Big Contest Frenzy: Is It Good For Sponsors Or Bloggers?

Recently, many bloggers entered in what I call a "big contest frenzy". I have nothing against big contest because I have The contest Winner blog thus love contest too. But, because I have 1 Cool File, I'm often asked to sponsor contest too. Selling it to sponsors To help bloggers that want me to sponsor them, I now have a page of what I asked from bloggers. The sponsor want some return on investment(ROI) and that's what bloggers don't always understand. The sponsor maybe looking for: traffic, customers, new affiliates, brand awareness... or all of them. One blogger that understand how to work with sponsors is Gyutae from Winning the Web. To keep the contest alive and in the mind of readers, participants are asked to do some tasks in relation to each sponsors during the course of the contest. That's the best way to go. One way to make it even better for sponsors, it's to ask bloggers to post about it by also including the list of prizes and sponsors with an optional anchor text or description. For example: 1 Paid Review - sponsored by 1 Cool File ($X value) 1 Cool File is a directory for software downloads and also a blog directory/marketplace. Simply submit your blog to 1 Cool File and you’ll have a chance to get your site reviewed. For that, the dateline for sponsors to answer your request must be determined in advance. Else, those that are added after the start of the contest won't have has many backlinks. When is it too big? Gyutae started with $5,348 in prizes and now it's $12,201. So, my prize is now a smaller drop in the bucket. That's the real downside for a sponsor with big contest. With too many prizes, the sponsor visibility becomes greatly diminished. Even if you add the task part, participant may become tired and not do them thus also diminishing the sponsor ROI. For example, my prize is always the second from the bottom but that's because it's related to his blog(win a review). Up to now, I did not have many visits from that original post. Thanks to the task, I should be fine... in theory. I will have to wait and see. My recommendation The best is to get around 5-10 sponsors/prizes. Ask participants for a task for each sponsor to get more entries. Make it last for 1 or 2 weeks by mixing tasks and posts. Of course, the total value will be lower but a sponsor my up the prize amount knowing that they will have a greater exposure and that no other prizes may be added. Conclusion What about your next contest? Will sponsors be willing to sponsor you again if their ROI was not worth it on your big contest or another blogger's big contest? Will readers expect an even bigger contest from you next time? Are you in competition with other big contest at the same time? Those are a few questions to ask yourself. Plus with big contest, you will have to manage many prizes thus cutting into the time you write new content. If you like contest, check out the MISfan.com RSS feed contest. ;)