What do you find is more effective - frequent contests with smaller prizes or infrequent contests with bigger prizes?
I've been having contests with $5 Amazon.com gift cards but I'm beginning to think I should have those contests less often and offer a $20 or $50 gift card instead. Does anyone have experience with this? Even if you don't, what are your thoughts as a poster? Would you be more likely to participate in a contest where you have really good odds of winning or where the prize is more impressive?
Personally speaking I'm more a member who likes something regularly. That way I have bigger chance of winning, LOL~ But if you think it costs a bit too much for you, I think you can do give more space between each contest. As long as it is regular, I think members will be interested.
If you want to push up interest, giving a theme for the contest each time may help too. 😀
Contest themes are a great way to spice things up. At the site I run for example we have a Christmas username contest where for the month of December each user is allowed to make a single username change to something festive and original, and at the end of the month they all vote on the best name then everyone changes back.
Holiday contests can be a lot of fun, and mixes things up a little.
Thanks for the replies! So far my contests have been related to post count because I wanted to say thank you to my more active members who keep the place going. I like the idea of themes though - something to think about for a future contest.
I've decided to do a bigger contest at the end of the year. I've added a points system to my forum so posters earn points for being active. They can also participate in points lotteries, donate their points to others and take out loans. It's a bit complicated but I think/hope people will be interested in playing around with it once they get used to the idea.
At the end of the year, the person with the most points will win a prize. It involves luck and participation, so I think it's inclusive enough while still encouraging people to post.
