User's guide, tutorials
We've created a set of tutorials to help you use RandomPicker. You can either start a tutorial from the beginning, or select a topic that interests you.
Your account
You need an account to use RandomPicker. Creating your account takes you only a minute and is for free.
Click on the Sign Up button, fill in the registration form (user name, password, email and security question and answer. Select also the user type: select Business if the drawing is for business purposes. Otherwise we offer special accounts that are to be used for personal and non-commercial purposes.
Edit your profile in the second step: your name, company, address, time zone and language preferences. Your profile can be changed anytime later.
If you do not want your account anymore, click on the Delete Account button (all your data will be lost inclusive winners and protocols.
Projects
Project means the set of definition, entrants and outputs of a draw. The number of project is not limited. To build a project, go to My projects and choose Create a new draw project (or you can also do it at My account page. Fill in the project definition:
Project name – this label will be displayed in the list of your projects and in the protocol.
Random method – choose the one you prefer. See the section Random numbers for details. If your drawing is over 1M entries (inclusive weights), select GUID method.
Conditions - write some details to describe your project – how can be people included into the draw (visitors, registered users, Facebook fans, Twitter follower, purchased a product, took part in a survey …) and the time range.
WWW - you can add a link to your website or an address of the contest page, your Facebook page, Twitter and others.
Project type –Personal means for your private purposes, charities and non-profit organisations choose Non-Profit type and if you use RandomPicker for your business, please choose Business option. Personal and Non-Profit types are for free (but are indicated in the protocols and have several limitations).
Then you need to define prizes. You can use up to 10 kinds of prizes, insert each kind of prize into a separate row. If you have only 1 prize (for example, a book), insert number 1 into the first field of the first row and the text “book” into the second field of the first row. If your entrants can win 3 books and 10 vouchers, input 3 books in the first row and 10 vouchers in the second row.
Click on the button CREATE PROJECT to save the definition. You can change the settings any time until the final draw.
The next step is to add entrants into RandomPicker – choose the project and click on Import new data. Anytime you add new people, the old set of entrants is deleted – you have to always import all people at once. There are two ways to import people:
1st way: copy the whole list from your Word, Excel, TXT file or other format - each person has to be in a separate row.
Paste the list into the form and click on IMPORT.
2nd way: put people into TXT, XLS or XLSX file. Each person has to be in a separate row, use only the first Excel sheet. You can include more options into the file – the first column is for public data, this identificator will be accessible in the protocol, we recommend not using personal data, but anonymous labels (IDs, nicknames…).
The second column can be used for private labels- visible only to the project owner. This can help you easily indentify entrants.
You can also add a weight to each participant. You can influence the probability to be chosen with the weight. 1 is a value of a standard weight. The value 2 gives increases the probability to win twice… The typical usage of weights is the case of multiple purchase/usage… the more products the person purchased the higher probability to win. Do not use weights to non-multiple projects or to prefer somebody without a reason, as it will be recognized as cheating. There is an option to check the weight of all winners or entrants in the protocol.
Please use file templates - the first row of the file is a header and is not imported as and entrant.
Drawing
First check the number of participants and their list – all entrants have to be included before drawing.
Conduct several test drawings so you can see how the system works. The results are always different because people are chosen randomly.
If you are ready, conduct a final draw. The system chooses winners and the project is locked in. No further changes are possible anymore.
Output, Protocol and Seal
A protocol is an output of the projects. Everyone can display it if they know the right address. The protocol link is usually published by the owner to verify the transparency of the draw. The protocol includes basic project information, prizes and winners.
A special function is included – entrant search. People can verify their participation in the draw and the protocol by submitting the identificator. The system will display the number of people found and their weights.
A seal is a picture which you can place onto your website and link to RandomPicker protocol. You just need to place a HTML code generated by RandomPicker.
Payments and billing
Projects for personal and non-profit purposes are for free. You need to pay only if you use drawing for business purposes or your project exceed free plan limitations - see the page Pricing for plan comparisons.
Payments are possible using your Paypal account or your credit /debit card. The whole payment is processed by a very secure way using a third part company – Paypal - so RandomPicker does not have a direct access to your credit card. We do not know even your credit card number after the purchase.
If you reside in the European Union, your VAT liability is checked. VAT can be applied in several cases for european citizens or businesses.
The invoice is generated after purchase and is accessible in your account history.