PRIZE MONEY

I have tried to figure it out, but I just can’t come up with any answer. How much prize money do I need to offer to attract people to my website contest? When I launched the site three years ago, I set the prize money for the biweekly contests at $50 for funny photos and $10 for cute photos and $500 and $100 for the 6-month bonus prize winners. I had hoped advertisers would cover the cost. However, I have yet to line up any advertisers and thus, must pay the prize money myself.

Last fall, to lower my expenses I cut the prizes for the funny photos to $20 and $200. Unfortunately, since last fall, the number of visitors to my site dropped about 25%. Obviously, I thought, my reduced prizes have also reduced the traffic to my site. And so I’ve been feeling discouraged until yesterday. The winner of the $10 bi-weekly cute-photo contest not only sent me an email to confirm her address, but sent me in CAPTAL LETTERS a very excited thank you. She was absolutely thrilled to win the contest!!

You can imagine my surprise. She won only $10, yet couldn’t have been happier. So the question remains, “How much prize money do I need to offer to attract people to my website contest?”

By Hannah --www.FunnyPhotosContest.com a photo contest for cute or funny photos and photo captions.