My Thoughts on Running a Contest

I've been running the Artstorm Contests for a few weeks now. I thought I'd share my experiences to encourage others to do the same.

Why Hold a Contest?

I wanted to hold a contest since I joined Steemit. From looking around at existing contests, I soon realised it was best to wait till my rep was a lot higher.

My reason was 'fun'. I knew I'd have fun organising a contest, seeing the entries and choosing a winner. I hoped to find a contest type to organise that would be fun to enter.

Now, however, there is another reason. With the absence (I hope temporarily)of helpers like @minnowsupport, @banjo and @randowhale to name a few, it is very hard for minnows, myself included, to make any dollars from upvotes. Winning a contest prize can make a significant difference to the Steemit experience. I know it makes my day if I win just 1SBD!

It's my great pleasure to organise a contest now I've ironed out the teething troubles.

Preparing for Your Contest

As I said earlier, I waited till I was rep 50 to organise my first contest. This was because I found my upvoters were all around the same rep as me so the votes were worth more.

I then saved for weeks to have enough SBD to award some decent prizes.

I researched widely to find a contest type that was fresh.

Holding the Contest

My first contest was a complete failure! There were only two entries and both had to be disqualified as neither fulfilled the judging criteria. I gave them 1 SBD each for entering.

I was sad about this. I decided to wait till my rep was a bit higher and I could afford to offer bigger prizes.

I tried again at rep 53. I put out a feeler post to see who would be interested in my new contest. I only got one reply.

I then wrote a post asking what to do. Several high rep people gave me advice about exposure which I followed with my next attempt.

I thought up a unique name: Artstorm.

I made an eye-catching sign on Canva. This is an example:

I launched a contest that anyone could enter and anyone could win. It ran for 5 days and was successful beyond my wildest dreams!

I made enough from upvotes to afford prizes to run it again the next week. It got many less entrants the second time.

I'm in week 3 now and I'm experimenting with a different format. It has been very successful again. I have enough prize money saved for at least two more weeks!

I am so happy about that!!

During the time of running contests, I have continued to post every day, usually at least 5 times. This helps me afford prize money.

So why don't you have a go?

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