THINKING ABOUT ORGANIZING A WRITING CONTEST? HOW WOULD YOU MANAGE A 300 STEEM BUDGET?

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?

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.

Yours
Piotr