MESKOS Forum Development Blog

Forum Contests, Forum Success?

Forum Contest Ideas
Fresh Contest, Fresh Members, Fresh Forum.

To spice up your forum, refresh the community or just an event to regain members interest, all comes down to a forum revamp or a forum contest. Contests are useful as it brings all the active members together and motivates interaction (depending on the contest idea).

If the forum staff team can manage the contest effeciently and effectively, it can really bring back a lot of old and new traffic.

Here are some contest ideas which can be used as a guideline for your forum(s):

• Referral Contest.
  - Winner will be judged on most referrals.
  - More points if the referrals post.
• Posting Contest.
  - The basic, “Who ever can post the most wins”.
  - Distribute additional post points for quality topics/replies made.
• Advanced Posting Contest.
  - Who can create the most active topic? (encourages members to start interesting topics)
  - Post a statement and allow every member to write an interesting paragraph on it. Most interesting, would be the winner.
• Content Contests.
  - Article writing.
  - Poetry writing.
  - Create the topic concept in regards to your forum genre.
• Treasure Hunts.
  - Create riddles in different parts of the forum.
  - Let your members find their way to the treasure.
• Digital Contests.
  - Award the winner by using their design on your forum. (Eg. Banner).
  - Photo Contest. (Who ever can be most unique in a photo?)
• Simulation Contests. (Used on one of my old forums, was successful and loved)
  - Create a simulation (depending on your forum genre) and judge the best response.
  - Example: I use to run an admin forum, where administrators could share managing tips etc. I had a section called the “Admin Simulation” where i would develop a situation where members had to put themselves into the situation and reply with a well written response.
  - The winner can be selected on the quality of the response.

I hope this will refresh your ideas. If you have any new contest ideas, feel free to submit them through the comment feature.

Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
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