We've answered a lot of your competition questions previously, so to save everyone time here's a summary.
If you've got a question or comment about competitions please read all this first. If we haven't answered you then feel free to post below.
Mansized wrote:
Why do people who contribute sweet FA to this site win all the prizes when board regulars get nothing?
There's lots of ways of contributing to Mansized. Reading our reviews, putting questions to our experts, sharing advice with fellow readers... and taking part in competitions.
All of these things drive up the number of pages we serve a month. The more pages we serve, the more adverts we're able to sell and the more money available for site development. Everything we make goes into new reviews, answers and tools for you. We don't take a penny for ourselves.
Competition entrants make a valuable contribution to this site and are very welcome.
Mansized wrote:
But competition entrants aren't as loyal as regulars or look at as many pages. Why reward that?
Competition entrants look at a lot of pages - up to five pages to enter each competition and we've often had ten comps on the site at any one time. That's as many 50 pages in a single visit.
Say they visit twice a month (many do) and you're looking at up to 100 pages in a month. OK, so few make it to the boards but it's still a big contribution. Not that many regulars view as much.
Mansized wrote:
But they're still not contributing to the boards...
Different people enjoy the site in different ways. A few compers post and we'd like more to join in, but you can't force people.
Think of it this way - compers look at lots of pages but they don't use a lot of the site's resources such as our experts' time in answering questions. In effect their use of Mansized is subsidising yours.
We're looking at ways of making the boards more vibrant still and more obvious to visitors on other parts of the site. Your suggestions on this or any other aspect of Mansized are always welcome.
Mansized wrote:
How about setting a minimum post limit on all competitions?
We've tried that. The number of entrants went down considerably. Companies that provide us with prizes want to see lots of entrants so this doesn't help us when securing new goodies.
If we imposed this you'd see far fewer big offers and comps in general. We reckon a slightly smaller chance of winning a big prize is better than no prize at all.
We do have the occasional regulars only prizes and we'll continue this as far as we can. Comps like Mr Mansized and Fantasy Football are also yours - you may not win as much but the prestige is far greater. You also lots of other benefits for sticking around - free access to our experts, great conversation, new mates. You get out what you put in.
Mansized wrote:
Do the people that win comps ever visit again?
We see a lot of familiar faces. They may not visit the boards but they are looking at pages and enjoying the site. It's a win for everyone.
Mansized wrote:
The people who win prizes don't come back and post so surely it's time to try something different?
The aim is attract people to the site and have them visit us again. It'd be great if they posted, but the fact they come back is all we're looking for.
Mansized wrote:
Can't we auction prizes off to raise money for the site?
Fraid not. The prizes are given to us to attract readers to enter. They're not for auction.
Mansized wrote:
How do you pick winners? Out of a hat?
An electronic hat. Next to every competition on the back end of our site is a 'choose winners' link. Clicking it brings up all the entries with any personal info removed (see screenshot below). We tick the number of winners needed and names and addresses are revealed. So it's totally random.
View full size
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Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
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liquidfit wrote:
Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
I thought you studied computer science ?
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Jimmie wrote:
liquidfit wrote:
Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
I thought you studied computer science ?
Which is why i am asking!
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liquidfit wrote:
Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
There's obviously lots of ways of doing this but we've looked a couple of times at entrants' usernames. We're seeing the same names crop up with new ones joining the more comps we do.
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wonders how to load up a bug so it finaly picks me! I need a holiday and a new TV!!!!!
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will wrote:
liquidfit wrote:
Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
There's obviously lots of ways of doing this but we've looked a couple of times at entrants' usernames. We're seeing the same names crop up with new ones joining the more comps we do.
I guess i am just confused, i can browse the web pages on MS from another computer and never log in, you would never know it was me, hence i was wondering how u knew that people were coming back. The only exception I can think to this would be if there actually logging in, but this would also assume you log what pages each user visits.
Anyway its not a big point, again was just a query as technically i don't think its possible to log a person just hitting pages on a website. Yes I know IP's etc can be recorded, but there is lot more to it than this.
Anyways, don't worry about it.
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liquidfit wrote:
I guess i am just confused, i can browse the web pages on MS from another computer and never log in, you would never know it was me, hence i was wondering how u knew that people were coming back. The only exception I can think to this would be if there actually logging in, but this would also assume you log what pages each user visits.
You need to log in to enter a competition and we collect usernames against each comp. By looking at these lists of names we can see if people are returning or not.
We don't know a lot about people who haven't joined other the what our site stats tell us. Repeat visits are up and comps have definitely played a part.
Cheers for your questions liquid
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liquidfit wrote:
will wrote:
liquidfit wrote:
Will, u say that these people are coming back to the site, albeit not posting, which is great! How do you know there coming back though?
There's obviously lots of ways of doing this but we've looked a couple of times at entrants' usernames. We're seeing the same names crop up with new ones joining the more comps we do.
I guess i am just confused, i can browse the web pages on MS from another computer and never log in, you would never know it was me, hence i was wondering how u knew that people were coming back. The only exception I can think to this would be if there actually logging in, but this would also assume you log what pages each user visits.
Anyway its not a big point, again was just a query as technically i don't think its possible to log a person just hitting pages on a website. Yes I know IP's etc can be recorded, but there is lot more to it than this.
Anyways, don't worry about it.
I guess very few people use many different PCs. Personally I use 2. So I guess its not that much of an issue.
Will - Have you considered posting your comps to these competition websites? I am assuming you do, or a user of one of those sites do as there is always a mass of activity when a new comp appears.
Thinking a little bit more, dont know how easy or hard this would be. I was thinking about the whole NHS thing how they are keen for people to stop smoking, lose weight etc. If you could get in with your local PCT even just to get them to have flyers kicking around about the site. It wouldnt cost them any money, and they might even want a doctor to go over the advice/programmes on this site. After all its all about money. They dont want to spend too much and they wouldnt have to, and you want members. I guess its similar to how some people seem to get free gym membership from their docs. I dont know if that comes with access to a nutrionalist etc. Might be a stupid/hard to implement idea but just thought I would mention it.
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lardass wrote:
If you could get in with your local PCT even just to get them to have flyers kicking around about the site. It wouldnt cost them any money, and they might even want a doctor to go over the advice/programmes on this site. After all its all about money. They dont want to spend too much and they wouldnt have to, and you want members. I guess its similar to how some people seem to get free gym membership from their docs. I dont know if that comes with access to a nutrionalist etc. Might be a stupid/hard to implement idea but just thought I would mention it.
The theory is good - I think there are some potential difficulties (not to say they can't be overcome). Some people talk openly in favour of illegal drugs so I think they might feel compromised. Also some of the attitudes towards sex aren't exactly in line with government targets.
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