So, I'm considering running a contest on a forum... thing is, I don't really have the funds to get decent prizes. I've heard of people sponsoring contests. Is this a practical way to go? And how would I go about getting sponsors?

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If you have advertisers, my first guess would be to see if any of them are interested. Typically, if they're already investing in your site, then they'd like to build better relationships with your users, as it's more exposure for them.

Otherwise, I don't know what to tell you. You could always solicit sponsors for related-vendors... ie, if you were giving away an iPod, you could contact Apple to see if they were interested, but I wouldn't know what means to go through other than to start cold-emailing addresses on their site for more information.

Make sure that, if it comes down to directly asking for a sponsor, keep it relevant to your forum and keep it simple. Try to ask for a prize worth about $20-$50 from a relatively new business.

A good example would be if Adminfusion had to pick a contest and sponsor, I would say go for a new paid posting business and ask them to sponsor the contest.

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