Regular internet users often come across blogs and other online promotional content that talk about certain products that come in the category of internet marketing or in the making money online niche. Usually the author of the blog or article offers free products to the reader. This isn’t really akin to drawing lots. In fact, the reader is requested to send the author a letter stating persuasive reasons why he/she should be given the product/s free of cost. This kind of promotional content is pretty common over the Internet, but few readers have actually won these contests.
The thought process of the participants is easy to follow. Most participants don’t really expect to win these contests aren’t too surprised when their name doesn’t figure in the list of winners. Very few people actually take any pains over their letters, so failure to win the prize leaves them unfazed. Moreover, they convince themselves that they can easily afford to buy the product but don’t really need it. They are interested in participating in the contest just because they might something for nothing. Some creative sparks might even find the whole thing challenging and send in a letter just to see if they are good enough to win. The result of the writing contest arouses a number of feelings in the mind of the contestant. If he/she hasn’t really put in any efforts in composing the letter, failure to win may be taken into stride. Moreover, the product may be cheap enough to make the reader feel ashamed of his/her desire to get it for free when it is perfectly affordable. This triggers off the desire to go out and buy the product without waiting for any other stimulus.
What few people realize is that the contest is an excellent online sales technique that introduces the reader to a previously unknown or marginally recognizable product and forces him/her to think if and why he/she needs it. When a participant sends in the letter he/she is subconsciously brainwashed into believing that he/she needs the product, although the opposite may, in fact, be true. In the end, the participant is convinced by all the hype about the product.
