There are tonnes and tonnes of blogs out there running competitions and a few of them are bound to run a competition that just falls completely flat on it's face.
Personally, recently I have run one such competition.
This Competition, which is still running (but which I do not speak of) is one of these sorts of competitions.
Every now and then you will run a competition that fails.
Now there are loads of blogs out there that will tell you how to run a successful competition but none I have seen yet that will tell you what to do when your competition fails.
As you know I pride myself on my honest and I hate those people who try to "fake it to make it" so I will be speaking from my own experience.
Because I successfully overcame a sucky competition to launch a super successful competition which was my "Top Commentator" Competition.
Firstly just so you know a few reasons a competition can suck is because it has too many ways to enter, it can be too hard to enter, the prize can suck, you might not have enough readers for it to be successful, it has crappy marketing so no one knows about it.
They are just a few.
I pretty much did all of these OK so lets get into it.
1.
Ditch It This is the first option, and if you have had none (or barely any) entries then this can be a good idea.
But otherwise it can be a really bad idea because people can get really angry at you and there can actually be legal issues if people have done things for you to gain entries.
So in most cases I would avoid this one, but if no one has entered then destroy all mentions to the competition and get on with life.
2.
Change It Again I would be very careful about this one because if people have already entered then it can be hard to change.
But instead of having a competition where people can enter 5 ways, change it midstream so there is just one way to enter and focus on people doing that.
This can make your competition a lot better and more effective.
3.
Hide It Just hide your competition as best you can.
Count the previous entries but delete the post that talks about the competition and delete any links to the competition.
This way no one else will enter and it will be simple to choose a winner at the end of your competition 4.
Just Let It Run It's Course You can just leave your blog there, let people find it and let people participate as they want to, but don't put in any extra effort to market it.
Just let it build you new readers organically.
5.
Market It Your blog might just have fallen flat because of a lack of marketing so market the hell out of it.
Add it to your signature in your forum posting, write about it in forums, write about it throughout your blog, leave comments linking to your competition page.
Do everything you can to get the exposure you need to get.
6.
Start a Bigger and Better Competition I left this till last because this is exactly what I did.
You need to learn from your mistakes and then use that knowledge to make your next competition bigger.
My last competition the prize sucked (sorry Jason) so in my new competition I offered a better prize which was $50 in cold hard cash.
My marketing was bogus in my previous competition so in this competition I launched it the same day I did a guest post on JohnChow.
com this way all the traffic coming from John Chow would see this competition and hopefully want to enter.
In my last one there were too many ways to enter, this new competition there is just one way to enter and that is commenting.
My comments have increased 10 fold because of my bigger and better competition.
Personally, recently I have run one such competition.
This Competition, which is still running (but which I do not speak of) is one of these sorts of competitions.
Every now and then you will run a competition that fails.
Now there are loads of blogs out there that will tell you how to run a successful competition but none I have seen yet that will tell you what to do when your competition fails.
As you know I pride myself on my honest and I hate those people who try to "fake it to make it" so I will be speaking from my own experience.
Because I successfully overcame a sucky competition to launch a super successful competition which was my "Top Commentator" Competition.
Firstly just so you know a few reasons a competition can suck is because it has too many ways to enter, it can be too hard to enter, the prize can suck, you might not have enough readers for it to be successful, it has crappy marketing so no one knows about it.
They are just a few.
I pretty much did all of these OK so lets get into it.
1.
Ditch It This is the first option, and if you have had none (or barely any) entries then this can be a good idea.
But otherwise it can be a really bad idea because people can get really angry at you and there can actually be legal issues if people have done things for you to gain entries.
So in most cases I would avoid this one, but if no one has entered then destroy all mentions to the competition and get on with life.
2.
Change It Again I would be very careful about this one because if people have already entered then it can be hard to change.
But instead of having a competition where people can enter 5 ways, change it midstream so there is just one way to enter and focus on people doing that.
This can make your competition a lot better and more effective.
3.
Hide It Just hide your competition as best you can.
Count the previous entries but delete the post that talks about the competition and delete any links to the competition.
This way no one else will enter and it will be simple to choose a winner at the end of your competition 4.
Just Let It Run It's Course You can just leave your blog there, let people find it and let people participate as they want to, but don't put in any extra effort to market it.
Just let it build you new readers organically.
5.
Market It Your blog might just have fallen flat because of a lack of marketing so market the hell out of it.
Add it to your signature in your forum posting, write about it in forums, write about it throughout your blog, leave comments linking to your competition page.
Do everything you can to get the exposure you need to get.
6.
Start a Bigger and Better Competition I left this till last because this is exactly what I did.
You need to learn from your mistakes and then use that knowledge to make your next competition bigger.
My last competition the prize sucked (sorry Jason) so in my new competition I offered a better prize which was $50 in cold hard cash.
My marketing was bogus in my previous competition so in this competition I launched it the same day I did a guest post on JohnChow.
com this way all the traffic coming from John Chow would see this competition and hopefully want to enter.
In my last one there were too many ways to enter, this new competition there is just one way to enter and that is commenting.
My comments have increased 10 fold because of my bigger and better competition.
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