Blog Contests For Marketing

I recently read two blog articles that made me think about marketing strategies and the things some people will do to push more traffic into their blogs. Blog contests are happening more often to help boost traffic, and the prizes are getting bigger and bigger. With some contests, the only prize is the traffic you receive. Everyday there are small contests between bloggers involving small prizes. For example, I see contests all the time for Blog Explosion. Bloggers will ask fellow bloggers to blog about a specific link, and in return one blogger will receive a large number of credits to their Blog Explosion account. Contests like this are small, and no money is involved, but bloggers are starting to give away large prizes as well.

For instance, John Chow has devised his Evil Blog Contest. His evil plan gives one lucky blogger a brand new Nintendo Wii for free while bringing outrageous amounts of traffic to his own blog. It truly is a great evil plan in a marketing sense, but is it great for bloggers? Traffic may soar for a short time, but how many of those visitors will return again in the future when there isn't a large prize up for grabs? Even if he doesn't receive return visitors to his blog after his traffic boost, John will still have met his goal to market his friend's website that sells promotional pens at the same time. Holding the contest will get both links into the blogosphere at record speed. Does this really make John Chow the root of all evil in the blog world or is it just another plan to make money online?

What do you think about these contests? I for one say there's nothing wrong with a good contest. I will be participating in John's contest without looking back. If I could afford to purchase prizes, I would definitely be willing to hold a contest in my blog. After all, there will always be that one lucky winner who definitely thinks the contest was worth it.