It's been several weeks since we first started launching contests built with our platform. Before the inevitable flurry of activity that our launch will create, I though it would be a good time to give updates on some of the recent ones.

1. Operation Gratitude "Letters to Our Troops." We start with OpGrat because the contest is still live, and there are only a few days left to submit your letters to the troops in time for them to receive them this holiday season. This one is one entry per email, but you may submit as many letters as you wish, and THAT is what it's all about. As it stands now, the promotion has generated more letters than in any previous year, but they're still short of the 50, 000 or so that they would need for each care package they'll be sendng to the troops this Christmas. What are you waiting for?

2. Boston Pizza "Designer Pizza Vote" contest. As we've already announced, this one ended a few weeks back, and now a winner has been announced. Bryan Hayter of Woodstock Ontario will be enjoying a free large pizza every week for a year, the lucky devil. 

3. Give a Better Life Foundation "Vote for Your Cause." Launched just a short time ago, this is already gaining loads of traction. Because there are 11 great charities involved, there has been a flurry of voting activity for all of them among their supporters and friends. Visit the site and cast your vote for your favorite charity today while there's still time. 

4.Jiibe and Capulet's "Jiibe Connection." Created by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications for their client Jiibe, this little number (that features a videoby GiantAntMedia) is already getting talked about in the HR community. Of all the contests we've built, this one is the easiest to enter. Just make your choice, enter your email address and you're entered to win an iPod Nano. 

Over the next few weeks, you'll be seeing more examples of Strutta contests, but they'll built by some of our friends, who will be the first to access our wizard, which should be very exciting to watch unfold. 

If you have questions about these or any other contests, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

The soon-to-launch "new version" release of Strutta puts all the power of our technology into your hands.

Whether you are a competitive video creator looking to host your own contest, a marketer wanting to create a UGC (user generated content) contest for a client, or a brand manager that wants a fully customizable contest platform API, the new Strutta will have something for you.

Just yesterday our development team turned a corner that represents a very significant milestone. They sat back in their chairs and started evaluating the mostly-finished product, making the finishing touches before we give you a first glimpse in just a few days time. The good news is that this will free up our beloved team to start telling you the story of how this is all coming together. Over the next two weeks I'll be coaxing them out into the sunlight, and each will share a few notes about our process or our product from their perspective. 

In addition, the "look and feel" of this blog will seemingly change overnight sometime in the very near future, to better match the elements we've already released (see inset photos). When that happens, expect nothing less than total "Strutta team" access via our blog. Our Sr. User Interface Designer Ross Howard-Jones has built a new theme for Drupal that will give you access to such basic blog features as: Search! Archives! Photos! And if I can help it, regular contributions from team members not named Jordan.

Thanks again for your pateince while we prepare to launch. Remember that we're always listening, so if you have any questions or feedback, you can leave them here as comments or hit us up on our contact form.

The NHL (National Hockey League), who controls all online operations for the entire league including all team sites, is using Drupal-based sites for its All Star fan balloting, fan favorite awards and "Greatest Captain Sweepstakes."

The seemingly omniscient Boris Mann forwarded me a link this morning to Dries Buytaert's post, and it seems the three of us agree; this is a huge endorsement for Drupal as a CMS. At Strutta, we consider it something of a badge of honour (if indirectly) for our own work, since our contest platform is based on none other than the aforementioned open source CMS. Looks like great minds think alike. 

If Mr. Bettman or his CTO happen to be reading this, I'll also humbly mention that our product is architected, developed, optimized and designed by some of the world's finest Drupal Jedis (you know, in case you ever feel like throwing us a bone like the fan video contests, etc. We're up to the task).

Thinking about launching your own contest promotion? Why not check around to see some of the current contest promotions on the web, and get a few ideas? 

We'll be honest, there are no lack of contest sites on the web, and a Google search turns up all sorts of ugly sites that are covered in ads and look as though they haven't seen a redesign in decades. We skipped all of those for you, and opted to share a selection of contest sites that are a little easier to read: 

1. Contests.Alltop.com. This is it, the mother lode of contest listings and contest sites. The folks at Alltop do such a good job of finding and listing the best feeds on the web that we'd be crazy not to refer you directly to this list. All of the headlines on the page are links to the actual RSS feeds too, so you can either bookmark this badboy and revisit it, or just pick and choose the feeds that interest you most and add to them to a reader. Need an RSS refresher? Lee can help. 

2. Contests.About.com. While About.com is certainly home to its share of annoying ads and what I like to call "advertorial," there's no question they do offer some decent lists and resources, including a tutorial called "Sweepstakes Basics."

Tip For Contest Enterers:

Not all web browsers are created equal. We recommend using Firefox for its fast loading time and the fact that it will automatically save your information in any online forms you've filled out.

Learning from the Experts

Our searches turned up a number of blogs with useful contest info, and we've been secretly learning from their wisdom ever since.

1. Carolyn, the "Contest Queen." Carolyn operates a great contest info website and newsletter, and publishes a blog as well. She's made a cottage industry of the contest industry, and folks flock to her for advice. Plus, she recently discovered she has personal connections to Strutta!

2. VidOpp.com. This video contest hub will tell you all about the various video submission contests out there. Since video has been a big part of what we do at Strutta, we keep a close eye on this feed. 

3. Momdot.com. The gals over at MomDot spill all sorts of info about contests, promotion discounts and shopping, so if you if you're looking for a resource that has loads of info aimed at moms, and a considerable amount of influence in that community, then you've found it.

Tip for Contest Administrators: 

There are a few key questions that people always have when they enter a contest. The first is "What's the prize?" and the second is almost always "Who can enter?" This information should be made readily available in all contest-related promotions and marketing.

Leading up to the launch of our contest platform, we'll continue to share insight into the online contest space, and as always if you have questions you can ask them her in the comments or visit our contact form. 

If you know of other great online contest resources, feel free to share those here. 

*mgs: "Dart Game" by cheese roc, 

Last night we received a question from a Strutta user via the contact form. He asked, "When are we going to be not beta? Why is there beta anyway?"

As soon as I read it, I knew that this was the kind of question that warranted its own blog post, so we can define "beta" from our perspective, and shed a bit of light on the process of launching a software product like Strutta. 

The short answer is, we have beta so we can launch a product, let folks start using it and start getting their feedback- even though we know that the product can already be made better.

When we launched Strutta back in April, we worked some long days and nights to ensure that when we put the site live, all of the available features had been tested and were working correctly. As soon as we had pushed the site live (okay, perhaps after a few hours of much needed rest) we started fixing known issues and working on the features we couldn't wait to add. 

From the standpoint of our entire team, the most important thing we were waiting to know was how the site would be used, how many people interacted with it, and what kind of feedback we received. 

If you've been following our blog, you know that a few months back we shifted our development strategy in a big way in response to some of that feedback. We noticed several patterns forming at once: User interaction was low while page views were high, and people kept asking us if they could use our software on /their/ site. An idea, as they say, was born.

We've already told the story about the changes happening to Strutta.com, so let's skip ahead for now and address it later in the post by listing a few items that you can expect from the new version of Strutta. In the meantime, I think the process that we took to launch our product is worth taking a closer look at. 

From the Alpha to the Omega

When we first got started developing the product that would become Strutta, we had dozens of meetings to discuss game play, rules, site usability and features. We employed no fewer than three third party web and game designers to consult with the build, and our own development process and meetings helped shape the product and feature-set that we called our "Alpha." 

The day that we finished our Alpha release was the day we celebrated, toasted our work and shaved the beards that much of our staff had grown. But within hours of that micro-celebration, we were already inviting in an initial test group of users to see what we had created. In this case, we physically invited a number of our friends in the Vancouver tech community to our office to come and evaluate what we had built. They may be our friends, but they didn't hold back with the questions and feedback, and we were listening. Based on their reactions, we got back to work tweaking the site and building out vital features, and before long we were ready for a public beta. 

Beta Means We Care

Now, let's be honest. "Beta" is an overused term in the web space, and it's fair to say that it's the software equivalent of a sign that reads "Please be patient during our renovations. Sorry for the inconvenience." Not that we mean to make excuses for a less-than-perfect product, but there is certainly a benefit to releasing a product to market and start getting feedback sooner rather than later. In our case, that was especially true, as the feedback we received led us to the point we are at now. That's why I like to think that the little "Beta" tag you see on so many sites means "We care about your feedback. Keep it coming." 

This seems like a good time to mention some of the features that are part of this new version of Strutta, and add a few notes about the changes to our launch plan this time around. 

For our impending "re-launch," we've done things a bit differently. Rather than publish a "mostly ready" product and adjust the feedback after the fact, we teamed up with a number of launch partners, asked them how they'd like their contests operated, and made sure that the development of our core product was aligned with their wants and needs. Feedback will still be a vital part of the process though, and that's why it will be ongoing, and made public for all to see.

New Strutta Features:

• The ability to host a contest at your own domain, or on a free "microsite," such as YourContest.Strutta.com or CoolContest.YourDomain.com.
• Options to run contests with UGC (user generated content), popular vote or judged.
• Prizes! Since companies will have access to completely customized sites powered by Strutta, they'll be creating some great contests with some great prizes; for voters and media creators alike.  
• A "Get Satisfaction" feedback widget that publicly tracks all of your feedback and our responses to it. 

There are a number of ways to bring a software product from the idea stage to launch, and even though the word beta itself might be overused (often out of context), offering your product to select members of the public for early feedback is one idea that should never go away. 

*img: "Strutta Party" by tyfn.