Crowdsourced contest sites are really in right now. The concept is pretty simple — if you know how contests work, you know how it works. Users are allowed to submit contests for a cash prize. Then, everyone gets a shot at the money.
Most of the time the contests are for things like naming a business, designing a logo, and sometimes even for small things like giving advice or a review on something.
The contest creator gets to pick the winner at the end, and if that's you, you can win the money.
Are Crowdsourced Contests Worth It?
A lot of people don't think these sites are worth bothering with because if you don't win, you've wasted your time. And time is money.
To me, that does make sense. But another way of looking at it is, if you don't try, you can't win.
If you're good at something like picking out names, designing logos, or whatever else is being asked of you to enter the contest and you know that you stand a good chance of winning, I think it could be worth spending the time. You certainly wouldn't be sorry for trying if you ended up winning, now would you?
For example, I entered one a few months ago where someone needed to know how to work from home. I know of a lot of different work at home companies (in fact, VIPKid is a good one that's hiring now if you're interested), so I entered and offered my advice. I won the contest! It was just $25, but that was $25 I didn't have before.
Ultimately, you'll have to decide if it's worth bothering with. I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to make something like this your job, but I think it wouldn't hurt to do occasionally just for fun in case you did win and felt confident in your abilities for that contest.
Where can you sign up for crowdsourced contest sites?
There are a quite a few of these. Here's a list for you to get started:
Naming Force
Are you good at picking out names for things? If so, you could register as a namer on NamingForce for a chance to win money. If the person or business who submits a naming contest to the site picks your suggestion, you win money.
Prize amounts are usually $100 to $200. This is paid to you via Paypal if you win.
The site is currently open to US and Canadian residents aged 18 or older.
Squad Help
If you register as a creative on SquadHelp, you'll have the opportunity to submit your ideas for names, slogans, and logos, and win cash awards if your ideas are accepted by the contest holder.
All payments are made via Paypal. Prize amounts are decided by the people who create the contests, so you what you'll earn varies.
While SquadHelp does assign you two contests to enter when you initially sign up, it's up to you which ones you participate in ultimately.
Picky Domains
Picky Domains will let you register as a contributor and then submit your ideas for slogans, names, and domains. If your ideas are chosen, you can earn 40 to 60 percent of the order value from the person who submitted the contest.
If your suggestion isn't chosen, but the client “liked” it, you can still earn twenty-five cents.
Payments are made via Paypal.
Crowdspring
This site isn't currently accepting new creatives, but you can check here to see when they are. There is currently a waitlist for new creatives that you can add yourself to.
This site appears to cater more to graphic designers than it does for things like naming and coming up with slogans. So if you are pretty good with graphic design, you may for sure want to get on the wait list. This is a very reputable site.
Crowdspring pays with Paypal or Payoneer, and they will put your earnings in your account about 14 days after the contest has completed. Note that if you are a brand-new creative, they do hold your payment for 30 days before releasing it.
So tell me what you think. Are crowdsource contests a worthwhile way to spend your time? Have you ever had any luck with crowdsourcing contest sites? Got any other links to share for sites that are similar?
Good luck if you try any of these! And be sure to check out our big list of ways to earn extra cash if you are looking for even more ideas!
Featured Image Credit – Copyright : Brasoveanu George Bogdan
Hey Anna! When I first happened across crowdsourcing, I had pretty much the same opinion. I thought it just wasn’t worth my time. However, a couple of article projects on crowdSpring caught my eye awhile back, and I gave it a shot. After winning a couple of those, I decided to try out naming cmopanies andproducts, coming up with taglines, etc. Just since Jan., I have made $1700! So…yeah, for me, it is worth it! I will say, however, that the only site I have found that I like is crowdSpring. Luckily, they also pay more than the other sites! 🙂 They seems to have a better structure than the others and more projects that are awarded. On sites like Prizes,org, I think a lot of those “contests” are just people playing around. What makes crowdSpring different is the minimum payout for each project is $200 and the project creator pays it up fromt. This will discourage all those people who just put up a project for $20 or $30 on the other sites just so they can see what people come up with. Anyway…yes, it CAN be well worth your time. Last month, I got $500 for a name I just came up with in a few minutes. I also got $400 for a tagline that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the project. In many cases, you do need to check domain availability and trademark availability, but that dosn’t take long. You are competing against a lot of others, but many of them are just throwing names out there without checking domains, etc…so they aren’t likely to win. The past couple of months, I have been doing very little writing and mostly working on name and product creation. It can pay off, but you have to have patience because many of them take FOREVER to award! 🙂
oops! Sorry! Not Anna’s blog! I clicked here from her FB! 🙂
It is my blog 🙂 It’s my other one, lol
Wow April! That is amazing! You’ve just inspired me to put more time into these 🙂 Unfortunately I’m not all that good at naming things, but the article creation ones might be worth a go. Thank you!!
Unfortunately, article projects are few and far between. I originally only planned to participate in those, but am happy I gave the naming projects a shot! 🙂 You never know what people are ging to like. The one I won $500 on was one I almost didn’t submit because I thought “No, that’s kind of cheesy!” (I can’t say what it was though…contract agreement). I decided to go ahead and submit it in the last few hours of the contest. I was at a loss for words when it received the highest rating! 🙂 Give it a shot! You get more creative with naming after awhile! A couple of others I won seemed so obvious, I was surprised they hadn’t thought of them themselves!
(Glad this is your blog! lol)
I used to be part of Genius Crowds before I even knew what crowdsourcing really was. Overall, I dislike the concept because it takes advantage of good work and research and pays very little in return. You, in essence, become part of a lottery for a single prize or cash bonus, and if you don’t get that prize, your idea can be snapped up by anyone and used for profit. Also,a lot of people who do crowdsourcing get paid for “me too” type participation and very little original input. I think it’s just a cheap way for companies to snap up good ideas without having to actually hire and deal with real people.
It all depends on the caliber of the sites you participate in. I pretty much stay away from those like the one you mentioned, where your ideas are available for anyone to see and if the buyer never awards it, the site only pays a small participation award. At cS, they collect the money from the buyer when the project is placed on the site. In the naming projects, the full award is guaranteed to be paid as long as the buyer receives at least 100 names (which is never a problem). They can only ask for a refund if they don’t receive 100 names. If the buyer abandons the project, cS selects a winner (after about 2 months). I won one this way so know that the full amount is awarded. Unfortunately, this is only for the naming projects. The other type projects can be refunded regardless of the amount of submissions. I also had a situation in which the buyer attempted to use the domain name I gave him and tried to file a refund on his credit card. I let cS know that he was using my domain name, they contacted hin and I received the award! In addition, the naming submissions are kept private so only the buyer sees the name. On the other sites (like prizes, namingforce, etc) anyone can see the names and go through them and grab the domain. Like I said, it all depends on which sites you use really.
That some great advice there, April- thank you! I recently researched cS much more thoroughly and even became a member there. I have only been collecting points so far but am getting closer to reaching a payout. I even wrote an article about crowdsourcing this week and my experiences with it: http://www.ivetriedthat.com/2012/07/02/can-you-make-money-through-crowdsourcing/
Naming Force now has a referral program, too! http://www.namingforce.com/referral/