Automatization or simplification via widgets is something that has been targeted by widgets heavily and one of the reasons widgets are a good thing.  this has spun off automatic contact forms, list, etc. most without any real leveraging of intelligence just enabling convenience. Contestmachine wants to bring not only convenience but something intelligent too.

Contestmachine allows you to create multi tabbed widgets where you can run contests, giveaways or promotions via a widget. freeing you from the logistics, the security issues and the hassle that come with making up any of those things. they give you the form where you can ask your readers to fill info in order to get into your promotion. they lets you manage that info from the widget or manage it for you depending on what you want to do or what the scale of the contest is. it is not the same to manage a contest where 100 people entered their details in order to win but that required personal reviewing than having a context based on serving a number of spots. they are offering up 2 contests free a month and  $9 dlls a month or $90 dlls a year for their advanced offerings. this is widget marketing at is best.

But it is not just the widget, you get a customizable land page for your promotion and also customized winner e-mails with the service. any that has ever run a contest knows that while they look easy to do and they are. they can be time consuming. the goal of contestmachine is to eliminate the hassle, improve your contest efficiency all while having a good business model that you can live happy with it while using their widget. sounds good to me. my only critique of the widget would be that the widgets are too plain looking. the widgets should be more attractive looking (better design),  should be fully customizable and they should offer a High Spread Sharing module so it could be easy to use not only in blogs and site but also in social networks.

ContestMachine