Thoughts on Website Contests

I just finished picking the winner for my contest in which I'm giving away a free pair of running shoes, and I had quite the entertaining time.

First of all, the contest rules state that you can win only if you sign up for my newsletter. Well, I had almost 2000 entries and only 200 new people sign up for my newsletter. Hello? Do they think I'm not going to check? I went through 47 people who answered the question right but hadn't signed up for the newsletter before I found the winner. Total time drain, but I SO wasn't going to succumb!

And then the answers...too funny! Okay, to answer the question, all the entrant had to do was read the excerpt on my website. Not too much, right? Well, the question basically asked what the main character (Paris) thought of her boss (Thad). Answer: she sort of has the hots for him, but he's her boss, plus she's dating someone else, so he's off limits, so she uses him as her fantasy lover. Pretty simple, huh?

Well, here are some answers I got:

Tootsie (What contest was this person entering??)

Eric (got this one twice. Didn't make sense the second time either)

32 (32 what? I have no clue, and neither does this person, apparently)

if the shoe fits (um, hello? that's the title of my book. Good guess, but still wrong!)

don'e like her (first of all, her boss is a guy, not a girl... no brownie points for typos either...)

sleeping with him (um, no. that's the whole point, that she's not)

dallas (dallas?? Whatever.)

dk (again, i'm so confused by this answer I don't even know where to start)

browns (browns...hmm...a football reference???)

toenail (I don't even know how to respond to this one...)

chiquita (Was she hungry when she was entering my contest?)

fattie huge (My, my, someone was feeling hostile, weren't they?)

very hot! (This answer came through on 90% of the entries. This answer was posted on a sweeps website, so although it was in the ballpark of correct, I deemed it wrong unless someone had added enough other info to show they'd actually read the excerpt. That's all I wanted: an little excerpt reading.)

So, this contest was a success because I got 2000 entries. But how many actually read the excerpt or signed up for my newsletter? Once again, we ponder the usefulness of a website contest...

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 12:01 AM