I recently caught a television advert for a competition where people had the chance to win a house in the Cotswolds worth one million pounds along with a couple of Mini Coopers.
It was a slick and highly polished professional looking advert pushing people to a website called Omaze.co.uk.
The competition was raising money for the RSPCA here in the UK.
I don’t know much about Omaze but from what I can see, the company was initially set up by two American’s, Matt and Ryan, after attending a charity event where one person paid $15,000 to win court side tickets to watch a basketball game with their idol, Magic Johnson.
According to the website; ‘Two things occurred to them: why should these amazing experiences only go to the highest bidder? And how could such an epic prize only raise $15,000 for charity? Imagine if we made these opportunities available online and gave everyone the chance to win. It would mean many more people could participate, and a lot more money would be raised for charity.’
I’ve talked about using competitions in the past to make money, and this is a great example because it also combines raising money for charites and good causes which is always a great move.
People love the possibility of winning something ‘big and expensive’ while at the same time doing something good for society.
They get the chance to potentially ‘get’ something while at the same time ‘giving’ back.
That’s powerful.
Entry to the competition is free if you enter by post.
I think that is a regulation here in the UK that you have to offer a way to enter for free otherwise it changes the way the competition is run and promoted.
It says at the bottom of the website: ‘Omaze Million Pound House Draw is not a charity raffle, house raffle or house lottery but a prize draw’.
However…
You can ‘buy’ more entries online.
15 entries will cost you £10.
40 entries will cost you £25. The most popular option apparently.
85 entries will cost you £50.
320 entries will cost you £150.
£150 isn’t a bad price to pay if you win prizes worth over £1Million is it?
Obviously, this is a gamble, there is no guarantee that you will win the prize, but if you did, £150 isn’t a bad price to pay for it.
The ticket prices may seem expensive at first glance, but they are nothing compared to the value of the prize.
I cannot say if this is how they raise the money to purchase these expensive prizes, but I imagine that it is a big part of it.
They only need 6,670 people paying £150 to generate £1Million in entry sales.
Obviously, there is going to be a lot of costs involved and people will buy different priced entry bundles so I’m sure they will need more than 6,670 paying to enter but you get the idea.
There’s obviously money to be made with competitions otherwise they wouldn’t be offering a million pound house as a prize.
That’s not a prize bought using the money found down the back of a sofa!
As always, this had me thinking…
Is it possible for people who don’t have a million pound house to give away to make money running competitions?
I think it is.
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Start Small First
Like everything in life, you start at the beginning.
Start small and grow.
Maybe offer a collection of books or a brand new Samsung tablet.
Set yourself enough time to find and attract enough paying entries or build up a list of names if you are giving the prize away for free.
If you give prizes away for free you can build a list of people who are interested in winning ‘stuff’ and promote other competitions to them which require them to pay to enter so you make your money later.
Don’t leave the prize draw too long though. People love instant gratification and they want stuff ‘now’!
No one is going to enter to win a brand new Samsung tablet worth £150 if the draw is six months away.
A million pound house, yes, that’s worth the wait.
No one is likely to forget entering a competition to win a million pound house, but they will forget entering a competition for something small and if there is a risk that they may forget, they may decide not to enter.
Speed Is Exciting
If a person can see themselves owning a new ‘toy’ this time next week, they get excited and are more likely to enter the competition.
The two biggest motivators for people to enter a competition are:
- The prize itself. The bigger – and more expensive – the better.
- The speed at which the winner can start enjoying the potential prize.
You could add a third motivator to that list and it is one which Omaze is using:
- Raising funds for charity and good causes.
As well as raising funds for good causes, you can use competitions to raise funds to buy the prize itself if you set everything up carefully.
Using A Competition To Raise Funds
Our techy guy Andi once told me about a similar idea he had over fifteen years ago.
He had a close friend who was converting an old council building into apartments.
He was adding extensions to the original building but because of the haphazard and disorganised way he worked where he started one job at one end of the building and then moved onto another at the other end before finishing the previous job, he was failing to finish individual apartments and was running out of money fast.
Andi came up with the suggestion that his friend could sell tickets to ‘win’ a luxury (finished) apartment worth £80,000 – the price they were expected to fetch at that time – to help fund the build.
The idea was that he could sell the tickets from a website where he did regular updates to show how the apartment was progressing.
Not only would the competition fund the build and potentially help fund the build of other apartments, it also meant that he would have drummed up interest in the other apartments and had one buyer less to deal with.
With the build of the apartment taking several months, he would have had a long enough period of time where he could have attracted more than enough people to buy tickets which would have raised the money he needed.
Let’s say that tickets to win the luxury apartment were sold for £10, they would have needed only 8,000 people to enter.
The apartment could have been marketed as an opportunity for someone to either live in a luxury apartment or own a rental apartment which could earn them a monthly income.
It would be a complete starter rental business in a box… and all for the price of £10.
Who wouldn’t want to own a rental property worth £80,000 which had the potential to earn them £600+ each month, and all for the cost of a £10 ticket?
His friend decided not to go with the suggestion which is a shame as it might have prevented the bank reprocessing the property and his wife leaving him because she was fed up with living on a building site.
As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I think running competitions could be a real money spinner for the right person.
Is that person you?
Another great little money spinner is writing and sending simple emails.
Not only is email a great way to make money as a standalone system, it is a vital part of a competition focused business.
When people enter your competition their email addresses will be added to a list which you can then send simple emails to promoting other competitions and offers.
Email and competitions go together like bread and butter, toast and jam… you get the picture.
If you would like to know how to build your own website perfect for running competitions from and grow your own email list, go to:
The Email Secret
Kind Regards
John Harrison
- You’ll learn everything you need to know on how to write and send money making emails, grow your email list PLUS you will be given the webpage templates that you need to start and run your very own profitable online and email based affiliate business.
Here’s that link again: