2024 Online Scrapbook Contest Rules
Read the rules and tips for creating and entering a winning scrapbook website, plus enter the contest!
Contest Rules
- Your online scrapbook must be in the form of a website that shows your experiences on a 2024 Rick Steves tour.
- Your online scrapbook website must include a link to your tour's web page at ricksteves.com.
- The following formats do not qualify: Photo/caption slideshows, online photo books, blogs/online travel journals, social networking sites, printed scrapbooks, Powerpoint presentations, or scrapbooks on CDs/DVDs.
- Your website cannot require a password for access.
- Your website cannot contain ads.*
- You must agree to the Rick Steves Online Scrapbook Contest Terms and Conditions prior to submitting your entry.
- Entrants must be age 18 years or older at the time of entry. However, minors may work together with a parent or grandparent to create a scrapbook and enter as a team.
- The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. (PST) on Thursday, February 27, 2025. We will notify winners via email by April 1, 2023.
Tips
- You are basically on your own: We can't answer questions about designing and building websites, but check out our tips below, and review past winning entries to help you get started.
- Never created a website? There are many helpful tools and free sites available on the web for creating and hosting personal websites. While we encourage you to find your own way to avoid entries that use the same free design templates, we can recommend Wix and Weebly as the easiest options for first-time website creators. Wordpress is an option if you avoid their blog-style templates per our contest rules. Note that Wordpress may add 3rd-party advertising (which is against our contest rules) for their free service, and they have a low-cost account upgrade that removes ads that may be worth it for you. Other free options include Hubspot (CMS Hub) and Mailchimp, though these options are more business oriented and may confuse first-time website creators.
- Winning scrapbooks have fun photos of people and places, appealing graphics, and easy-to-follow navigation. They also have pages and images that load quickly.
- Optimize your images for quicker load times.
- Minimize use of videos.
- Have no date stamps on photos.
- Write with enthusiasm! Include some humor. Be informative but not long-winded.
- Have fun!
*When using a free service like Wix or Weebly to make your website, the forced appearance of their logo is not in violation of the "no ads" contest rule. There is no need to pay the premium to remove their logo.