What Voting System Should I Use for Our Best WordPress Design Contest?

When I first launched our Best WordPress Design Contest, I spent hours researching different voting systems.

I considered using #Hashtags on Twitter, embedding Tweetizen, using external contest platforms, etc.

I found a ton of cool blog services, but none of them were right for this contest.

My Voting System Requirements:

• Each person can only vote once per design.
• Voting needs to be easy so nominees can capture as many votes as possible.
• I need to be able to rely on the data.

I thought I had this figured out – I was going to use my WP-Polls plugin as the voting system for our contest. It’s quick, easy, and to the point.

WP-Poll Voting System

With this system, people can easily find their favorite (nominees will be listed in alphabetical order) and click through to each website. Sweet and simple, right?

PROS:

• I can prevent people from voting more than once.
• I can allow everyone to vote for several favorites or just one favorite.
• I can get great result data.
• It’s super simple and easy to use.
• Each nominee’s name will be linked to their website.

CONS:

• I can’t add thumbnails of each design.
• People can’t leave comments for specific nominees.

EXAMPLE:

Cheddr Media Voting System

Today, I stumbled on a very slick contest widget from Cheddr Media. I can actually embed this contest system onto my blog as you can see below.

PROS

• I can prevent people from voting more than once per nominee.
• I can add thumbnails of each nominee’s design.
• Voters can leave comments on each individual nominee’s entry.
• Each nominee’s name will be linked to their website.
• I can add it to both my sidebar and voting page.

CONS

• Voters will have to scroll down (and possible WAY down) the page to get to their favorite.

NOT SURE IF PRO OR CON

• I can’t prevent people from voting for multiple nominees (voting for Nominee A AND Nominee B).
• All votes are visible to everyone.
• Voters can view nominees by recent entries (this will be alphabetical), top voted or random.

EXAMPLE:

Which Do You Prefer?

So, I need your help – afterall, this is about YOUR blog. Which system do you prefer? Please use the two examples above to VOTE for your preferred voting system. This way, you can see exactly how each works and get a feel for which one works best.

Leave a Vote on the WP-Poll Example to Vote for It.

Leave a Vote on the Cheddr Media Example to Vote for It.

Topic Tags:

best web design, best wordpress website design of 2009 contest, web design, wordpress