Free Contest: Turbo Tax

Posted by Bonny Albo Feb 21, 2007

I've had some pretty amusing free contests come by my desk of late, mostly because of the Create a Free Contest article I wrote for the Make Money without Spending a Dime Challenge recently. Most I erased pretty quickly, if only because of the time factor: I can't sift through every email I receive. But when the tagline "CPA Calls Out Vanilla Ice on Turbo Tax Contest" came across my desk this AM, I not only stifled a laugh - but I went and took a look.

It seems that Inuit has started their own free contest for this year's Turbo Tax software by inviting former rapper Vanilla Ice to be the spokesperson. The tongue-in-cheek site offers a $25,000 prize to the top rapper, along with a copy of Turbo Tax for "all qualified entries" posted on the accompanying YouTube channel.

H&R Block is also holding a similar, if less lucrative ($5,000 for the top prize) free contest called, Me and My Super Sweet Refund.

Except for perhaps Mr. Ice's fee (or the high-end video H&R block invested in), these types of "citizen journalism" contests can drive massive amounts of traffic to your business website - fast. Look at some of the Inuit entries, with more than 30,000 hits each in less than a month's time. Other businesses (such as Santa Barbara CPA David Rachford) are entering these free contests to further their own businesses.