A bit like the new Mini - looks good but isn't really...;) (tickbox.net)

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	tickbox.net
Date:	12/12/01 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: looks nice, not very well known

Disadvantages: hardly any competitions, not updated

Lately I have been the Internet competition queen. You see I have an inkling that maybe Santa wont be able to provide everything I asked for, so I though I had better set about trying to win myself a new car. Then I thought, why not try to win a TV too, and a DVD player, and a new mobile, some CDs, more DVDs, MP3s! Aaarrrgghh! Before you knew it I was caught up in an acronym winning frenzy!

It's amazing what you can win out there in the wide world of world wide web! I desperately needed some method to shine through all of this madness, and that's when I turned to our beloved Dooyoo. 'Go to loquax.co.uk' the voices urged, and they were right! But after a while it dawned on me that if Loquax is so popular then surely a lot of people will enter all the competitions? This means my odds of getting my hands on the car are greatly reduced. I needed a more exclusive site, a better-kept secret...

That's when I found Tickbox.net. On the face of it, Tickbox.net seems to be just another competition site. It's a little better looking. Nicely designed and lots of blue, plus space! Space is something you rarely find on competition sites as they usually try to cram as much text as possible onto any one page! As a web developer, and a user, I can appreciate a bit of space so, looks-wise at least, Tickbox.net had my vote.

A little light reading on the home page told me all about the 'Tickbox.net promise'. This comprises of three parts - fast (registration), free (prize entries) and easy (competitions). I decided to put the Tickbox.net promise through the missbrowneyedgirl road test! Well, I owed I to you all to try them out didn't I?

~ Part One: Fast Registration ~

From the home page was a prominent link, stating 'New Users register here'. This link, as with almost every other one from the front page takes you to the registration page. This page is merely a simple form, with very few required f
ields. I guess this is where the 'fast' part comes in, as you could register by simply entering the following details on this page:

Email Address, Password (and confirm), Email Format, Title, Date of Birth, Gender, Postal Code and TV Region. There is also relatively little unrequired information that you can supply: First Name, Last Name, Occupation, Home Address, City and Mobile. However there is no explanation of how the site works prior to registration, or even a guide to what the information will be used for. Being the inquisitive sort, I decided to explore further before committing my information to their database.

Back to the front page there are 6 further links in a strip across the centre of the page. Entitled Info, How it works, What's the catch, What's next, Prizebag and Winners respectively, this looked like the kind of information I was looking for. So, logically I jumped into the 'Info' section, only to find that wasn't really the 'info' I was looking for.

I was hoping for some information about the types of competitions, frequency of competitions, ways the categories are organised etc. Instead I was offered a condensed version of standard competition rules. You know the sort - how the winners are eligible, selected, notified, supplied with the prize etc. Each of the further sections was similarly useless! However, you'll be pleased to know there was no catch in 'What's the catch'.

'What Next?' was a very intriguing section that contained only the following instructions:
'1. Register with Tickbox.net
2. Click on the prize draw you wish to take part in.
3. Click and tick your way through the questions
4. Click submit, cross your fingers and wait for the draw to close
5. You can enter as many draws as you like, however, unless stated otherwise only one entry per person, per draw.
Good luck and welcome to the art of Tickboxing! '
;

Maybe the most disheartening page was the Prizebag section. There were only two competitions available -- one to win a SMS home telephone, and another to win a tour of Good Food Live. No new cars and certainly no new TVs. However, I remembered that I was effectively browsing as a guest and maybe there would be more if I joined. Also, the info section had told me 'Competition times and prizes vary on the Tickbox.net site'. I guessed I was just going to have to take the plunge!

Back to the registration page, a little typing and before you could say 'Jumping Jack Flash' my account was being created somewhere in cyberspace. Fast? Well yes certainly. Even more so if I hadn't spent so long messing around in the rest of the site!

~ Parts Two & Three: Free Prize Entries and Easy Competitions ~

Logging in to your new account, using your email address and password, you are redirected to the prizebag page, but this time a members version from where you can enter the competitions! Unfortunately, much to my disappointment, only the same two competitions were available :(

Disappointingly (in so far as the site being up to date, rather than the prize itself), the Good Food competition had a closing date of 30th November, which made me think maybe the site wasn't up to date. However, the phone one was still open and seeing as I was there I may as well enter a competition. The phone didn't look too bad after all...

Clicking on the competition icon, I was delivered with a set of questions, kind of like a questionnaire, sponsored by BT. This wasn't quite what I was expecting, but nonetheless I filled it in. As the site name suggests, the questions (5 of them in this instance) comprise of multiple choice answers, allowing you to 'tick the box' of the one you want.

Your email address is already completed but as a word of warning, watch for the checkboxes at the bottom of form. The on
es that sign your email account away to spam for all eternity! Make sure they are not checked!

One nice feature was the option to join the email debate BT were holding on this issue. Overall, I can't deny that it was easy and free to enter this competition so all in all I cannot fault the tickbox.net promise. I think the idea of combining minimal market research with prizes could turn out to be very profitable. Myofers.co.uk have done just that very successfully. However, I wouldn't recommend tickbox.net. I had fun trying, but in the end it's not worth the hassle!

Summary: