Contests & Competitions - Do they work for you?

From my experience competition tend to bring short-term interest to forums but after it's over rarely do people stick around just to hang out. I was just curious if you guys tend to experience the same thing?

We've done a creative arts contest (where members can draw, write, take pictures, etc of anything language or travel related) and we've done a scavenger hunt as well. What are some of your more successful type of competitions?

It seems competitions are one effective means of getting people to register or boost activity in a forum. What's disappointing is that competitions/contests also give a short-lived boom in activity and memberships. Maybe a very creative and well-thought competition can make members stay. So far, I think a posting contest can help.

I have felt the same @GreenDot
I think it's how you handle the competition, don't stretch it for too long and also keep other things going always.

I will be keeping this in mind when I hold another competition.

It is always short term activity and once the contest is over, they leave and the forum activity goes back down. If you can offer something to provide consistency, maybe adding a monthly draw for active users, it may encourage people to stick around.

I read a case study where a gym owner wanted more members and as a result, gave away a free one month membership. Everyone used it and the gym became super popular. For one month. As soon as they had to purchase membership, one or two stuck around whilst the others left and the gym died down. The next month, he offered a huge discount instead, with one month membership being $10 instead of the standard (usually around $30-50). The gym wasn't as popular as the free promotion however it brought in more people and as soon as it expired, more people purchased a membership at full price.

I know it is quite different however the principle is the same.

Being consistent and creative for your competitions will be some of the keys to ensure a maintained forum activity. Feedback after the events should be done, as this is also one way of maintaining the activity right after the contest is over. I have seen this once in a forum that I joined in, and it really does the trick.

What about posting competitions? Those usually seem to boost activity, especially if you add some rules to prevent short (spammy) posts.

They seem to be very useful here. We try to have a variety of competitions, some work better than others.

It kind of depends on the type of the contest your doing and how it relates to the niche` of your forum.

I'm working on a contest right now for when I open my forum to the public. I think it'll be something different from some of the more traditional contests that you generally see.