How to Create Competitions

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Ah, yes! The first competition! Always a big moment. We’re glad to be on the journey with you. 

We’ll start with Step 1, eh? Here’s how to create a competition. 

1. Login to the back end of your site

2. Go to ‘Products’ in the sidebar on the left

3. Click ‘Add New Product’ at the top of the screen

4. You’ll see this screen:

5. The ‘Product Name’ is the title of the competition

6. Once you give your competition a title, it’ll give you a ‘Permalink’ – this is the link to the competition. You can click on it throughout the editing process to see what the competition will look like, on the front end, when it’s published. Think of it as a preview.

You can also use it to edit the competition’s URL. If you think that the title of the competition is too similar to another, simply hover over the permalink and click ‘Edit’

7. The ‘Product Description’ is where you type in details of your competition.

This will include the prizes on offer, any discounts and offers, entry price, and anything customers need to know about the process and draw dates. You can find more information about writing a Product Description over here, in this article we made earlier.

8.This tool bar is on the right hand side of the screen:

Here, you can do a bunch of things, but these are the main ones:

1. Save Draft – it should happen automatically, but it’s good to do it manually a few times, too, just to be safe

2. Preview the post – it will show you how it looks for customers, opening the tab in a new window

3. Edit the visibility of the competition  – if you click ‘Edit’ here, you’re given a few options: 📢Public – the competition is open to all🔑Password protected – customers to have to enter a password to get involved 

   🫣Private – for if you ever want to test a competition, but you’re not ready to show customers yet

4. Publish your competition – the blue button will say ‘Publish’ until you’ve published it. After that, if you want to edit your article, just head straight in, and click this button, which will now say ‘Update’. It does the same thing!

NOTE: If you’ve pressed ‘Publish’, there’ll also be a line in this toolbox that reads: ‘Published on: date at time’. 

Clicking ‘Edit’ here will allow you to schedule a competition’s publication date.

9. Scrolling down, keeping on the right, you’ll see ‘Product Categories’.

You can leave your competition as ‘Uncategorised’. However, we recommend using this feature to sort competitions into different themes, or bunch them together under related prizes.

For example, lots of sites break competitions down into ‘cash,’ ‘cars’, ‘credit’, so that people can easily find the sorts of products they’re interested in.

To add a category, click ‘Add New Category’, and type in the relevant words: ‘Car competitions’, for example. You can add multiple categories, as needed.

10.Scroll down and find the box, ‘Product data’. Make sure that it’s classed as ‘Competition’. It should be automatic, but it’s always good to double-check!

11. Always remember to scroll up and click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ (depending on what stage you’re at) to save your progress

But you’ve committed to it, so that’s step one, done and dusted. 

If you’re feeling a bit nervous, we’ve got things that can help. For example, if you’re worried about listing your first prize, try this article that’s called—as luck would have it—‘Worried About Listing Your First Prize? Here are Some Tips And Tricks’

You can also get in touch, whenever you need. Our friendly team of experts will be on hand before you know it.