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Competitions Win/Win!

© Jo Murphy

When Susan Maree Jeavon ran a poetry contest, Aileen McLeod donated two of the prizes. 1st Prize - A pastel portrait of the winner's choice. - Value -$200AU and a CD/audio picture book "Brave Buster," the story of an abused dog who finds a caring family. $15AU Aileen writes Painting Pleasures
The winner chose this portrait called "Lisa"

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"I really do love painting these types of projects. Of course I love to receive commissions, (they're the bread and butter) but to do a portrait for another's accomplishment is rewarding and I am itching to start on it LOL." Aileen said.

As you read on, you will find that Aileen has also donated the same kind of prize to another competition. Let's look at some of the reasons why an artist would do this.

• If you want to sell your own work, it is good to have it 'out there' where it will be seen frequently
• Donating a prize allows Suite101 readers know that you have products and services for sale in addition to your regular free informative topic.
• Many writers at the Suite101 are now bundling products and placing them nearby at ready access at their topic. Donating a prize means that more people know about this
• There is usually a 'blurb' with the competition that allows you as an author to 'spell out' for the readers the benefits of your products. Because we are on the Internet a simple link can take the reader to an enormous amount of information.
• Because the competition is run to appeal to a targeted audience - this allows the writer or artist market directly to a target audience.
• If the prize is something of great value (such as the painting shown above) - it will attract quite a bit of attention.

So when all is said and done, donating prizes to competitions is very good use of advertising dollars.

The competitive aura offers many benefits to the marketer. It is up to the designer of the competition to educate those who participate. By running the Kids Korner competition the Suite101 competition organisers were able to motivate young readers in the area of drawing. The idea was to captivate the audience, so that they would want to keep sharing their art online well after the competition ended. We had to introduce to the reading audience the idea that learning art online is fun and we had to teach the children a whole lot of techniques and technical information so that they would be able to participate. Having a prize at the end provided the stimulous and motivation.

The copyright of the article Competitions Win/Win! in Working Artists is owned by Jo Murphy. Permission to republish Competitions Win/Win! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.