How to Create an Online Contest (And Go Viral in 2026)

TL;DR: To create an online contest, choose a contest type, set clear rules, pick a prize, collect entries, and promote it where your audience already spends time. The tools vary by platform, but the process stays the same.

Running an online contest is one of the most effective ways to wake up your audience. It gives visitors a compelling reason to stop scrolling and interact with your brand.

Instead of hoping people subscribe, you are giving them a clear incentive to take action. This simple shift can double your email signups in a matter of days.

In this guide, I will show you the exact steps to create an online contest in WordPress, using a giveaway plugin to handle setup and entries.

How to Create an Online Contest (Any Platform)

Creating an online contest follows the same basic process no matter which platform you use. The tools may change, but the steps stay consistent.

Step	What to decide
1	Choose a contest type (skill-based) or a giveaway (random winner).
2	Set rules, eligibility, and start and end dates.
3	Pick a prize your target audience actually wants.
4	Choose entry methods, like email signup, follows, or referrals.
5	Promote it where your audience already spends time.
6	Select and announce a winner when it ends.

If you’re using WordPress, the steps below show exactly how to create and manage an online contest using a giveaway plugin.

Most online contests for businesses are run as giveaways, where winners are chosen at random.

How Do You Create an Online Contest in WordPress?

Creating an online contest in WordPress is a simple process:

Step	What you’ll do in WordPress
1	Plan your goal
2	Install the RafflePress plugin
3	Set your prize
4	Choose entry actions
5	Design the contest widget
6	Publish it on your site
7	Promote it so people enter

Follow the steps below to launch your contest fast.

Step 1: Plan Your Budget and Timeline

Before you dive into goals and prizes, it’s smart to quickly outline your budget and timeline. A clear plan here ensures your contest is both affordable and effective, preventing unexpected costs and keeping your audience engaged.

Your contest budget doesn’t need to be complicated, but you should account for these key costs:

• The Prize: The total value of what you’re giving away.
• Advertising: Any budget for paid ads on social media or search engines.
• Contest Tool: The cost of the plugin you’ll use, like RafflePress.

Choosing the right duration is crucial. A contest that’s too long can lose momentum, while one that’s too short might not get enough entries. Here’s a simple rule of thumb:

• For simple giveaways (like, share, or subscribe): 1–2 weeks is perfect. This creates urgency and encourages immediate action.
• For skill-based contests (photo or video submissions): Allow 3–4 weeks. This gives participants enough time to create and submit quality entries.

Step 2: Set a Goal That Drives Results

Before launching your giveaway, take a moment to set clear goals. A well-defined goal will guide your entire strategy and help you measure success. Make sure your goals align with your overall business and marketing plans.

Most businesses aim for these common giveaway goals:

• Bring more visitors to their website
• Create excitement around their brand
• Grow their email subscriber list
• Build stronger customer relationships
• Boost their product sales
• Get more social media engagement
• Collect customer photos and videos
• Learn which products customers love most

For example, if your primary goal is to ‘Get more social media engagement,’ you’ll want to choose entry actions in your giveaway tool like ‘Visit our Facebook Page’ or ‘Follow us on Twitter’ and give them a higher point value to encourage users to complete them.

Having a clear goal helps you design your giveaway the right way and choose the best methods to promote it. It also makes it easier to track your results and see if your giveaway was successful.

If you’re not sure what type of giveaway to run, here are 25 winning giveaway ideas to help you decide.

Real Example

Smash Balloon used RafflePress to run their contest and grew their email list by 3,584 subscribers. They didn’t need a developer or custom code, just a clear goal and the RafflePress plugin.

How Smash Balloon Grew Their Email List with RafflePress

Step 3: Pick a Prize People Actually Want

People love getting free stuff, but they won’t try to enter your giveaway if the prize isn’t good. If you want a viral giveaway, choose a high-quality grand prize that will attract many people.

Some of the most popular giveaway prize ideas include:

• Money
• Gift cards or gift certificates
• Free products/services

Studies show that contests offering gift cards or cash receive significantly higher engagement than branded merchandise. Pick something that motivates them to act.

Here’s a list of exciting giveaway prize ideas to help you decide.

You’ll want to ensure that your contest prize is relevant to your target audience and your brand. For instance, Supreme House Fitness offered a fitness package to the lucky winners of their social giveaway.

Choosing a prize that you know your target audience would love will help you attract more contest entries from your ideal customers.

Step 4: Write Rules That Avoid Legal Trouble

Every successful giveaway needs clear, simple rules. Your rules protect both you and your participants while keeping things fair for everyone.

It’s also good to know that the legal rules for a skill-based contest can be more complex than for a random giveaway. Since this guide focuses on giveaways, the process is much more straightforward!

Here’s what your giveaway rules should cover:

• Prize details and how they’ll be delivered
• Who can enter (age limits, location restrictions)
• How to enter (entry methods and requirements)
• Contest dates (start and end times)
• How winners will be chosen and notified
• Entry limits (one per person, daily entries, etc.)

Always reference local regulations, such as FTC guidelines in the US or GDPR in Europe, to ensure full compliance. This builds trust and keeps your business safe.

It’s also important to check the promotion guidelines for any social media platforms where you’ll be sharing your contest. Sites like Facebook and Instagram have their own specific rules for running giveaways.

Make your rules easy to find and understand. For example, The Stem UK clearly states in their contest post when their giveaway ends, how they’ll pick and contact winners, and who can join.

Want to save time? Most contest tools like RafflePress include a rules template you can customize for your needs.

Want help with the legal side? Use this guide to write giveaway rules like a pro.

Step 5: Build It Fast with a WordPress Plugin

You have several options for running your online contest. Some businesses use social media platforms, others prefer web-based contest tools, and many choose popular WordPress plugins to host contests on their own websites.

While social media contests are popular, they give you less control over your contest and data. Third-party contest websites can work well, but they often include their own branding and keep your valuable participant information.

I recommend a WordPress plugin because it lets you keep full ownership of your data, customize every part of your contest, and avoid the long-term costs that come with third-party tools. These criteria make it the most reliable way to run a giveaway on your own terms.

If you use WordPress, RafflePress is an easy and cost-effective solution for running an online contest. It seamlessly integrates with your existing branding and lets you maintain ownership of everything you create.

It gives you everything you need to accomplish your contest goals, whether to grow your email list, increase website traffic, or boost social media followers.

Here’s a detailed guide on how to create an online contest with RafflePress.

Create a New Contest

First, you’ll need to download the RafflePress plugin. Here’s a step-by-step guide on installing WordPress plugins if you need help.

After installing and activating the plugin, hover over the RafflePress icon and click Add New to create a contest.

Name Your Giveaway and Choose a Template

Once you click Add New, the plugin will take you to a new screen where you’ll name your giveaway and choose a contest entry form template.

First, type in a name for your giveaway in the text field at the top of the screen. Choose any name for your giveaway. For instance, if your contest prize is an iPad, you can name your giveaway “iPad Giveaway.”

Next, choose your giveaway template. RafflePress offers several pre-made contest entry form templates designed to reach particular giveaway goals, such as:

• Grow Your Email List
• Refer-a-Friend
• Pre-launch Campaign
• Grow Your Facebook Page and more.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose the Classic contest entry form template. This template allows you to create any type of giveaway contest using the easy RafflePress builder.

Choose the Classic Giveaway template by hovering over it and clicking Use This Template.

Set the Giveaway Prize Details

After selecting the Classic Giveaway template, you’ll be taken to the RafflePress giveaway builder. The first step to building your online giveaway is to set the giveaway prize details.

First, click on the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section.

Here, you can choose the name of your prize, for example, “iPad Giveaway,” and write a brief description of the prize.

You can also upload an image of your prize by clicking the Select Image button below the description box. You can then choose an image from your media library or upload an image from your computer.

When you’re happy with your prize name, description, and image, click on the Done Editing button.

You can click the + Add Another Prize button if you have multiple prizes to add more to your contest form.

You can also set the date and the time your giveaway will start and end and choose your timezone underneath the Start and End Time section.

Click the Save button to save the changes. Remember to save your work periodically throughout the process of building your contest.

Choose Your Raffle Entry Methods

RafflePress is one of the best contest apps for learning how to run a giveaway because you can give users multiple ways to enter your contest. These actions will also help you reach your goals for your viral contest.

For instance, you can allow users to receive one contest entry for signing up for your email list, a second entry for visiting your Facebook Page, a third entry for following you on Pinterest or LinkedIn, etc.

Most users will take all the actions they can because it gives them more chances to win.

So, click on the Actions tab to select how users can participate in your online competition. The entry methods are grouped by goal:

The entry methods are grouped by goal, and each goal includes specific actions you can add. For example, Get More Subscribers can include a Join Email Newsletter action, Get More Social Engagement might include Visit Our Facebook Page or Follow Us on Instagram, and Get More Traffic can include Visit a Page on Your Site.

Just click on any action you’d like to add to your giveaway.

Once you’ve chosen an action, you can set the entry options. These settings include:

• The title
• Value (how many entries the action will be worth)
• If the action is mandatory
• A field to add your URL

If you add many entry methods, ensure that the most important actions are worth more entries.

Click the Save button to save your changes.

Repeat the process for any other actions you want to add to your contest; you can add as many as you want. For instance, you can also add a Join an Email Newsletter action to boost subscribers, including an opt-in confirmation checkbox and integration with your email marketing service.

You can easily rearrange actions for your contest by dragging and dropping on the left side or delete actions by clicking the trash can icon on the right side.

Design Your Online Giveaway Contest

Next, you can customize the look of your online giveaway in the Design tab. You can choose from 2 different layouts (display image, then header, or header, then image) and several fonts and button colors.

If you’re creating a stand-alone page for your contest, you can also choose the page color background and a background image.

Hit the Save button once your contest looks precisely the way you want.

Configure Your Contest Settings

The Settings tab has six sections: General, Giveaway Rules, Email Verification, Success Tracking, Success Redirect, and Social Logins.

One of the most important settings you’ll need to configure is the giveaway rules.

RafflePress makes it easy to get started. You can use the Rules Generator Template to quickly get a head start on creating your contest rules.

Clicking this button will allow you to type in the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, and more.

You can check out our documentation for details on all the RafflePress settings.

After configuring your settings, click Save.

Publish Your Online Contest

Now you know how to run a giveaway, it’s time to make your contest live! RafflePress makes launching a giveaway easy. Just click on the Publish tab at the top of the screen.

You have 3 publishing options for your contest:

• RafflePress WordPress Block – Embed the giveaway widget in your WordPress post or page (new WordPress block editor).
• WordPress Shortcode – Embed the giveaway in the classic WordPress editor, sidebar widgets, or inside your WordPress theme.
• Giveaway Landing Page – Create a distraction-free landing page on your website for your giveaway.

A dedicated landing page for your contest is an excellent option for getting more contest entries. Since there’s nothing else on the page to distract users, they’ll be more likely to sign up for your contest.

So, let’s choose the giveaway landing page option.

Click the View Page button to see your contest landing page.

Here is an example of a giveaway landing page we created on our test website:

Voila! You now have a fantastic landing page for your giveaway.

Step 6: Promote It Where Your Audience Hangs Out

You can’t just sit around and wait for people to enter your giveaway. You need to promote your giveaway to help spread the word.

One of the easiest ways is to share it on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also ask people to tag a friend in the comments section.

The key to helping your giveaway “go viral” is to encourage sharing. Features like RafflePress’s built-in “Refer-a-Friend” entry method are perfect for this, as they reward participants for spreading the word to their friends, creating the potential for exponential growth.

For instance, see this Instagram giveaway post from Brimhall Farmers Market’s Instagram Account. Their Instagram post includes a photo of the grand prize to let users know what they can win and #giveaway to widen their reach on social networks and Instagram feeds.

You can also promote your contest in these ways:

Promotion Method	Best Used For
Paid Advertising	Targeted Reach
Email Marketing	Existing Audience
Social Media Sharing	Viral Growth
Influencer Partnerships	Brand Awareness

Start promoting your contest weeks before it goes live to get tons of traffic and entries on day 1.

Need help getting the word out? Check out these contest promotion ideas that really work.

Real Example

WPForms used RafflePress to host and promote their giveaway, which helped them add 11,000+ members to their Facebook group. The viral sharing features inside RafflePress made it easy for fans to invite others.

How WPForms Got 11K+ Facebook Group Members with RafflePress

Step 7: Announce Your Winner to Boost Credibility

When your contest ends, it’s time to pick a winner and share the results. With RafflePress, you can randomly select winners with just a few clicks.

Just head to RafflePress » Giveaways, click Needs Winners, and hit Pick Winner. You can email the winner directly from your dashboard.

Once chosen, announce your winner on your website, email, and social media. This gives your contest a strong finish and keeps everyone feeling good about participating.

Tip: Offer a discount code to non-winners to turn entries into future customers.

Step 8: Track What Worked (and What Didn’t)

Once your giveaway ends, take a few minutes to see how it performed. RafflePress includes built-in reports that show you which entry methods worked best.

If you’re using MonsterInsights, you can also track pageviews, traffic sources, and conversions right from your WordPress dashboard. This helps you see where your traffic came from and what actions users took.

You can track traffic and conversions with Google Analytics and even send entrants to a custom thank you page after they enter.

Use these insights from your giveaway metrics to improve your next contest. For example, if Instagram entries performed better than Facebook, focus your next promotion there.

Real Example

SeedProd 3X’d their product launch sales using a timed giveaway built with RafflePress. They used the contest timer and viral refer-a-friend entry actions to drive urgency and shares.

How SeedProd 3X Their Sales with RafflePress

FAQs on How to Run an Online Contest

Start Your WordPress Contest Today

Now that you know how to do a giveaway, get out there and start your contest marketing. Creating an online giveaway will bring your target audience joy, and your company will see benefits such as more traffic, increased brand awareness, and lots of engagement.

You might also find these social media contest guides helpful:

• How to do a giveaway on Facebook
• How to run a Pinterest contest
• How to run a social media photo contest
• How to do a YouTube video contest
• How to run an Instagram contest
• How to run a Facebook flash giveaway

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