Contest-List: Separate site or simply scroll down on homepage

Question

My webapplication concept is all about some kinds of contests in which users can participate. Each contest has a minimal amount of information that will be displayed while viewing the list. As for now, my homepage simply consists of a header and a huge slider explaining how the site works.

My question: Should I add the contest-list at the bottom of the page, so that the user has to scroll-down to see the contests (Scroll-down can also happen through javascript)? Or should I keep the list on another page that has to be accessed first?

My personal opinion on this: For new users, I think the separate page would be better, as it keeps two aspects of the site separated. Experienced users though may want to go directly to the contest-list and could be bothered by having to go to another page.

Here an image to explain the difference: http://imgur.com/a/kdFpO

Answer 1

Should I add the contest-list at the bottom of the page, so that the user has to scroll-down to see the contests or should I keep the list on another page that has to be accessed first?

Why not do both?

As you mentioned in your comments, most of users either go to see a list of contests and others go to the page to start a new contest. Both of these actions can be housed on the homepage to capture both groups of traffic (see example wireframe below)

Do I need a separate page if I already have contests on my homepage?

Yes - you DON'T want to put every single contest onto the homepage. Maybe the most recent, most popular or paid? and limit the list to top 7 or 10... Give yousr visitors buttons / links / CTA's to navigate to a separate page of all contests where they can browser, filter, search, etc..

Answer 2

Do you have any navigation?

you could add "Contest" as a navigation Item, and when the user click it, automatically scroll down.

I don't know your application but in my opinion, a separate page would be better for old users. As a new user, exploring your site, i would like to see what this contest are.

Answer 3

I would keep it all on one page. You can have a button at the top that just anchors you to the section of the page where contests list starts but keep it all one. By now users are conditioned into scrolling ( i.e. FB, twitter, etc...) There is no reason to create a whole separate page just to display a list of contests.