Seeking Contest & Prize Ideas

I think it would be fun to run a contest or maybe a few before the year’s out. If you have any suggestions for a fun contest related to the domain industry, let me know in the comment section, and I will give it some thought.

In addition, if you have a suggestion for fun domain industry-related prizes, let me know that, too. Obviously cash is king, but I’d rather do something that will benefit your business more than just sending money. Some ideas I’ve had in the past include consulting, appraisals, gift certificates to various companies, and advertising space.

I know you guys like the idea of contests and giveaways, so why not share some ideas for something fun!

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

23 COMMENTS

  1. Elliot,

    You asked for some ideas and heres one Ive entertaining (with some discussion on other boards as well).

    Have you seen the Shark Tank on Friday nights on NBC? Its my wife and my favorite program. However, we seldom see more than a few minutes each week for various reasons.

    Im looking for approximately 75 domainers to put in 1000 each and well take on “Black Friday” head to head. 1000 usd will give you one percent of the company and future profits. That domain name that will be used is:

    ClickFriday.com

    Benefits of this domain name:

    Sounds like “Black Friday”
    Self explanatory name. (any online shopper will immediately know that the name means)
    Follows shopping trends with movement to online.

    Most people actually avoid Black Friday like the plague. What percentage of those people would stay at home for “Click Friday” and take advantage of the deals?

    Stay at home alternative to the “Black Friday” madness.

    By the way, Cyber Monday had sales approaching 1.5 billion dollars this year (thats one day folks!)

    There you have it,

    If you are interested, please email me. If there is enough interest, theres no reason not to move forward. Any one person can buy more than one share (percent).

    • Most people actually avoid Black Friday like the plague. What percentage of those people would stay at home for β€œClick Friday” and take advantage of the deals?
      ———-

      Isn’t this basically why cyber monday got so big? Because of people not wanting to go out on Black Friday?

  2. Here is one idea – Ask participants to build MVP(Minimum Viable Product) using one of their domains in couple of weeks.

    For prizes, subscriptions to DomainTools or Protrada would be great. May be you can even get them to sponsor this contest πŸ™‚

  3. Gregor,

    Its called crowdsourcing. I appreciate Elliot giving me a forum to present this proposal. Its the best formula for this project to succeed. It could also be alot of fun for everyone involved.

    What if someone offered you 1% of Facebook at the inception for 1000 dollars usd? You likely would have turned it down just like most people. The only people this project needs are people that can see the vision.

  4. Start a contest for the naming of a company and you Elliot get to choose the type of company you want it to be. Keep it simple so everyone from the beginner to the professional can enter

    The rules are

    1. company domain name must be dot com
    2. the domain registration date must be after the start of the contest date or on the same day. (keeps people from dipping into personal portfolios)
    3. 5 bucks per entry, maximum of 5 entries per user payable to your paypal
    4. after about 1 week the top 10 entries are chosen by you or whoever or by likes or dislikes and those are voted on in a poll that you start
    5. Give small prize to winner and all other proceeds go to the ronald mcdonald house in the winners name. No prize for second place because thats the first loser. LOL
    6. Domain name can be one or two words maximum or mashed together brand style name. No entries accepted of 3 words or more which includes and, the, a etc……..

    I am sure much more can be added to this list

  5. Elliot,

    Im in the process of setting up the structure for this business entity. (that will support ClickFriday.com/the Click Friday concept. It was a great opportunity for me to use your board to mention this.

    Thanks,

  6. How’s this for the spirit of giving?

    How about having someone ‘big’ (FS/MM) donate a decent domain for a giveaway ‘raffle’.

    For every helpful domaining tip that someone from the community posts, they get one ‘raffle ticket’. Contest ends on a given date, and then you post a live video (a la Chef Patrick of years past) of you picking the winner. Of course, domaining companies could pay for promo/airtime during the video, and those proceeds could go towards the Ronald McDonald house.

    Heck, have both of them donate names (if doesn’t have to be them, but for the sake of this post, let’s use them as an example), and top winner gets his pick of the two names. The other person would get the other name.

    I think this would keep in spirit with your blog, as your blog is one of the best around giving out really great advice to all domainers, old and new. Plus, we get some companies to give money to your favorite charity!

    For other prizes, might I suggest the following companies ‘step up’ and contribute to your holiday contest:
    1-2 Decent domains from big-time domainer(s)
    $500 Namejet credit
    $500 Godaddy gift certificate
    1 year pro subscription to Domaintools
    1 year pro subscription to Protrada
    Lifetime exclusive membership to DNF

    I think if you get all of the above to contribute, the fireworks are going to fly.

    If you use this idea, can I get a couple of tickets for suggesting this? πŸ™‚

  7. Your “Worst domain” contest from a little while back was amusing, wouldn’t mind seeing that one return.

    The reg dates would have to be something like 6+ months in the past though, to avoid people registering crap just to win the contest.

    Great idea Elliot…keep up the good work

  8. For prizes, I like the idea of you giving away one of your domain names. hahaha

    …or, give away an advertising space to post someone’s GOOGLE Adsense code for a month, a week, a day…whatever…and he can tell us how much money he made.

    And as a follow-up, you can have a contest for people to predict how much money he will make.

  9. Maybe something with “Domains Wanted” and then buyers price point(s)….and legit name.

    Sellers can publicly list their domain name and pricing under each domain Buyer listed.

    I am sure you/someone can add more bells and whistles to premise.

    Everyone can get involved.

  10. A good contest idea is holding a domain name registration contest on how can hand register the most exact match domain names with 1,000+ local searches per month. This is not easy for many domainers to do.

    This is a good idea because the best domain names have greater than 1,000+ exact match searches per month. People search for these keywords often enough to make them valuable domain names.

    You can hold a one-day contest so all these domains must be registered on this exact day. This contest will show real domain skills at their best. I rarely see good exact match domain names listed from visitors here.

    Prize ideas:
    -$750 GoDaddy gift card (I like this one best)
    -Develop a website for the winner like your best websites. They get a logo design, template layout, free promotion and consulting.
    -Sell a domain name for winner at end-user price
    -Help the winner acquire a great domain name that is a category killer
    -Winner gets to have lunch with you in NYC, where they can pick your brain on domain names, marketing and investing (this is a great prize)

  11. Revision:

    A good contest idea is holding a domain name registration contest to see who can register the most exact match domain names with 1,000+ local searches per month. This is not easy for many domainers to do.

    Only AdWords can be used to weigh the 1,000+ exact match local searches.

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