Hi all,

I'm currently thinking about paying my users for creating tutorials about how to use specific pieces of graphic-software. Let's say, someone explains in-depth how to create a convincing 3D model using the program LightWave 3D, I'd pay him maybe 10.00 USD, depending on the quality of the content.

The idea behind this is to motivate my users to create really high-quality content, which exceeds the - more or less - uninformative daily chatter.

Anyway, there are some problems I see:

1. I will always have to check, if the material submitted was originally created by a user. I mean, people could pretty easily rip-off content from other sites and post it as theirs, which might result in copyright infringements or make the content unusable at least.
   
   
2. Right now there is motivation for some users to create special content directly for the community. This gives them the status of being something like a community-star, which in fact they are, and which seems to be a pretty satisfying reward already.
   
   But these people are very rare and the frequency of their contributions is not very high. The problem is, that I'm afraid, that people won't post anylonger without being paid, once they have become used to it.
   
   
3. If people will accept the idea of being paid for in-depth content, there might be a rush of interested parties wanting to participate. This might in fact exceed my pretty tight budget for this project.
   
   So, how can I protect myself from not being able to fulfill my promise for everyone? Should I limit monthly contributions to maybe 10 or 20 articles? Or are there better ways you can think of?

What do you think about this whole strategy?

Is giving financial rewards a good thing to stir up the creation of high-quality relevant content? Or shall I better save the money and hire some cheap intern (user?), who might do the work for maybe the same amount of money, but on a more constant and predictable basis?

The disadvantage of having only one author working on it might be that his or her expert knowledge is not as versatile as that of a group of different people.

Please tell me what you think! Every idea is more than welcome.

Thanks!!
Heiko

If you've got the money, do it. This is an excellent way to create value for your forums. For checking whether or not the article is original, I would suggest this:

Copyscape - Website Plagiarism Search - Web Site Content Copyright Protection

If your budget is $100 - $200, I honestly would not expect that you break this within a month...regardless, all you've got to do is tell people that you will only do this for x amount of articles each month.

One thing you definitely need to do is set clear guidelines on what is a good article and what is not. Usually you could set a minimum word count (ie: article must be at least 500 words), but for a graphic tutorial, this may not work. Most of the content may simply be in screenshots. You may want to link to examples of "good" and "bad" articles. Basically, you don't want to run this promotion and have your members submit a bunch of articles that you reject...that's going to make people angry, and they're not likely to submit more in the future. That's not to mention that you run the risk of upsetting them enough to leave your forums all together.

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Well, Ryan, thanks a lot for your opinion! It means a lot to me to hear what others think about my idea and you've mentioned some really great points!!

I'll probably have about 200.00 USD to spend on this strategy each month so this means 20 tutorials a month if I stay with the $10.00 per tutorial route.

I guess this will add incredible value to my site since tutorials seem to be the top thing guests are looking for in my field.

Anyway, what do others think about this? Please let me hear some more opinions!

Thanks!
Heiko

I think its a good idea, try and see if they will do it without being paid first, and give them free premium membership with no ads or something. It will save you more money and get them interested, and something in return.

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