One of the least expensive ways to promote an online business is via some sort of contest. The purpose of online contest-related promotion, in case you haven’t already guessed, is to drive traffic to your web site. There are countless ‘contest junkies” who search the Internet everyday. If you are offering prizes that meet their particular interest, chances are most will enter.

Naturally, the best and most obvious prize to offer is one that is related to your business. On our traffic exchange, we give away free traffic to contest winners. The-Crimson.com blog has various postings on how to increase your search rankings. The amount does not have to be large. We have gotten some great resutls when the prize was only $10. If this option is not possible, you can always award contest prizes such as gift cards or cash. (Cash prizes can easily be awarded via PayPal or a similar Internet payment service.) If you are running the contest yourself, the main goal other than promoting the actual contest, is to capture names and email addresses by way of the entry form. Each entrant can then be added to your mailing list, as a potential customer.