This week: Creating Contests & Activities Edited by: Gaby  
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A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
~ Larry Bird
Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.
~ John Madden
I believe anybody who is not afraid to fail is a winner.
~ Joe Torre
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| ASIN: B01MQP5740 |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 4.99
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Don't underestimate the participation when running a contest. There are expectations.
Many of us will create a contest or activity because it's fun, entertaining, gets people to participate, and gets people writing. There will be times where your items don't see as much participation as you'd hoped. Is it something you did? Is it not interesting enough? What?
With me, the first thing I look at is the visual aspect of things. Your item has to grab my attention before I even decide to read the rules. An image is usually the one that would have to catch my eye before I scroll further. Once you've accomplished that, you might be in the game.
Your rules have to be clear. It doesn't matter how complicated they are. Once again, visual. If I can't read it, if it's all jumbled up into what almost looks like a run on sentence without separation, without some spacing, something to make me focus better, I'll skip the rules. Even if I come back, I'll do the same thing because my eyes don't see what I need to see and my brain will ignore it.
Writing prompts or requirements have to stand out. Why? If your goal is to have prompts then they need to stand alone, not jumbled up along with the rules, deadline, and everything else. It might sound tedious to do all this, but you'll avoid confusion. Trust me. This is coming from a girl who created a game so complicated, I, myself, was surprised that I could remember all the rules.
Awards and rewards aren't necessarily important nor the focal point of your item, but people like to see what they'll receive for their effort. Do you give out GPs for just entering, plus actual awards? How much of what? What happens if there aren't that many participants? Personally, if there aren't as many participants in order to give out all rewards or I manage to get just enough to reward the main prize, I always liked to reward the rest of them with at least a decent GP amount. For their effort, for their support.
Now, all that is just half the battle!
At the end of your activity or contest, there's more work to be done. Reading and reviewing items, giving away prizes for those who've participated and have won. It all depends on what you've created. Will you review the written pieces or will you simply reward them and move on to the next round? Do your participants hope for or expect reviews? If you see participation dwindling down slowly but you want to keep it going, ask those who've supported you in the past if there's anything new you can add to it to make it more interesting.
Some activities and contests are just fine the way they are, because they are prompt based and change on a monthly/weekly/biweekly basis. Others might require more pizzas to keep it running. Either way, it's a lot of work. The appreciation goes both ways. Therefore, there are always donations which support those items. Just remember, if you want people to take part in it, you also have to do your due diligence with the items you're running.
'til next time!
~ Gaby 
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| | Book Brothel (18+)
A hole-in-the wall reading challenge with goals, incentives, and motivating adult banter.
#2233315 by Brooke  |
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Contests & Activities: June 14, 2023 Issue [#12016]
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