taking a very broad view of it there are two types of competition out there.

the lesser seen competition is usually run by small special interest groups, the prizes aren’t things that would interest the general public, and the usual idea is to reward members or subscribers and generally engender community spirit .

the much more common greater seen competition is a blatant promotion tool and the prizes appeal to a wide section of the public, from freebie tshirts and mousemats up to holidays and cars. the usual idea is to appeal to as many potential customers as possible. that’s the whole point. promotion. brand awareness. getting people to buy your products. getting eyeballs to your website. persuading people why you’re better than the competition.

at loquax we tend to avoid listing the lesser seen competition as it’s not a promotion tool. we list the greater seen competition by the thousand. we send thousands of people to these websites each day. among our users there is indeed a miniscule minority who aren’t interested in anything but the comps. most of our users are. they might go to a site just to enter a comp the first time, but next time they’re looking to purchase what you sell or find the info you’re providing they know about you and they come back. that’s the whole bloody reason you put a competition on your website. to attract users. to start the process of turning the casual browser into the serious customer.

some people just don’t get this.