i think we need to find a way to encourage buyers to choose the winning item as quickly as possible after the contest ends.

alot of the contests still havent had a winner chosen, some of which closen over a week ago.

maybe it would be worth while having an automated email that reminds clients that their contest has ended?
so they dont forget about us...

Is there a way that the person that posts the job has to pick the winning design or be prompted to do so at the winning date and or time?. It is hard to tell what needs to be done by designers when the job is done for days and no one knows who won and what to do next. Maybe when they are prompted to select the winning bid an email can go out to the designers in the project to let them know that design has been chosen and final print files can be uploaded to a certain spot for client to collect?

Hi guys,

Thanks for the suggestions. We are realizing this is a problem & have already been "pushing" the clients to pick a winner. ljdaniels, We will setup a system that sends out continual reminders every 24 hours to the clients. We will also setup a system that sends a PM to every designer involved with each contest when a winner has been chosen. Until then, we'll do our best to keep you in the loop. We did get all but 1 contest finalized this morning. We aren't able to send out PM's to every entered designer yet, but we did PM the winners. kendel, it's hard to "force" a client to pick a winner or essentially "buy a design" when they're the one paying the money (Although, I would like to) We'll see if we can come up with some way to encourage them to pick within 24 hours (maybe a discount). But we can definitely send out emails to all the designers. And we're already creating a spot to upload the final print files.

Again, thanks for the suggestions. If you have any solutions (other than the automated email) to getting clients to pick a winner quickly, we'd love to hear them.

-guru

maybe it would be worth having an option for the clients, were they can select "no design chosen" or something along those lines to let the designers know if they have or havent pick a design. so then we wont be left hanging and wondering........

Put it in the rules for hosting a contest. Tell them that on the close of the contest they have 48 hours to choose a winner, and if they don't, admins will choose the winner based on the description given in the design brief. This will also encourage the advertisers to be more "accurate" with what they are looking for.

Not a bad idea to consider. We also realize the importance of an "accurate" design brief. If there are ever any questions we should add to our design brief, let us know (We're also changing the brief to be unique to each type of design. A Logo brief wouldn't ask the dimensions & if 'full bleed' is needed).

Thanks,
-guru