Increase Your Comments and Links by Holding a Contest

I, like most people, love contests for free stuff. They sucker draw me in every time. If you are running a tech website or blog it can be very easy to come up with ideas for prizes to give away, simply look for the latest computer gadget or addon that grabs your attention. If you like it you can bet that others would love to win one as well. John over at SiteFever did just that. He is offering up one Western Digital 1 terabyte external hard drive as a prize and the rules are simple. Write a post with a link back to the contest saying what you would do with a 1 terabyte external hard drive.

Of course you don’t always have to spend money to offer prizes. Smashing Magazine recently ran an Anniversary contest where the prizes were donated by many different organizations and businesses. That post alone had over 1800 comments!

Problogger is also getting ready to celebrate the birthday of Problogger and had a call for donations of prizes. A quick add up of the prizes was over $35,000 USD.

Of course if you are just starting out you will probably have to find the money yourself to fund the prize, but if you can get the word out, holding a contest will help you gain more links back to your website or blog. It might be some of the cheapest advertising you can get with better returns than most pay per click campaigns.

Oh and to answer the question of what I would do with a 1 terabyte external hard drive? Whatever the hell I want!