What is a Bounty Program? Steps to make a successful Bounty Program
I am going to share some ideas to run ICO bounty from my personal experience & Knowledge! Hope it will works for you!
The cryptocurrency industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The cryptocurrency enthusiasts are growing proportionally. It is no longer hidden that these enthusiasts are striving to come up with blockchain or cryptocurrency based start-ups.
Now, not everyone would come from a background like Google or Amazon who has immense popularity and enough funds to grow their start-up. It takes strenuous efforts to be caught up by your targeted audience (here: people interested in cryptocurrency or blockchain).
These start-ups have found a way out to overcome this situation and is given a name ICO Bounty Campaign. And I have prepared this post to educate you about the meaning, benefit, working and tips for bounty from my personal experience.
Read on…
ICO Bounty Program — The Meaning
If you search for the general meaning of “Bounty”, you can relate it as a reward or prize. Its use has been deep-rooted in the online gaming world. If you remember playing any of such games, there are rewards associated with certain levels and if you achieve that level, the reward is sent to you. The same concept has been utilized for the ICO Bounty Program.
Here, the rewards are in the form of tokens (cryptocurrency) that you will generate or have generated as a part of your project. You can relate it to a giveaway program but you get something in return. For example, awareness about your project is created through people already involved in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.
It helps you to connect with people of the blockchain community and you can save some money on paid promotions. When you launch your bounty program, a certain set of rules and tasks are defined which the participants will have to fulfill in order to receive the reward. You’ll have to design your program wisely such that you can attain maximum benefits and the bounty hunters do not dissatisfied on you by taking away your tokens for doing nothing (I have added a tried and tested guideline in the later part of this post).
So, making long story short, ICO Bounty Program is listing small tasks for bounty hunters and paying tokens as reimbursement. The purpose of bounty is not only getting your tasks done but as I said before, it is cutting costs on paid promotions, creating awareness among the targeted audience and getting in touch with the members of blockchain community.
Now, as you are thorough with the concept of bounty, let us learn about different types of bounty (yes, there are different types of bounty!).
What are the different types of Bounty Program?
If someone tells you that Signature, Social Media, Content, Referral, etc. are different types of bounty programs then it is not the case. These are different bounty campaigns, which you run under the program. The different types of bounty program are:
Pre-ICO bounty
As the name suggests, it is the bounty program conducted before the launch of ICO. The purpose of such a bounty program is to generate awareness about your project and the token such that you get maximum people to fill your ICO. It is like building a rapport for your project among the blockchain community. Campaigns under the Pre-ICO bounty program are:
· Social Media Campaigns (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, etc.)
· Content Campaign (Blog Post, PR promoting your project)
· Translation Campaign (Whitepaper and Website translation)
· Signature Campaign (Reputed members on the forum like Bitcointalk use your brand/logo in their signature for promotion)
Note: These are the general and popular campaigns, but not limitation. You can create custom campaigns as per your project requirements (I have launched the unique & short term bounty campaigns for just 14 days).
Post-ICO bounty
This is the type of bounty program conducted after the completion of ICO. It is to make people aware that you are still active in the industry and are about to launch the project that you promised in the beginning. It helps you to get feedback from the blockchain experts on your project’s code structure, design interface, features, etc. Campaigns under the Post-ICO program are:
· Bug fixing Campaign
· Review Campaign
· Community Management
At Which Stage should you launch the Bounty Program?
You will think that the pre-ICO has to be launched before you release the ICO. But what if you do not have an impressive website, whitepaper and roadmap ready? You do not have a well-qualified team with specially appointed bounty managers. If you launch your pre-ICO bounty under these circumstances, then you are definitely going to fail.
As per my experience, the right stage to launch a pre-ICO bounty program to make it successful in its true sense is when you have an impressive website, whitepaper, roadmap and well-qualified team with specially appointed bounty managers ready.
Similarly, for post-ICO bounty should be closer to the ICO completion. People won’t remember you after 6 months of your ICO end. Moreover, trust on your project will be lost.
Guidelines
I know this is the most important part for which you have been reading the post for so long. Without wasting much of your time, let us quickly start with the guidelines:
Planning and Implementation
Step1 :
The first and foremost step in planning is allocating the right amount of token funds from the total. An ideal bounty program would require around 1 to 4% of the total funds. If you plan to conduct more than one bounty program, then divide your funds accordingly. Further distribution comes among the campaigns.
For example, if you plan to conduct a social media campaign, then you can divide among different social media channels as follows:
· 25% for Twitter
· 20% for Facebook
· 25% for LinkedIn
· 30% for Reddit
Step 2:
The next step is choosing or defining the right tasks for your campaign. Do not simply copy the tasks from other bounty campaigns, as they may not be beneficial for your project. You should define the tasks related to your project.
For example, I had conducted surveys for my project and whitepaper released recently. So, I first created a social media bounty campaign where the participants had to share and retweet the content in which I have highlighted about my project features and survey results.
Step 3:
The third step is preparing proper rules for the task and reward distribution. Mention the rules in a clear and understandable manner. It should be neither very strict nor liberal. If you keep the rules very strict, it will not catch the attention of bounty hunters and desired promotion of your project will not happen. If the rules are liberal, participants will not perform the tasks with accuracy and you won’t receive the intended benefits from the program.
Step 4:
For better implementation and success, you should hire reputed bounty manager based on his/her bitcoin talk profile rank. Make sure there isn’t any negative score associated with his/her profile. It will create trust among the bounty hunters and you will gain maximum participation.
Step 5:
Announcement on the bitcoin talk in an attractive format using a standardized image. It should be such that a bounty hunter can easily understand and is willing to participate in your bounty program. It should have clearly defined stake/tokens and giveaway duration. A proper defined report format in which participants will submit their accomplishment of task. It will be easier for you to identify and the participants will have a specified format to report their work. It will eliminate any kind of confusion. If the announcement is not convincing, the participation rate will be affected.
Step 6:
The spreadsheet should be maintained for managing the data of participants, task completion status and tokens allotted. This would make things easier for both: participants and you as an organizer.
Step 7:
As I mentioned about targeted audience, you can promote your bounty program via email marketing, telegram bounty groups and websites. Watch out for active bounty hunters on other bounty programs can contact them personally to pitch about your bounty program.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Ignoring the rules of Bitcoin talk
There are certain rules to post the bounty announcement on bitcoin talk. Like, you should not allow users to post irrelevant posts on the thread like “joined”, “filled out the form” or “applied” which created the illusion of spamming. You cannot simply giveaway the reward for replying to your thread. There should be tasks accomplished to giveaway the reward. Also, paying people for posting their addresses, usernames, etc. is not allowed. Moreover, the tasks of your bounty program should require some efforts. Simply joining a group or channel is not allowed.
Lack of Promotion
Once you have defined proper tasks and rules for the bounty program, the next essential step is its promotion. You should promote your bounty program on relevant channels like bitcoin talk, your official blog, other websites related to cryptocurrency and blockchain. Bounty program requires a targeted audience and hence the promotion needs to be done at the right channels.
Improper Rule formation
You should frame the rules wisely. Like if you define the translation campaign, the rules should be such that the participants do not make use of Google Translator. In case of content campaign, rules should be to post unique content and not copy paste from existing ones. In case of social media campaign, you should set the rules such as the account should be certain years old or have a certain number of friends or followers. This will prevent any fake account from participation.
Very Liberal rules
There should also be a rule where the participants cannot do negative promotion of your project else will be disqualified or not considered eligible for pay out.
Rewards based on Participation
The rewards should be given based on the quality of work done and not simply participation. If you do it merely on participation, then the participants would not complete the tasks or perform with accuracy and hence your purpose of bounty will be ruined. Thus, the rewards must be distributed always based on the quality of work done and entire completion of the tasks.
Lack of Communication
Another common mistake to avoid is the lack of communication. Simply announcing the bounty is not enough. You should be in constant communication with the bounty hunters during the program and after the program as well. You can use reliable channels like Telegram to do the communication. The purpose is to solve queries if any and keep up the relation for success of ICO and your project.
Wrapping it up
Thus, organizing a bounty program requires vision and systematic approach. Your goal behind the bounty should be both promotion and creating relations with reputed members of the blockchain community. Think of it as creating the base of your brand. It is both give and take!
I hope this article will help you plan a successful bounty program! Best of Luck…
These suggestions are my own, If I missed something or you have any creative idea then you can share via comments. I will be happy to review and add in the post!
