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Buck Inspire said:

Thanks Kay, will keep that plugin in mind.  Pretty cool it was created by a Yakezie member's husband.

 

Thanks MC!  Details coming soon.

First you need to figure out your objectives. I would venture to say that you want more exposure to your site and want people to come back to it. If this is it, then make your "prize" as universally pleasing to the most amount of people and offer a reasonable combination of ways to enter the giveaway. For example offer a $50 Visa giftcard and then allow people to enter by commenting, tweeting, liking in FB, blogging, etc.

Then make the winner chosen by random.org or "the winner is" plugin. Also allow people to come back every day and enter. Post the name of the winner as well. I like Invest It Wisely's form. I have found that some people do not like forms because they don't have a "feel" for how many people are entering the contest and will not enter giveaways with forms. Make sure you list it on contest sites as well. It does help generate traffic.

Good luck!

In my Fast Trac New Venture class, I was cautioned that contests and sweepstakes can have legal ramifications.  Does anyone use lawyer reviewed rules or anything like that?

Oh, I went through Fast Trac too :)

I don't use lawyer reviewed rules but I did research the requirements for contests run in my state and focused on abiding by those.

Thanks MC!  Details coming soon.

(I'm talking about Heather from Inexpensively.)

Thanks so much for your help!  I will use your advice if I survive till my one year blog birthday.    In this case, I am working with a company to give away one grand prize.  I wanted to know how to pick winners and deal with entries.  More details coming soon.

Thanks!

Here's an example of my latest giveaway:http://www.investitwisely.com/.....to-be-won/

Think of your objectives for the contest. Do you want to raise awareness for your blog? Do you want to get more readers, commenters, twitter followers, subscribers, etc?

Make sure your prizes are appealing to winners. Seems like gift cards are most popular from my experience, or straight cash via paypal, but think of who you're trying to influence.

If you're trying to hold a larger giveaway, as I did last year, consider sponsors. If you do go that route, give people time to decide whether or not they can contribute, ideally a few weeks. This gives you time to get the word out about your giveaway. Once it goes live, be sure to promote it well!

In terms of picking winners, I've used random.org.

Email me w/questions if you have any.

Ray

Regarding picking a winner, I have used random.org. I have seen people using "And the winner is..." Plugin as well.

http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....winner-is/

What are your objectives? Is the contest designed to generate traffic? Is the contest designed to generate Facebook Fans/Twitter followers and leverage them later with all your content?

Figuring out what your objective is the most critical part as it could alter how you market it or promote it. Just ran a contest to get more facebook fans and we generated an additional 50 in a months time thanks to the contest. In order for the users to be involved in the contest they had to like our fan page before being enrolled in the contest.

You need to market your contest. It is just like your website, if you don't push it out and get eyeballs on it. It won't succeed.