I understand @axeman's decision. I have a long running contest that is often my lowest paying post of the week. There was a time it had nearly 50 entries and now we are lucky to see 10. It seems silly for me to do the work and pay out 5 Steem every week and then it pays me back far less. I struggle each week with the decision to keep it going.
Make sure to drop your contest link into the PIFC's Pimp Your Post each week. Maybe you can pick up a little extra traffic from there.
Oh Dear! You have worked so hard on this too, @melinda010100. As I said above, I win a lot now since so few people are entering most contests. Same with bounty posts, dPolls and on and on.
I tried running contests when I got here and they are a lot of work. I am just praying some big guys see this and will help in an ongoing way. If the people running contests got votes on their entry posts, so much would improve here.
Do you know about ccc contests by @freedomshift and @team-ccc? They support contest runners over there and have days open. You get a good number of entries and help with prizes. Of course they could use more help too. Maybe that is an option to join with them. @wakeupkitty knows about this and might chime in.
Have you thought about giving out SBI in prizes instead of Steem? At least you get a little bit back through an upvote...
That is actually a good idea. Thanks @mariannewest I will make that change tomorrow on the new contest post.
IMO using SBI is a must. It rewards the winners long term and encourages them to stay on Steem vs having liquid funds to cash out.