In general, the invention relates to providing infrastructure, process controls, and software to design, advertise, and implement an on-line contest in which participants in the contest search the Internet for a target in order to earn a reward. Hints and/or hidden objects may provide clues as to where to look for the reward, how to claim the reward, and what the reward is. The reward is funded by participating web site owners who reserve, in some embodiments via an auction, the opportunity to “host” the target during a contest or a portion of a contest, and as a result, drive traffic to their respective web sites.