Contest Voting: We’ve Seen It All
After more than 15 years of running these contests, we tried out several contest voting strategies. None of them is perfect. Each time we changed the approach, we heard different reports of issues, complaints, and even accusations of unfairness. We also saw a few ways of cheating or rigging the process, and, in one unpleasant and loud year, we had to annul the results entirely.
With no ideal voting approach, we opted for the lesser evil for our popular free photography contest—IP-based voting. Its main downside is that people sharing the same network IP (e.g., the same household, institution, workplace, or even an area) will NOT be able to vote. Realize that ALL entrants face this equally, so your favorite contestant isn’t missing out on more votes than any other. Have your family members or coworkers vote from another location and leave the IP network. Trust us, this is not as bad as the weak points created by other methods.
Below is the rundown of the most popular types of online contest voting with their pros and cons.
Cookie-based Voting:
Pros:
- Allows for easy and seamless participation without registration or login
- Can prevent duplicate or multiple votes from the same device
- Provides a convenient and user-friendly voting experience
- Allows for quick and efficient counting of votes
Cons:
- Relies on cookies, which can be easily cleared or manipulated
- Users can vote multiple times from different devices or browsers
- Potential for fraudulent or unfair contest voting by clearing cookies or using incognito/private browsing mode
- Limited ability to track and monitor participants due to lack of registration information
Registration with Email
Pros:
- Ensures each participant has a unique and valid email address
- Allows for easy communication and verification of participants
- Can be used to build a database of potential customers or contacts
- Provides a channel for targeted marketing and follow-up communication
Cons:
- Requires participants to provide personal information, which may deter some users
- Potential for participants to use multiple email addresses to manipulate the contest voting system
- Possibility of receiving spam or unwanted emails as a result of sharing email address
IP-based Voting
Pros:
- Restricts contest voting to one vote per IP address, discouraging multiple or fraudulent votes
- Provides a level of control and fairness in the voting process
- Can be used to validate participants and flag suspicious voting farms
- Offers a more secure voting system compared to other options
Cons:
- Results in blocking legitimate participants who share an IP address (e.g. multiple users within a household/office, or behind a shared network)
- Can still be circumvented by using a virtual private network (VPN) or proxy servers
- Limited ability to gather additional information about the participants due to reliance solely on IP address
Social Media Voting
Pros:
- Easy to set up and conduct contest voting
- Broad reach and potential for viral sharing
- Can engage a large audience from various demographics
- Real-time results provide instant feedback
Cons:
- Limited to users with social media accounts
- Potential for fake accounts or manipulation
- Lack of anonymity may discourage participation
- Results are heavily influenced by users’ social networks
We use an affordable self-hosted contest voting platform that meets our needs. If you aim to run online contests with more robust functionality and enterprise-level features, consider services like EasyPromos (starts from $199/mo) or ShortStack (starts from $99/mo).
