THINKING ABOUT ORGANIZING A WRITING CONTEST? HOW WOULD YOU MANAGE A 300 STEEM BUDGET?
 | Just a few days ago, a good friend of mine (owner of account @crypto.hype) organized a small contest with a limited budget of 300 STEEM. I was in a way involved as I did my best to help @crypto.hype gain some exposure and to help promote his contest. I had a chance to monitor each step of it. |
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INTRODUCTION
From the very beginning, part of me knew that the rewards system would be a bit of a challenge, and I was curious as to how @crypto.hype would manage to resolve it.
So, how do we structure the rewards system within a given budget? Based on my own experience I’ve learned that at the end of the day there will always be some unsatisfied people with the results. So organizing any contest is not an easy task and done wrongly can easily backfire.
Planning rewards system is all about attracting writers to participate and damage control. At the end of the day – the more bloggers will publish their own entries, the more of them will end up disappointed, up without any sort of reward. This is not an easy decision to make, especially once you’re organizing a contest for the first time and you cannot predict the amount of entries.
It’s a completely different story if you only attract 20 bloggers and very different if this number will be closer to 100.
@crypto.hype case
Let’s have a look at the mentioned example and see how the owner of this account structured his rewards system. I would use this example as a point of reference in our little discussion today.
So …, he decided to reward the 10 best writers (total 310 usd worth of STEEM):
1st to 3rd Place: $60 worth of STEEM
4th to 7th Place: $25 worth of STEEM
8th to 10th Place: $10 worth of STEEM
This solution indeed focuses on 3 best published reviews, motivating bloggers to create really valuable content. Giving them hope to become the winner of 60$ worth of STEEM. Hope is a great tool, which attracts attention. It’s worth to remember that.
At the same time he didn’t allocate any funds to other participants, which I believe upseted some people. Perhaps he should have allocated 1-2 STEEM and transfer it to everyone who joined the contest, as a token of appreciation? Would it be a good solution?
 | How would you structure reward system having a 300 steem budget? |
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I will make it easy for you guys. Let’s assume that you not only know your budget but you’re also quite successful with estimating amount of entries. Your target is to reach 40-50 entries and you’re hitting the target right on the spot!
How would you plan your reward system? Knowing that you have 300 STEEM in your budget and you expect almost 50 entries in your contest?
My personal view
Im my opinion providing very lucrative best prizes is a sign of short term thinking. This kind of approach will attract many writers following their hope to be chosen as a top-winner, majority of whom will end up frustrated and may never care about visiting your blog again. It may lead to confrontation and this is something we should avoid at all cost.
Personally I would suggest to allocate:
- 20 rewards worth 10 STEEM each for best reviews = 200 STEEM total
- and 30 small rewards of 2 STEEM as a token of appreciation = 60 STEEM total
- bonus to reward exceptionally good writers or those who engage the most. 4 x 10 STEEM = 40 STEEM total
This solution will not attract as much attention as the previous one and definitely it may be harder to get quality writers on board, but it allows to avoid negative feedback and being accused of being bias. Which I believe is important. At the end of the day we all want to go and sleep with piece of mind.
It allows you to avoid judgements and minimize disappointments of those who participated. Bloggers involved will know from the very beginning, that amount of STEEM they can receive is limited but competition is not fierce since the most people will be rewarded for their work.
Share your view
But then …. it’s just my own point of view and today I would like to ask each one of you, what is your approach to this issue? Please share your opinion with me. I think understanding the community can benefit all of us. So I will appreciate every single valuable comment.
 | And also I would appreciate if you could resteem this post. It’s not any sort of advertising this time around and I really like to hear opinion coming from as many people as possible. |
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Yours
Piotr
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Hi @crypto.piotr, yes it can be a headache when you have too much rewards and try to distribute them in the best way :D
If everyone could receive some reward by dropping a valid comment that will be great. I would suggest using Tiers to decide rather than the actual number of comments.
Example below:
You received 120 comments, 20 comments are spam and 100 comments are quality comments that you can categorize into different Tiers.
The idea is for you to quickly put comments into different Tiers without worrying who is Top 5, Top 10 etc. This should work for any n comments you receive.
At the end, the comments in each Tier should be within the proportion given, so that the lower Tier will not be receiving more rewards than the higher Tier.
The final reward for STEEM per comment will then be calculated based on number of comments in each Tier.
Best,
tysler
I love the fact that you're so very responsive @tysler
Steemit needs more people like yourself :)
Cheers
Piotr
Hello there @crypto.piotr it is in deed a great initiative. Thanks for sharing it.
Is a good question. I think the approach of giving between 5 - 10 prizes is good. I know from some my experiences that always it will be some people discouraged but this is normal. The thing is that everyone should feel part of it. So maybe:
Future Tip: If the contests grow enough you may consider to ask for a small amount of SBD or STEEM to each participant in order to power up(temporarly using @Blockctrades Sp delegation rent) then you may give more value.
I have a curation community but we only curate Spanish content, so if you plan to keep it up with the contests and also adventure into bilingual posts(ENG/ESP) I could you support you guys as well. We do have no more than 2,000 SP but we have a small trail so we may support a bit.
STEEM ON.
I almost missed your reply @theghost1980 (I guess because you upvoted it and it ended up on top of the comment page).
All your points are quite valid. And finding whale to support contest ... that would be always the best solution :)
Thank you again for your amazing feedback @theghost1980
It is a great idea this reward system that looks very efficient that could satisfy all the participants, it is very ingenious and will benefit many without doubt, with your vision on the subject
300 Steem seems like a pretty big contest to me.
Part of it depends on how hard the contest is and how big your following is.
If I was doing a contest I would probably require a 100% upvote to enter and perhaps maybe even a resteem although I'm personally not a fan of resteems.
Thanks for the wallet donation.
i didn't take this into consideration "Part of it depends on how hard the contest"
that's a very good point @mysearchisover
Cheers
Piotr
Dear my friend Piotr, i am very happy you joined our Steem-bounty family, you are very good member of Steemit and your ideas are amazing, thats why i invited you and now you came here.
I agree with your proposal and i will resteem your post as my best satisfaction after HF20...:))
You've inspired me to join steem-bounty and try it out. I want to see how does it work and if it is indeed useful tool. So far so good @intellihandling
Thanks for your great support buddy
Yours, Piotr
I think more of a spread is a good idea. For the contest you mentioned, it is discouraging to put in an effort and promote the sponsor company and get no reward. But you still want to encourage quality with a solid top prizes. I think 30 steem for top 5, 10 for next 5 and 5 for the next 20 would be a good balance. Rewards the excellent, encourages those close to the top and recognizes decent attempts.
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you for your feedback @jk6276
So to summarize:
30 x 5 = 150 steem
10 x 5 = 50 steem
5 x 20 = 100 steem
So you would reward 30 bloggers out of 50 entries. I like it.
Do you think giving 1-2 steem makes sense at all?
Maybe 4 * 20 and an SBI share for the rest. 1 steem isn't much but a decent shot at 4 or 5 steem is worth trying for.
Posted using Partiko Android
I like that mix.
Hello my friend @crypto.piotr i am very glad reading your post today as it is talking about one of the most important issue on steemit based contest.
I can testify to this same issue with you because we became friends from your first ever contest and i didn't win the top prize but i was greatly compensated for my effort because i received a lot of reply and exposure on that post and i made some friend too including yourself.
Now like you said earlier it is your opinion which is a good thing because you are a good person and you have a good heart and you think a lot about other people's feelings.
Let me say this we have different reason for organising a contest, people do things different reasons and the fact that we have voalition means we can do whatever we have with our resources.
Hence i will say there is no certain way to distribute reward for a contest but the option you gave above is a very good one but i will make a suggestion that for the sake of long time friendship and to maintain a good relationship with the friends.
Though this might not attract a lot but with the situation of steem its going to be a great turn out. Cheers
Thank you for your valuable opinion and your never ending support @deeclown
ps. Im getting married just in few days, as you already know it. Im so excited! :)
Yours,
Piotr
Wow! Yeah i heard, i hope and i know you will enjoy your married life. Goodluck buddy will miss you for the little time you will be off radar anyways enjoy yourselves.
Thanks for thinking things through twice even at times three times @crypto.piotr. You have observed well, your friend, @crypto.hype. I would never say he did not do his utmost to satisfy the contestants, I would rather say, he failed to try and look at the aftermath of the contest already even before it started by considering different possibilities.
However, the reality is that, no matter how well you plan to do something like this which would pool different people of different nature or philosophy that in the end, some would still not badmouth the whole effort. But yet what matters is the figure of those who would praise the effort behind the contest and those who would do the otherwise.
My friend, dear... If 80% praised your effort and the rest 20% contemn you and all that. You have scored an A+. Go on rejoicing good soul. Sleep like a baby in bed. Lust with your wife and dream sweet dreams too. I am telling you Piotr, now, with emphasis, that that man who would satisfy everyone will never be born.
I am with you on whatever way you have or would structured or structure to distribute the fund to the winners to-be. I trust your resolves, now and always. God's blessings.
Sincerely yours,
@jodekss 😉
Thank you for your valuable opinion and your never ending support @jodekss
ps. Im getting married just in few days, as you already know it. Im so excited! :)
Yours,
Piotr
I am excited here as well my friend! Much more joy for you and her my dear friend! 😊😀😍
Although I participate in 'tightly contested' writing competitions a lot, the kind of contests I organize are those where almost everyone wins. I typically just throw out a question and invite people to share their views. Add a Steem bounty of 300 Steem and I think even the professional writers will be interested in dropping a comment.
With that, you simply have to vote bars on how much you like each person's reply. at the end, everyone gets something.
For a serious writing contest, I would suggest 50 SBD as bounty so all entrants can get something. and the remaining 250 will be reserved for best entries, say the top five entries ,with each level getting something higher.
hi @iamthegray
would you be so kind and share link to one of your contests organized by you? I would love to see how did you manage it :)
thank you for your kind comment
I really like your idea of using steem-bounty.
yours
Piotr
it's been a long while since I organized a contest. Heres one from the distant past
https://steemit.com/contest/@iamthegray/the-jag-contest-win-sbd-by-telling-us-why-you-don-t-give-up
and one that's not too recent
https://steemit.com/contest/@iamthegray/steem-bounty-or-do-you-wake-up-or-open-your-eyes-first-which-do-you-think-happens-first
blessings
Hi @iamthegray
Thank you for those 2 links. Will check them out right now :)
Yours
Piotr
No matter what you do, you can’t please everyone so if that’s your target, then you already lost. I love your distribution but I have a small problem with it. I believe the winner should feel he or she has accomplished something. I would be very disappointed if I won a contest and I received the same rewards as the 10th or 20th person. Then I will target the 9th position because I will work less and receive the same reward as the 1st person. This is my opinion;
1st 50 steem
2nd 30 steem
3rd 20 steem
4-10 10 steem
11-30 5 steem
31-40 2 steem
41-50 1 steem
I've noticed that you have resteemed my post. I appreciate your constant support @fredkese
Seriously big thx.
Yours, Piotr
Welcome