One way to attract extra traffic to your website is through having a contest or giveaway. Although it is true that a large portion of the new visitors you receive may just come looking to get something for free, there will create lots of good publicity that is beneficial.

You can get very creative and have a lot of fun with this idea. Take a look at your website as well as the products and services you offer and think about what your target market might consider fun.

For example, for a website whose content focuses on issues relation to parenthood one creative contest might be that people have to tell the story of the most embarrassing thing their kids have said in front of others or the funniest mistake they have made in parenting.

Contests can also be used in conjunction with the release of a new product. Suppose you had a website for busy women which offers tips on how to manage time better and that you were preparing to present a new product that discusses what to do to make it through the holidays. A possible contest that you could hold is asking for funniest Thanksgiving food disasters or best tip for holiday shopping time-saving.

Contest prizes can be arranged by owners of other websites or can come from your very own products and services. If you choose to go with a different website for prizes, you won’t have to spend any money on them and the other website’s owner will probably be happy to receive some free publicity. If you do this, be sure to mention the name of the provider of the prizes on your website.

If you are not the creative type, you can simply hold a giveaway. Your visitors can enter their information into a form and you can randomly pick a winner. Again, you can offer one of your products or services as the prize or you can seek out prizes from other business owners.

Giveaways can be used to keep customers coming back for more from your business. In a service based business like graphic design, you could allow customers that have paid for your services to fill out a giveaway form each time they do so and offer a monthly prize. This might be added incentive for customers to return in an attempt to win your monthly prizes.

Promotion of any contest or giveaway is the key to success. Inform everyone on your mailing list of the event and advertise it on you site’s home page. Mention it in podcasts as well. You want to spread the word to as many people as possible.

There are many sites that allow you to enter your contest information, and this info can get picked up and publicized by other website owners. To find these sites, do a Google search on a keyword such as “contest submission sites.” You may also want to send in a few press releases.

Giveaways and contests can boost the amount of traffic your website receives, greatly benefiting your business. As you use them, think about the results and how you can adjust your ideas in an attempt to match your customers’ interests as well as possible.

Tags: internet marketing web site promotion, internet marketing search engine, internet marketing online