Marketing Idea - Good or cheesy?

Business is a wee bit slow at the moment so we're thinking about running a win a website competition. It's hardly a novel idea but do you guys think it would be worth doing or would it look a bit like we're desperate for business, which of course we are at the moment!

It depends what type of site you're giving away. If it was a full on database-driven ecommerce site then it'll be a good prize. You have to think about hosting and add that to the prize description, that hosting is for 1 year, and additional years will have to be paid for.

Also, remember, it's often the people who get sites for next to nowt who often take up a lot of time because they fail to realise time is money.

Nah it won't be an ecommerce site, just a 5 or 6 page brochure site. We'll provide a years hosting and simple upgrades, no major reworking of the site layout or navigation more just keeping the content fresh.

We're coming up with the T's&C's basically saying it's all free for a year then after that they can either go with someone else or stick with us. Mainly doing this to get our company name out in the local area and try to generate some interest. We have a free stock sites we can adapt so building the site will hardly take any time at all.

If it's quick and dirty for you to do then it sounds good to me! For me the hardest part of web site design has always been getting the client to decide what content they want to put into the site. I agree with binky on the part mentioning that people who get something for free might be inclined to make life difficult on you to get what they THINK the prize should be, so define in the "contest rules" what EXACTLY is included. Beggers CAN be choosers

Set up a referral program instead, why not try to turn your loyal customer to your sales force? Reward and motivate them on references. Local networking seems another way to go with.