In the last 24 hours I have witnessed and participated in 3 online blogging contests. Contests are always fun but they are really powerful too. Lets take a look.

We all know the power of social media networking and it’s ability to go viral. We also know it’s not easy to get people talking and working for you. This is where contests come in. We can offer something of value in exchange for a little bit of work and interaction.

Mashable is having a contest right now giving away a free pass to Demo 09 worth $2,995. All they ask for you to participate is to post a comment, which finishes this sentence: “I’d like to attend the DEMO 09 emerging technology conference because…”

This is not particularly difficult. It requires you to spend a few moments being creative. Writing something intelligent with a mix of goofy and a bit of sucking up and poof you have a comment.

Melanie Nathan just opened the doors to her new blog, Canadian SEO. After introducing herself, the blog and talking a bit about what she does she offered up a small contest.

“And now, in the interest of keeping things er, interesting…. I’ll be picking one commenter below by end of day Friday, to receive a fun-filled Canadian themed prize package. Hmmm. What *ever* could it be???”

Again all you have to do is post a comment. This prize package is probably not valued at $3,000 like the Mashable contest but it still invokes a challenge in us. It’s fun and interesting and I want to be apart of it. Even if all I get is a mini Canadian flag and some maple syrup.

The third contest was by SuccessFool to name his company. You get to create the company name and suggest the domain name to be purchased. The rules ask you to submit by commenting on the site like the other two. The prize is free consulting and free access to a $997 Coaching Program.

We have a competition ingrained in every fiber of our being. We want to compete, we want a challenge and we want to WIN! These contests are a simple way to motivate people to travel to your site, learn something and commit to an otherwise daunting task of getting them to interact.

Commenting is by far the most important form of interaction a user can perform on your site. The comments area of your post is the outlet for discussion and the spreading of your “word”. This is especially important when you have a new business, site or project.

SuccessFool is creating interest in his SEO business before it’s even started. Melanie has immediate new visitors to her site. Mashable, while well established will be gaining new visitors and new discussions about their site.

The benefits are clear, new readership, discussions, spreading the word, increasing brand recognition, motivating and sparking interest in your users, it goes on and on. Lets talk about taking it to a new level.

As we’ve seen contests have the power to spark new interest in your site. What about link building and community building?

Motivating users to join your site and social networks can be difficult. If you are offering a great product, quality content or a premiere service you will gain a following, eventually. What if I want followers and I want them now?

An idea that has been implemented with success is a competition where you award the individual with the best social networking, link building and content sharing abilities.

For this example lets offer a free $1,000 gift certificate to whatever product you sell. Ask users to become a member of your site to join the contest. As a member you can participate by gaining points, each point is equal to 1 digital raffle ticket. Obviously the more points you get the more likely you are to win. Here’s the fun part, you gain points by joining a facebook group, talking about the site on twitter, writing a post on your blog, etc… Different items will have different point values. Joining a group might be worth 1 point but writing a post with a link could be worth 10 points.

This is just one type of contest. There are several others out there going on right now. The guys from IM Broadcast have a competition going on for a free seat to IM Spring Break. Where you write a post on your blog about why you want to attend IM Spring Break followed by a list of linkbacks to other sites. This is a meme and a great idea!

Do you have any fun contest ideas, if so lets hear them below.