Nekocon tried for a few years combining categories and two things happened: the potential entrants were confused about how to qualify their videos and the quality of the contest overall suffered from declining contestants.
Last year, I gave the category and overall favorite votes back to the viewers and brought the traditional five main categories back.
Not only did we pull in over 80 entries (as opposed to 30 or so the previous year) but received a lot of praise for the show.
I understand the desire to innovate or at least be different, which is why I add a special sixth category to my competitions (either Most Annoying or something that follows the con theme).
There's a reason so many contests follow a certain formula: it works.
Personally, what I do is allow for 30 finalists (five or six per category) so there isn't an overload.
Maybe it gives the Comedy entrants a better chance to make finals because it doesn't draw as many entries but that's how it goes.
Anyway, the bottom line is keep it simple and structured.
Exercising any reach you have on social media to get the word around about your contest helps a lot as well...but I'm a promotional machine anyway.
retired: 2021 
