Organizing Online Trivia Games (as a Side Hustle)
If you have participated in any trivia games, you certainly have some idea on how to devise one and earn some income doing it!
Many people have some unexplainable, strong fondness for trivia games.
For a very long time, these have been great selling points for pubs, bars, and university events.
In fact, I have organized several with the Bocconi Students Mathematics and Logics Association back when I was in university.
And in fact, they were some of the most successful events I’ve organized.
The problem
People love competing.
Traditional sports have their special spot in our lives – so do eSports.
But, what about games where our knowledge is measured?
As it stands, trivia games don’t really have their own online space.
Yes, one can engage in such games online versus randos, but that would normally lead to them being completely annihilated – often by a 10-year-old. Trust me, I’ve been that 10-year old and later I have been annihilated by many 10-year-olds.
For any competition to be truly fun, people are looking for someone who closely matches their own ability.
It is even better if it is someone they know, because, let’s face it, bragging rights are much better when they are between friends.
The solution
A dedicated Trivia Game requested by a group of people and organized by you.
Indeed, if you have participated in any Trivia Games, you certainly have some idea on how to devise one. You can make it a paid event where different groups of people can compete with each other.
And, how cool would it be if you could give participants an experience tailored to them?
Your contestants would absolutely appreciate that, and you’d be able to provide a unique Trivia experience unlike many generic Trivia question generators out there.
Target customer
Team buildings are a great place to start. Different teams in the same company can compete, but also the same team could be further divided into two smaller groups.
Another type of groupings you can look for is university students. From personal experience, these guys love to compete with each other; and what’s great is they’re often similarly matched (due to the university selection process).
There are also broader groups of people, such as families or groups of friends who love to compete. These are harder to find at scale, but can be amazing long-term clients.
How to start this as a side hustle
Here are three key elements:
1. Get conceptually ready for hosting an online Trivia game
a. Googleable questions
b. Non-Googleable questions
2. Find an online platform that allows you to easily do that
3. Prepare great questions to ask
Get conceptually ready for hosting an online Trivia game
There are several issues on the table.
1. Googleable questions
First, ask whoever is booking the game if they trust each other that no one’s going to Google the answers.
Think about it. You want to ask: “When was the US constitution signed?”
But, it’s too easy to Google. It even has a rich snippet that’s screaming the correct answer.
If your participants are not onboard, most of your questions will fall flat.
Google is literally built to answer trivia questions.
If your participants are not fine with this, your task will become much harder.
2. Non-Googleable questions
You can always think about obscure facts about the life of Da Vinci or something of that sort… you know, the type of unheard-of tidbits that will spark curiosity. But, if you provide enough context, Google will still spit the correct answer. After all, if it can’t be verified on Google, it’s probably not true.
You should come up with questions that are hard to solve, but easy to verify.
Don’t worry, though, this is a solved problem… in a fascinating way!
Ask long form questions. They usually consist of 100-200 words. One person reads the question and any team can stop them at any point and try to guess the answer. The first team to answer wins, but if they answer incorrectly, they lose. The other team still has to give the right answer to get the points, though.
Here’s an example:
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. People were faced with an unprecedented need to decentralize their workspaces – from office buildings to people’s homes! This business strived to solve a bulk of the issues that surfaced during the pandemic.
The WHO organization? No! The question states it’s a business. Hmm, not enough information there. So the question continues:
The business in question is specializing in software and the software carries the same name as the company.
Alright. This starts pointing us to Zoom, Google (via Google Meet, but Google’s company is Alphabet Inc. so that’s questionable), or Microsoft Teams maybe? Still not enough information, but the participants can stop the question and try to guess. Their guess is likely to be wrong because an obvious answer is never the answer in these competitions.
So the question continues:
It is providing a video conferencing solution where you can also receive payments. It was established in 2020.
At this point, the person reading the question would normally say:
Answer the question now for 30 points. If you can’t, the question will continue but you can only earn 20 points.
So, at this point you know that Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams are out. Good thing the participants didn’t rush. There’s OnZoom which could be the correct answer, but there are many more software that are in this bucket. Still, the year of establishment is giving sufficient specificity for people who might know the answer.
[Question for 20 points continues]
With this software, you’re not only able to host video meetings and receive payments, but also schedule appointments and sync your calendar. This solution allows you to claim your own name as subdomain and personalized video meeting links, essentially helping you build your own platform with no code.
If no one has already guessed it, you can then announce:
Answer this question now for 20 points. If you can’t, the question will continue but you can only earn 10 points.
At this point, you should give them an obvious hint so they can easily guess it. If both teams are still in, the one who is faster to reply will win.
[Question for 10 points continues]
We are currently having this Trivia challenge on a platform built with this product.
This is where the question ends. It’s truly un-Googleable and is much more interactive than most questions. I can assure you that these questions are the kind that everyone loves!
Find an online platform that allows you to easily do that
What was the answer of the question, you might ask?
In this particular case, it was 3veta.com – the go-to solution for providing paid online meetings, including Trivia Games.
Would the example work if you’re not using 3veta?
Well, to be able to provide the Trivia Game, you will definitely need an online platform. No matter which you choose, you can modify the question accordingly and it will still be relevant.
Either way, 3veta can accommodate all your needs, and I highly recommend it at least as a starting point. You really don’t want to spend too much time on setting up your infrastructure (scheduling, payments, calls), especially because you must focus on the questions you’re going to ask.
Prepare great questions to ask
Based on the detailed account above, you’ve already figured out that a good Trivia Game would involve both types of questions.
Here are some examples you can use.
Regarding the Googleable ones:
Apart from German and French, what other language is official in Luxembourg? -Luxembourgish
Who won the French Open, a.k.a. Roland Garros tennis tournament in 2007? - Nadal
Which groundbreaking product did Apple launch in 2001? - iPod
Which boxer was born under the name of Cassius Clay? - Muhammad Ali
What color is the black box in aircrafts? - Orange
Just to get you started, you can find a list of 30 other questions like these.
How about the longer ones? Here’s one more example:
William Alden Smith led a Senate investigation into this event, which might have been prevented had David Blair’s key to some missing binoculars been found. For 20 points. Molly Brown urged for the rescue of survivors of this event, whose remains were discovered by Robert Ballard. J. Bruce Ismay, the (*) White Star Line executive at the time, was criticized for escaping this event while women and children were still at risk. Since the nearest radio operator had gone to bed, survivors of this event had to wait several hours to be rescued by the RMS Carpathia. For 10 point., Identify this 1912 event in which a large British passenger liner collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
ANSWER: Sinking of Titanic
Cool, right? These are the best ones!
You can find another 15 questions like that here.
Extra thoughts
All that being said, here are extra pointers you shouldn’t miss:
Regarding questions where the fastest team wins. How are you going to know who answered first? Well, ask them to write the answer in the chat. Doing this will make it evident for everyone who got it right. Long form questions are a great example of that.
Regarding questions where every team can answer on their own and where answers should be compared. What would you do in real life? Give them separate answer sheets, right? You can do the same here, too. Just give them separate Google Sheets.
Since you are on a computer, you can easily screen share a PowerPoint presentation with the questions. Just be careful – fast readers can simply reply even before you have read the question out loud. Consider asking the question and only then showing it on the screen.
What if a team wants to be able to communicate with each other during the competition? With 3veta, you can certainly accommodate that! Create one paid meeting room for the competition and make several free-of-charge rooms for communication. Each separate meeting room can be used by one team. You may or may not be in this room –your choice. It’s not a problem to be in several calls simultaneously using 3veta.
Think about prizes. Since the competition is digital, your prizes should be, too. A lazy choice is Amazon Gift Cards, but you can think about something cooler. I would go for a digital badge or certificate for this win. There are platforms, such as Accredible that can accommodate that. These are shareable so prospective customers can learn about you from these digital prizes.
If you have a good social media following, give your winners a shout out - share their accomplishments, tag them. This will increase your visibility as well – your followers will learn about your side hustle and will want to compete in your contests.
There could be audio rounds, too. You simply play a part of a song an the others need to guess it. Simple as that. These are the most fun rounds!
How about video rounds, too? Since you will be on a computer, you can easily share your screen and show a scene from a famous movie!
If you can’t get rid of Google – incorporate it. Why not make a Googling Challenge. Who can Google facts the fastest? You then ask questions and people who actually know the answer don’t even need to Google – they just win. We’re one with our devices, so you can say that ‘my general knowledge equals my information gathering skills’. Why not modernize Trivia Games?
Start small, don’t overthink it, and have fun! Trivia is some of the best fun one can have!
Now, if you don’t want to organize such a game, but know someone who can – share this with them.
Are you someone who’s already doing this through 3veta? Do let me know and I’ll be happy to spread the word about your business!
And as we used to finish pub trivia games: cheers and have a good one!
Need help starting with this idea? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or directly on my email: iliya@3veta.com.
Looking to start a side hustle but that’s not right for you? You can find a whole list of similar side hustle ideas here.
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