I am building a program to deliver an online contest Searching for the Smartest of the US. The ideas is driven by my website www.BestofUS.com and my desire to recognize the smart people in our country. After all we regularly recognize the Biggest Looser, the Most Eligible Bachelor, America's Got Talent, and Survivor. Why are ignoring the smart people. Can you name the last Pulitzer Prize winner?
The contest will be an annual year long event. Contestants will be invited to come to www.SmartestofUS.com,pay a $10 entry fee, take a 15 minute 40 question test to find the smartest people in the US. The winner will receive a $50,000 prize, 12 monthly winners will receive a $5,000 prize, and we'll award cash prizes down to the 1000 smartest person in the US. Over 16 million people search for online contestants and sweepstakes every month, nine million play online poker.
The questions have been written, a bank of 3000 to be drawn from, the program has been written, the designers are hard at work, and the advertising campaign is being worked on.
I want to share some of my thoughts about how to present The Smartest of the US contest in hopes that any readers will share their incite or opinions.
As I see it there are three ways that I can present my contest each with differing appeal and differing risk and reward:
1. With a fixed prize ($50,000 to winner and payout to next 1000 highest scores, an exposure of $500,000 plus). This carries a high risk; what if the revenue doesn't cover the advertising and prize cost? It carries a high appeal; able to state the prize in the ads thus pulling high traffic. How many people really think their one of the 1000 smartest so how many will enter? But then we are paying the top 1000 and the entry fee is just $10.00.
2. With a prize that is tied to the level of entire fees (sliding prize); the level of risk goes down and the exposure is just the advertising which can be stopped if the entries are not coming. The potential prize purse actually doubles if we reach our projected participation level of 2000 entries per day. The advertising copy is then limited because an inability to state a definite prize level early on, thus potentially less traffic.
3. Drop the entry fee and offer the same prize as stated in option #1, and sell the promotion up front to a Sponsor who can be tied into The Smartest of the US. (The Smart Car, Phoenix University, Apple Computer). With no entry fee a banner ad campaign could yield a daily traffic of 50,000 or more resulting in a lot of advertising impressions. If it's free most people would be interested in where they stand in a Smartest of US ranking. With a 5% conversion rate on leads it could generate 775,000 annual leads. I could show a $3.5 million value to Phoenix University, who's accustomed to paying between $25 and $60 for leads, and offer the promotion for sale at a sizable discount.
Give these options some thought and if you have any comments please share them with me.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Mad DJ came calling
Halloween came to our house again this year on October 31. Nita and I bought enough candy for 150 Trick or Teeters, just like the past three years we got about 50 goblins at our front door. Nita and I still remember the year we ran out of candy and had to turn out the lights and go to the basement and turn up the TV down there so we couldn’t hear the doorbell. We’re going to the beach for Thanksgiving so we’ll try to get rid of some of our excess there.
These are pictures of Haileigh and Emma as the entered our house. Trent and Haileigh came up with this costume that the called the “Mad DJ,” the most creative costume that I have ever seen. Then take a close look at Emma, this is an Angelina Jolie in the making.
These are pictures of Haileigh and Emma as the entered our house. Trent and Haileigh came up with this costume that the called the “Mad DJ,” the most creative costume that I have ever seen. Then take a close look at Emma, this is an Angelina Jolie in the making.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Best of the US
I have been spending most of my time the last several weeks working on my website, www.BestofUS.com. I want to redesign the site and build it's monthly traffic. I feel that BestofUS has great potential to do good as well as generate cashflow.
The Best of The U.S.
www.BestofUS will be redesigned to have a landing page which will direct the visitor to the Professionals Page, the High School Page, and our new page which is under construction: The Smartest of US page.
The Smartest of US is a contest which we anticipating will bring us site traffic of 3000 to 5000 visitors per day. I own the URL SmartestofUS.com. The contest has the potential to generate revenue through an entry fee. The details are being worked out with our attorney.
The landing page will also offer current content consisting of RSS feeds to relative blogs and news. The site will look like WebMD.com or Wellness.com, with the flash screens directing visitors to our listing pages.
All pages need SEO, and SEM work. We need to build our web links with our 63,000 listed professionals and High School student’s social network pages.
With increased site traffic and public awareness we want to build our listing pages business plan around increased professional listing upgrades. We need to offer a monthly or annual payment plan with an automatic renewal. We currently have 63,000 professionals listed with 300 upgraded to include contact information and web link.
We need to market our Best High School Student page through FaceBook and MySpace, and support it through advertising. The page needs to turn into a Social Networking site for the Smartest Students keyed to College Admissions, Scholarships, Competitions, and Intern Opportunities.
Searching for the Smartest of U.S. (Under construction)
OverviewThe Best of the U.S. announces a year long $1 million competition to find the smartest individual in the United States. We will hold twelve monthly competitions starting January 1, 2009.
Participants will be asked to answer 50 questions online in an allotted time of 15 minutes.
Each entry will carry a $10.00 fee; contestants will be allowed to enter as often as they wish.
The 50 questions will be randomly drawn from a data base of over 4,000 questions.
Each month the top 10 scorers will qualify for the semifinals. The 10 semi-finalists will be tested in a testing center to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will be paid a cash prize of $10,000 and qualify as one of the 12 finalists.
The twelve finalists will be invited to a central location in February 2010 to be tested and to determine The Smartest of U.S.
The winner and 999 runner-ups will share in the $1 million purse.
Grand Prize = $100,000
1st Runner-up through 80th Runner-up = $5,000
81st Runner-up through 180th Runner-up = $1,000
181st Runner-up through 1000th Runner-up = $500
The top ten monthly competitors and their corresponding scores will be posted on the website everyday.
The top 1000 annual competitors and their scores will be posted on the website.
The competition is open to all residents of the United States 18 years of age or older.
The Best of The U.S.
www.BestofUS will be redesigned to have a landing page which will direct the visitor to the Professionals Page, the High School Page, and our new page which is under construction: The Smartest of US page.
The Smartest of US is a contest which we anticipating will bring us site traffic of 3000 to 5000 visitors per day. I own the URL SmartestofUS.com. The contest has the potential to generate revenue through an entry fee. The details are being worked out with our attorney.
The landing page will also offer current content consisting of RSS feeds to relative blogs and news. The site will look like WebMD.com or Wellness.com, with the flash screens directing visitors to our listing pages.
All pages need SEO, and SEM work. We need to build our web links with our 63,000 listed professionals and High School student’s social network pages.
With increased site traffic and public awareness we want to build our listing pages business plan around increased professional listing upgrades. We need to offer a monthly or annual payment plan with an automatic renewal. We currently have 63,000 professionals listed with 300 upgraded to include contact information and web link.
We need to market our Best High School Student page through FaceBook and MySpace, and support it through advertising. The page needs to turn into a Social Networking site for the Smartest Students keyed to College Admissions, Scholarships, Competitions, and Intern Opportunities.
Searching for the Smartest of U.S. (Under construction)
OverviewThe Best of the U.S. announces a year long $1 million competition to find the smartest individual in the United States. We will hold twelve monthly competitions starting January 1, 2009.
Participants will be asked to answer 50 questions online in an allotted time of 15 minutes.
Each entry will carry a $10.00 fee; contestants will be allowed to enter as often as they wish.
The 50 questions will be randomly drawn from a data base of over 4,000 questions.
Each month the top 10 scorers will qualify for the semifinals. The 10 semi-finalists will be tested in a testing center to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will be paid a cash prize of $10,000 and qualify as one of the 12 finalists.
The twelve finalists will be invited to a central location in February 2010 to be tested and to determine The Smartest of U.S.
The winner and 999 runner-ups will share in the $1 million purse.
Grand Prize = $100,000
1st Runner-up through 80th Runner-up = $5,000
81st Runner-up through 180th Runner-up = $1,000
181st Runner-up through 1000th Runner-up = $500
The top ten monthly competitors and their corresponding scores will be posted on the website everyday.
The top 1000 annual competitors and their scores will be posted on the website.
The competition is open to all residents of the United States 18 years of age or older.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)