From The Contest Queen

I have set up my RSS reader to collect new postings from contest blogs (see my Blogroll on the right side of blog home page) and marketing blogs. I have noticed there is a glut of blogs running blog contests offering virtual prizes to enhance your blog, Internet business, website, etc. The prizes, although virtual, have dollar values attached to them, but are they worth it and would they really benefit you?

Take, for example, the Craziest Marketing Contest You’ve Ever Seen. They are giving away $13, 647 in prizes. Everything from a year of web-hosting, to online advertising to books and t-shirts. One way to gain entries into the contest is to subscribe to the blog’s emailing list and RSS feed. That’s a great way to get people to sign-up to your blog, but what’s the point of having people sign-up if they don’t care what you have to say and won’t read what you have written?

I think this is the virtual version of the paper customer list. When I started my career in sales and marketing 20 years ago as a junior sales rep., I remember being handed a database list of all their clients and told to call each and every one. Guess what? The 80/20 rule was alive and well. 80% of the companies listed were people that only bought from us once, had since left their position, didn’t remember who we were, etc. and the other 20% were our good customers.

I think these types contests are creating hundreds of virtual 80/20 customer lists. The websites and blogs can boast, “We have X number of people signed up.” Giving the false impression to their advertisers that all those connected to them are real customers. The real measure of success in any business, virtual or otherwise, is the profit margin, plain and simple.

So if you have a blog, website, or Internet business and you feel you could use some of the prizes listed, enter. If not, stick to entering good “old-fashioned” online sweepstakes.

(To learn more about RSS feeds and readers, checkout the Tips & Tricks section of The Winning EDGE Vol. 4 Issue 2.)