I do a lot of competitions and a lot of them have cash prizes. I've given out nearly $2000 worth of cash prizes for all of the various competitions I've hosted in the past year. I usually have a monthly budget (money left over after site fees and after taking enough to live off of) and since I haven't had anything to invest it into lately, I'd rather invest it into the site and its users instead of blowing it on myself because I enjoy giving back to this awesome community by giving users opportunities to earn money and as an added bonus, some of these competitions result into a lot of great content getting added to the site.

Anyways, my question is, what do you think of all the cash competitions? Are you more likely to participate in a competition when there's cash involved?

Davideo7 : I have only really been able to participate in one of them but I really liked them, even just watching to see who wins them when I don't compete. Its a great thing.

For me, I did enter one competition because I could get some money, yes. But I entered it mostly because it was something that I was actually okay at doing and I might have a chance at winning. I still think that people will compete more because there's a cash prize though.

I think the cash does add more appeal towards the competitions as people generally would rather win cash over Viz.

I've also wanted to compete in one of the tournaments to see if I could win it and just to get into the spirit of things. The only reason I haven't is because I'm terrible at most things .

To sum it up a cash prize most definitely draws in more people. Even I admittedly am more tempted to join when there's cash involved over just a Viz prize. Same would go for almost anybody.

Honestly, I don't mind if there are cash prizes or not involved in the competitions. If I feel like taking part to the contest, I go ahead and do it. And the possibility of getting gift cards instead of money is a good option as well.

zanderlex : That's a good point, the competitions with cash prizes are usually more fun to watch.

Blubcreator : At what amount are you more willing to compete do you think?

Gingercream1 : Yeah I definitely notice an increase in participation when there's cash on the line.

Davideo7 : Personally, I would want to see more prizes. Not higher prizes, but more positions that offer a cash prize, like top 5. That would make prizes a bit cheaper but more could win.

Davideo7 : To be honest the amounts you give out right now generally are more than enough. $100 competitions would usually catch a handful of eyes.

Playing games for a chance of some spending cash is a win win for anyone really. Maybe if you're not interested in giving out cash you could offer up some sort of physical prizes more instead.

zanderlex : There are pros and cons to that. Let's say I have a total budget of $175 for a competition, here are a few ways I could split that $175 up:

Method A
1st: $150
2nd: $25

Method B (this is the one I usually go with)
1st: $100
2nd: $50
3rd: $25

Method C
1st: $65
2nd: $50
3rd: $30
4th: $20
5th: $10

I'd like to make competitions allow for more users to earn cash but then it requires for me to invest more money into the competition if I want the prize amounts to be appealing. Also, the very top prize amount is much more appealing and draws in more attention. For Method A, if a user sees $75 up for grabs, they're going to put a lot of time into the competition so that they can win that $75. They'd be able to justify investing a lot of time because they could potentially walk away with $75. However, with Method C, the top prize is $30 so that doesn't seem as appealing and a user might not invest as much time into the competition for that amount of money.

I kinda like what I do sometimes with the bonuses though. When 4th and 5th place don't have a cash prize, I add a way for those 2 users to earn something like $25 if they meet a certain criteria.


Blubcreator : That's the other thing I'm always thinking about. What amount grabs a user's attention? I think $100 and above is an amount that gets users curious.

I'm pretty sure there are some users who would like to finish low but still get a very small prize than finish higher and het nothing at all, maybe 4 low prizes of $5. Pretty sure anybody on say 5th or maybe even 6th place would be glad to have $5 instead of nothing.

Cash certainly make me more likely to participate, but not to the point where I'd guarantee participation. In competitions with cash, more people are competing, meaning I would have to put up a better score, product, or time in order to win anything.

When I weigh time versus reward, it usually doesn't add up to me participating.

Davideo7 : I'm going to be honest with you here.
A cash prize of $100 is the only competition that captures a ton of people's attention.
I saw the last competing and competed a little.

I feel like the cash does make the competition a lot better.

I really like my hem as it gives users a chance to get real things from helping out the site.

I think that 1st 2and and 3rd should get cash prizes and 4th and 5th should be Viz. (Refering to your reply to Zander)

zanderlex : What can you really do with $5 though? Not much, that's usually almost the shipping price of some things.

legacyme3 : There have been quite a few competitions where I estimated the users who walked away with a top prize probably made around $5-10 an hour which isn't bad considering that's tax free and those users probably had some sort of fun competing. Now this obviously isn't the case for users who invest a lot of time and walk away with a small or no cash prize but for the users who are dedicated enough, it can definitely be worth their time.

Barathemos : Yeah that's the way I've been doing it, top 3 get cash and 4th and 5th get Viz. I sometimes offer a bonus where 4th and 5th can walk away with a cash prize but not everyone has achieved those bonuses.

I like competitions with cash prizes, but they're usually hard to win.
I think $50 or more usually grabs user's attention, but for me $25 is enough for me to want to try. If I think I could win.

EDIT: Maybe offering staff positions would grab attention too. For example in the video competition if you made a certain amount of videos then you'd be eligible to apply.

In my opinion, I think that competitions with good prizes are very appealing. The smaller competitions are still appealing to me, because they're easier to win. I could order a pizza, or a sandwich with that 10$. I know this doesn't mean much from me, but I'd like to thank you for all these competitions you've given us.

Frankly, I'm just happy to see that Vizzed is thriving so well that you can give back to members (especially since Google adds aren't running on the site anymore). 
 
But I think that Method B is the best overall.

bombchu link : I don't invest money into the RGR Plugin anymore so I need something to invest into lol. I use to invest nearly $5000 a year into the RGR Plugin and I did that for about 4 years. The reason I no longer invest into that is because the plugin developer no longer wants to work on it. I could never come up with a $5000 budget a year these days but I'm thankful for the $2000 and the donations definitely help with pulling that off.

thecrzyguy : Thanks and you're welcome

earthwarrior : I've offered staff positions on competitions before. I'll definitely consider doing that again next month.

I honestly think you give out too much for the competitions. We all know you are on a tight budget. I think that you should drop your prizes down to 75, 50, and 25 for the competitions. That would save you a little bit of money. 

thing1 : Starting next month I'll probably only do 1 cash competition per a month until summer.

To be honest, I am scared of the cash competitions because you could maybe lose some money, and if you lose too much, then maybe the site could go down... If I want to join a cash competition and win, I'd take the Viz. And not the cash.
If I am a few years older, – maybe when I'm 22-24 — I am planning on trying to donate the site monthly. I love this site (too bad I flamed Gameboy a couple days ago...), I do not want to leave it. As such, I HAVE to leave it a few times, because my parents dislike it when I am on Vizzed. So I leave, come back after a week or two, and post, so that my parents won't block Vizzed…