Contests And Their Value...

They are grade school ribbon contest so don't fret too much or lose any sleep over them.

Hi, did you use the forum search? We do have quite a few open threads about the value of contests :)

More agreeing with Jeff as the forum doesn't really substantiate the value of the contests.

I mostly agree with Jeff, they are nothing to put much weight on, especially given the solicitation aspect. There are tons of gorgeous images in every contest which don't see the light of day, which only get one, maybe two votes. But..... I imagine if every contest participant actually scanned the images, actually voted for other peoples' images along with their own, there would be different results. Some people definitely do this, but it seems to be a minority. Re. scrolling through hundreds of images, yeah, it's pretty tedious, but I find the really exceptional images stand out, so it doesn't take super long for me to go through them. (But yeah, the 1000 plus contests are not that great)

That said, I think there are definitely positives, in that there is visibility potential, some people do take them more seriously and you can get constructive comments / views from other artists who see your image via a contest. I don't know whether the public actually views them, I suppose there is that factor as well to keep in mind. Finally, I imagine participation and such can factor into the magical formula FAA uses for their Search algorithm. :)

I recently started hosting a few contests. I have really enjoyed the process except for the ones who break the simple rules that are very specific. I agree that some are just too generalized thus having so many images to go through that you rarely get to the bulk of them. What I have been trying to do is to create contests that are more geared to a specific form of art and that has made the entries smaller. I have not created any photography contests as of yet, but am thinking about a few that would be geared to a minimal amount of entries.
I do notice much more activity when I participate in contests. Sure can't hurt!

all i can say is, i've sold stuff about a week after posting. how they saw it i don't know. maybe someone at work was looking at it. maybe the buyer made it. i do know that there should only be 3 entries, more is not better.


---Mike Savad

I like to enter contests because if I win, then I have something to blog/write/tweet about. Not sure if contests ever drive traffic to my gallery, but it's worth a shot.

Good idea Mike as 3 might be too small but you could create a workable limit of first 25. Certainly would make a contest more workable.

Peter, contests are a great way of getting your work seen, garnering some wins on your images & gaining a little more exposure, which can translate to sales, like Mike says above. Plus, you get to enjoy other's work, too. Check out the other discussion threads re contests! Plus, here is a link to my blog on the subject, warts & all:
http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/faa-conteststhe-good-the-bad-the-ugly.html

Every little bit we do helps the bigger picture of selling our work, even contests!

"They are grade school ribbon contest so don't fret too much or lose any sleep over them."

I just shared a six image album with 113 FB groups with a combined membership of nearly 2 million people. Then I did 24 tweets of the same images to combined followers of over 1500 people.

A lot of those FB posts have already been shared by several other people and I have no idea how many see those shares and the tweets retreeted several time.

I did all of that in about the same time that it would take me to deal with entering and remembering to vote just a couple contests.

If someone can convince me that any of these contests have the potential to reach that many people, I will start doing contests again. But not until.

Also keep in mind that very few images in those contests even get seen outside of FAA. And we have not even mentioned that the a lot of people have figured out how to game them to win.

So actually, I put more value in my grade school ribbons I won.

"I like to enter contests because if I win, then I have something to blog/write/tweet about."

Jane has it right.

Same thing with the groups. If you get featured, it gives you something to talk about. But if you are a creative copy writer, as in adverting copy, you don't need to mess with the contest and you can still come up something to talk about.

Here's an idea. Write down the number of visits you have on an image. Do nothing to promote that image, but enter it in a contest. After the contest is over, make a note if that image has more views than any of your other images that are similar.

I can usually tell when an image is in a contest because it gets more "real" views than normal. Sometimes I will do OK in a contest; many times I do not. But they are good for a few views, comments and faves. Take contests lightly; have a little fun with them. Don't over think them.

i mean, it's pointless to have 10 entries per person. 3 per person is all you really need. 1 is too few. once you enter 10, your lost in a sea of images. and i almost never get sales from those because there are too many images. further the contest should be about something. its totally pointless to have a contest that says - post anything you want, it should have a theme of some kind. think of it as a search phrase.

entering only and not promoting isn't wise. however many of the things i entered i didn't actually promote. the amount of times its happened, its too much to be a coincidence.

---Mike Savad

I agree with Mike, 10 is too many. 3 is perfect. Contests do get you more views.

Mike, think you and Floyd have it right... 3 is good and must be specific... but who will vote... the 3 that entered vote for their own... kind of a joke and posted this only because realized contests really don't achieve sales. Joesph says he sees increased traffic, yes that can be true and that's from FAA members, not from buyers and as I said originally the images get spread around amongst members and not art buyers....

I just entered a piece in a contest last night and I have had 20 more views in that time.

voting doesn't matter. i simple enter it and that's it. every wed and sat, enter what i can. i don't know if i win, and don't care. and winning doesn't matter.


---Mike Savad

I entered 3 of my images in a contest here once and after a couple of days of voting I was in 1st and 3rd place. I checked back in a couple of days to see how I was doing and my images were gone??? I contacted the organizer and they told me that they disqualified me because the same people had voted for both of my images so it was obvious that I was soliciting votes??? I haven't entered a contest since. I suppose it can be fun if you have a lot of free time to waste, but I agree.... don't expect any sales as a result.

that's pretty ridiculous, i can see it happening if 10 people do that. and to check it at the end. i don't like it when they remove my entries, it takes me time to find and put them in there, and i don't like wasting my time on people like that. contest people tend to get a god complex. it's annoying. i remember a few years back, someone made a contest, entered her pieces, then remove everyone else so she would be the winner. in her mind she thought this would make sales because she had the top spaces (with out the competition). sad...


---Mike Savad

Such interesting responses with several saying how many more views they had but nothing saying how many more sales they had which is my point. FAA by it's own advertising is a place to sell fine art and make money. If entering a contest makes you feel good because you win or don't win from what I'm seeing it doesn't improve any sales and the contests are just for the fun of it. If that makes you feel good great but I was thinking this might be a good professional site where real artists can post and sell their work. Again, looking at what's selling there are some very fine artists here and doubt that those sales are coming from their entering any contests. Sorry if this rankels any contest lovers but just had a feeling I was wasting my time with contests and will focus on other venues for sales. Again, for those that love the contests, good for you and that's great and I mean no disrespect.

how can you/one trace whether or not one/you got a sale directly because it was in a competition?

I find that I usually pick up more activity on paintings submitted in a contest. But more importantly, when I occasionally win or place in a contest, I post it on Facebook and get loads of FB activity, AND have sold several originals of the winners. Also, I list my contest wins under the descriptions and have sold work to visitors that notice it is a contest winner. So, yes, contests are definitely helpful for me! And, I get to see some really great art! In the end, it is sales that count, not the number of views or activity received. I agree with Mike that contests should be limited to only three entries. Also, soliciting votes goes against my grain and feel that an image should be a winner on its own merit, not by how many friends one has - but thats another whole ball of wax!

Just my early morning opinion about contests - I enter them - sometimes I get hits off them - never have gotten a sale from one of them. I usually enter and then forget about it - unless the contest administrator sends a reminder to vote. Three images is about the right number; if the contest can only be voted on by FAA members, and especially if it's voted on by a hand picked 'jury', it becomes obviously less useful as a tool for selling - except as Jane uses it. I'm still not sure how "anyone" outside of being an FAA member can vote - wouldn't they still have to have an account - even if it's a free one? that being asked - that would make it more useful as a tool to get folks to look at your images - perhaps if you were posting your images to social media and dredging for votes.

Mike is right on in my opinion with his comments in all that he has said. I have had several images that had no views for weeks and have entered it in a "specific" contest as Mike has talked about and made a sale within a day or two. So I firmly believe they do work at times. The more "specific" theme, the better. However, if you are entering to win instead of getting a possible sale, you should look into local competitions in the area you live for that...Winning is not what Fine Art America is all about. Making sales is why I am here and I think that is the goal of most of the artists and photographers who have joined Fine Art America...

They end up being popularity contests. A real contest has a independent judging panel. The results of these contests are meaningless. Any correlation to sales is probably due to the that people enter their best work.

It seems that the interest in collecting blue ribbons comes from some want of validation. I'd rather be validated via sales.

@campbell - if i entered something in a contest,but haven't posted it elsewhere in a while, added new tags, advertised it, etc - and it sells i assume contest. wish i could see the trail of exactly where they came from. analytics would never tell you that because contests aren't part of the artist site i don't think.

---Mike Savad