Running an online contest: tools, rules and winners
A reference for organisers: contest and giveaway software, official rules, winner selection and vote-integrity checks.
Every entry carries
- Facts in brief
- Notes and sources
- Readers ask
- How this entry was checked
- Scope of this entry
Official rules read first
A contest's official rules say which votes are valid and what the organiser may void. Platform terms sit underneath them, so the rules are read before anything else.
Requirement kept apart from practice
Woobox offers a disqualification clause for suspected vote buying as suggested wording, not a platform-wide ban. Each finding separates what a rule requires from what is customary.
Checks described, never worked around
Award Force says its platform detects and blocks automated or scripted voting and rate-limits rapid voting. A finding describes checks like these and works around none of them.
Refusal stated in the first answer
A contest whose rules bar outside votes is declined in the first written answer, before any plan or payment is discussed.
Refunds tied to delivery
A refund covers votes ordered for a contest that never reached its count. An organiser's ruling on the count is outside any refund.
Send the page and the rules
Mail the address of the contest page and of its official rules, the platform it runs on and the question you need answered.
Clauses sorted: required or customary
Each clause on payment, automation and vote exchanges is sorted into what the rules require and what is only customary, with the penalty the organiser states.
A written finding follows
The finding states whether the contest allows outside votes, what its voting mechanism records and what would be refused. Where the rules are silent, the finding says so.
Delivery is checked against the count
Where the finding allows it, votes follow the mechanism's own limits, and the count shown on the contest page is treated as the record.
Woobox's user terms require entrants to agree to the organiser's official rules, so any limit on bought or incentivised votes depends on the particular contest. Walmart's Associate Talent Search rules prohibit paying for votes and let Walmart void fraudulent votes or disqualify the entrant. The platform's terms and the organiser's rules are two documents, and a disqualification is decided under the second.
Woobox lists three warning signs of bought votes: many votes from one IP address, votes from people in different countries and regular voting intervals. Award Force says its platform detects and blocks automated or scripted voting and rate-limits rapid voting. Ordinary participation is uneven in time and independent in origin, so it shows none of those patterns; this describes how checks read a count and is not a method for passing one.
In the United States, the FTC says a sweepstakes cannot require a purchase to enter, and California says a sweepstakes must offer a way to enter without cost. Those rules concern sweepstakes entry, not votes: whether a contest allows paid votes is written in its own rules, and ViralSweep even lets organisers configure Pay to Vote. Contests whose rules bar outside votes are refused, and so are political ballots.
Once voting closes, a refund applies where votes ordered for a contest never appear in the count the contest itself displays. ViralSweep says its protections may silently flag and block a vote, and Woobox says votes from IP addresses it has flagged as fraudulent do not count even when the voter appears to have succeeded, so the displayed count is the test. An organiser's ruling or a disqualification is never refunded, and neither is an account ban such as the permanent one Gleam says a breach of its terms may bring.
Topic index
Giveaway bot and picker tools: commands, free plans and what the pages state
Contest software for photo and video voting: features, caps and limits
Gleam.io for organisers: giveaways, gallery votes and fraud checks
Woobox sweepstakes tools: what the vendor's own pages describe
UGC contest: the entry routes, deadlines and winner rules organisers publish
ViralSweep: what the platform runs for an organiser and where it stops
SweepWidget: what a host gets, what the terms say and what the free plan covers
Wishpond: voting controls, terms and company facts for contest organisers
Easypromos: what its own pages say about voting contests, pickers and fraud checks
FilmFreeway Awards: How Listed Festivals Run Votes and What Their Rules Prohibit
Instagram hashtag contest: entry mechanics, dates and rules from named organisers
Rafflecopter after October 1, 2025: what closed, what the name covers now
RafflePress: the WordPress giveaway plugin, its free Lite edition and its limits
Award Force: Public Voting, Entries and Platform Mechanics
Judgify: what the awards judging platform does, what it costs and how its voting works
Votigo: How the Promotions Platform Runs Contests, Sweepstakes and Voting Apps
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Both, for different questions. Platform terms cover use of the service, and the organiser's official rules cover the contest. Woobox's user terms make entrants agree to the organiser's official rules, and Rafflecopter's terms send entrants to them as well.
They should name the penalty. Award Force advises organisers to state whether fraudulent votes will be revoked or entrants disqualified, and Wishpond advises a clause letting the organiser disqualify entrants suspected of vote rigging or vote buying in a contest. Both are advice to organisers, not terms that apply to every contest.
Award Force says organisers can use vote records, including the IP address tied to each vote, to investigate suspicious activity. ViralSweep's Voter Log lets organisers review all voting activity and remove suspicious votes, and Rafflecopter lets organisers sort entries by IP address, name and email address.
Yes, where the organiser's rules say so. ViralSweep lets organisers configure Pay to Vote so voters purchase votes before casting them in a contest, and Judgify's advice is to pair any incentive with a limit on votes per person. A sweepstakes is different: in the United States a purchase cannot be required to enter one.
Not under Easypromos's posted terms. A flag does not itself remove an entry or change results, and the organiser decides whether to exclude it under the contest's rules. When an administrator blocks a user, Easypromos marks that user's votes as fraudulent and does not count them.
The platform decides the mechanics. Gleam excludes invalidated entries from the winner draw, and organisers can invalidate an ineligible winning entry and draw another winner. SweepWidget bans disqualified users from entering again, while users whose entries are merely deleted can re-enter.
Each organiser sets its own. The Eurovision Song Contest app permits voters under 18 only with permission from a parent or guardian, and the America's Got Talent official app does not accept votes from children under 18. The eligibility clause is read first.
What you are organising or entering, the platform or tool in use, the address of the contest page and its official rules, and the question itself. Where the rules are silent on outside votes, the written finding says so.
Ask about running a contest
Write to the editors at organizers@contestsonline.net
- what you are organising
- the platform or tool you use
- the question you need answered