Since we launched the Strutta online contest software, we've used it to buid a number of cool contests. The really exciting thing is that now, people are realizing how easy is it to use themselves, and are doing some pretty neat things with it.

We thought we'd share a few great examples here, and a few tips about how to accomplish such coolness for yourself.

PopVox Awards

Pushing the boundaries of the software farthest is the PopVoX Awards, New Media BC's annual awards for all things digitial media in BC. With 23 categories and featuring BC's finest, PopVoXAwards.com is worth taking a peek at, and since it's only just underway, you can still cast your votes.

Pictured at right is the PopVox Awards home page design by Mod7. The configuration of the site itself was handled by Fuse Interactive.

Ski and Shoot Sunshine

Sunshine Village in Banff is holding an exciting contest for fans of the ski resort, and the list of prizes is truly awesome.

The entries in the contest are awe-inspiring, with so many jaw dropping images, and they're all generating plenty of votes and comments. Anyone can enter, and if you look carefully at the prizes, it's easy to narrow in on the one you want to win and dominate it. The entries deserve your votes, so give 'em some love. Visit Contest.SkiBanff.com

*Pictured at right is a photo called "Sunshine Heaven." Click through to vote for it.

ProtectTheTest.com

Every year in Squamish, a most epic mountain bike race is held. The Test of Metal is world reknowned, and now the course has been threatened. Tourism Squamish wants to save the land that the course in held on, and worked with VentureWeb of Squamish to build this contest, which also serves as an awareness campaign.

Check it out, cast your votes and tell your Test of Metal stories. Squamish would sure appreciate it.

Pictured at right is an entry entitled "I love the Test of Metal." Click through to vote for it.

The contests serve as great examples fo what's possible, but they don;t represent thelimit of what can be done, especially with the front-end design of the sites. If you're a CSS designer and you'd like to take a stab at amking soemthing terrific with our software, let us know! We'd love to see what you come up with.

If you comments of questions, feel free to use the form below.

Here at headquarters, the team is working quickly and diligently on developing our new contest platform.

I'm delighted to report that interest in our launch partners program has been plentiful, and there is a cue of exciting partners lined up that will be rolling out new promotions shortly. In the meantime, all of the interest we're getting from paying customers means a delay in launching the new Strutta.com. Oh yes, there will be a new site, one that will feature the exciting new ways to deploy our software for online contests.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be introducing some examples of contests we've built or are providing our software for. Then as soon as we can, we'll flick the switch on the new .com so you can get a better idea of what it it we've been working on.

The recently launched (and already finished!) Launch Party Vancouver 5 Startup Contest was the first example of what's to come, but offered only the iceberg's tip as to the options and functions available. Most of the fun stuff happened behind the scenes; judges had access to a slick, easy-to-use drag and drop interface to make their choices and leave comments, and the data we compiled from votes from judges and the public was automagically complied, assuring us that in the popular vote, the winner had an average of 3.82 stars out of 5. Well, that's not exactly the way it happens, but to a guy that doesn't understand the maths too good, like me, it sure seems that way, especially with the slick visualizations that display the info. Consider this my pledge that when all is said and done, I'll have the brains behind this operation submit some posts here with more details about what's under the hood.

For now, we're working with our heads down to make a crucial deadline on Sept 30th, so check with us on that date and we'll have another example of the Strutta contest "engine" in use. If you have questions about Strutta, about social media or online contests or anything else, leave a comment below or hit us up on the feedback form.

*img: "One of The Buttons Will Get Me Out of Here" by cayusa. Found suring a seearch for "enter" on Flickr.