The competition has a slightly goofy name – “Hunger Bytes” – and a strange logo – a globe with two pointy teeth.  But this YouTube-centric contest is for a good cause, and it’s backed by the United Nations World Food Program.

When “On the Lot” ended, the winning director was ushered into DreamWorks by Steven Spielberg.  YouTube’s Project Direct can’t offer quite so admirable a prize, but participants will still be able to gain some great exposure.

A new contest gives participants two choices, and the second option is “die.”  I guess Google, which is involved in the competition, really wants people to innovate.

Google’s “Bourne Ultimatum” and Threadless t-shirt contests both looked like fun – and potentially rewarding – activities, but they’ve (so far) failed to impress.  The Bourne site is suffering from a number of technical problems; the Threadless competition appears to have outlawed a perfectly natural course of action.

There is going to be a new Gmail t-shirt, and in and of itself, this news probably wouldn’t be worth writing about.  But what’s interesting is that Google is holding a contest to determine the shirt’s design, and the winner stands to gain $2,000 and a new iPhone.

Google likes young people, and young people like Google; the company reports that its “Build Your Campus in 3D Competition” received around 4,000 entries.  Seven winning teams have now been selected.

One of the hottest marketing trends of late is to get your customers to create your next ad campaign for you. It worked for Doritos and their Super Bowl ad contest, but sometimes it can backfire, as Chevy can attest to.

There are a lot of fingers in this pie – or, more accurately, this gas tank – but Primedia Automotive, which “consists of more than 58 Web sites for its automotive enthusiast titles,” has launched a new “Ride of the Month” contest that should draw in hundreds (or thousands) of car buffs, a number of advertisers, and Microsoft itself.

The sports wasteland of February has been brushed away as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament gets under way. Here are some sites that will have you setting up a bracket and getting back to work without costing your employer $75 billion in productivity losses.

We have all heard the term content-rich, but what does content rich really mean?

We have all heard the term content-rich, but what does content rich really mean?

Contests are a great way to build your opt in list. Everyone loves the chance to win something, so they’ll be more than thrilled to give you their email address. Contests fit into any genre, as well.

How many of you were offended with the Forbes article that labelled bloggers as an “online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective.”

Contests are very useful for site traffic and getting new subscribers. Good contest helps in making better image of a certain company.

Running a contest for your e-zine subscribers or web site visitors is one way you can generate interest and give more exposure for products or services you want to promote.

A contest could be as simple as spotting a word or a set of words within an e-zine’s issue or searching for a graphic on a site. A contest can run for one issue, or it can last for a month or more.

If you plan to run a contest, make sure you have a “contest management response system” in place.

This could be as simple as an automated e-mail receipt to let your participants know their entry has been received.

Run a contest that asks your participants to send their responses to specific e-mail addresses. Then create an automated receipt confirmation for each account.

You spend so much time promoting YOUR site, but why, exactly, do YOU VISIT someone else’s?

The other day, I re-visited all of the sites I had been to that week (using Internet Explorer’s History option). I asked myself the simple question: “Why did I visit that site?” I came up with 21, yes 21!, reasons why I visited a particular web site. Now if they are reasons why *I* visited a site, they could well be reasons why I (or someone else) would visit YOUR site!

Looking for a sure fire way to promote your business? Contest are a fun and highly effective way to promote your business. People LOVE winning things, so what better way than a contest to gain new customers.