Community Contests and Giveaways

Contests and giveaways are a great way to build a solid community and increase traffic to your forum, as well as activity, in my opinion. It's a win-win situation; you get what you want from the contest (activity contest, best graphic for your site contest, etc), and the members get your prizes in return.

What are your thoughts and experiences with contests and giveaways? What are some of the prizes you have given away? What are some of the better prizes you have seen, and some things you think are just not something enough to motivate members to participate?

 

I once came across a forum right after the deadline for a posting contest of some sort where the prize was a $75 Amazon gift certificate, but there had been no interest in the contest and no one had met the requirements. $75 is a decent prize, and should have generated some interest, but I think the owner didn't promote it enough.