Running A Contest Just Got Easy

Posted on September 10th, 2008 by admin in Domain Development, Domain News | 2 Comments »

I can tell you from personal experience that running blog contests is a big pain in the butt. Don’t get me wrong, traffic and exposure benefits are great, but keeping track of everything and staying on top of things takes a lot of hard work.

I ran a relatively big contest a few months ago winners of which were announced here. The contest lasted for a month and it took me a minimum of 2-3 hours a day just keeping up with all the emails and keeping track of all the stats and everything else that goes along with a contest of those proportions.

Well, according to ContestMachine, the days of keeping track of your contestants, entries, stats, prizes etc are over. On their home page, they invite you to

Run a contest or giveaway on your blog or website. We handle it all, from collecting entries to choosing and contacting winners.

Their contest management premise is based around placing their widget on your blog. Features that they provide include the ability to:

* Create your widget in seconds
* Match your site’s colors
* Set entry requirements
* Set start and end times
* Add your own prizes
* Gather valuable data

Additionally, you have the ability to collect emails of your contest entrants – to be used later for upselling purposes.

How does it all work?

1. Create – Create a contest or giveaway. Set entry requirements and limits.
2. Customize – Add your prizes (one per winner) and match the widget colors to your site.
3. Embed – Embed the widget in your site and collect entries from your users.
4. Select Winners – Review qualified entries and select winners. Collect mailing addresses along the way if you wish.

What’s the catch? The only thing that I could notice was that the free account places some limits on the number of promotions you can do and does not allow you to have an opt-in list. But, this is fair enough in my opinion – you can’t expect to utilize their resources completely without forking out some money.

Overall, it looks like a decent service and I will consider using it the next time I run a contest on my blog.