Contest Entries

The way FAA suggests you wade through contests is not so good, image by image. I go to the "Images" tab and scroll through page by page. If I see one I like, I click on it to see it better. If I like it, I vote on it and then back arrow out. But 600 or 700 hundred images is a lot. I don't know why some admins allow more than 3 or 4 entries per contestant.

There are many contests hosted by smaller groups to join,Sharon, which is good for the host group as well.
Great suggestionJoseph.

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/florals-inspired-by-modern-masters.html?tab=overview

Come vote in the Contemporary Florals Group contest FLORALS INSPIRED BY A MODERN MASTER
It was an under 200 images contest,3 images a person, someexceptiona lwork. Our first group contest
and appreciate FAA members coming to vote.

if your voting on yourself, click on my contest or something like that in that contest and you can vote on your own entries. i only enter, i stopped voting or even checking now.

putting too many rules setting how many can enter won't help you in the long run. it's not really a competition to see who's better, but who can either cheat their way to the top, or to get your work in another spot to maybe get a sale from it.

---Mike Savad

These contests are just a fun thing for the artists here, but when too many entries the "fun" is gone! Enter for fun, or as one more place for your art to be seen, that is if anyone other than artists here look at them! Smaller entry contests seem to be the best in my opinion. The others are a waste of time. PLUS....notice this>>> in contests with tons of entries, those that get just one vote are not even recognized.....so WHY bother to vote?

AMEN to all of the above. It's almost pointless.

I'm hosting a contest with over 700 entries, I'm going through every one in fairness to the entrants and vote for the ones I like. It's not so hard, just scroll through one by one and make a quick decision. It's better to do it quickly because you form your opinion right away usually. I also leave comments, votes etc. for any I really like. I enjoy this because I get to see artwork on the theme I've chosen and also learn from viewing other's images how to improve my own craft. I always choose themes on subject matter that I like and therefore get to see images that I like.
The contests aren't perfect but I do notice a lot of participation from the members here.

Is there not an option for the person creating the content to limit the amount of entries? I thought this would have been a no- brainer.

Does FAA have a section/thread for 'development requests'/feedback/ideas?

i think the max amount is 10, and for some reason many think this is a great number - they think it's for exposure but it works against everyone.

---Mike Savad

It seems like the earlier you enter the less chance you have of your stuff being seen as it seems to sort newest to oldest. So if your picture is buried 15 pages deep it's unlikely to be seen by many voters.

You can limit the number of entries to one, if you'd like.

I recently entered a big contest which I normally do not do. Like Sharon, I thought it would be a waste of time. But I entered ten images in this contest and now even after voting is over, I still see folks are clicking on my images in the contests. I know this because thy are grouped under the visitors tab in the same way they were in the contest. I'm getting comments and faves even now. And we know this helps, even if in a small way, how you appear in a search.

I've also wondered if when you entered the contest mattered that much. Maybe it does. I don't know. For a while, I was entering late in hopes of being on one of the first pages for the lazy ones who didn't look at all the images. But I can't tell a difference to be honest and with the big contest, I was nowhere near the front of the line. I sometimes wonder if being one of the first entrants helps because folks might look to see what others have entered befoire they enter themselves.

Or maybe I'm overthinking this whole thing.

Sorry if there was confusion- I mean limit the OVERALL amount of entries in the contest.

If there's 400+ entries it's a joke...

To be very truthful, if your depending on the contests here to let you know if your work is top notch or not, your mistaken. If you want to find out weather your work is good or not enter a real contest, either locally to you, nationally or better yet internationally.
These contests here are like kiddie contests.
Take them with a grain of salt

the contests are just used for marketing purposes and that's all. beyond that i don't even vote in them.

---Mike Savad

I don't use the contests to tell me if my work is good. I better already think it is if I post it here. I enter contests for fun and another arm of marketing. It's not to be taken serious.

I know the contests are just a bit of fun. But if there's too many entries to browse through the fun is removed (for me).

Would I be right to say that if you win a contest you end up with more people viewing your photo, your profile, following you; which should all increase the possibility of you/your work being featured by FAA and appearing higher in searches?

you won't appear higher in a search. but there are people that may look at the contest if it's a theme. you don't have to look at each image either, you can see a group at a time.

---Mike Savad

In my opinion, contests are worthless to the max. I may enter only to look at the images based on the topic.

Hi Sharon. The limit set for FAA contests is 2500 entries...so 600-700 is not that many! The only way to get 2500, or more in some cases, is if a host allows members to enter too many images, like 10! Once it reaches 2500, those entering earliest are not even counted. Their images will still show up on their own board, but cannot be voted on. Weird, but true. When I host a contest with a popular/general theme, I limit entries to 1 or 2. If it's something I know will attract a smaller audience, like 'Pastel Paintings only', then I might allow up to 5. When voting, just scroll the pages of thumbnails. Much easier! However, some folks actually ENJOY taking the time to check out other's work. Some enter just for the exposure & never vote at all...and others think contests are worthless, period. If you want to know more about my take on the subject, check out my blog 'FAA Contests...the good, the bad, the ugly.'

I agree with the anti- mega entry contest group for all the previously stated reasons. One more reason I hate big contests is that just viewing 1 such contest to vote on will suck up an inordinant amount of time, after which I will not bother to look at any other contests. It is not "fun" to look thru 700 entries- it's work. . Even if you view by the page (which doesn't do many justice) you still end up with more pages than I'm willing to deal with.
Aside from having some fun, one of the main reasons for contests, in my opinion, is to get your work seen.
It aint gonna happen in a big contest.

Not understanding what some of you mean, you hate the large contests because it takes so long to look at all the entrants. I enter a contest to win, or get noticed. I have never cared or wanted to look at the other entries on FAA. So do you feel that you have to look at all the entries and vote for others just because you entered the contest?

@Kevin- what I'm saying and Liz and others is that most people won't look through 700 images. It's just brain fatique, overload.

and yet i've made sales entering contests. so someone, some how saw it.

---Mike Savad

I understand what your saying Patrick, and the contests are sometimes skewed because of groups voting for each other or family members and friends voting for not the best images, but more than half the time the best images come up to the first page, even with 700 enties

Sharon, re-reading your post more closely...I see you were concerned with finding your own images in the crowd of 600-700 contest entries to vote on, not voting in general. Just go to the contest in question, click on the 'My Contest' tab, check your image's number and you'll get a general idea of where to look, which pages, so you don't have to play a guessing game.
As I said earlier, 700 is not that many, really, when you see some contests going over 2500! That is more mid-range. But, two things, allowing too many images [7 to 10, say] & reaching 2500+ entries, cause really BIG problems for contest participants. Once a contest reaches 2500+, those who entered earliest will not be counted at all, as in their images won't get any votes. It's true; their entries don't even show up. Secondly, that's an awful lot of images to sift through in order to vote...and most people just don't have the time or patience except for finding their own & voting, if that. Scrolling through the pages of thumbnails to cast your vote[s], btw, is a lot easier than looking at individual image, I mean, IF you're going to vote.
All that being said, hosts will still decide what they will or won't allow, according to the FAA rules/guidelines...and we members will still enter [some] contests, maybe win or place, continue to complain and, sometimes, vote! Fun stuff. Like I said earlier, check out my blog on FAA contests to read my take on the subject of contests, including vote solicitation! Have a good evening/night.

Hi Mike,

Wonder how you can tell a sale came from a contest or other promotion we may do?

Am going to be entering more, and it would be a way of telling just how much effect it had.

If Faa would limit the time a contest can run, and the number of images that can be entered in a given contest , it would help to cut down on those numbers.