  Contests & Activities
This week: Edited by: iKïyå§ama-House Targaryen  
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Contests and activities are excellent ways to get involved in the WDC community. Be it in writing to polish your skills, earn awesome rewards or just to have fun with the various interactives, there's a little something to suit everyone's needs!  |
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PAGING THE CONTESTS & ACTIVITIES DOC.
(Not certified unfortunately)
Today, I'm going to try to answer some questions I've received from members in regards to their contests and activities. Most of these questions seem to veer towards one particular aspect - "Why is it not working?" "Why don't I have a lot of participants?" "It's a failure! I'm going to quit."
Here are a few things you might want to consider when you find yourself in such a situation:
 WDC is a huge place, with all it has to offer. As many newbies can attest to, coming here at first can seem overwhelming and there're so many things to see and do, that you don't even know where to begin. With that said, there are so many contests, auctions, raffles, etc, that are set up just about every single day, and it's hard to make yours stand above the rest especially if you do not have enough gps to put it in the sponsored section of the site.
So what do I do then? How do I get them to notice?
 Plan. Plan. Plan ahead. Do not just wake up one morning and decide to do something that's already been done before. If you want to create an auction, visit as many other auctions around the site and see what they have to offer, do the same for writing contests or raffles, or in/outs. See what they have in common and try to avoid as much of them as possible. Try something unique and different, as mentioned in Tigger thinks of Prancer  's previous newsletter, there are many creative things you can come up with - something that will trigger the reader's attention and make them curious to know more.
Think of a clever and eye-catching title and summary. This is something many might say 'oh, yeah, that should be a given', but it really isn't as easy as it looks. Remember those are the first two things that a reader looks at before they click on a link.
Speaking of eye-catching, if you are able to make use of graphics, then by all means, create a banner or two that will spruce up your forum. If you cannot, we have ML tags that will do that job quite well. I have seen many forums with creative use of the Writing ML and some are even much better than images. Try to mix up the colors of your fonts/styles and even use various emoticons to differentiate headers and main text.
Make your prizes appealing enough. Some of us cannot afford to give everyone awardicons or merit badges, but if you hope to raise enough gps to do that, try offering incentives to donors so your funds can help to provide more prizes to winners. Some contests offer publishing deals, so that's a great way to attract potential writers (IF you can afford to do that).
Patience. Patience. Patience. This especially applies to raffles and auctions. There seems to be a two week rule for hosting both activities. You do not want it to be too short, so members aren't aware it even exists and you do not want it to run too long, for fear people might forget all about it. For raffles, try to make your overall pot prize realistic and achievable. Do not promise to award a certain amount of gps when each ticket costs so much that people can't afford it, or too little that the likelihood of raising that much will take months. Also keep in mind that several times/seasons throughout the year play a factor. You're more likely to get a lot of participation in the summer or winter months when school is out or people are on vacation as opposed to this time of year when many (especially students) are swamped with school work, exams, or heavy work loads.
Promotion. The likely places to do these are the "Activities @ Writing.Com" and "The Shameless "Plug" Page" . However, if you're a member of a group or several groups, ask the group leader(s) if you can promote whatever item you have set up in their discussion forums or if they can email everyone to gain awareness of it. You can also stop by the "Writing.Com General Discussion" to promote your item! (Many of us seem to have forgotten that place still exists) 
Last but not least, your signatures. Place a link or an image that links to your item and know that whenever you send out an email, post in a forum or do a review, members are likely to click on it to find out what it's all about.
As you can see, a lot of work goes into running a successful activity or contest. Some might start of slow, but with more exposure and credibility as a good host or hostess, members will flock to your item and make it a grand success. I wish you all the best of luck as you set out to make this site a whole lot more fun. 
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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!
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Jolly good links, Kiya! Quizzes can be addicting. - Tehanu
Thanks, T! Indeed they can be addicting and let's not forget fun as heck.
Thank you for featuring the Quiz item type this week, and for including my quiz, "Snideology", among those listed. There are so many great quizzes out there, and I was happy to learn of a few more. Thanks! - Lorien
You're quite welcome!
This is such a fun edition. Thanks for the smile. - Turtle
Thank you for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for all the comments! Please feel free to keep sending them in. I enjoy reading and hearing your feedback.
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Contests & Activities: April 18, 2007 Issue [#1664]
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