Contests and news assignments are a great way to generate content, traffic, and revenue for your site.
The "Contest" tool allows users to upload images and/or videos related to a specific theme or event, typically sponsored by an advertiser. Users upload their items during a set submission period, and winners can be selected by (1) user voting, (2) administrator selection, or (3) random computer selection. For a purpose driven news assignment simply choose your submission start and end date and no winner selection type.
Assignments and Contests are highly customizable. Contests can have one or more rounds of finalists, and each round can have a different winner-selection method, depending on how you wish to engage your users. For example, a contest could have multiple voting rounds in which users select semifinalists, then finalists and then a winner. Or an administrator could make the initial finalist selections, then allow users to vote on the winner(s)—or vice versa. Once finalists or winners have been chosen, the contest page automatically displays them.
Winner selection type. There are three winner selection options, each with slightly different fields to complete.
- Random. The system will automatically choose a defined number of winner(s) at the scheduled winner-selection date/time.
- Winner Count. Specify the number of contest winners.
- Winner Selection Date. Select a date/time when the winner(s) will be chosen.
- Highest Voted. A defined number of winners will be chosen based on user votes during a defined voting period. The winners will be displayed at the voting end date/time and ordered by the number of votes. You can review the number of votes for each entry by viewing the report for a given contest. Users will be able to vote for an entry from the contest page or the media item view page by clicking the “vote for me” link.
- One Vote per Round? Check the box if you would like users to only vote once per round.
- Winner count. Specify the number of contest winners.
- Voting Start. Select a date/time when the voting session will begin.
- Voting End. Select a date/time when the voting session will end.
- Admin Selected. The administrator chooses a defined number of winner(s) at any time during the round. Those winners will be viewable to be public at the scheduled winner-selection date/time.
- Winner count. Specify the number of contest winners.
- Winner Selection Date. Select a date/time when the winner(s) will be chosen.