Whether you are new or not to Steemit, I know you will have come across at least a few contest posts, whether it be calls of action to participate in contests or even just submissions from others who are entering. It is a very popular thing here, and honestly, it really should be a must for anyone who is still a minnow.
Why should you participate in contests?
That is a great question, so here I will give you 5 reasons of why it is absolutely something you should be doing here on Steemit.
#1. Increase your visibility
Source - Pixabay (Royalty Free Images)
This means, in its simplest form, to be seen in the Steemit community. Visibility is important because it gets your profile into the eyes of more people. It can end up getting you more followers and your posts more views. The people who view the contest or take part in it tend to check out submissions and the competition. So even if you know you are not the greatest artist, or the greatest singer, or the greatest writer, there are contests out there that are beneficial to you putting your best effort forward even just to get seen.
This does not mean enter every contest under the sun. It means to make a quality submission in something that you want to try, are getting better at, want to get better at, are good at, or whatever your skill level is. If you just go onto contests and put nonsense submissions, that will not help you. No one will take you seriously, be interested in you, or honestly even care because there are people there who do care about that contest and at that point, it is being made a mockery of because of you.
So, if you have any skills whether it is taking pictures (photography), writing stories (fiction or others), drawing pictures (visual art), or anything at all just look for a contest and enter it with a good submission. I started doing this just to get myself out of my comfort zone and I was surprised by how much it increased my visibility and how many followers I got, and how many people started to get interested in my stuff. So, help people get to know you but entering some contests that will allow others to come across your work.
#2. Finding other like-minded or like-talent individuals
Source - Pixabay (Royalty Free Images)
If you have been on Steemit for any amount of time you will have come across at least two handfuls of posts that are nonsense. That includes stuff like copy and pasted posts, copyrighted videos taken from youtube, spamming posts, you name it, so sometimes finding other people to follow and even curate can be difficult if our circle of people we follow or know is not very big.
In my earlier days on Steemit I always made an effort to go to the new section to try and find new people to follow. I went down through the list of commonly used tags and ran into the same problem over and over, that there was a bunch of content that just was not quality. So I sat there many nights with a good bit of excess voting power and had no one to upvote as I had already upvoted the people I followed. So, I started to look at contests, things I enjoyed looking at and even ones I would enjoy doing and found other people and their submissions. I began to follow, comment, upvote, and get some relationships with those that I came across as they ended up being into the same things as I was. For instance, I remember deciding to do a writing prompt, just for fun as I had a couple of people whose writing I had liked and followed, but finding new people was becoming increasingly hard at the time, so I remember finding this writing prompt contest and reading the submissions. It was wonderful because I was coming across other writers doing their thing, and since I enjoyed stories and also liked writing a bit I started to find more people to follow, and every new contest like that I saw I could find more and more.
#3. The prizes
I know you were probably waiting for me to mention this part. This is the most obvious reason (not necessarily most important) that people enter contests. I mean, who doesn't want to put their own imaginary hat in the ring to possibly win a prize, usually in the form of SBD or delegated SP, or something of the like? This section won't need much more explaining because the prize already does that for you.
#4. The extras of competing without even winning yet
This would be the upvotes you get from competing. Any contest that requires you to have to post your submission and then link to it has a bigger chance of getting more upvotes than a contest where you post directly in comments and are not obligated to post an actual post. I hope that didn't confuse you at all. Either way, I have found that when I enter contests and I am required to make my own post, sometimes with a specific tag and sometimes not, and then I have to post the link to my own post in the comments, that the people viewing the contest will go to my link and view it there in its original form. That means I am getting more views on my profile and my post. It also tends to mean that those people end up upvoting at least a little bit since they clicked there in the first place.
I noticed this when I did my first open mic contest. I wasn't having too much luck with my normal everyday posts but then as soon as I decided to enter that, that particular post made a couple of dollars. I was ecstatic, to say the least. It got me some visibility and people checked out my post and I made a bit of money as well. So, even though I did not win that week at the actual contest, I did make some through upvotes. It is quite an interesting little predicament to have.
#5. You become better
Source - Pixabay (Royalty Free Images)
Entering contests means competition. If you win, it is likely you will return to try again, and once you do that your competition will try harder. If you do not win, you will try harder to beat your competition. It is natural to do so. You will get better at what you do to try and be the winner. Even if there are people who are just so much better than you, you will try. Even if you never win you will have gotten better at something, even just the way you make your entries or submissions, or the comments you make, it will get better. So, this healthy competition that is created by these contests will, undoubtedly in one sense or the other, make you better.
I hope you enjoyed this post. I love entering contests. They are fun and like I said above, they help do all of those things. So, why not make a little time for them? Hope to see you around some of these contests.
As usual, Stay Awesome Steemians!
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