Hi,

It looks like Mark has helped answer some of your questions. I can answer your question about competitions as I've designed and managed many for my own clients.

Contests do very well using social media to both promote and host them. If you just have a website, you can host a contest, there, but you still need a way to get the word out, which involves social media, email blasts, or some other type of marketing.

A few tips to make your contests better:
• Give away a prize that is associated with the product you want to ultimately drive people towards. For instance you could give away a free ebook on getting started as an entrepreneur, then send those people an email inviting them to your online course (maybe with a discount). The idea behind this is that you are associating your business with what you do in the eyes of your potential customers. This is much more effective than giving away an ipad, or another generic product. It also gives potential customers a "taste" of what you have to offer.
• Even if you're going to promote and host your contest on social media, you need to capture email addresses for people who sign up. At the very least, Facebook requires you to do this.
• Keep the time of your contest between 2-4 weeks. Some people advocate less time, but I find that only works if you have a really large engaged audience on social media.
• Promote the heck out of your contest. Ideally, you want to promote the contest a lot at the beginning and the end. That's where you're more likely to receive more signups.

I hope this helps. :)