Contest Prizes for your members?

Well, I think if you hold contests regularly, you're sure to get members joining.

But I'm wondering, what do you think is the best contest prizes to be given out?
Of course money would be at the top, but what else?

 

We've started holding regular contests, but we get no new members. xD

Erm, well whatever you offer should be relevant to your forums theme I guess; if it's a general forum then you have a somewhat difficult time due to member's varying interests. I had a few games lying around which I tried to give away, but I didn't get much interest in those.

 

Amazon gift cards are always a popular choice. For the contests I'm planning I've amassed a number of cupcake recipe and idea books, jewelry, notepads, etc. If there are any businesses present on your forum, you might try asking them to sponsor the contest by donating items.

 

Loads of stuff can be given as prizes, If you have a Niche specific Forum then anything to do with that would help get more interest than just general stuff. Like if your forums is about Painting then give a away a Free Paint Set, or if your a fan site for a movie franchise then give a way a copy of the film or something. If you run a general forum then I would suggest an Amazon gift card or something like that.

 

In June I celebrate my forum 1st anniversary. I've contacted few companies for prizes. I collected more than 500$ in prizes for the members. The main goal being to thank members for their contribution to the forum.

 

I did some competitions with prizes being a few Steam games I had. It didn't generate much interest, but it helps. I'm just trying not to make big purchases atm.

 

I give away signed sports memorabilia but members have to qualify for the contests.
The last thing I want is a bunch of fly by night members who only register for the free stuff.
I also find that offering a choice of a prize or cash half the value of the prize works well.
Would the winner rather have the $500.00 autographed jersey or $250.00 cash?

 

Currently i'm hosting a posting contest to win £6 may not be much but for me it is i'm not rich so that is a lot to give for a forum of my current forums size we have 9 members and about 200 posts so when it gets more popular i plan on about £10 - 20 - 30 - 40

 

When I run posting contests, I giveaway $100 to the top poster of the month. It usually results in a lot of activity on my forum. I've ran three different $100 posting contests since 2011 and they all worked out nicely. I ran them when I was running vBulletin 4 and had a top posters mod. I haven't found a top posters mod for Xenforo yet, so I haven't ran another one recently.

 

Try this mod http://xenforo.com/community/resour...s-contest-winner-page-of-day-week-month.2831/

 

Thank you, however, the download isn't available anymore.

 

Yes it works, I just downloaded it few seconds ago....

 

I've run competitions in the past of varying types, from posting comps to fantasy league, but never had a large take up, I found it didn't encourage new members, and didn't really succeed, maybe I did something wrong. ?