launchly

The idea for your site is interesting. The biggest risk I see is do you have any liability since you are selling this service and holding the prize in escrow if a user submits work for which they do not own the copy write. This can either be by deliberate actions, or a misunderstanding on the part of the contestant. But if they do not absolutely own the piece, then they can not sell it to whom ever is sponsoring the contest.

As to the site it's self...

I like the design. Over all, it's clean. I dislike the anti-aliasing effect on the two buttons on the main page. On my monitor it seems a bit extreme.

You do not currently have a robots.txt file. Nor could I find a sitemap.xml file in any of the standard locations. You will need these to help your chances on google.

You need a better 404 page. At a minimum, you should have your standard nav bar with links back to your main site.

The "Entries" button on each of your contest entries is confusing. I had no expectations from the wording on the link for what it did. Also, does it span every entry the user has submitted across all contests? That would be a cool feature, but it's not obvious what's going on there.

Your site looks very sparse. Even though it will cost a bit of money, you should seed your site with a handful of contests. Then promote your site at locations that have photoshop contests such as fark (http://www.fark.com/farq/photoshop.shtml). I'm sure there are many other out there. This will help get the word out to the designer crowd and get you quality entries. I can't think of how to attract contest sponsors. At a minimum, if you don't have a sponsored contest once a week, you need to sponsor a house contest to keep the designers interested in returning.

Once again, cool idea. Good luck!

My question is how do you beat the competition? For example:

- flickr with images licensed for commercial use (free)
- istockphoto (huge)

Do you believe there is enough room in the market for multiple players?

The site itself looks nice enough for me.

When you say "No Launch Fee for the First 10 Guaranteed Contest Entries" I don't quite understand. It seems to conflate "no fee for first 10" and "10 entries are guaranteed". Do you really guarantee 10 entries? How?

First impressions:

* I immediately know what the site's about, kudos. The front page communicates the idea effectively, I think. I like the phrase "photo contest" - it distinguishes the site, and is evocative of the right idea.

* I don't like that the footer appears halfway down the page on short pages (e.g., the "launch contest" page, when I'm not logged in)

* One use case that you seem to be promoting is "touch up old photos". My (naive) impression is that this is not the best angle to promote. I do understand the desire to differentiate, though!

* I'm not a designer, but it feels like the look of the site could be made to feel a lot more hip, vibrant, fun through different use of colors. Also, actual photos are not emphasized enough in the interface....make it fun to browse the site! Flickr does a great job of this.

Pretty cool niche/idea. Reminds me of 99designs but a bit more scaled down, specific. Gives the opportunity to the less artistic but more technically gifted the chance to make money. Drop shadows on the home page buttons are a bit too strong/loud. Make it a bit less subtle. Good luck!

I think the site idea is a very good one, but I've also seen a lot of sites like this lately. 99designs.com being one example. In order to beat out the competition you'll definitely have to make a lot of aesthetic changes to the site. Especially since your site is centered around design, it should look well designed and very unique.

I like that the concept is very well explained. It didn't take me very long to figure out how to use the site.

The site is very well thought out. The only thing I'd change really is the way the site looks.

And i definitely think it should span further than just photo editing. This site has tons of posibilities

You are competing with strong competitors like 99designs. You have to add sort of value or target niches that 99designs doesn't. For instance, certain types of designs or maybe make it cheaper. I think you site needs more work on the looks