Do you find that competitions boost forum activity?

[Jack12]

My forum activity has been pretty low as of late and I'm finding it quite difficult to get off the ground, especially with the number of sites in my niche (computers, overclocking) so I'm looking at ways to help boost activity, even if it is only within the small userbase for now.

I was looking at prizes and overclocking competitions to help out. Perhaps a gaming mouse here and 8GB memory stick there, nothing too extravagant but don't want to waste money if it's been tried and fails.

I was thinking about advertising it on facebook also as an enticement to sign up and participate, but again not sure how it will go.

So I ask, has anyone tried forum competitions and if so, do they work?

Thanks,
Jack

[Llandy]

I've tried a couple of times in the past, but it didn't really make much of a difference with the forum activity. Why exactly it didn't work, I'm not entirely sure of, but it could be that my users weren't really interested in taking part in discussions or the forum in general, even if it would mean that they could win prizes.

[BirdOPrey5]

I tried a photo contest that ended up with half my active users going to a new forum over a dispute with the rules...

[Jack12]

I've tried a couple of times in the past, but it didn't really make much of a difference with the forum activity. Why exactly it didn't work, I'm not entirely sure of, but it could be that my users weren't really interested in taking part in discussions or the forum in general, even if it would mean that they could win prizes.

Thanks for chiming in. With my forum, the problem is not so much that my users aren't interested in taking part, it's more so that they're running out of things to take part in. We're all quite knowledgable in the forums niche, all know each other quite well and have just undergone builds so no shiny new toys for people to talk about for a while either. Hopefully a competition will give users a reason to post up benchmark results and get them discussing tweaking ect... and then I can work on bringing more users to an active forum.

I tried a photo contest that ended up with half my active users going to a new forum over a dispute with the rules...

Thanks for your input mate. I find it stupid but not surprising at the same time for members to do such a thing and it's definitely something I'll be keeping in mind.

[ProFifaLeagues]

Works very well on our site but we do run a xbox 360 gaming forum so its a bit different.
Are you still bringing in enough new members to get there attention and enter any comps you would run?
Maybe worth looking at facebook and setting up a group to spread the word on your site,Also be useful to spread word on upcoming comps you will be holding on site too.

[bposner]

I run/own a couple of sites, but just started a new one that corporate centric and we want to set up some sort of contest internally and suggestion came about "best avatar" although I like the concept, I'm trying to find a hack that would help organize it. My first thought was to ask those who want to participate then put up a poll with each user's name and people vote.. seems simple but boring :) I've never run an online contest on the hobby boards I own so this is kinda new... any suggestions/ideas greatly apprecited
Thanks!