  Contests & Activities
This week: Gift Points Edited by: NaNoNette  
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3. Letter from the Editor
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There was a day, last week or a decade ago, that you typed "writing" into your search engine. You wanted to show off some of your poems, short stories, or maybe even get feedback for a whole novel. You found Writing.com.
On this site, you found all that you searched for: Portfolio space, helpful reviewers, encouraging groups, style and grammar lessons from peers. Nothing prepared you for the amazing bounty of: Contests & Activities! |
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Gift Points
 Gift Points are everywhere on Writing.Com.
Gift points are Writing.Com's in-house currency. You can buy or earn gift points as well as spend or donate them.
Let's start from the top.
Buy.
"The Writing.Com Shop" is your source for all Writing.Com goodies including memberships and gift point purchases. One dollar equals 10,000 gift points. Where prices rise all over for the same thing, on Writing.Com, you're still getting the same 10,000 gift points per US dollar. Outrageous!
Earn.
Earn gift points for reviewing. An obvious place to go for that is Auto-Reward Item List . This page lists a current total of 38,882 items that will pay you gift points if you review them. One word of caution! Do not abuse the auto-reward system! Follow the basic rules in "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" to give the authors some value for their gift points.
Many reviewing groups or forums will give you credit for all the reviews you make through the group. Those gift points not only add up to a nice sum if you're an industrious reviewer for your group, but they also raise your standing on the Most Credited Reviewers Page , which might mean you'll also get a stylish reviewing merit badge at the end of the month. Since I could fill my whole list of editor's picks with reviewing groups alone, I won't list them here today. They are easily found by visiting the forum page or the group listings page.
Another way to earn gift points is to enter into contests that give out gift points for the winning entry. A few of those are listed below. You can find many more on the "Writing Contests @ Writing.Com" page.
Spend.
Offer gift points when you are hosting a contest. Remember that some Writing.Com members use gift points to purchase their membership. When somebody approaches you and asks (if they were to win) if they could have gift points instead of a ribbon or a merit badge, at least think about it. It won't hurt you since you were going to spend those gift points anyways. You might put somebody over the hump to keep their upgrade or even higher membership level for a longer time.
Send out some c-notes. Send somebody a merit badge. Give out an award ribbon to a good piece you read.
Donate.
There are many groups around Writing.Com that require large amounts of gift points to create a fun and hospitable place for everybody. There are those who band together to buy membership extensions, pay for reviews, or send out c-notes and other greetings to make people feel welcomed. If you have some extra gift points lying around and you don't need them, look around for some worthy causes where those points can make a difference in somebody's day or even year.
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Places to spend your Gift Points (All of these might pay you back handsomely in case you're the winner!)
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Places to win Gift Points
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SECOND PLACE: 5,000 GPS and THIRD PLACE: 3,000 GPS
First Prize $100.00 in Writing.Com Gift Points
GRAND PRIZE: MERIT BADGE and 10,000 Gift Points
Champion - 100,000 GPs and Runner up - 50,000 GPs
10,000 gps will be given away every 24 hours! |
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
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For my next newsletter, tell me your favorite way to spend or earn gift points.
In response to my last newsletter "Merit Badges" , where I asked "How did contests on Writing.Com help you to become better writers?"
warriormom wrote: Another great newsletter, Giselle! You gave important information about merit badges. I agree that giving merit badges is a fun way to make others smile. Your comments encouraged me to give out more badges more frequently. 
Aw. Thank you again for your kind comments.
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  wrote: Contests allow me to show off my work. If people like it, they will check out other things I've done, and they might point out things that I missed, especially from my early days. "Invalid Item"
Good point. Writing for contest does give your portfolio as a whole more exposure.
Elle - on hiatus wrote: More than anything else, contests help to stop me from procrastinating. I'm REALLY good at procrastinating! Having a deadline works for me. Getting feedback and seeing how others tackled the same challenge are both excellent ways to see how you can improve. And winning or placing is brilliant encouragement to keep trying, keep writing. I plan to keep entering. Even if I don't win, at least I'm writing and you can't become a better writer without doing that. "Invalid Item"
You are right. Deadlines are a good way to prevent too much procrastination.
Being Diane  wrote: Looks like a wonderful group to be with showing common sense on writing.com. I know there are quite a few out there who would prefer receiving how many GP's a Merit Badge costs. I remember before I finally won my case on Social Security Disability that I found at times I had to search groups in order to get enough GP'S to keep my membership going. I think our economy is so bad maybe we should ask people want they would rather have...the merit badge or the GP's.
You are right. I've had a Writing.Com member who entered into one of my contests ask if she could have her prizes in gift points. Hey, no problems with me. I was going to spend those points on her either way. And also thank you for inspiring today's newsletter. 
blunderbuss wrote: How did contests make me a better writer? I hope I'm not to late for this! To start with - it made me write - prompts can inspire (some of them) and deadlines make you get on with it! Then, it was looking at other entries - much more interesting if you have entered the contest yourself. Helps to up your standard sometimes, too! Contest entries generate reviews very often - that means you get feedback, when you might not on items just posted in your Portfolio. Finally, sometimes you win - and that feels so good (however few entries there were), so you have a go at another contest ..... the circle goes round!
Yes. I agree that contests are a good way to get reviews since at the very least the host will read and send some sort of comment for your piece.
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Contests & Activities: February 05, 2013 Issue [#5497]
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