We're Giving $2,000 for the Best How-to Posts!
Who doesn't like to win money?
That's right, it's another fabulous contest, except this time we're giving away cold, hard cash. You know, the kind that you can use to buy the shiny, shiny gadgets you've been lusting after since you saw our holiday guide?
This time entering is a little more involved, so pay close attention!
We want you to write a How-to for Computing.Net. However, we don't just want any old How-to, we want a really great How-to. One that's so good, it's going to win you the first prize of $1,500. The first runner up will receive $400 and the second runner-up will receive $100.
So how do you enter? First, you'll need to sign up for a Computing.Net account. Next you'll want to read up on the contest and check out our current How-to section to get an idea of what you should be writing. Once you've done your homework, you can write your How-to and submit it here. (Be sure to check the contest box – if you're not in you can't win!)
Once you've submitted your How-to, it's your job to get your friends, family and co-workers voting for you by popularizing your how-to on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. The winners will be selected both by the popularity and the quality of their How-tos. The 25 most popular How-tos will be shortlisted for review by the Computing.Net and Tom's Guide editorial team. From there, the winner will be selected based on quality of their entry.
The Tom's community has always been incredibly helpful when it comes to sharing useful information with each other, so we know we're in for a real treat with these submissions.
Check out the contest page to get started!
This contest is for US residents (excluding Rhode Island), 18 years or older. For the complete list of terms and conditions, please visit the contest's T&C's page.
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US Residents... grrr...
How-To include the rest of the planet....
sorry but i'd rather have real techs vote on my How To, not to use us fools as an advertising campaign (trust me, $2,000 is a very cheap ad campaign) to whore all of us out on facebook, myspace (really?), and the twits. count me out! good luck to the rest.
How To: Eat a Corndog
Im winning for sure
So let me get this straight MyFace "friends" trump technical knowledge and writing ability? Lordy will articles be judged like the music industry? "Sure (s)he can;t sing a note but (s)he's cute"
I dub the Text-Factor!
You lost me at "it's your job to get your friends, family and co-workers voting for you by popularizing your how-to on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc."
$1500 is not enough for such an extensive advertising campaign.
Tom's Hardware is getting lazy...
Basing the quality of a How To Guide on how many people the author can get to promote their How to is a very bad idea if you want good, quality How To's.
On the other hand, as a means to promote a new website on the cheap, I guess this contest does its job.
Rating System also Sucks.
Take Tecmo's very good PC building How to, which is rated at 4 stars
http://www.computing.net/howtos/sh [...] c/509.html
now compare to this 5 star rated 2 sentence how to...that basically says don't click on weird links
http://www.computing.net/howtos/sh [...] s/475.html
Further, if one bases quality on popularity, How To's done extremely well on highly technical articles will lose out to stupid ones such as that don't click on random popups to avoid fake antivirus's how to, simply because more users will see the silly stupid one and read it.
Ex. How many people will read a detailed how to on Why overclocking Dmg's a CPU incorporating layman level explanations of quantum mechanics, vs a a How To titled "How to find the cheapest Ipod/Ipad" with a single sentence saying "google cheap Ipod/Ipad."
Guarantee you the latter will be far more popular despite being worthless.
This also damages the reputation of your new site if all the award and top ranked How To's are a bunch 2 sentence fail post's with a catchy title.
In short, seriously flawed system here...
Oh My God! ... With this Rhode Island nonsense!!! I swear I am going to move out of this wretched state just so i can enter contests here on Tom's!!! FML...
Ps. This is one contest i would have LOVED to attempt...
Pss. Don't let all the negative-Nancies (or perhaps Debbie-Downers) try and bring you down Jane, I think it's a great idea!
What if I hate facebook, twitter and that other social networking crap?
i get that outside the US there are legal bla bla bla .... but why are you all picking on Rhode Island? .... not popular enough or smthg ?
The contest sounded cool until they admitted that half of the vote was based on popularity, because obviously, popular people write the best How-To articles.
I understand the point of "popularizing" your How-To post and thus popularizing the site but you've gotta come up with something better than that.
Oh My God! ... With this Rhode Island nonsense!!! I swear I am going to move out of this wretched state just so i can enter contests here on Tom's!!! FML... Ps. This is one contest i would have LOVED to attempt...Pss. Don't let all the negative-Nancies (or perhaps Debbie-Downers) try and bring you down Jane, I think it's a great idea!
Why is Rhode Island always omitted? It seems stupid, like a competition in the UK omitting people from Norfolk.
Or like a website shunning a good 95% of the english speaking population with its US only competitions. Nice business guys.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with helping out a website community that you visit frequently to either help or be helped, want to catch the latest tech news before it hits mainstream, etc... This community has saved many people lots of cash, time, resources and headaches. If you have ever benefited from this website, it is the least you can do. Tom's wants to get their name out there, help them! I know I do... Plus, there's a chance of wining cash!
Obviously, those of us who don't do the "social networking" thing have no chance here regardless of the quality of our writing. I'm not sure what the agenda is but it's certainly not what's being stated.
The legalities involved in giving stuff away is actually fairly complex, and certain methods of doing it are illegal (or just exceptionally difficult) in different parts of the US and world. Limiting who can enter by location is the only practical way of doing it.
Rhode Island is unique because the state law actually requires the company to file a legal statement before it can run a contest in that state. The statute, Section 11-50-1 of Rhode Island General Laws, reads:
"Any person, firm, or corporation proposing to engage in any game, contest, or other promotion or advertising scheme or plan in which a retail establishment offers the opportunity to receive gifts, prizes, or gratuities, as determined by chance, in order to promote its retail business, where the total announced value of the prizes offered to the general public is in excess of five hundred dollars ($500), must file a statement with the secretary of state."
The statute then details exactly what information must be included in the filed statement. In addition, the law requires the company pay a $150 filing fee. If a company runs a contest in Rhode Island, and fails to file a statement correctly, the company is actually guilty of a criminal misdemeanor...
why is rhode island always getting shafted?
Take Tecmo's very good PC building How to, which is rated at 4 starshttp://www.computing.net/howtos/sh [...] c/509.htmlnow compare to this 5 star rated 2 sentence how to...that basically says don't click on weird links In short, seriously flawed system here...
I voted it down.
I can understand the "US ONLY" things for a goods prices. Because it is a local us only brand sponsor. But this time the prices is MONEY, so why can world wide?
You lost me at "it's your job to get your friends, family and co-workers voting for you by popularizing your how-to on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc."$1500 is not enough for such an extensive advertising campaign.
You took the words right out of my mouth...
You know, I don't like to be pedantic and I respect and appreciate this gesture. But to deny any opportunity for European and other contributors..including those who routinely post opinions, help and also report spam..jeeze, guys. Couldn't something - even a little something - be offered?
How-To include the rest of the planet....
..dunno, maybe enter across the Mexican/US border. Pity the "USA-Only" policy doesn't apply there.
i get that outside the US there are legal bla bla bla .... but why are you all picking on Rhode Island? .... not popular enough or smthg ?
When my family took a trip across the US a couple years back, I think we had every license plate but that! We had 2 or 3 Hawaii plates and the same with Alaska - but no Rhode Island
you can't pay me to use facebook and myspace. i would sooner sell my soul to the devil for less.
How about we write Tom's a "How To" guide on removing Spam Bots from the forums.
Yeah this is more of a social networking contest then an actual one. Sorry... although I may be competitive when it comes to actual article writing, I am NOT when it comes to gather a mass of people who could care less and vote for me.
Hmm the quote buttons ain't working for me..
"Rating System also Sucks."
Looks like those 2 articles have been appropriately changed a bit since everybody's gone and voted them down/up respectively
A "How To" guide on not making your users retaliate to your articles?
I like the Idea Jane, but I think it needs some revision =D
Agreed with many of the rest of you.
Technically minded people usually aren't extremely popular. Unless you're trying to fill a spot on your team for those that can cleverly marry technical garble while being on a 2nd grade reading level to appease the masses, this contest is poorly aimed.
I love providing information that helps other people and the best reward is knowing that your work helped someone else resolve a problem. A monetary reward would be nice, but if you guys are giving away money for How-to articles, there are plenty out there already. No need to inflate the community with a bunch of guides that are only after money. Reward those that are worthy of it already.