Everyone Wins: Why You Should Enter Contests

It used to be that you entered a contest or competition because of the prize(s) at stake and the accompanying glory—"in it to win it", as the saying goes. But, when it comes to online craft and design contests, everyone participating essentially wins. That's why my cowboy safety cones are smiling.

Instant Exposure

As a designer, artist or crafter, the mere act of entering a contest means instant exposure for you and your business. Entering often requires submitting a combination of photos, item descriptions and links, meaning that you’re getting some free advertising right from the beginning. Frequently contests allow the public to be part of the voting, in which case, the contests will be more aggressively blogged in order to get a wider pool of voters. If you win, that "advertising" will only increase, as everyone will be eager to view the results and the cycle of blogging and re-blogging continues.

Submit Original Projects or Tutorials

Some contests, like the Schmancy Olympic Challenge call for thinking outside the crafty box. For this plush-making competition, participants were randomly assigned one of 5 categories: figure skating, skiing, opening ceremonies, bobsleigh, and made-up sport. Unless you’re a seasoned Olympics plush professional, you’d probably be designing something entirely new for the contest. It’s never a bad thing to keep those creative juices flowing and show people what you’ve got! The Challenge is being decided by judges, including one from Stuffed Magazine and another from CRAFT zine. Those are two pairs of eyes you shouldn’t mind looking at your wares.

For more regular contests, Cut Out + Keep is a great resource, if you don’t mind divulging your crafting secrets via DIY tutorials. If you post tutorials elsewhere, such as on your personal blog, Cut Out + Keep will import them for you, meaning no extra typing is necessary. You are sure to get a whole slew of comments in the process, and the site has monthly contests, the last of which I actually won! It required submitting projects I had already listed on the site, so it only took a couple of clicks and it brought me a lot of traffic. Speaking of regularly-scheduled contests, a few other sites that have them are: Instructables, Craftster, and Crafters Challenge. Additionally, CRAFT zine’s blog also posts about a lot of current contests, so if you’re wondering how to find out about more opportunties, add them to your RSS feed.

Give Yourself a Creative Boost

Lisa Rapp of HiGirls Designs, a designer of handbags, jewelry (see below) and home items, recently entered her first contest, the March Challenge of the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy, which she belongs to. The Challenge relies on public voting, and this month around, has a theme of texture. The group will be promoting through the Guild site, Etsy, Facebook and a corresponding Flickr group, and Lisa herself said she’ll be promoting through her Etsy shop and Facebook. More important than the contest aspect of it, Lisa says, "I think it is more a way of getting me to stretch myself artistically."

Contests Come in All Shapes and Sizes

Lauren Venell of Biz Miss and Sweet Meats (see below) has participated in Plush You!, the Seattle-based art show, for two years in a row. (And so have I, actually!) Anyone can submit up to three photos of plush items and the show’s founder ultimately chooses participants, whose plushies are exhibited gallery-style in Seattle and offered up for sale both in the gallery and online. The show is heavily promoted with gallery events and giveaways that correlate with blogged artist interviews.

Lauren is currently participating in another show that is invite-only called the DKE Toys custom Yoka Show, with an added bonus of being able to recommend fellow artists for inclusion. Yet another reason to network, if you aren’t yet to the invite-only stage, because you just never know what opportunity may spring forth from some connection you have in the crafting community.

Less involved, but no less exciting, are some Flickr-based contests such as CRAFT zine’s recent handmade Valentine contest, where participants submitted a photo of a craft (that they may have previously made) to a specific photo pool. And since Flickr is a very public and popular go-to site for a lot of reasons, you’re sure to get traffic from those who don’t even know about the contest. As for contest self-promotion once you’re in the running, Lauren has used, at one time or another, Facebook, Twitter, her blog, the “news” page of her online store and an email newsletter.

Don't Get Too Caught up in Contests

But what about possible drawbacks to these crafty affairs? She says, “They can be a real time suck, which gets tricky if  they start to take time away from paying work.” She also warns that some of them are mere money-making schemes with application fees that don't have significant benefits for the artists involved. Do your research and read the fine print. Her advice? "As long as you’re choosy about what you participate in, though, they’re a great way to motivate you to create new work, while giving you a platform on which to display it." On that note, go forth into the wonderful world of creative contests.

What's your experience with entering contests? Which ones have you tried?

Alicia Kachmar sells handmade whimsical crochet creatures and foods, ranging from the orange safety cones to black and white cookies to silver-lined clouds. She blogs at her site, writes for Brooklyn Based and contributes to many crafty communities as well as to the planning of crafty events in New York City.