When my partner advised running a competition to get more folks to visit our web site, I did not think it might work that well, I mean, who actually cares about competitions these days? Well, it seems many of us do and if you can add some price to it by giving something away that people actually want or is seen as valuable - you can actually rope in the attention and the customers.

Many companies offer free gifts in return for doing something really simple, but what about giving away something with business value? Well, many home businesses are fighting currently and as everyone knows, when a business is on the ropes, the first thing the owners usually invest in is a new brand or trademark, but would that really 'sell'?

I looked into it and it would seem it works - and how!

Competitions are won and lost by the cost of the prizes, but value is extraordinarily subjective and if you manage to offer something that a company would likely have to spend a lot of cash on then you're certain to make a 'buzz'. In our case, we are offering a new trademark, essentially a new 'brand' and this may cost many thousands for some organisations.

The news is scattered with firms allocating many thousands of pounds on re-brands, who can remember 'British Telecom' transforming into 'BT'?

And so it seems that a way to supply price is to deliver something that gives an unsubstantial worth. Let us take the 'BT/British Telecom' example. At the time is seemed like a breezy waste of cash, however there were massive benefits in its capability to be a global brand.

Just cutting off the 'British' has essentially authorized the company to prosper in nations aside from the United Kingdom and it is now a global force rather than simply a state one.

Andy Calloway is the director of SEO Training at Calloway Green Ltd, a web development and SEO consultancy in the West Midlands, UK. We provide a good range of SEO services and search engine optimisation to companies of all sizes.

Check out our Twitter Competition to see how you to win a new brand for your company, just by following Chris Green on Twitter!.