Go to Projects and either duplicate an existing project or select Create Project to create a new one from scratch.

Give it a clear name (e.g., “Spring Poetry Contest 2026”).

Add a short description to let entrants know what the contest is about and include any key details or deadlines.

Go to the Settings > Stages within your new project.

Create clear stages such as Received, First Review, Shortlist, Final Review, and Winner Selected.

Assign each stage a status (e.g., “New,” “In Progress,” “Completed”) to keep your workflow organised.

Add what you want to display to the creator for each round. For example, "shortlisted" might actually display as "in progress" to a creator.

Go to the Settings > Forms within your new project.

Here are the instructions to create a submission form.

Once you've added all your fields, you should also customise the design.

Navigate to Settings > Payments. If you haven't connected your Stripe account, you'll need to do that first.

Once connected, you'll be able to create a payment within the project.

Choose your currency, amount, and make sure to specify whether the fee is required or optional.

Go to Settings > General > Availability.

Choose a start and end date for when submissions can be accepted.
Once the end date passes, the form will automatically close to new entries.

You'll first need to create a review panel. This can be a panel of judges that you want to send each of the entries to. You can have different panels for different rounds if necessary, so make sure you create all the panels you'll need in advance.

Once you've created your panel, go to Settings > Reviews and create your review parameters. You'll be able to select how many reviews of each submission you require, the voting and scoring parameters and direct your panel on how to judge each entry.

Make the project live by setting to public (or private if you want the link to be active but not discoverable).

Embed or link the form directly from your own website, social media or email campaigns or add to your Dapple page (see next step).

If you're yet to set up, you'll first need to create your listings page.

You'll then need to add the newly created project to your current page and drag it into the correct order you want it show it in.

Double-check all the fields are correct.

Send yourself the link and fill out the submission form as if a creator.

If there are payments, test this works correctly and that the amount is correct.

After making a submission, view your submission in the dashboard.

All your submissions will automatically feed into the first Stage you have created and listed as "New" submissions.

Anyone in the admin team can view these submissions at any time, and some teams find it useful to start an internal review process as soon as submissions start coming in to qualify which submissions have enough potential to make it further in the contest.

You may want to set up a "first round rejected" stage (or something similar) and any submissions that won't make the next round can be moved into this stage. At this point, moving submissions into this stage won't notify the creator, but is a useful tool to start getting organised! You will be able to send a bulk rejection message to these creators when the contest ends.

Please note that if setting up a rejected stage, make sure that the creator-facing status is correctly set up so that it isn't displaying a rejected status before the contest has closed.

Head to the Stages section and send submissions for review. This will then send all the submissions in that Stage to the designated Review Panel you have assigned.

Each member of the dedicated review panel will then receive submissions into their dedicated Review Account, ready for them to start working through.

You and your team (with the correct permissions) will be able to work through each of the submissions and see an average of the scores, a voting preference and read all of the comments.

You'll then be able to decide on whether to progress the submission or not. If not, you'll want to move it to a rejected stage you will have created (by changing the stage in the submission), and if it's a yes, you'll want to move it to the next round.

Changing the stage won't notify the creator

Use the Bulk Move feature to do this. For example, once you have made a first pass at some entries and moved some to rejected, you may want to advance the remaining successful submissions to the next stage (e.g., from First Review to Shortlist).

Use the Bulk Message feature to send a message to each entrant in that stage.

Create a template in advance that you can use to send to all and re-use in the future. You should create different templates for different stages (e.g a rejection, a shortlisted or a successful template).

Once the template is loaded, you can always tweak it accordingly before sending.

Remember to set the ability of whether those creators can reply to your message or not before sending. You may want to disable replies for rejections, for example, to stop unwanted replies.

Create a new stage and assign a new review panel for each round.

Continue using Bulk Move and Bulk Message to keep the process running smoothly.

Move winning entries to the Winner Selected stage.

Notify winners and other participants via Bulk Message.

You can also publish the results on your website!