Forum prizes?

[Marc]

Just curious as to what anyone else has done in relation to competitions and prizes for members on their forum.

As a siberian husky forum we have 2 camps every year for our members in the UK. One is roaming, the other being in the same location in April year on year. So this year we decided that we would go for a big competition. This involved fundraising by our members, in which the amount raised would be used to bring over a member from the USA/Australia to the UK for our April camping weekend.

And we have managed to do it in time Any regular member from these area (and others at descretion, ie being a once in a lifetime thing for a fair few) can enter the raffle free of charge, and we will draw the raffle on Chrismas Day relealing one lucky member.

 

[Edrondol]

I used to run a monthly contest on my site with prizes ranging anywhere from a $50 gift certificate to Best Buy/Amazon/Whatever to the first 10 trades of "The Walking Dead". What I'd do is buy expensive stuff for myself (Watchmen, Maus, Walking Dead, Order of the Stick) and then give them away as prizes after I read them.

But we've had some unemployment in the family for the last year so I've had to stop.

 

[Slavik]

Prizes from barrel socks and stickers upto top of the line paintball markers worth £1000+ and training sessions with pro players.

 

[ragtek]

[ot]
oooooooooooh, i'd like an marker
[/ot]

 

[Brandon Sheley]

Sorry to bump an old thread "was looking for mods" but we're getting ready to run a contest.
I've ran several in the past, they've always been outstanding. As for prizes, it's best to get prizes targeted to your niche, and often good if you can get them donated. This helps you and the sponsors out by getting their name and site links out to your members.

 

[Ingenious]

I agree with Brandon on this, the best prizes by far are donated ones in return for significant publicity for the company giving the prize. It costs you nothing, gives the company a lot of PR, your community gets a competition and a prize - everyone wins. You often don't even need to fulfill the prize, I've run them where I pass the winner on to the company to claim/collect/deliver the prize.

 

[Brad L]

I've been running a monthly photo contest for over 5 years on one of my forums. The winner gets a $50 gift certificate to a sponsor of their choice.