An Overview Of Online Petitions

An online petition serves the same purpose as a conventional petition but it is different in that it is posted online for viewers to read and sign electronically.

While you may dismiss the value of petitions posted online thinking they are frivolous, the fact is that these petitions do carry an enormous amount of clout with authorities. Since they are posted on a website, they are visible to people all over the world and are valuable in that they can gather a larger number of signatures than you could ever hope to collect in a conventional petition.

With an online petition, a signer types in his/her name and the email address is the signer’s address. For the most part, each signer of a petition posted online has to have an individual email address because most sites will not allow more than one signature for each email.

There is no guesswork involved in starting such a petition because the petition websites provide you with the form to use. You don’t need to purchase any software. All you have to do is enter the text in the appropriate sections and the software used by the website will format the petition for you.

You do have to follow the same guidelines in creating an online petition as you do with a conventional petition. The title should be short and capture the essence of the petition so that when visitors see your petition it will not take a long time for them to read what it is about.

The statement of concern should describe the current situation and explain why it needs to be changed. When you request change in a petition, you should also make suggestions for ways in which the authority can realistically make these changes. This is what potential signers will look for and what will cause them to want to sign their names in support.

With a conventional petition, you do have to ask the signers to actually sign their names. While you don’t have to spend time canvassing neighborhoods and setting up kiosks in areas where you can have contact with a large number of people you do have to promote an online petition letter.

Simply posting the petition online will not do the job you want it to do. One of the common ways of promoting such petitions is to send the link to the petition to everyone on your contact list asking them to sign the petition and forward the link to all their contacts, and so on. In this way you will help to give the petition the exposure it deserves.

Many organizations and government agencies now do accept an online petition. However, there are organizations who do not accept petitions by email. In order to make sure your efforts are not wasted, you should check this out before you start. If an organization does not accept an emailed petition, then all your efforts and the signatures will be in vain.

An online petition also needs to be monitored because it is open to fraud. You have to check the email addresses to make sure they are valid before you submit the petition signatures. Otherwise, once you submit the petition and the authority to which you submit it checks the emails, if any fraudulent ones are found, the whole petition may be dismissed and you could be accused of fraud. If you take the time to carefully monitor the petition, you will likely get the results you want.

By: Allison Ryan

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Allison Ryan is a freelance marketing writer from San Diego, CA. She specializes in leadership, motivation, and the best way to gather petition signatures. For a sample online petition, please visit www.thepetitionsite.com/.