What is a free, easy and immensely valuable way to generate attention for your site, while building inbound links and user loyalty? Contests and you should start thinking about a contest idea for your website right away - because they work.

VentureItch.com today for example announced an "Elevator Pitch Contest for Start-Ups" to match entrepreneurs with angel investors. While I have personally never heard of VentureItch, they are now on my radar as a possible way to get in touch with VCs and angel investors. See where we're going with this? VentureItch.com is an online journal covering startups, online productivity tools, innovation and entrepreneurial activity. The online multimedia contest they are fostering not only assists start-ups and entrepreneurs with getting exposure with the angel investor/venture capital community, but creates buzz for fledgling startups - like ventureItch - and if you're smart about it, may be you too.