For those of you who have been following the Skyrim giveaway over this past week I have been doing some regular tracking of the results coming from this test. For those of us in the content game, trying to generate quality traffic that informs end users is a very difficult thing to do. I think the latest format I used worked great.

Traditionally, I did giveaways with only a one tiered approach. I would give away an item but only would cater to one particular network of individuals (such as YouTube). In the Skyrim Giveaway for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 (PS3) or PC contest I decided to take a different approach by embedding multiple entries throughout the video. The reason? Force the contestant to be informed of very basic services my website can provide to them.

The results have been great so far – I now find a merger of networks across my fan base. The same individuals who were subscribed to me on YouTube are now Following me on Facebook and by e-mail as well. This broadens their capabilities to share my content as well as view it when the content is first released, it also offers them different insights that may not have been available on the other platform.

I have paid multiple times for advertising and not had much luck, but this giveaway format works exceptionally well – so there will likely be another Giveaway soon after I give away the first copy of Skyrim. Depending on how much traffic and subscribers are generated from these giveaways, I may actually branch out and do even bigger or multiple prizes at higher dollar amounts.

If you are considering doing a giveaway, it is definitely good promotion, and it really motivates people to "give you a shot" to see if you are worth their time. Perhaps to many my content is not, but for now, I just appreciate people taking a chance to see what I have to offer, even if they are only taking it to possibly win a free game.