I have a great idea for a contest that will generate links...but how do I promote it when I have little traffic?

[MarieHaynes]

I'm working on a new real estate site and I've got some great ideas to generate links.  One of these ideas is a pretty neat contest.  (I'd tell you what it is, but really...this is one of those ideas where people will go, 'Man!  I wish I thought of that', so I want to do it first before anyone else steals my idea.    )

The contest involves readers submitting photos and other readers voting on them.  I anticipate it will generate some good press both locally and internationally if I can get enough submissions.  But, the question is, how do I get contest submissions when I don't have good traffic yet?

Once I've got some good submissions, I'll contact some media, spread it amongst my personal fb friends, etc.

Any ideas are welcomed!

[EGOL]

Give nice prizes for the first ten entries that meet your rigorous specifications....  The first entries will set the tone for those that follow.  You want to start with some kickass stuff and not a bunch of slackers.

Advertise these as a "mystery contest" on local websites (use local websites because those people are already online and can click straight away to your site,)

Be friendly and encouraging but let them know that you expect good stuff.

[MarieHaynes]

I like the idea of prizes for the first ten entries that meet our specifications.  That's good!

Regarding the advertising...are you thinking Adwords?  Or approaching local webmasters to purchase ad space?

[EGOL]

I would go straight to other webmasters - especially if they have a local blog that might cover your contest or sell you a banner ad.

[SteveOllington]

That's what Social Media is for Use Digg, StumbleUpon, etc... to promote the contest. As long as it's done well you'll get some traffic and submissions... there's bound to be some well targeted platforms for it too.

[MarieHaynes]

Thanks Steve.  I have never been able to get something picked up on Digg or StumbleUpon...not sure why!

[AlanMosley]

Its not aonly a good way to get links, its a good reson to ask people to link to you. find relevant sites and ask if they will link to you.

[Charlie_Coxhead]

Building on @EGOL suggestions agree it is important to get the tone set from the beginning. To this end there is nothing wrong with soliciting the help of your own network early on...you can cajol them into providing good entries to start with. Once you have some good content you can look at some tactical local PR, local newspapers and websites.

How you actually execute it is also going to be important, making it very easy to pass along. I'm personally bullish on FB powered commenting. Again getting your network to start interacting with the content this way will help socialize it on FB.

FB advertising may also be a good way to seed the comp.

[Entrusteddev]

Some great answers here, I'd add that there are numerous websites around the web to advertise your competition, some offer paid advertising, others free. Most offer a follow link. There are quite a lot of low quality sites, which I'd avoid, check their mozTrust etc prior to submitting your competition.

I've found twitter a great medium for promoting competitions in the past. Choose a unique, related hashtags and tweet about it regularly.

[SteveOllington]

You might be trying to go too general with it... figure out who you're targeting first then tailor the content to them.