For the past week and a half we’ve been running a Facebook contest to rename our newsletter.  The rules are simple and the sign up is easy.  Submit your first name, email address, and suggestion for a new newsletter title.  Once you enter, you’re automatically added into a drawing for a $50 Visa Gift Card.  Whichever submission we choose for the new name of our newsletter will win the grand prize of a $100 Visa Gift Card.  Pretty simple, right?  Should have people pouring in in droves to enter, right?  Apparently, wrong.

Our last Facebook contest took even less effort.  All people had to do was to enter their first name and email -no thinking required.  We received over 2000 entries.  This time around, with 2 days left, we have about 115 submissions.  What gives?  Is it because we’re asking people to go the step further and come up with a name for the newsletter? Are people looking for a simpler contest than that?  Our whole goal here is participation, so what do you do when no one seems to want to participate.

According to our sign up reports, 65% of people who saw the form and went to the entry page then signed up.  Which is great… I think.  That also means that 35% of people who went to that page didn’t sign up.  

Any suggestions?  Do you think the added step of asking people to name our newsletter is what’s holding back sign ups?  Who doesn’t want free money?!