Giving away products can be a logistical pain. For instance, when we give away a T-shirt or laptop, we have to go through hundreds of comments, contact the person, and do a lot of manual processing. A new Y Combinator startup called ContestMachine that just launched makes giving stuff away as easy as putting a widget on your blog.
You create a contest widget by entering all the details of the giveaway: prizes, deadlines, rules. Winners can be randomly chosen by ContestMachine or judged by the blogger. It automates the process of creating giveaways, and opens up contests to any blogger or small business who has a Website. The service is free to try out for up to two contests a month, and then charges $9 a month or $90 a year for more contests.
The startup hopes to attract advertisers who want to connect with blog readers and offer products to give away as a form of marketing. If ContestMachine can build up a large enough network of bloggers, big brands might want to use it as an efficient means of creating attention or buzz for their products. The bloggers, in this case, would act as filters for what is cool and what is not. Or maybe they’ll just give away anything they can get their hands on.
Here’s a contest I just created to give away a coveted TechCrunch T-shirt. Just eneter your e-mail, and ContestMachien will pick a winner at random. The contest ends tomorrow.
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Couldn’t you just create an email, like contest@mycompany.com and pick one from random…than going through this relatively complicated process?
The difference is that they create the email for you. What if you don’t own your own host or domain?
Then you could use mycompanycontest@gmail.com …
I’ve been waiting to give away a free poster, but it was too complicated. This is so sweet… Can’t wait to get a widget up on my site!
sarcasm?
Hi Lawrence, great question. People do run contests using email/blog comments, but there are a lot of headaches:
* Start/end dates
* Filtering entries (we do email/IP filtering if needed), easy disqualification
* Parsing entry responses (you can download all submitted data as Excel CSV)
* Managing dozens of winners (Have they gotten back to us? Have we delivered the prize?)
* Historical trends
* Displaying / browsing other entries (option to make it private)
Many bloggers who’ve used our service notice a jump in the number of entries in their contests. I suspect many people don’t want to bother opening an email when they can just enter a quick form. You can see more features here: http://contestmachine.com/site/learn_more .
This is great, for the past two days I have thinking how to run my own web based contest. However I would like to know, who will keep all the e-mails that come in and would I get a copy of the e-mails that were entered?
Great question — you can always browse all the entries, and the paid accounts have options for simple data export.
Also I want provisions for the entrants to submit their mobile numbers along with their e-mail. Hint, Hint. I guess I will see this new feature on your service if it is not there already. I have yet to visit the site. Keep up the good work TC.
Good feature suggestion. We do offer the ability to ask a custom question so you could ask for a mobile/SMS number if you desired.
True, I was about to do that via the ask question option. But would the cell numbers be exported as the e-mails? Or would I have to write them down one by one. Simply is it integrated as is the case with the e-mail export.
Yep, the data export is integrated with email. So if you asked for SMS, you would get columns like
[Date] [Name] [Email] [SMS]
in your CSV export. Hope this helps!
I think the FREE package should include “Export entries as a CSV (for Excel)” or charge $3.99 a month for a new package that includes it.
I do not think “Email Opt-In. Let entrants sign up for your email list.” is anything huge, as no one wants more e-mails on top of the 100s of unsolicited they are already getting.
Can a users switch from the FREE account to the paid account during the same promotion? Say they were simply testing the service and then wanted to upgrade.
since the paid account just gives you the opportunity to run more contests, what difference does it make whether you can upgrade during or after???
exporting data. that is the difference.
Yes, you can upgrade your account without affecting your current promotions.
I do not like that my name is now publicly listed on the widget as having submitted an entry. This is completely unexpected and I would like to my name taken off the list if possible, or maybe you are able to turn this feature off?
I agree - WTF…I didn’t know my name would be publicized there
Hi, displaying names is an option the contest owner can turn on/off (we wanted it to be as simple as leaving a comment on a blog, which often asks for name).
You can enter a nickname (there’s a hover tip) but we’ll take this feedback to make the widget more clear about this. If you email us privately at info [at] contestmachine.com we can remove your entry.
Just a quick update — we’ve removed your name, feel free to reload the widget to check. Definitely appreciate the feedback as this is something we want to be crystal-clear.
We just added a tooltip (visible on entry of the name field) to clarify this issue. Thanks for your feedback, and let us know if you find anything else!
one of those “why didnt i think of that” ideas. good going guys. goodluck
Thanks — we initially had another idea for YC, and were thinking of ways to promote it. We looked around and realized how hard it was to actually run a quick contest, and this idea was born… :-).
God damnit, I was developing a similar site…
I think it provides an easy means to do a somewhat complicated job. If 15 minutes of my time are saved, then why not use it. Plus, I am collected valuable demographic info.
Waheguru!
I can see a lot of applications for this. Love it. Also has a direct route to making money which is great to see in this web 2.0 world
WIll use it for my next competition.
A very cool concept! I will start using this and invite others to use it as well.
Thanks guys. I was wondering how I was going to run my marketing web2.0 campaign in the manner in which would give me the power to obtain data on my potential market base. You solved it. Using a simple website set up, posting afew prize pics, walla. Presto. Your product should try to milk the market before it is too late.
Is there any social network applications for this. you know like Facebook, Myspace etc.?
Great, hope it comes in handy for you! Feel free to email info [at] contestmachine.com if you have any questions.
Right now, we’ve been concentrating on bloggers, since they often run contests already (have the audience & prizes). Eventually we hope to create a network, to make it easy for companies to promote products and bloggers to find free /subsidized prizes.
But yep, there are social network implications that we’ll be exploring down the road.
What a fantastic idea! Definitely one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” ideas. Love the simplicity of the widget and apparent easy integration for bloggers.
Thanks Trevin!
Cool idea. We’ve been doing something very similar at Votigo for over a year. The difference with our service is that you can run a photo and video contest. Anyone can create a contest with user voting and have it run on our site and as a widget on their blog or profile page. Our widget allows users to register, submit photo and video entries and vote all from within the widget. Check it out at http://www.votigo.com/community or see a widget in action here http://www.myspace.com/votigotest
We run upwards of 3 or 4 contests per week on GearCrave.com, many of which get over 100 entries a pop.
http://www.gearcrave.com/buyer...../contests/
This seems to be solving a problem that doesn’t really exist, managing contests is a very simple process.
I may well be missing the value here but I really don’t get it.
Great question — see my comment (#5) for the features. Many bloggers noticed a jump in participation when using the widget vs. regular blog comments (from dozens to hundreds, or thousands of entries). Many have had 5k+ entries, which would be a nightmare to manage via blog comments.
But actions speak louder than words — try running a contest using the free account and see how it compares!
great product. Simple useful and simple. Already tested it out and it works seamlessly. Great job!
Thanks Satjot!
Yes I must admit this is really brilliant. It is along the lines of Chipped In, TipJoy, etc. Just a Turn Key Solution that is very practical without any hassle. This by far the best product I have seen in years.
Awesome, thanks for the comment. Yeah, we were surprised there wasn’t a simple, turn-key solution (as you say) for contests when we tried to run one. [There are some, but they involve hiring a marketing company to make a giant flash site for you...]
If you have any feedback or feature ideas, feel free to send it along (info [at] contestmachine.com ).
Sounds good . There is a great new start-up that just came out . It is all self serve and it is also fully automated . It supports all types text ads, banners and video ads.For publishers , it offers the highest split of earnings you can find out there and much more. It caters to web and mobile Publishers and Advertisers . Web and Mobile Publishers can earn money easier than ever and registering is FREE. Please check it out : http://www.webmob-ad.com
Wow, another one of those why hasn’t anyone done this before ideas. TC should have a list of top companies who provide simple ideas (theoretically) for everyone to use.
Great idea! Time to go start some contests…
Yes, you can upgrade your account without affecting your current promotions.
Great widget ye…
Dont forget to download musical widget here
http://www.lagusempoi.blogspot.com
and also songs
Technology or religion. Can bot comes together
read here http://www.amirul-hakimi.blogspot.com
Interesting.
Kinda like ePrize?
January 31, 2006 - ePrize, the world’s leading interactive promotion agency, has secured a $32 million investment in the company from Camelot Ventures and several Detroit area business leaders.
http://www.camelotventures.com/News-06-ePrize.php
Hi Zach, great question. Companies like ePrize offer a full-service solution primarily for large clients, where you work with an account rep (a bit like buying direct ads).
We’re offering a self-service, turn-key solution for bloggers & small businesses, along the lines of the Adsense model.
You know what many do not seem to know or understand about Web2.0 and quite possible Web3.0? SIMPLICITY, To the point, direct interaction, time saving, cost saving, and extremely practical for every day normal tech use and non tech use.
These are some of the secret ingredients of the new web. However to truly understand them and apply them, I think one first must have been a Luddite.
While others move towards complexity, the geniuses move towards simplicity. Or better yet the geniuses make complexity into simplicity a seamless transition.
By Anti Matter.
(C) 2008 Anti Matter. All Rights Reserved.
This is great! I’ve been looking for a way to make my blog more interesting to readers - this makes it really easy to spice things up.
This is great. I just added an entry to my recently launched blog. I hope with time I get many people to sign up.
…
Happy to comment,
My name is Pixelbug.com
What’s your name?
Forgot to plug my own contest!
http://pixelbug.com/random/win-itunes-gift-card
…
Happy to comment,
My name is Pixelbug.com
What’s your name?
ContestMachine seems like a great utility. It certainly cuts down on the time traditionally needed to go through hundreds or comments.
Alvira Khan
Florida Atlantic University
FAU Alumna
Looks great, guys. Nice work. Just for bloggers, or companies, too? Hopping over to the site now. -C
Hi Chris — yes, we work for companies as well. Thanks for the kind words!
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