how many attempts to get in touch I made. Also, the information about the contest failed to show up on his blog either.
So, there I was, sponsoring a contest that died due to bad management and communication, with a winner that was expecting a prize and with a huge possibility of having my name put in a bad light.
Seeing that no matter what I did, I couldn’t get an answer, I’ve decided to do a bit of research and finally contacted the winner myself and offered her the prize, which she loved.
Consider this
Whenever you decide to hold a contest, remember that whatever you do – good or bad – will also affect your sponsors, and no sponsor wants to be in the spotlight because of you lack of interest in how the contest is managed.
Luckily, in my situation everything got sorted out, but not thanks to the guy I initially wanted to help.
And speaking of contests…
Make sure you check back on Blogsessive next Monday (of course you could visit daily) as I’m starting this months contest. I’m only going to tell you what the prizes are:
- Logo, business card and letterhead design by yours truly;
- A premium WordPress theme license;
- 1000 business cards printed with the custom design I’ll provide.
There will be only one winner for the whole package and there will be writing involved.
And just so that you can see a sample of what you could get, here’s a logo I’ve designed for a previous contest winner:
Check back Monday and be careful with how you manage your blog contests!