General FAQ


What are the Bondage Awards?

The Bondage Awards is an annual people's choice of the best of industry in 10 categories. Voting starts the first Sunday in March ending in late April when the winners of each category are announced.

What are the categories?

For the 2008 and 2009 voting seasons the categories include: (Best) Model, Rigger, Free Website, Pay Website, Writer, Comic Artist, Product, Retailer, Photographer and Company.

How does the voting work?

Voting occurs in two stages, the first being write-in only. Starting the first Sunday in March you can write in your selection in all categories once a day. The write-in stage (Stage One) will last for three weeks. At the end of three weeks qualifying votes will be tallied for the second stage of voting. Contestants receiving at least 10 write-in votes will be placed in the second stage of voting. Stage Two will last for two weeks before the final tallies are calculated.

What is "People's Choice" voting?

People's Choice is where the people (you) make the decision on who wins. Unlike many contests, The Bondage Awards do not have any judges and all winners are decided solely by the votes received by the public. Tens of thousands of votes are tallied and winners are declared based on those results. The concept is similar to Ballot voting where the first stage of voting is write-in only and the second stage of voting is strictly selection from a list of candidates.

Are there any rules for voting or is it a free-for-all?

Every year we evaluate what went right and what went wrong with the previous year. As issues come up, we do our best to adapt while keeping restrictions to a minimum. There are some rules however that can be found here.

What prevents someone from stuffing the ballot?

Unfortunately there is not a full proof method of preventing ballot stuffing, however we employ multiple methods to prevent and detect such actions. One method is to track the IP addresses and only allow one unique address to vote per day. While it is possible for people to have access to multiple IPs, it would be a small handful of votes and not nearly enough to overpower the thousands of legitimate votes each day. We also keep an eye out for patterns and suspicious activity and if any if found, we will take appropriate action.

When does a new day start?

The Bondage Awards operate in the Eastern Standard Time (EST) zone in the United States. This time zone is -5 GMT and encompasses New York City , Boston, Atlanta and Washington DC.

Where can I find past award winners?

All past and current award winners can be found in the Hall of Fame.


Contestant FAQ


How do I get people to vote for me, where do I start?

Since all votes come from the public, start with enticing the public to vote for you. Placing banner ads and mentioning the awards on your website or blog is a good start. You can find Bondage Awards banners on our contact page.

What prizes, if any, are awarded to the winners?

First, second and third place winners will be given gold, silver and bronze award images (respectively) for promotional purposes. They also have the option of having their website banner placed on this site for one year. All finalists in the top 10 will be given an award for promotional purposes.

Why am I (or my website) not listed in the Stage Two voting?

To be listed in the second voting stage you need at least 10 unique write-in votes from the first stage. If you feel you received more than 10 and are not listed, we encourage you to contact us.

Are any websites or companies excluded from voting?

Any sites that feature any form of child pornography, illegally distributing copyrighted material or are not operating during the voting process* will be excluded from the voting process. We will not notify any website in the event they are excluded for the reasons above but will explain our decision if contacted. (We will make several attempts to visit the website during the voting process.)

You're missing category XYZ, can you add it?

If you have a suggestion for a new category, we would love to hear it. Please send us a note from the contact page. We thoroughly consider all suggestions.

How can I get my site listed in the links section?

We are happy to post a text link on our links page, however there are a few requirements.

First, Second and Third place winners in any category are eligible to have their banner placed on the page without a reciprocal link. If you meet all of these criteria, please contact us.

My link disappeared, why was it removed?

We periodically check to see if our links are being reciprocated. If our link is not found on an introduction, main or links page on your site we assume our link was taken down. If we missed the link, simply contact us and we will restore your link right away. Sites that choose only to link to us during the voting season are not eligible for the links page.

Can I see how many votes I received?

Once voting has ended and the results have been posted you may request your vote totals.