AP 0659: How Do I Create a Good Design Contest?

AskPat 659 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody. Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 659 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. This is the last episode in July; I can't believe how fast the year's going. Anyway. Thank you so much for joining me. This is a show where I answer your online business questions five days a week, and I'm here to answer Nicole's question today.

But before we get to that I do want thank today's sponsor which is DesignCrowd.com, which helps entrepreneurs outsource, or crowdsource custom graphics, logos, web designs from designers all around the world. They have more than a half-million designers from over 100 countries ready to help you with any creative and design projects you might have. So, check them out. DesignCrowd.com, that's D-E-S-I-G-N-C-R-O-W-D.COM to learn more and get started at designcrowd.com/askpat for a special VIP offer just for you guys.

Okay. Now here's today's question, which is actually relevant to what I just said, from Nicole.

Nicole: Hi, Pat. My name is Nicole Young, and I've had a successful online business for a few years. That's nicolesy.com. That's spelled nicole-s-y, but I'm getting ready to start a new project and I've been looking into 99designs to create my logo, thanks to your recommendation on the podcast. I've had a logo designed in the past for my current business but I was only working with one designer so this is slightly new territory for me. My question is if you have any suggestions on how to run a successful design contest. What I'm specifically wondering is if you have any opinion about making your contest blind or private and if there are any pros or cons to those options. I'm not really referring to the cost because I know they cost a little more but I'm curious if you have any knowledge or experience on whether or not they help or hurt the potential for finding a great designer. Thanks so much.

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up, Nicole? Thank you so much for your question. There's a lot of these different kinds of websites like 99designs.com. They sponsor my other show. Designcrowd.com, which sponsors this show, they're great too. There was a bunch of them that were around for a while. There are the top two that I've seen and they're both great for different reasons, but I love these questions here because this going to be very relevant for a lot of people who are experimenting with this kind of design. It's great to work with one designer, as you know; you've done that before. They know everything about your brand, they can get to know your mission, and all that stuff. Which is something you, kind of, miss out on in these kinds of things, but what you do get is you get multiple designs and if you're starting something new this is just fantastic. Very economical. Turn around is super-quick, and obviously, like I said in the intro, there's millions of people out there, or half a million at least with DesignCrowd, from everywhere, that can help you with your design depending on what you're looking for.

So, blind versus public. Well for those of you who are listening who don't know what that means, blind means the designers who submit their contest entry, because that's how these things work, they submit an entry, you select your favorite one. It's like a contest for them. Blind means they don't get to see the other peoples entries, and I've always had more success doing blind contests. I did this recently with a graphic that I had done, an infographic. I even got feedback from the different designers I was working with. They prefer blind because they don't want to be influenced. There are cases where some designers come in late and they just copy what they know you like from your feedback on other people's stuff, depending on your ratings and what not. It's kind of that that happens sometimes and I feel, personally, that it's better if it's blind because you get different designs from scratch, if you will.

The con, I guess you could say, is there are some designers out there who would take your feedback, in a legitimate manner, from other designs and give you what you wanted. If you're looking for the best design you can obviously see how that would help out but to be fair to the contest entrants I would just keep it blind. That's, again, my opinion.

There's other things that you could do to make sure that you ensure that you have great designs. Stay in communication with your designers. You're going to have multiple designers with each of these different platforms who are going to communicate with you. Make sure you communicate back and tell them what you like, what you don't like. They're there to help out, of course. Try to be as thorough as you can with your descriptions when you're creating your contest, I think that's really important too. You can also utilize any sort of features that those different sites have as far as running votes from other people, like your audience or your friends or family. You can have them vote on their favorite too, which you should take into account as well. That's what I would suggest in terms of making these contests successful. Communication is really important between yourself and the designers individually and also across the board if anything comes up. I feel that, in terms of blind versus public, the blind one is better. You're going to get more designs typically, because more people will want to participate. That's what I think and I wish you all the best Nicole and everybody else out there using those different platforms.

So, thank you so much. I appreciate you. Again, just to reiterate, designcrowd.com/askpat for a special VIP offer if you're interested in that kind of thing and yeah. Nicole, I'm going to send you an AskPat T-shirt for having your question featured here on the show, and for those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to askpat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thanks so much. I appreciate you, and here's a quote to finish off the day and the week and the month, by Liz Strauss. She says, “No matter the stress, the unkindness, the joy, the boredom, the hurry. One look at the sky and life again has perspective and meaning.”

Sometimes you've just got to sit back. I know it's been a busy month for many of you. Just pause for a sec and reflect on how awesome life is, and if it's not awesome for whatever reason, just know that you can do what it takes to make it awesome. Hopefully I'm here to help and you see that. So, thanks so much. I appreciate you. I'll see you next month and in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.