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Big List of Online Contests, Sweepstakes, and Giveaways

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 4 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #485 in Shopping, #6158 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

 

The mission of this lens is to list as many online contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways available online as possible!

At the same time, we are using Plexo Links in many cases to allow you to vote up your favorite contests.

The Plexo Links modules we are using also allow you to add your own favorite contests!

Contest Rules & Guidelines Resources 

Sample Contest Rules for Sweepstakes, Giveaways & Online Contests
Samples of rules and guidelines for online contests, sweepstakes & giveaways.

Recent Online Contests 

Contests that have recently been announced (some have expiration dates)

2008 EAA Aircraft Sweepstakes

Enter and win a plane! 2nd place wins you a helico more...1 point

Frame My Future Scholarship - Church Hill Classics

Church Hill Classicsa will be awarding $1,000 scho more...1 point

Dream Home Giveaway

Summer 2008! The Grand Prize winner will have the more...0 points

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest - Gallery Collection, Business Christmas Cards

Enter the 1st Annual Create-A-Greeting Card $10,00 more...0 points

$1,000 College Admissions Frustration Scholarship!

the Sam Jackson College Experience<br />< more...0 points

DatMoney's "Get Traffic" Contest (and Other Prizes)

You can potentially get your blog/site viewed by o more...0 points

iRise "Visualize the Prize" Commercial Contest

$15,000 prize for helping iRise create a commercia more...0 points

http://www.travelandleisure.com/infiniti/

Enter for a chance to win a trip as distinctive as more...0 points

OPENSports.com 2-A-DAY Sweepstakes

Daily Cash Prizes plus a chance to win a Sports Ho more...0 points

http://www.foodandwine.com/promo/giveaway

Food & Wine Magazine - 30th Anniversary 30 Day more...0 points

World's Best Getaway Sweepstakes Presented by Patron

Grand Prize includes 3 simply perfect nights at a more...0 points

Blogs That List Contests 

Blogs that list opportunities to win prizes.

Its All Free Online .com

"Daily Free Product Samples, Freebies and Sav more...1 point

Contest Live Blog

Your #1 Contest Resource Site1 point

Contest Live

You can submit, vote, and join great online contes more...1 point

Contest Beat

Blog about contests that you can enter to win priz more...0 points

Winning The Web

Craziest Internet Marketing Contest You Ever Seen more...0 points

The Prize Blog

The Prize Blog is the Original Contest Blog! This more...0 points

An Island Review

Great list of giveaways and sweepstakes that is ke more...0 points

A.B.C. - About Blog Contests

Great blog listing "Contests around the Net&q more...0 points

Home Mom 3

If you can weed through all the Google ads here, t more...0 points

Blog Paradise

Blog Contests & Tips0 points

Blog Contest Site .com

A little tough to navigate, but lists contests.0 points

RevieWOW

"Place for me to dump contests, free links an more...0 points

Contests in Canada

Contest Canada.net has over 2,000 contests, all fr more...0 points

Blog Contests on the Net

Blog Contests on the Net0 points

Submit Your Contest .com

Fresh Daily Contests,Earn money,Win prizes.0 points

The Contest Winner

List of contest that I participated in and hope to more...0 points

Contestu

"My Contest Beat Up Your Contest"0 points

Contest Blog Cat

Easy to navigate the contests listed here.0 points

contest bytes

"A place to enter contests, sponsor contests more...0 points

Laura Williams' Musings: Current Giveaways I am Hosting on My Blog

Be sure to stop back by my blog each day for the N more...0 points

Contest Blogger .com

Win online contests, sweepstakes, free stuff, cash more...0 points

Blog Contest Central .com

This page is primarily related to listing bloggers more...0 points

About.com - Contests and Sweepstakes

Want to win free sweepstakes and contests with fab more...0 points

New York Post - Contests | Sweepstakes | Promotions

Contests, sweepstakes and promotions - NYPost.com. more...0 points

Contests For Moms .com

Contest For Moms is the leading site for online co more...0 points

Contest Hound .com

Sweepstakes and Contest Directory - free to enter more...0 points

The Celebrity Cafe .com

Contests, games, sweepstakes, and it's all free. W more...0 points

Photo Submission Contests 

Websites where you can submit photos to win cash & prizes

Various Photo Submission Contests - updates ferquently

Submit photos to win cash prizes and a high-qualit more...1 point

Liberty Tax's Dance for Babies Contest

Submit your video or photo for your chance to win more...0 points

Competico.com

Photo contests - Share your Photos and Win Cash Pr more...0 points

The Cute Kid

Baby photo contest to show off cute kids.0 points

Photolaureates.org

Photo laureates is a leading photo contest and pho more...0 points

Great American Photo Contest

The concept is to create a safe environment where more...0 points

Viewbug

Upload & share photos to win prizes weekly.0 points

National Photo Awards

The National Photo Awards offers the cash award ad more...0 points

Contests For Girls 

There are many fun, safe contest online for girls, here are a few...

Beacon Street Girls

Beacon Street Girls - games, fun, books for pretee more...0 points

Discovery Girls Magazine

Currently listing a "Scavenger Hunt".0 points

Girls Write Now - Scholarships & Contests

Below is a list of contests and scholarships that more...0 points

AGirlsWorld.com

Multiple contests for girls.0 points

Blogs ABOUT Contests 

Here are some blogs & blog posts with tips and advice about running contests.

Blog Contest Central

Blog Contests Resources0 points

What Makes a Good Online Contest? 

Is it money? Prizes? The chance to win something that you could not have acquired on your own? Ease of submission?

A good online contest might have these qualities:

1) Cash prize

2) Unique prize that you could not get on your own (e.g. hard-to-find-tickets)

3) Clear guidelines about how the winner is chosen

4) The contest is ongoing (more than just a one-time event)

5) Safe & secure - especially if uploading photos of children!

6) The winner is chosen by users voting for their favorites

Creating & Promoting Online Video Contests 

Summary

Online video contests can be an amazing way of leveraging user-generated content to generate brand awareness, buzz, and website traffic.

Online video contests are gaining traction with major brands - including 1-800-Flowers, Converse, Red Bull, Nike, Diesel Jeans, Mountain Dew, Coors, Sony BMG and, others.

Prizes are usually offered to encourage participation. You can also give away your own company's products to everyone who spends time creating entries for the contest.

Will Video Contests Work for You?

First, which kinds of brands make sense for experimenting with an online video contest? Video contests seem best suited for brands that want to enhance an already strong loyalty (rather than those who want to create or repair loyalty).

When asked, interactive marketers indicated that an online video contest works best for a company with a specific demographic and with a Web savvy audience.

Consumers who truly identify with your brand are the ones who will take the time to create videos for a contest.

Brands with audiences active in social communities, such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, CreativeCOW.net, and the Yahoo! Final Cut Pro User Group, are likely to be natural fits.

Sony BMG, for example, used an online video and photo contest to promote a band's album and received more than 1,000 submissions.

3 Good Reasons to Test Online Video Contests

Destination websites are not getting the traffic they once did, and user-contributed content/promotions are an excellent way to generate excitement, buzz, and traffic.

#1: Video Creation Gets People Excited

Videos created by consumers generate significant interaction between a brand and consumers. The energy and creativity that people put into their submissions will resonate with your target audience. Your brand will benefit by association with this energy, and the potential for viral promotion is incredible.

#2: Keep Your Brand Looking Young

Online video contests can make your brand look younger than it actually is (or can sustain the youthful image it already has).

Online video contests are successful when they revolve around a concept that is humorous, different, or fun. Keep the idea of youthfulness in mind when creating and planning a contest.

Your audience itself doesn't necessarily have to be young. But your contest should at least help them feel younger.

#3: Bang for the Buck

An online video contest can produce a similar number of impressions as a TV commercial, at a fraction of the cost. By engaging your consumers to create the content, you eliminate costs for talent, preproduction, production, postproduction and media buys.

You can start and use groups at YouTube, Facebook and MySpace at essentially no cost. Make sure that you monitor the groups so the contest behaves the way you want it to.

How to Run a Video Contest

Setting up the contest can take a few days to a few weeks. Executing the idea properly can take anywhere from one or two people, to a handful of staff members.

Of course, the most important thing it to clearly define your objectives before beginning your contest. And, establish metrics that will correspond to the objectives, and make sure that those metrics can be easily updated on a rolling basis.

It is highly advisable that you:

a) Review every submission
b) Record notes about each entry
c) Track progress

How to Promote a Video Contest

Make sure to research all of the possible websites that will be outlets for promoting the contest. This could include well-known social communities such as YouTube and Facebook, and will likely include many niche websites where your audience congregates.

The list of contest websites on this lens is also a great start!

You will also want to define the incentive for people to enter the contest. Cash speaks loudly! But also consider offering unique experiences that people can't get on their own (e.g. meeting someone famous, getting into a trendy event, etc.)

Here are some ways you can promote your online video contest:

1) Advertise the contest on your homepage and throughout your website (roughly 6 weeks before the video deadline).

2) Send an email to your subscriber list that's dedicated to announcing the contest.

3) Set up groups on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to build a community of "friends" and then push the contest to them.

4) Consider running banners at individual sites targeted to your audience. Find websites where you know your audience goes to read content.

How Much Does It Cost?

The cost of a properly run online video contest varies greatly.

Start by testing with free YouTube accounts and groups before committing to the creation of a microsite.

It has been reported that successful online video contests can cost anywhere from $25K to $150K (this will depend heavily on the complexity of the contest).

Things to Watch Out For

Upsetting People Who Don't Win

Online video contest participants often put a great deal of effort into their submissions. So, you don't want them to go away angry if they lose (some will think their video was the best no matter what and feel like they were treated unfairly).

To help avoid that, consider:

a) Giving everyone who submits a video a personalized email with a reward coupon (20% off, $25 discount on $100 purchase, free shipping, etc.).

b) Sending contestants something "cool", like a free item they will wear or tell their friends about.

c) Using a panel of judges to determine the winning entries.

d) Allowing viewers to vote for the winner - while it might turn into a 'click competition', it will leverage the democratic nature of the Web and will add to the viral aspect of the contest. Just make sure to have some technical barriers to avoid abuse (such as "capcha" fields where users have to enter the text they see in an image)

Justifying The Cost/Opportunity Cost of Video vs. Other Types of Contests

Getting people to make a video for your brand is far more time-consuming than getting them to write a letter or send in a photo. Think about trying a less time-intensive contest before embarking on an online video contest campaign.

Don't Forget

1) The contest page should include a clearly written and thorough list of instructions on how to participate.

2) Have a Terms & Conditions Page (maintain the rights to the videos!)

3) Privacy Policy Page

4) Have a lawyer review the Terms & Conditions

Let Us Know How We Are Doing 

What should we add or change about this lens?

ffnstuff

great lens, ive added my contest sites! :)

Posted August 30, 2008

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