First I want to thank my 32 past guests for sponsoring this contest. I couldn’t have done it without your generosity. You can see their products and interviews HERE.
Before announcing the winners I’d like to share with you some stats about the contest:
-It began December 1st 2012 at 1am PST and ended December 31st 2012 at 11:59pm PST.
– The contest page had a total of 2,264 visits and created 264 leads, thus converting at 10.56%. This conversion number is actually quite low because I sent some paid traffic from Stumbleupon and Adf.ly. Unfortunately that traffic didn’t convert well, so the “real” conversion traffic numbers from traffic originating from MikeFromMaine.com was actually more around 30-40%.
– A total of 162 confirmed entries were received. Out of these 162 to entries, 33 have unsubscribed since joining the contest. This high unsubscribe rate doesn’t surprise me much as they were probably referred by friends or they joined the main Mike From Maine List. I setup auto-unsubscribe for when someone subscribes to more than one list so that I don’t send more than one email to one person at a time. Unfortunately I’m unable to give you an accurate number of how many new subscribers this contest achieved, but new subscribers wasn’t the only goal of holding this type of contest. More on that below.
What were my goals for this contest?
When I originally set out to hold a contest on Mike From Maine I had three goals.
1. To increase my subscribers to my show. The more subscribers I have, the more likely I’ll be able to attract high quality guests. If I have interesting guests on my show then more people will watch and I’ll be able to provide better value to my subscribers. This will also increase the revenue generated by the show in affiliate sales and sponsors, thus giving me more resources to invest in trying out different multiple sources of income.
2. To reward my audience for their support. Through the support of past guests giving away prizes I was able to reward loyalty and participation on MikeFromMaine.com . This didn’t cost me a thing and provides tons of value to the 32 prize winners.
3. To thank and support my past guests. My show depends upon successful online marketers donating their time to do interviews with me. I wanted to thank those interested by “advertising” their products and interviews on the contest prize page. This type of contest allowed me to reconnect with past guests and strengthen our relationships. It’s one thing to make contact with influential people, but like friendship, if you don’t reconnect once in a while the bond will decrease over time.
How did I hold this contest?
You might remember back in November I published an interview with Travis Ketchum, the creator of a product called Contest Domination (affiliate link). I was easily able to setup a contest and get it running in less than ten minutes. One of the great things about it is that you can try it out before you buy it with the Free Version. However, if you want to hold a real contest then I suggest using the basic version that costs $29.99/month.
What did I learn from this contest?
I had hoped to have more entries this month, but perhaps I chose the wrong time to start this type of contest with December being a holiday season. I’ve been struggling with whether or not to continue holding this type of contest every month, quarter, or year. I’ll be thinking that over for the next few days, but I’d appreciate your input in the poll below.
[poll id=”2″]
And the winners are…
Congratulations to the winners and for all of you that entered thank you so much for sharing your links, liking my Facebook page, and tweeting about the contest. I appreciate all your support.