I've decided for my 1 year anniversery I have a posting contest.
It will be a 24 hour contest..and the person that posts the most in that 24hrs they'll win money.

I guess my question is: I want to use paypal but I don't have a credit card..But i Know most people won't feel comfortable giving out addresses to send the money.
Is paypal the only online money source?

Plus some suggestions on what the amount should be, and should there be a first, second and third place.

PayPal is really the only universal merchant...going with anything else might be difficult on your members.

No PayPal...no credit card....that should be tough. The only two things I can think of

1) Do some work for somebody (post for money or graphics/code, etc) Instead of having this person pay you, have them pay your winner(s)...The problem with this is both finding the job and getting it done it time. Not sure how much money you are looking to give away. If it's a lot of money, you will surely have trouble earning it quickly

2) Find a sponsor. If you can find some company willing to sponsor the contest for exposure, perhaps they can give away prizes to your winners.

3) Variation of 1...You find somebody to work for, but instead of getting the money instantly, you are "debted" to them...They pay your winners and then you must pay them back with work

Unfortunately, I dont exactly have any other brilliant suggestions....and as far as whether or not you should do first, second, third...Doing that will tend to get you more participation, but it isnt logical if your prize is not big enough to split over 3 people...so it depends most on how big your prize can be

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Thank you,
I figured that creating a contest would be difficult because of the sending the money.
I'm only planning a first place prize of 25 dollor's it all i really can afford I just feel i need to give something back to the posting member's even if it's little.
How do you get someone to sponser you?

Find a company or organization related to your site in some way. Sometimes they will want to sponsor you for the contest in return for their ads on your site. They'll also get a lot of exposure when you say stuff like "_____ has been so kind as to sponsor a contest for here at..." It's good exposure, but finding a company related to yours that is willing to do this isnt easy - especially if you forums are not very busy

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