Step 1: Register for an account
Before you can create your petition you will need to create an account. You will be asked to enter your e-mail address, this will act as both your login name and used to send you an e-mail to confirm your account, this helps us stop spam-bots automatically creating accounts!
We also require you to enter your real name, this helps us identify you on our system, as well as allowing us to pre-fill the signature forms if you decide to sign another petition on the website.
Step 2: Create your petition
You will be asked to give a title and some informational text for your petition which you should use to carefully describe what your petition is about including any background information that you would like people to know about. You’ll also need to enter who or what your petition is targetting, be it a person, government, company or other body.
You will also need to select a parent category that you think your petition would best be categorised as. This helps casual visitors to petition.co.uk easily find your petition.
You will also be asked to give a short name for your petition. This will be used to give your petition a unique URL (website address) that you can use to easily publicise your petition.
You will also be able to specify an optional finish date for your petition. If the purpose of your petition is time sensitive. Other optional fields include an image to further illustrate your cause, and an external URL that you may wish to link to from within your petition that leads to more information about your cause.
Step 3: Submit your petition
When submitted, your proposed petition will then be live in our database and a member of the team will review the petition to make sure it complies with our terms and conditions. Any content that is offensive, illegal or clearly spam will be removed from the system. During this review period, your petition will be fully accessible from the URL provided, but will not be listed on the website.
Step 4: Promote your petition
Once your petition is live, you will be able to publicise the URL you chose when you created your petition, and anyone will be able to come to the website and sign it.
They will be asked to give their name and email address that we can verify. The system is designed to identify duplicate names and addresses, and will not allow someone to sign a petition more than once.
Your petition will show the total number of signatures received. It will also display the names of signatories.
Below are some ideas on how to promote your petition:
- To promote your petition join user groups or chat boards concerning your topic.
- Email your friends and family and send them the link to your petition.
- Start a blog on the subject of your petition.
- Add one of our free banner ads to your website.
Step 5: Keep track of your petition
When logged into your account you can view a summary of all of your created petitions at once. Here you can also download a spreadsheet of all of your petitions signatories as well as pause/resume any of your petitions.