Hosting a 99designs.com design contest
Submitted by htxb on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 17:17.
Hi fellow BIP'ers,
How many of us have set up design contests at 99designs.com yet? I figured it would be good to post up experiences and tips. After having hosted one contest, I have walked away with some ideas of what I want to do next time, as well as what I wouldn't do again.
I have seen some contests offering a smaller prize get tons more designs than mine. Needless to say, that was a bit frustrating. What were some of the differences between their contests and mine that may have made a difference?
1. Be sure to include "no coding", "uncoded", or "no html necessary" in your contest's subtitle.
This lets the designers know that you are only looking for a design not a full web site being built. I wasn't that clear and I think this causes some understandable apprehension on the part of the designers. After all, they are designers, not coders.
2. Clearly explain your thoughts/reviews of submitted designs.
I saw one contest holder include a design scale in his contest's brief:
Star rating scale:
1 star - long distance call from awesome town
2 stars - needs more awesome
3 stars - has awesome potential
4 stars - wowed me with awesome
5 stars - beauty. contender for the awesome prize.
That contest has over 2 days left and has 63 submitted designs, and counting! An explanation of what each star rating means to YOU (the contest holder) makes it easier for the designers to know where their design stands.
3. Be specific with your contest title.
If your site is going to be a site based on xbox 360 games, mention that in your title. It seems like the more generic the title, the less likely your contest will be looked at.
Well, those are the major points I've learned from hosting my first design contest. Hopefully it will help some of you get more results than I did.
If anyone else has hosted a contest, post up what you did to help your contest attract designers.
Edit:
If anyone else has hosted a contest, post up what you did to help your contest attract good designers.
-Carl
Good suggestions. I also recommend this article for a few more 99designs.com tips:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/capitalize-on-your-contest
Best,
Jeremy
Carl and Jeremy:
Thanks for the tips on 99designs. Honestly, I was hoping to be able to build my site design myself, but with my day job and time constraints, I see now it's just not going to be possible. 99designs looks like a good alternative, but I still have a lot of unanswered questions. So your tips are very helpful.
Julie Reagan
Excellent post. This is very helpful. I haven't reached this point yet but I will. Hmm.... It makes me think of the next step. If the design isn't coded at 99designs and you don't want to do it yourself, where do you get the coding done? And what's the cost for coding?
Thanks!
chopper
Chopper,
You could try a service like XHTMLized or PSD2HTML to turn your design into HTML/CSS... These aren't "crowdsourcing" services however.
Paul is right - there are dozens of affordable css slicing services out there. I think it's almost a commodity service in 2008.
Another option ($120):
http://www.xhtml-slice.com/
Disclaimer - haven't worked with them, just showing you how cheap you can get the work done ;)