I ran a blog contest on kushmoney before changing it to be only about poker. Their were only 5 people entered the contest. So I closed the contest and posted the winners. Like any blog contest with cash prizes via paypal. I gave the winners 48 hours to contact me. None of them contacted within the 48 hour time frame. 4 of them contacted me 3 or 4 days later. Now in business, a deadline is a deadline. None of them should have gotten the prize money.
Me being the helpful person that I am. I gave them the money. Yes, I am nice. I know. They trust me more but at the same time. That can hurt a business to giveaway prize money that was calmed too late. I could have ran another contest on here or on kushmoney. Now one must ask him and her self a question.
What To Do When Winners Contact You After Deadline?
When face with this question it can be hard to answer. Some bloggers are straight forward, very professional, and say you contacted me after the deadline. You can not get the prize. Some bloggers view it as you winner the prize, you can get it anytime, its yours. Then there’s bloggers such as myself that want to be helpful to the winners and also very professional. We must think things over.
1) Say you contacted me after the deadline, you can’t get the cash prize. Which will result in one of two things.
- New reader is mad but understand the rules. Either never read your blog again or keep reading but never enter a contest.
- New reader is very pissed off and call you a scammer. Now this can be bad even the the rules was clear. They will blog about it and start threads in forums. 50% of the people call you a scammer as well and the other 50% will agree that it was in the rules. You will have to clear things up. Which can take months sometimes. (One good thing about this is tons of promotion for your blog)
2) You give them the cash prize. This will result in one of two things.
- New reader is happy they got the money and keep reading your blog.
- New reader is happy they got the money and only come to your blog when you have a contest.
Now even though not paying the contest winner that contacted you after the deadline can bring in tons of promotion for your blog because they didn’t understand the deadline. It can bring a very bad rep for you and your blog. Paying the contest winner that contacted you after the deadline can build trust between you and the winner. Trust is always good but that wasn’t very professional about the deadline.
I am becoming more and more professional about my business. Paying the contest winners that contacted me after the deadline saved me a lot of forum posting and clear things up. Also, I am a very helpful person as most of you seen that side of me. Since I am becoming more professional and business minded. I will not hold any more contest for awhile. I will use all funds to expand my business. The next time I hold a contest, I will make sure that everybody knows the rules and deadlines to clam prizes.
What would you have done?
as well.
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Deneil,
I think you did the right thing. Personally, it irritates me a bit when folks don’t follow simple, easy to follow instructions. I think your thoughts on the matter are spot-on. By denying the late comers you would only succeed in making them mad.
Nice site. I look forward to seeing more.
George
George,
Thank you, I was starting to feel I did the wrong thing. Because, a deadline is a deadline. At the same time, I am a help person and I know the ones that did the steps most likely needed the cash and I would feel bad not paying them.
I am happy you like the new site.
Tough balancing Deneil. It’s also a good decision that you stop the contest to avoid yourself from being in a dilemma again between professionalism and kindness.
But I must say…to be reliable we should stand for the rules. So, you mentioned making your rules clearer next time, is a great solution.
You right, we should stand up for the rules. I didn’t make the payout rules clear in the contest post, that’s why I pay them all. I think all bloggers that hold a contest should place the payout rules in the contest post so people know how things work. I think the next time I hold a contest I will get sponsors to put up the prizes. That way I can hold a much bigger contest.
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