MLB Playoffs Predictions

The playoff teams are set, and October baseball is nearly here!  Get geared up for the playoffs and create a challenge so people can predict the winners for each playoff series.  We've even created a template for you to make it even simpler.

Here is what your challenge would look like using our template:




Creating a challenge from a template is simple.  Just go to challengebuilder.com, click on the Create Challenge tab, and select the "2014 MLB Playoff Predictions" option under Create from Template.  We've even created detailed instructions you can follow if you need a little help.

Of course you can always edit the template, or just start from scratch if you want to do something different.  You're in control, so make it your own!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Weekly Pro Football Challenges

Football season is underway, and each week brings a new lineup of compelling matchups and storylines.  Spark some additional interest in your site by hosting a challenge for the teams you find the most interesting or care the most about.  Here are a few examples to show you what's possible.

Pick a few matchups and have people pick them against the spread:




Make predictions focused just on the team you cover or care about - here's one for the Kansas City Chiefs matchup with the New England Patriots:




Customize it however you want - we give you the tools to make it easy to setup and manage!  And host it directly on your site with our iframe option.  Just go to challengebuilder.com to create your own challenge today.  If you have any questions, just shoot us a note.

- The Challenge Builder Team

College Football Weekly Challenges

College Football is finally here!  That means there are tons of different options for creating weekly challenges.  Let's get right to a few examples to showcase the options we make possible:

Here's a challenge to pick the top games of the week against the spread - you can include whatever games you are most interested in:




Here's a challenge to predict the scores for every SEC game for the week - you can do this for any conference, the local schools in your area, or whatever matchups you find most compelling:



And finally, here's a challenge for Mizzou's first game - you can customize it for whatever team you want and any category you can think of:



Those are just a few of the possibilities.  The beauty of Challenge Builder is that you can fully customize your challenge, whether you want to focus on the top national games or your local Division II matchup.  Get started today!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Friday Night Lights

High School Football has already started up for many areas.  If you are a site that covers High School Football, Challenge Builder is perfect for creating weekly contests for the area teams.  Whether it's just for fun, or you (or a sponsor) give out a prize to the winner, everyone likes a good competition.  We make it easy to customize your contest for just the teams you and your readers care about.

Here's an example of a simple contest to pick the winners for the top area games of the week:




If you only cover one team, you can customize a contest just for that team.  For example:




There are plenty of weeks left, so go to Challenge Builder and get started today!  And as always, give us a shout if you have any questions.

- The Challenge Builder Team

Take a Premium Challenge for a Test Drive

Do you have your own website, and you're wondering how to embed a challenge and what it would look like on your site?  Go ahead and take one for a test drive - just follow the steps below to embed this sample challenge on a page on your own site.

Once you've created your own custom challenge on Challenge Builder, we provide you with a single line of code that you can use to embed that challenge on your own site.  For our example - here is the challenge we created.  And here is the code to embed it on your site:

<iframe src="http://www.challengebuilder.com/show_iframe.jsp?id=553&access_key=1463023a953136294ac5f1d4b82b092a" style="height: 1560px; width: 100%;"></iframe>

Here's what the result looks like:



If the challenge doesn't fit great on your site, you can adjust the dimensions yourself by changing the height/width numbers highlighted in that code.  For example, here's the result for the following modified dimensions:

<iframe src="http://www.challengebuilder.com/show_iframe.jsp?id=553&access_key=1463023a953136294ac5f1d4b82b092a" style="height: 600px; width: 600px;"></iframe>



Note: If your site is built on WordPress, you may need one extra step if you haven't used iframes before.  Here is an iframe plugin for WordPress, and here is a video with instructions on how to install it.  The format for this is slightly different: [iframe src="http://www.challengebuilder.com/show_iframe.jsp?id=553&access_key=1463023a953136294ac5f1d4b82b092a" width="100%" height="1560"]

That's all there is to it!  If you want to get started, or have any questions, just contact us at info@challengebuilder.com.

- The Challenge Builder Team

Introducing...joining challenges with just an email address!

In the past, we required either a Facebook or Google account to login to Challenge Builder to either create a challenge or join a challenge.  This worked great for a large number of users, but we still heard feedback that many people wanted the option to join a challenge without having either of these accounts.  Well good news for these people - we are pleased to announce that we have now added the functionality to allow people to join a challenge by simply entering their email address!

Now when users join a challenge either on challengebuilder.com or using our iframe plugin on a third party website, they will be presented with the following options to save their picks:

The Facebook and Google login options still will work the same as before, but now users can join by simply entering their name and email address as well.  With this new option, users are not creating a full account, so there is no need to create a password.  They are simply joining a single challenge, with one click of a button.

The Name submitted is what is displayed in the Standings, so that the email address is kept private.  Email address is requested in order to keep the entries unique (only one entry per email address is allowed), and in case the winners need to be contacted.  The same email address can later be used to check out how you did once the challenge has been scored.

We are excited to offer this new functionality based on your feedback.  As always, we welcome additional feedback - just shoot us a note at info@challengebuilder.com.

- The Challenge Builder Team

Season Predictions for your NFL Team

NFL Preseason Games are about to kickoff, and real football is (finally) almost here.  Time to make your predictions for your favorite NFL team.  Challenge Builder lets you come up with your own challenge with as many different kinds of questions as you want.

Here's an example for last year's surprise playoff team, the Kansas City Chiefs:

Or maybe before you start with your regular season predictions, you want to start with what will the team actually look like?  Here's one to predict the initial 53-man roster:

Got any questions?  Just shoot us a note at info@challengebuilder.com - we'd be happy to hear from you and help you get started!

- The Challenge Builder Team

What's the forecast for your favorite college football team in 2014?

Predictions for the 2014 college football season are already starting to pop up everywhere.  Of course, most of these focus on the national view, with perhaps a quick snapshot of your favorite team.  But what do people care most about - their own favorite team, right?

One of the advantages of Challenge Builder is that you can customize your challenge to focus just on the team(s) you and your audience care about.  We'll showcase some additional examples of this today for College Football, using the Mizzou Tigers as our team of choice.

Here's a sample challenge to pick every game on the schedule:



And here's one with season predictions across multiple categories:



As you can see, these challenges are tailored to your team of choice.  You can make them as simple, complex, nerdy, or downright wacky as you like.  You're in control, we just give you the tools to create and run the challenge.  So what are you waiting for, get started today!

- The Challenge Builder Team

More football - League-wide and Conference predictions

Continuing with our football examples, how about some challenges to predict the season-long results for a league or conference?

We'll start with a challenge type to predict full conference standings in order, using the SEC as an example:



Here's another option to pick the over/under on wins for each team in a conference, the Big 12 in this case:



Or for the NFL, here's an example of a challenge to predict all of the division winners and wildcard teams:



Ready to get started yet??  Just go to challengebuilder.com to get started, or shoot us a note at info@challengebuilder.com if you have any questions.

- The Challenge Builder Team

Football is near!

As NFL training camps get ready to kick off and Fall Practices approach for College teams, our nation can breath a sigh of relief that the long football offseason is finally drawing to a close.  Real football is just around the corner!

Football season brings with it loads of opportunities for new Challenges around the teams you care about - perfect for hosting contests, interacting with your readers, or just proving your football knowledge is superior to your friends.  We will be providing lots of examples for specific types of challenges that are possible using our flexible solution.

Today we'll start with a sample for an NFL preseason challenge.  And of course, being based in Kansas City, we'll base our example on our home town Chiefs:



Hope that gets your juices flowing on some of the possibilities.  Much more to come, so stay tuned!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Radio Station Listener Challenges

Radio Stations - do you want to engage and reward your loyal listeners?  Do you want to drive more traffic to your website?  Host a challenge and you can do both!

Challenge Builder provides a flexible, easy to use solution that can complement your on-air personalities and promotions with a web-based contest.  Anyone can create a custom challenge and plug it into your website - no coding required.  Here are a couple examples of how this could be used.

A contest with trivia from different segments throughout the week, which rewards loyal listeners:



Drive listeners to your website for a ticket giveaway promotion, where you share details on the air that users can enter to be eligible for the giveaway:



Got any questions?  Just give us a shout at info@challengebuilder.com.

- The Challenge Builder Team

Reality Show Challenges

Everyone has a favorite Reality Show on TV, right?  With Challenge Builder, you can create your own challenge for your show of choice, no matter how popular or obscure it is.  Perfect for Entertainment Blogs, Office Pools, or just to spice things up among your friends who also watch the show.

Here's an example for a simple challenge for The Bachelorette:



You can have some fun with it and come up with your own creative questions (who gets the first kiss, will anyone be kicked off by Producers, etc.).  Or create a new challenge weekly to predict who gets eliminated each episode.  With the flexibility of Challenge Builder, the options are endless!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Daily Baseball Challenges

One of the great things about America's Pastime is that there is a ballgame nearly every day.  This means if you want to have a baseball challenge, you get a new opportunity each day.

Maybe you're a Sports Radio station that has a pre-game show for the local team.  Or maybe you run a website that covers the team.  Or perhaps you're just a local business that's trying to connect with your customers.  Creating daily (or one-time) Baseball Challenges is another great idea that can be easily managed via Challenge Builder.

As always, you have complete flexibility with Challenge Builder's solution - you can create a challenge for a Major League team, Minor League team, College, or even High School.  And you can come up with whatever types of questions that are interesting to you and would be fun for your particular audience.

To provide an example, here is a potential challenge for the Kansas City Royals:




You can customize it for whatever team and question types you prefer.

Now play ball!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Draft Fever

NFL Draft Fever is going around, and the only prescription is more Draft coverage!  If you have a site that's covering the Draft, or if you're a business that wants to engage with your customers, use Challenge Builder to create a Draft Challenge.

Of course you can customize this however you like - that's the beauty of Challenge Builder.  Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing.

You can have predictions for a specific team, let's use the Kansas City Chiefs as an example:




Or you can have a challenge for the draft overall - here's an example of a Mock Draft where you predict the first 10 picks in order:




These are just a couple examples, but we give you the flexibility to create your own challenge however you wish!

Sign up for a Premium Challenge and host it on your own site for only $10!  Or just send out the link to our site and run it for free.

Have fun with it, and we hope your team drafts wisely!

- The Challenge Builder Team

NBA Playoff Challenges

The NBA Playoffs are finally here! If you have a website or blog providing coverage of the Playoffs, take advantage of this time to drive additional traffic and engage your readers with a Playoff Challenge!

There are lots of great opportunities for interesting challenges related to the Playoffs.  As always, you can customize your challenge however you like - here are a few examples to give you some ideas.

You can have a challenge predicting the outcomes of each game, such as:



...Or a challenge for a specific series:



...Or how about a challenge making early predictions for the Finals:



The options are endless!

A few tips to maximize your success:
- Host the challenge on your own site by signing up for a Premium Challenge.
- Offer a prize!  Even if it's something small, everyone likes to win something besides just bragging rights.
- Line up a sponsor for your challenge to further enhance your own marketing/advertising services.

Enjoy the Playoffs!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Joining a Challenge

Trying to join a Challenge?  Here's a little more information on how it works.

First, the short-short version:

1) Enter your picks
2) Sign In with a Facebook or Google (Gmail, Google Play, etc.) account
     2.5) If it's your first time taking a challenge, accept our Terms of Use
3) Make any edits you like until the Challenge has been closed for new submissions, and come back to see how you did once it is scored

It's really that easy.

If you're interested in more details and background:

The first step is pretty simple - just enter all of your picks and hit the big Take This Challenge button at the bottom.  But I'm sure you've already figured that part out.

The next step is to log in using a Facebook or Google account.  If you don't already have one, they're both free and easy to create.  If you have a Gmail account, or use the Google Play app store for your Android phone - this is the same ID you already use for those.

You might wonder why you need to sign in at all.  There are several reasons - so we know whose picks are being submitted, to avoid abuse/multiple submissions, and so you can easily go back and edit your picks later if you change your mind.

You might also wonder why it needs to be a Facebook or Google account, as opposed to other accounts or just creating a brand new account with Challenge Builder.  Well, we offer Facebook and Google as options because they are pretty ubiquitous these days, and we thought a large majority of people would already have them (plus they're free and easy to create if you don't).

We chose not to let people just sign up with a new account or email address with our end-users in mind - we don't want you to have to remember a new account/password, or have another password that's vulnerable to hackers.  With Facebook and Google logins, we here at Challenge Builder never even see your password, let alone store it (just Google "OAuth" if you're interested in how this works).

Okay, so you've entered your picks and logged in with a Facebook or Google ID.  There's just one last step - if this is your first time logging in and taking a challenge, you must accept our Terms of Use.  We won't bother you with this step for any future challenges you take, unless the Terms have changed since you last accepted them.

And that's it!  You will now see your picks, and you can edit them if you wish and re-submit them (and since you already have an account and are logged in, you'll skip all those steps) as many times as you want until the challenge has been closed.  And once it is scored, come back and see how you did!

Got any questions, ideas, or suggestions?  We'd love to hear from you - shoot us a note at feedback@challengebuilder.com.  Thanks for playing, and good luck!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Spice up your Super Bowl Party - host a Challenge!

Want to serve up a little friendly competition this year to go along with your wings, chips, and pizza?  Create your own Super Bowl Challenge just for your party!

It's a pretty simple process:

1. Create your own custom challenge (within minutes)
2. Give out the URL to everyone at your party and let them make their picks - either on a computer, or right on their phone/tablet
3. Enter the results after the game and the challenge will be scored automatically - see how everyone stacks up!

For step 1, we've created a template called "Super Bowl Party Picks" you can use to really simplify the process.  As always, you can use it exactly how it looks, or make any customizations you want (change the weight for certain questions, add new questions, delete questions, etc.).  Just go to challengebuilder.com and click the Create Challenges tab, select the Create from Template option, and create your challenge in a matter of seconds.

If you want more info on how to create and manage your challenge, we created this overview to help.

Want to see what your challenge will look like?  Here's a sample using our template, which you can also view below.  Feel free to go ahead and take this challenge yourself if you want to see what the experience is like.

Enjoy the Big Game!

-The Challenge Builder Team

Oscar Fever

It's Award Show season, and Oscar Fever seems to be sweeping the nation.

Why not create your own Oscars Challenge for your group of friends, family, or co-workers?  We've made it easy for you by creating a template that includes all of the categories and nominees.

Just go to challengebuilder.com and click the Create Challenge tab, select the Create from Template option, and select the 2014 Oscars template.  You can create your own challenge in about 30 seconds, and then just send the link out to anyone you want to join.  Then just sit back, grab the popcorn, and enjoy the show as you see who in your group really knows Hollywood best.

Do you have a blog or website?  Host the challenge on your own site as a Premium Challenge for your readers or customers.  Here's an example of what it would look like (for the Top Categories Only option):



Good luck picking the winners!

- The Challenge Builder Team

Introducing Premium Challenges - hosted on your own website!

We understand many users want to host a challenge on their own website or blog, instead of just giving out a link for participants to take a challenge.

Now you can!

Today we are introducing Premium Challenges.  These work just like regular challenges, except that you can embed them directly on your own website or blog via an iframe.  Your readers/customers can take the challenge without ever leaving your site.

This is extremely easy to setup.  We just provide you a line of code that you can copy and paste onto your site and voila - you have a challenge on your site.  You can even customize the size of the window so it best fits your site.

Here are a couple examples of how this could look on your site:


Join our Predict the Score Challenge, sponsored by [your awesome sponsor]!  Just login via your Facebook or Google account below and make your predictions.  Whoever gets the closest will win [your fabulous prize].




Or let's say you need it to fit within a smaller window...

Join our Red Carpet Challenge and pick the winner for each category!




Want to drive traffic and increase engagement on your website?  Sign up and host your own Premium Challenge today!

- The Challenge Builder Team