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 Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:07 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:09 pm
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Post 2: Some Hints for Making a Successful Charity:
1. Have it thought out before your first post.
*** What will you donate to each person?
*** How will you pick the people to donate to?
*** Will you use special rules to make sure they read the rules?
*** Will you use a mule account that can be shared by co-owners?
*** How will you handle the gold? In a mule account? Offline records?
*** How will you acquire the stuff to donate? Larger donations are cool but harder to finance. If you don't think you can pretty much fund the charity with just you and the staff you have on board, you may wish to rethink the idea. Staff may, as part of working on the thread, donate regularly to the charity, but that needs to be clarified up front. Few people not affiliated with charities actually donate significant amounts to charities regularly.
2. Plan your thread in an offline word processor post by post. You may want to reserve all 15 posts of the first page so no one can stretch the page or otherwise mar your presentation. Or you can delete posts on the first page, making the first page fewer posts long. You'll probably want the following posts: Introduction, Rules, List of People who donated to your charity, List of people that the charity has helped, Staff members if any, Bumpers/Regulars, story of the charity, Contests if any, Affiliates links, and banners with links to your charity for others to use to advertise your thread. You may want at least one banner small enough for folks to add to their signatures while leaving them room for other things there, too. The order of posts isn't really important. Many charities include a Table of Contents on the first post for Navigation purposes.
3. Collect a good-sized "pot" to start with before opening your charity (at least 10 times the amount you plan to give each donation). Make sure you have a plan for maintaining it that does not depend on donations from strangers.
4. To make the thread, click NEW TOPIC, cut and paste your first post and set the title to something uninteresting (I use some dashes or dots) so others will leave you in peace to set up. Sometimes the forum moves quickly. Use "My Posts" at the top of the Forums home page to find your new thread, and subscribe to it. Then add each post until you have cut and pasted all the posts you want (sometimes I even add a 16th post to reserve the top of the second page for stuff no one but me needs to read). When you have made all your posts, go back to the first post, add a poll to attract folks, and change your title (if you change the title first and then add the poll, the title goes back to the old one, so make the poll at the bottom of your first post, and THEN change the title).
5. Look over your thread. Make sure it isn't stretched. Many folks won't bother to read over stretched pages. I find it's often codes that stretch my posts (like when you give a code for a banner), but spaces can be put in codes harmlessly (between the url and the image codes works well for me) and then they'll look like they are on two lines in the post, but they'll work just fine when used. Check things like spelling and grammar if that is important to you. Make sure your rules make sense as you read them as if for the first time. Beautify your charity with artwork that goes with your charity's theme, but try to keep images small so they load faster, especially for our mobile friends. Also, try to keep color choices readable (avoid yellow text or smaller than size 9) and limited (rainbow text can be very distracting - pick two or three colors for your theme).
See Quick Color and Posting Codes and the Personal Graphics section (for banner makers) in the Minishops & Resources Center for other tips for making your thread even more inviting.
6. You might wish to hold a Bumping contest to get your thread rolling. If you hold a lotto you might want to check out this thread of rules about that. Changing your poll regularly may encourage folks to return to your charity for the extra gold. Just edit the first post and click OVERWRITE POLL to simply change (or even just clear the votes for the same) poll. Or click REMOVE POLL to make a new one. Someone from staff should visit the thread every day or at least every week (if you wait a week or more between times you visit the thread, it's nice to tell folks that somewhere on the first page so they know not to worry or feel ignored).
7. Consider advertising your charity. You can put a link to it in your signature and post all over the place. You can ask folks to do so who ask you for donations. Don't forget to get added to THE List of Charities after your charity has been giving for at least a month.
8. Set a time limit for evaluation (say 3 months). Then evaluate: Is it working? What works best? Where are the problems? Is there enough advertising? Are there different rules you want to implement? If you make major changes to your rules (or find you need to close or move your thread) please let me know in THE List of Charities so I can update your listing.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:27 pm
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Post 3: MAKING GOLD ON GAIA
Since the hardest part of running a charity is keeping up with the need for funds, here are some hints on making gold on Gaia:
Fishing Ubersticky is a comprehensive description of how to fish and how to turn your fish into gold.
zOMG! Guides and Resources lists guides and resources for this lucrative game.
List of Lake Kindred Guides, another lucrative game.
Mini Shops Rules and Regulations tells how to turn your artistic talents into gold on Gaia.
EARN GOLD QUICKLY! lists some of the easiest and quickest ways to earn gold on Gaia, including posting, voting in polls, getting Daily Chance, playing games, selling items, voting in Runway, and commenting on a profile.
Another way to earn gold is to DONATE REAL MONEY TO GAIA to get Gaia Cash (gc), use the money to buy items from one of the Gaia Cash shops (the first 3 or 4 shops listed) and then sell the items in the Marketplace. You'll want to do your homework first to be sure you spending your Gaia Cash wisely to get the most for your money. Remember, new items decrease in value the first few days after they are released. And Chance Items (listed in the Chance tab of LaVictoire) are a gamble - you could win something worth a LOT of gold, or something worth very little gold.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:30 pm
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Post 4: Hints to Running Contests
1. Decide on what prize(s) you can offer. I highly suggest you either offer a percentage of the proceeds collected from those who enter the contest (75% to 90% is customary) or an amount/item you already have on hand. You would hate to offer a prize you couldn't pay because not enough folks entered to cover it. If you hold a lotto you might want to check out this thread of rules about that.
2. Decide on how folks enter the contest. Do they need to PM you an entry in the form of a tek-tek avatar, artwork, or something written, answers to questions, etc.? Do they need to post something in a certain thread? And how you will accept payment if any is asked (trade with a certain mule or with a certain title or for a certain amount, confirmed before a certain time).
3. Decide how winner(s) will be decided. If bumps/posts will be counted, who will count them? If entries must be judged, on what criteria and by whom? If you let a poll decide the winner(s), be aware that there is no way to tell if a person used mules or advertising to get extra votes (unless you happen across the advertising or someone brings it to your attention). I like to randomly generate a number from one to the number of entries I have and let the person with that number win.
4. Clearly set rules in writing offline and re-read them to make sure all of the rules you want are detailed. If you wish to limit winners (only one prize per person, no mules, no staff, etc.) make sure that is listed clearly up front.
5. Helpers/staff are invaluable to running a big contest (or multiple contests). Treat them well!
Note about mules: To tell if someone is a mule, compare the suspected mule with the suspected main account. Do they sign on and off one right after the other? Does only one have an active quest? Do they have similar typing styles? Some folks feel the use of mules in contests is cheating, giving the person using the mules an advantage over other folks. I feel that if a mule pays the same price as the others to enter, it should have an equal chance to win. It's up to you.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:32 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:50 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:52 pm
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