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I have been a bounty hunter since December 2017, and from that day until now, I have learned a lot of things in order to spot good bounty campaigns.

At first, what I was doing was just randomly joining campaigns that appear on the first page of the Bounties page, and it really didn't turn out well, as most of the campaigns that I joined that time turned out to be unsuccessful or scams so now, I created a method wherein I rate the campaigns that will most likely be successful based on my own view.

Here are the steps that I conduct to choose the best campaigns apart from the rest. This is done in chronological order. I do this everyday so that I can cover all bounty campaigns created.

1. List all bounty campaigns
2. Check Scam accusation and Reputation Boards
3. Check the bounty manager
4. Check official twitter, facebook, Telegram and Linkedin page of ICO
5. Check bounty allocation for campaigns
6. Check Whitepaper
7. Check Number of Participants And Tier Rewards
8. Check KYC Submission on ICOBench or other rating / review sites

I will explain each step in great detail, like how I actually do it everyday when searching for bounty campaigns to join into.

1. List all Bounty campaigns

First thing you need to do is put everything on a spreadsheet.

One column should be for the bitcointalk bounty campaign link, and the second column is the name of the ICO. Use this link to go to the bounties section and sort the topics based on date created so it's easy to take note of the campaigns that you have listed or reviewed before.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=238.0;sort=first_post;desc

Once you're at the page, open each topic which you haven't reviewed or visited yet. Open only those threads or topics that contain [bounty]. If a topic is just an airdrop, I don't open them anymore since I don't join airdrops due to its very low reward. Copy the bitcointalk bounty campaign link and the name. It should look like this on your spreadsheet.

Bitcointalk Bounty campaign link  |  Name of Campaign

This will take a lot of time if this will be you're first time to do this since you have to go through a lot of campaigns, but once you're used to doing this everyday, it won't take much of your time. You can try to list 200 campaigns for now, or any number you're comfortable with, but let me say that those 200 campaigns will most likely be reduced to 20 once you have conducted all the steps mentioned above.


2. Check Scam accusation and Reputation Boards

Huge thanks to some of our scam police members here in Bitcointalk like ICOEthics and Coolcryptovator who continue to spot Scam ICOs with Fake team and plagiarized content. This is a very vital step that you need to do everyday. Always check these two boards to see if the campaigns you listed are actually scam ICOs. Since you have listed them on your spreadsheet, just use the find function and if a listed ICO on your spreadsheet matched an ICO stated to be a scam on the boards, delete it from your spreadsheet. This is the first step to reduce the number of your listed bounty campaigns.

Link to Scam Accusation Board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

Link to Reputation Board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=129.0

Always read the thread before deleting because sometimes, it's just a scam accusation or a question being asked to the admin of the ICO.

By this time if you have 200 listed campaigns, it should have been reduced to around 170.


3. Check the bounty manager


I have joined a lot of bounty campaigns since I started and there are campaigns that I don't join into because of the bounty manager. We have our own preferrence on who we consider the best bounty manager is but, just to reduce our listed campaigns, we need to remove the following campaigns from our list.

Topics / threads that are started by:
a. Newbies (Except copper member)
b. Bounty managers that have bad reputation

You can read about reputation of bounty managers on the Scam Accusation and Reputation Boards. We have our own opinion on each bounty manager, so best thing to do is read about them and somehow try out their campaign and see if you like how things are run under his management.

Remove the listed ICOs on your spreadsheet that are started by newbies and bad reputation bounty managers.

By this time, you 170 campaigns should be reduced to around 130.


4. Check official twitter, facebook, Telegram and Linkedin page of ICO

This is where you'll spend a bit of time browsing through their social media pages one by one. What I do is look for "Relevant Posts" only. Go to their Facebook and Twitter and look for 3 most recent relevant posts. If the social media pages do not have at least 1 relevant post within 7 days, remove them from your listed campaigns.

My Criteria for relevant posts
a. Articles / News relevant to the ICO / platform
b. Posts on Conferences / Roadshows / AMAs
c. Video interviews / Pictures of meetups with the ICO team

Posts that I don't consider relevant
a. Posts about their other official social media pages
b. Posts about airdrops / Bitcointalk ANN / Bounty
c. Posts about token price / date of token sale
d. Posts introducing their team members
e. Posts about Token allocation / Roadmap which can be found on the website

I don't consider them relevant because you can already see them in the website plus it does not provide new information about the ICO. The relevant posts that I am looking for are things that are really related to the ICO or platform. If the platform is all about E-sports, then the social media pages must have posts or articles that talk about E-sports.

Once you're done with Twitter and Facebook, go to their LinkedIn Page and see if it exists.

Once you're done with the three social media pages, go to the telegram group and see if there are people inquiring about the platform or ICO. If the telegram group does not have people asking questions, it means it's a dead group.

Remove all the campaigns that do not pass mentioned criteria.

By this time, your 130 campaigns should be around 60 campaigns.


5. Check bounty allocation for campaigns

I choose campaigns that have realistic yet not to low allocation for its bounties:
10% individually for Twitter or Facebook
3% for Telegram
10% for Content

If it's less than what's mentioned above, I don't join them.

By this time, your 60 campaigns should be around 50 campaigns.


6. Check Whitepaper

As a content writer, I really need to check the whitepaper in order to get the most accurate information to write about, but for those who are not joining content campaigns, just look at the tokensale part of the whitepaper. You need to know the ICO price of the token. The reason for this is sometimes bounty managers do not provide this information on their thread. You will be surprised to know that in the end, the total allocated fund for the bounty is just $6000 because you did not know that 6,000,000 tokens allocated for bounty is equivalent to only $6000 (1 token = $0.006).

You also need to check the whitepaper if it's identical with other whitepapers that you have read in the past. If there's something identical, then it means that it was plagiarized.

For additional information, it's best to read the whitepaper to fully understand the ICO / platform so that if someone asks a question on telegram or other social media channels, you can help in providing accurate answers about it.

By this time, your 50 campaigns should be around 40 campaigns.



7. Check Number of Participants And Tier Rewards

For Facebook and Twitter, you need to check if the rewards are based on the number of followers. It will beneficial for you to choose campaigns with tier rewards if you have huge number of followers for both Twitter and Facebook.

Another thing you need to check if rewards are given based on stakes or you will only receive a certain amount of tokens every week.

After checking this, look at the spreadsheet and see how many participants they have. If they have more than 1000 participants by the time you checked, remove the campaign from your list. This is because the reward in the end will be so low since it's divided to over 1000 people, regardless whether you have high number of followers.

Just remember that if rewards are based on stakes, the lower number of participants, the higher the reward.

I retain campaigns that have fewer than 500 participants listed on their spreadsheet.

By this time, your 40 campaigns should be around 24.


8. Check KYC Submission on ICOBench or other rating / review sites

This last step is completely optional, but I actually use ICOBench only for this purpose. It justs boosts the reputation of the admin team of the ICO if they submitted KYC, but not a lot of ICOs actually pass KYC on ICOBench or other review sites.

I don't believe much on reviews done by advisors or experts because there is a possibility that those are paid adverts.

The final 24 that has remained in your listed bounty campaigns are the ones that you will be joining at. Always check the Scam Accusation and Reputation boards because maybe one of the final 24 that you joined at might have a scam accusation which was just discovered now.

Also, when joining campaigns, it's best to join early like in week 1 up to week 3, so that you can maximize the rewards.

Based from my experience, joining 24 good campaigns is better than joining 60 random campaigns because these 24 good campaigns have a better chance to be successful than those 60 random campaigns, so it's worth using up your time to choose only the best campaigns focusing on quality over quantity. This is what I learned when I started this method.

How about you guys? What are the things you do before joining bounty campaigns?

A very useful and well organized post buddy. You have address one of the problem for almost all newbies on this platform. Well-done buddy:)

Thank you for a useful topic! You did a very good job and analysis. Your topic is also useful to place in the section for beginners, because many of them are interested in this information.

This is a very good and useful information for those who participate in the bounty. I think that everyone who wants to take part in the bounty should immediately learn to distinguish good projects from scams. To do this, they would be very useful your post. After all, it is better to spend time studying the project than to spend it on participating in scam.

I agree with you, it is a very useful guide for all bounty hunters, especially for all newbies.

Thanks for the guide, all this time I followed the bounty randomly, but continued to follow the progress of the bounty, I would not hesitate to stop in the middle of the road if the bounty was suspicious, I think by using the guide above I can get better results
very much agree with you, less campaign mean less work to do, being selective when joining bounty is a must if we want make a great result

Thank you for this especially the link to sort the threads based on date created. I'll try your method and see if I can get better results on the campaigns I will be joining. Kudos to the OP.

What you have described above is very helpful for us who have been random and irregular in summarizing all the prize campaigns that we follow and maybe I will also try your method so that it is organized and neat ... thanks for the advice.

Very nice and helpful topic!
My only problem is, if you join a bounty that just started. You can't apply the rule "Check scam accusations Board" unless you discover the scam yourself.

This post is useful for beginners in Bounty field.

Good work mate.

Very helpful to every bounty hunters.I've been bounty hunters since last year so I also learn a lot from experience.That's why now i only choose few potential bounties,so that my effort wont get wasted.Some bounties that i have join on past month some are not good bounty managers ,other reasons some are failed ico.

Thanks for sharing such informative posts.

Yes this is the reason that you need to check scam accusations board daily. There are times that you will be given negative Trust for promoting a scam ICO that you joined at a very early stage so it's very important that you always check the 2 boards every day.

For example you joined a campaign that was just created today and then after 5 days, our helpful members discovered that the team behind it is FAKE, you have to stop promoting it immediately, and if you joined the signature campaign of that scam ICO, you need to delete your positive posts about that project or else there's a chance that you'll get negative trust for promoting that ICO. This also happens to bounty managers, wherein they get negative trust when they still continue to promote ICOs that have shady reputation and movements as discovered by helpful members here in this forum.

I know that for some bounty hunters, having to check other boards consumes their time which they can use to join more campaigns, but it's better to always be updated about what you're promoting and focusing on the good campaigns than more campaigns.

Like you I also consider these factors before joining a bounty campaigns. It c an help a lot to a bounty hunter if he/she is going to check first the background of the bounties he/she is going to, in order for him/her to make money with the bounties he/she had participated. This is the common of bounty hunters that they expecting too much from the bounties they had participated but end up nothing so it is better to have research.

I agree with you. It's better to have good than random campaigns. Before, what I did was to pick the campaigns on the first page of the bounty thread, and hope that it will pay in the future. I did not bother to get more information on the ICO, but now I learned it the hard way, by which out of all the campaigns I joined in the past, only around 10% were successful.

I'll follow what is stated here and try to get better campaigns.

Thank you, friend
This is what I am looking for right now, I am also a Bounty hunter since 2017, from March 2018 until now there are many bounty scams I have followed. because I chose randomly to join the bounty. with these steps to minimize following the Bounty scam. thank you

good steps and very important

9. I will not join in any bounty which required to do KYC before we get our token

This is also an optional and i know there are lot of people who willing to do it, but i'm not, i don't want give my ID to random people/team just for bounty

This is great news, but I think the success of a Bounty hunter needs a lot of things
You have to find and do the projects of reputable bounty managers
Whether the project is future-proof or not
If it's up to coinmarketcap then we can find out about that project at the website or facbook, their telegram has a bounty program

You have done a very good job and analysis, very accessible and clearly written, a great help for all bounty hunters of our days. This information is relevant for independent search and participation in bounty programs. Many bounty hunters now choose existing bounty platforms, where all checks and decisions are made by the platform team, and bounty hunters only choose the company from the offered platform. On such platforms it is not necessary to submit reports, everything is done automatically. But the choice of the company is always up to the participant.

Those list are good enough to scan the bounty campaign if it is good enough to join in, but ofcourse you should put in your mind that even you have joined the best bounty you can be still the victim of scam project because in the end the team will decide for it if they will going to pay you.

Taking proper precaution and seeing yourself like an investor is the only way to go when it comes to taking advantage of good projects over shitty projects. A whole lot of bounty hunters are too lazy to do due diligence and that is one thing that would always make them to work for quite a number of projects with 90% of them ending up as a shitty project.

They do not take just a little of their time to dig deeper, check the team, see if there is a product, check what the community is saying about the project, and even check reviews online to at least be a bit sure they are on the right track, but instead, they just join anything.

Good post. with complete and detailed information very useful for beginner forum members, it really is very helpful with a clear

Good job OP and this can be also a guide if we want to invest in ICOs as you had already the detailed steps to check a good project. I'm hoping that those who read your post will follow as I know it's the best way to combat those scammers.

8. Check KYC Submission on ICOBench or other rating / review sites

good point mate, I do it too recently, it is really useful

That is a nice guide. I do appreciate number 2 and 3. They are very nice way to successful bounty.

2. Check Scam accusation and Reputation Boards : If we are able to be patient and go over this board, most likely, if it is scam bounty you might see it there posted by other members who have researched on it. If it is seen as scam, no need to doubt ,so you don't get worried for your payment.

3. Check the Bounty Manager : Also, the manager is like the captain of the ship, we have to be mindful of that too.

It is worth reading and useful for every first timer or beginners here in crypto currency.Thank you for the ideas that you have shares it will helps me a lot to choose a good bounty to participate with.

Thank you for this especially the link to sort the threads based on date created. I'll try your method and see if I can get better results on the campaigns I will be joining.

All of these are correct especially with the team or bounty manager who handles the campaign. See these people won't accept the job if they know if it is a scam and I am talking about reputable bounty managers. In these steps you can lessen the chance of not getting paid but still by the end of the day you will never know until the job is done.

Very useful for those who wish to have a good start to making money with bounty. If there are more custom 9 and 10. I think it would be testing the dev team (try it with google image or linkdein profile if available) + advisor team + MVP or beta before if available.
- chesk smartcontract if they develop on erc 2.0 if available

Good job OP, check the “scam accusation” and “reputation” forum section is a perfect reflex !
Hope a lot of young members adopt the same process

Great post!
This will help save a lot of people a lot of time and energy.

Thank's you, the article is thorough and high-quality. Everything is set out correctly. I have several sites for the opinion and review of which I rely. But the main parameter in choosing a bounty for me is a manager who, without mistakes and honestly calculates the stakes. If a project is gooing  to success , there are more scammers registeres in it and a dishonest manager begins to change the rules and conditions for calculating the stakes.

A lot of bounty hunters think it is the quantity of the bounty project you are a part of that matters, but what they do not understand is that the few ones you can lay your hands on which are worth it, are far better than hundreds of shit projects put together and what the OP has mentioned is indeed what every bounty hunter should always be doing as long as they value their time and their space and would not want to waste it on irrelevant projects. The problem however with a lot of people is that they tend to just want to load their wallet with different bounties, either shitty or not.

Rank has nothing to do with how quality your thoughts are. Ranks are just showing how old you are with respect to this forum. If you refer merits then I may agree somehow :P.

Now you need to follow the company at least several times a week. If the company scam, then you can paint the trust. If you miss this point, the recovery of your account will take some time.

You did a great job. But even more you do when you select companies. I even find it hard to imagine how much time it takes for you.
Thanks for the info. Good luck!

Actually, a lot can be found on that part of the forum but at the same time, what is important for any bounty hunter is to try as much as possible to at least do some diggings by themselves to be sure they want to be participating in what they can invest into. Actually, anyone who values their time will not want to waste it on things that are irrelevant, so it is imperative for every individual being a part of a bounty campaign to try as much as possible to do due diligence on any project they want to join which encompasses checking out the team and looking for product availability.

Of course it will. A lot of people do not understand the value and importance of digging on something before deciding to be a part of it. Bounty hunting is also like using your funds to invest in a project as an investor, but this time you are making use of your time, space and energy for some campaigns though, to get something substantial as an investment without having to use real life funds for it and in that case, it is very necessary to take into precaution most of the things that the OP mentioned, and most especially, when it comes to the product and the team.

Thank you for this valuable guide

Thanks for the detailed post about how to fulfill rewards. I also joined to all campaigns and didn't earn anything. This is a very good guide for beginners. Thank you!

Thank you for your guide, this is very usefull especially for joining signature campaign. We have to choose the campaign that have exact time, when will be ended, because I think the hardest campaign is signatyre campaign.

This is a great guide, thx for the intel in the name of all newbies

I think the most important thing bounty hunter need to check is ICO project behind each bounty campaign cause at the moment, it's very dangerous if bounty hunters don't check it carefully, they'll become promoters for scam project then they'll be tagged by DT member in this forum right after scam project detected.

Thanks for this article to help me more when I participated in the bonus campaign,

You can do all these things and still end up getting scammed.  Some of the most valid looking projects and exchanges have ended up exit scamming so there it is always risky.  You don't want to waste your time and end up working for free.  I believe your time is better spent working a job in real life or learning new skills.

a very useful topic since i do some bounties too. now i have some info about scam project. thanks ;)
i usually check the whitepaper before i decide to join some bounties. i think that's important for me to know how good is that project. and i also check who is the manager and icobench rating.

Yeah, you write it right. Your information will be very useful for all beginners. I would also like to add to this list of actions - communication with the team. I usually ask a few questions in their telegram chat to see how willingly they talk about their work and how competent they are. It's not necessary, but sometimes it can be very useful.

This is a great post for beginners. I recommend you also to evaluate the idea of the project on the uniqueness. And ask yourself a question: "Could I become a client of this project?"

Yes I do agree on your statement. This is very informative to those who are wanted to be part or join on a bounty campaign.