Interactive promotions company ePrize has launched a contest giving businesses a chance to try out its do-it-yourself system, called Caffeine, that lets small and medium-sized business owners create online sweepstakes and coupons offers.

The promotion, in partnership with Entrepreneur magazine, asks entrants to submit an essay of 200 words or less about their biggest online marketing problems. Businesses can enter at Entrepreneur.com/MarketingJolt through Aug. 31.

The essays will be judged on originality, business criteria, entrepreneurial spirit and grammar. The winner will be announced and featured in the December issue of Entrepreneur and will receive up to $20,000 in products and services.

Caffeine launched in January. It costs nothing to build a campaign. Users pay $1 for each qualified entrant. Those entrants go into the business's database, and Caffeine can helps with database management and follow-up. Each marketer sets his own weekly budget, based on $1 per lead (Promo Xtra, March 1, 2007).

Under the Entrepreneur and Caffeine Marketing Jolt promo, prizes include prepayment of the use of the Caffeine service for six months or complimentary use of the service up to the first 100,000 entrants; e-mail marketing for six months or up to 10,000 e-mails; coupon printing through Caffeine for six months or up to 100,000 coupons; search-engine optimization marketing for up to six months provided by Awecomm Web Strategies; up to 30 hours of consultation time; graphic design services to upgrade the winning company’s logo; a free three-year subscription to Entrepreneur and a selection of books from Entrepreneur Press.

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