You don’t want your event to go live before you’re ready, right?

Let’s walk through how to avoid auto-publishing so you can finish setting up everything properly before making it public.

Step 1: Create Your Event

Start by going to My Events in your dashboard. 

Click the Create New Event button to open the event creation form. 

Fill in all the details for your event and then save it as draft.

This way, the event won’t be visible to the public yet. You’re still in full control.

Pro tip: When picking a start date for your event, try not to set it too close. 

Once that start date hits, VoteNaija will automatically publish your event. At that point, making changes becomes difficult without reaching out to support. So give yourself enough time to review and finalise everything before it goes live.

Step 2: Add Contestants

Once you save the event, you’ll be given two options right there on the page:

• Add contestants
  
• Do this later

Pick the one that works best for you. If you already have the contestants’ names, bios, and photos ready, go ahead and add them. But if you don’t, you can always come back to it later.

Once you begin adding contestants, there’s something important to note.

Step 3: Click on Save and Add Another

After adding each contestant, you’ll see two buttons:

• Save & add another
  
• Publish event
  

To avoid auto-publishing, do not click the publish button yet. Instead, continue adding contestants by clicking Save and add another until you’re fully ready.

Once you have added at least two contestants, the Publish event button becomes active. If you click it, the event will move into pending approval and, once approved by the admins, it will go live automatically.

And that’s why it’s important to be careful.

Publishing an event cannot be undone from your dashboard. You would have to contact the VoteNaija support team if you need it reversed. That’s a bit of stress you don’t want, so take your time and only publish when everything is ready.

Final Words

Setting up your event step by step helps you avoid mistakes and keeps you in control of what goes public.

Always double-check your contestant list, event details, and dates before clicking publish. If you’re still getting things ready, just save your work as draft and return when it’s complete.

A little patience now saves you time and back-and-forth later.

Take full control of your VoteNaija experience with these helpful guides.

• How to Create a New Event on VoteNaija (On PC)
• Understanding Your Dashboard: Votes, Earnings and Event Summary (On Your Computer)
• Difference Between “My Events” and “Manage Events” Tabs (OnYour PC)
• How to Track Event Performance from Your Dashboard (On a PC)
• How to Check Total Votes and Earnings for an Event (on a Computer)