Drive Traffic to Your Blog by Adding a Giveaway
Written by PLRMan on October 11, 2008 – 11:42 pm -Running a giveaway on your blog is a tested and proven method to drive traffic to your blog. Promotions and giveaways are big business. Just ask Coke, Pepsi, and any other major company. Every movie that comes out has some type of promotion or giveaway attached to it and so do big events like the Superbowl. How many times have you watched the guy in center field throw the football through a tiny hole in a display to win a million dollars?
What is a giveaway and how is it used on a blog?
The type of blog promotion I am talking about is basically a giveaway you run on your blog where the entrant posts a comment and can enter to win a prize. By coming up with a set of rules you can require the entrant to do other things in return to be entered (see below).
How does running a giveaway on my blog drive traffic?
People love free stuff - plain and simple. And, winning is even better. Why are casinos booming even when the economy is bad? It is that thrill of winning and knowing that you could possibly win something of value that keeps people coming back.
Although some people may find your site just because you are running a giveaway, those viewers may also turn into readers. Of course, good content is what keeps them reading throughout the week or month once you have all of those new readers. The promotion or giveaway is the tool you use to get them to your site in the first place.
If you have ongoing promotions on your site those readers will know it and continue to follow you. They know there is a good chance you will do this again. You must also earn their trust by actually sending out the prizes, otherwise, word gets out that you aren’t to be trusted but that’s a completely different topic.
Implementing the Promotion on your site
When you give something away on your blog or website it is a good idea to require that the entrant do something to win.
You can have them:
- Visit the prize sponsor’s site and post a comment about what they like about the site or their favorite product if the site sells something
- Post a comment somewhere else on your blog and then tell you in a comment on the giveaway post
For extra entries have them:
- Sign up for your feed
- Write a blog post about your giveaway and link back to the entry form page
- Link to your site
Once someone writes a blog article about your contest they don’t usually take it off and Viola, you have created instant backlinks.
Advertising your promotion
A promotion without advertising is a prize sitting on a shelf waiting for a winner. I advertise my weekly giveaways each and every time I have a new one on 4 or 5 high traffic sweepstakes and contests directories. You can also advertise your blog giveaway on another blog if you have one or have a friend blog about it. If you want or need a list of good sites to advertise your promotion on visit my sweepstakes site at www.swishersweetie.com. I will also advertise your promotion on my site free of charge.
Drawbacks?
The only drawback I have found by running a promotion on my site is that I have to pay postage to ship the prize to the winner. If you have prize sponsors you can have them donate the prize and also ship it to the winner. If you don’t have a sponsor you will have to come up with the prize but it really doesn’t have to be an expensive prize. I have had hundreds of people enter to win 1 book or 1 CD. Bottom line - people love to win free stuff - I know I do!
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Tags: backlinks, blog giveaways, blog promotion, contests, giveaways, pr, promotion, promotions, Site Promotion, spike your traffic, sweepstakes, text to win, website promotion
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