MakeUseOf Passed 172,000 Entries on One Sponsored Post

Overview

As a publisher, you have a short list of formats to offer advertisers: sponsored posts, reviews, banners and social posts.

MakeUseOf adds a Gleam Competition to the review itself.

I first emailed MakeUseOf when Gleam was just starting out. They were one of the prospects in how Gleam found its first 100 customers, and they were using PunchTab at the time.

Nothing came of that first exchange. Nine months later someone at MakeUseOf emailed to say they were looking for alternatives, and they started a trial of Gleam. Almost a year after that they were running Competitions inside sponsored posts.

An editor reviews the product. The giveaway is that same product. The NordVPN post below shows how it fits together.

Visit MakeUseOf

MakeUseOf Since 2006

Aibek Esengulov started MakeUseOf in 2006 to help people find useful websites.

The site has since expanded into devices, technology and wider web topics.

One Review, 15 Accounts and an iPhone 6

MakeUseOf builds Competitions around editorial posts.

Gleam didn’t just provide us with a platform to organise fun competitions for our readers, it gave us the opportunity to leverage our readership to drive better performing sponsored editorials with higher returns.

MakeUseOf

Take the NordVPN post as an example. The author reviews the product, and a disclaimer at the top says NordVPN made the post possible while the opinions stay the author’s. A Gleam Competition sits under the heading “How Do I Win a NordVPN Account and the iPhone 6?”

The post went up on 30 March 2015, and the Google Trends line for “vpn” jumps at the right-hand edge of the chart below.

Competitions Inside Reviews

A reviewer goes through a product’s features and benefits in detail. Readers weighing a purchase are looking for exactly that, and a giveaway of the reviewed product sits right in front of them.

The NordVPN post gives away 15 one-year NordVPN accounts and one iPhone 6 with free lifetime NordVPN access, valued by the post at close to $4,000. When the screenshot above was taken, the widget showed 172,756 Total Entries and 17 hours left.

• MakeUseOf puts the giveaway in the post title: “[15 1-Year Accounts + iPhone 6 Giveaway]”.

• The prizes are the product under review.

• Sponsored posts get a highlighted tile in the post listings.

Key Growth Takeaways

Pick a Prize Your Readers Want

The NordVPN prize pool pairs 15 VPN accounts, which suit readers shopping for a VPN, with one iPhone 6.

A Sponsored Tile in the Post Listings

MakeUseOf shows a Sponsored tile for the NordVPN post in its post listings.

Bonus Entries for Daily Visits

The Bonus Action gives Entrants extra entries for coming back to the Competition each day, or for finishing a set number of other Actions first. MakeUseOf’s widget uses it: “Visit this giveaway everyday to earn bonus entries and increase your chances of winning!”

Advertisers Can Build Their Own Competition

An advertiser can build the Competition in its own Gleam account and ask the publisher to embed it in the post. You then choose which Actions Entrants complete, such as the Question Action below: “How much did you spend on your current graphics card?”

Follow Up With Everyone Who Didn’t Win

The NordVPN widget showed 172,756 Total Entries with 17 hours left.

Send a special offer for the featured product to Entrants who didn’t win. When you negotiate with a publisher, ask for access to the follow-up email list, or agree to share it.

Running the Competition in your own Gleam account lets you send Entrants to your email provider in real time, so an automated follow-up can start straight away. See the Newsletter Subscribe Action.