Since joining Steemit 6 months ago, I have ran 4 different contests. Each have had a fair amount of entries, but maybe not as much as I would have liked. However, I have learnt some things on the way and would like to share with you. Here are some things that apply in general.
- keep your contest rules and entry requirements simple to attract more entries
- compulsory upvotes is perfectly fine, but resteem is different. Resteem helps to spread your contest, but some people don't like to resteem, so that may deter them from entering into your contest. I'm not saying don't make resteem compulsory, just consider what type of followers you have
- state clearly the closing date and time, do it for various time zones to help out your followers
- do a follow up post a couple of days before the end of the contest to give it another push and to remind people
- promote your contest through the Discord channels, many have a contest sections where you can post your link. Mention it in your chats but be careful not to spam it too much and annoy people
自從6個月前加入Steemit以來，我舉辦了4個不同的比賽。每次都有好幾個參賽作品，但當然沒有我期望的那麼多。雖然如此，我從中也有不少得着，想在這裏分享，如果你也有辦比賽，希望可以交流經驗。以下是我一些心得，其他比賽都應該適用。
- 比賽規則和參賽作品最好保持簡單，可以吸引更多人參加
- 強制點讚完全沒問題，但resteem就有點不一樣。Resteem有助於推廣你的比賽，但有些人不喜歡resteem，所以他們可能索性不參加比賽。我不是說不要要求resteem，只是要考慮你的追隨者類型
- 清楚說明截止日期和時間。尤其Steemit是全球性，如果可以列明不同主要時區的會更加好，可以方便你的追隨者
- 在比賽結束前兩天再發文章跟進，再次推廣活動並提醒人們參加
- 多利用不同渠道如線下聊天室推廣你的比賽。在聊天室輕輕提一下，但要適可而止，不然就會惹人討厭喔
The first contest I did was in September to celebrate my 3 months on Steemit and reaching 500 followers. This was a meme contest using a photo from a Steemit meetup that I had just attended, and invited guest judges who were in that photo. The prize was SBD25 split between 3 winners, no upvote or resteem was required. I had 16 entries and was very happy that so many people took part in my first contest.
我在去年9月辦第一個比賽，那次為了慶祝我已加入Steemit三個月，和達到了500位追隨者。那是一個照片meme比賽，用了我剛參加的Steemit聚會其中一張照片。我還邀請了照片中兩位主角做嘉賓客評判。獎金是SBD25分給三位獲獎者，參加不需要點讚或resteem。比賽有16個參賽作品，第一次辦比賽很高興有這麼多人參加。
The second one was in October when I made my first video after spending a long weekend in Hong Kong. This contest had two parts. The first included 4 questions about things I had shot in my video, the first correct answer each won SBD1. These were all won pretty much instantly. Looking back, I should have asked for compulsory resteem here to give my post a 4x push. The second part was to guess how many minutes I stayed in Hong Kong for my long weekend. The prize was SBD2 plus 50% of my author rewards, which ended up as a total of SBD4.90. This was actually a very effortless way for a chance to win so I was a bit disappointed that there were only 10 entries.
十月辦了第二個比賽。去了香港渡過一個長周末後，我做了第一個視頻。這個比賽有兩個部分。第一部份要從視頻中回答4條問題，答中一條有SBD1，獎金瞬間已被贏了。其實當時我是應該要求強制性的resteem，可以馬上有4倍的推廣告效應。第二部分是猜測我在香港逗留了多少分鐘。非常簡單猜一個數字就可以贏得SBD2加上我作者收益的50％，最後獎金有SBD4.90。這是我所有比賽中最容易的，但就只有10位參賽者，有點失望。
The third contest was in November. It was a spin off from the 7 day black and white photo challenge. I noticed a lot of people were taking part in the challenge and thought it would be a good idea to invite people to post and talk about one of the photos they used in their challenges. The prize was SBD20 or 100% of my author rewards, which ever was the highest. The prize was split between 3 winners and their nominators, aiming for the latter was to get more people involved. This was the first time I made both upvote and resteem compulsory. I also invited a guest judge. The other thing I did was to actively recruit entries by visiting some good BnW challenge posts and commenting on them. I made sure I didn't spam them on my first comment as that would be very annoying. In the process, I actually acquired quite a few followers and followed some back. The beauty of networking! This time there were 13 entries.
第三個比賽在十一月，是7天黑白照挑戰賽的翻外篇。我看到有很多人參與這個挑戰，想邀請大家用其中一張照片談談背後的故事。獎金是SBD20或作者收益的100％，分給三位獲獎者及其提名者，旨在爭取更多人參與。這是我第一次強制要求點讚和resteem，同時我也邀請了一位嘉賓評判。在這個比賽中，我點讚和 comment 不少其他正在參加挑戰賽的帖子，並在互動中邀請他們參賽。當然我不會在第一次 comment 中馬上提起我的比賽，要先建立點互動，否則就會令人討厭。在這個過程中，我獲得了不少追隨者，並且發現了很多值得追隨的朋友。多互動真是獲益良多！這一次結果有13個參賽作品。
The last contest I did was just before christmas, the Xmas Photo Tricks contest. I was playing around with some photo tricks and thought it would be nice to get everyone involved. There were two tricks that I showed and I was giving away 100% of my author rewards to 5 winners. I didn't even ask for upvote of resteem here. This contest had the least entrants of all my contests, 5 only. Maybe because it was Xmas? Anyway, thanks to those who entered. Since there were no entries for the second trick, I'm going to award a prize to all the 5 entrants (originally it was only 3 in this category), that's 14% each of my author rewards. My plan was to power up the rewards to SP so it would stay on Steemit, but I forgot to do this when the contest ended and now the price has doubled, so I've decided to keep it in SBD instead. SBD1.3593 will be transferred to the contestants, and their entries are below, starting from top left going clockwise is @travelgirl, @kona, @chann, @beachpersona and @deanliu, I hope you all enjoyed the little photo trick.
我最後一個比賽是在聖誕節之前舉辦，是聖誕照片小把戲比賽。我示範了兩個照拍照小把戲，而且把100％的作收益分給了5位獲獎者。比賽沒要求點讚或resteem。這次比賽的參賽人數最少，只有5人。可能是因為聖誕假期吧 (自我安慰😊)？無論如何，感謝幾位參賽朋友。由於較複雜的小把戲沒有參賽作品，所以我決定所有參賽者都可以得到我作者收益的14％ (原本只有三名)。另外我原本計劃是獎金轉到SP，讓它可以留在Steemit上，但當比賽結束後，我沒時間這做，現在價格翻了很多，所以我決定把它保留在SBD過戶。 SBD1.3593將轉交給各參賽者，以下照片是他們的參賽作品。從左上角開始順時針是@travelgirl，@kona，@chann，@beachpersona和 @deanliu。恭喜各位。
If you have any tips on running a contest and how to increase the participation rate, I would love to hear from you. Who knows? Maybe I will run another one in January, and hopefully more people will take part.
如果你對辦比賽有甚麼心得，或有如何提高參賽率的提議，可以分享一下嗎？說不定，我會在一月再來辦第五個比賽，希望到時有更多人參加。
