My website is www.BestofUS.com; its theme is built around the recognition of the “Best of the US”. I started in 2006 by building a database of the best doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial advisors by searching the internet for those professionals that have displayed their commitment to their profession through furthering their education in their field, received peer group recognition or have been singled out for their work. Over the past two years our listings have grown to over 65,000 listings in 10 professions. Last year we added The Best High School Students in the US. We currently have 3,600 students listed in 8 fields of study. If your interested in my motivation for this read Shannons Story on www.BestofUS.com.
In an effort to build site traffic I have designed and built an online contest, “Searching for the Smartest of the US”. The contest program will administer a 50 question 15 minute IQ test. The questions will be randomly drawn from a data base of over 3000 questions thus guaranteeing that repeating contestants will not receive the same questions and thus gain an advantage.
Initially I wanted to offer a sizable cash prize and charge a $10 entry fee. I hired Tsan Abrahamson to write my Official Rules that would comply with the 50 state laws that deal with online contests. I hired Solar Velocity to design the landing page and the contest look as well as act as host of the contest. I learned that I could run a pay per click advertising program with a $25,000 monthly budget that would drive 2000 potential daily contestants to the site. Under this scenario the contest would generate a $1,000,000 prize purse, a sizable profit to The Best of the US, and increased BestofUS.com site traffic.
This is when I learned about conversion rate and started seriously asking, “Will 2000 people per day pay $10 to find out if they are one of the Smartest of the US?” My decision, after three weeks of investigation and research, was; “No they wouldn’t put up $10.” The risk was just too high.
Thus I have to devise a new business plan that offers the contest with no entry fee, some form of a prize (like a Smart Car), and a sponsor who will pay for the leads that I will generate. That sponsor would be someone like Phoenix University.
The motivation to participate in the contest will be a long shot at the prize and to find out “Where do you rank among the Smartest of the US?” We might even award a wall plaque to the “100 Smartest of the US”.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress.
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