Limit The Submit Number Of Images To Contests

You should not participate in contests that allow more than three submissions for participants if that's what you want and let others participate how they see fit. Everyone wins. I usually allow three, maybe four, in contests I admin, but place as many as other admins allow in other contests. Works pretty well that way.

I think 1-3 are a good number to submit. I do go to image and look at the whole page to see which images are strongest. It does speed up the voting.

while i agree... i don't enter to win. if anything i think contests should have a filter on it, so they have to be reviewed before entries are allowed. too many contests have images that don't fit the topic at all and aren't cleaned up. there may be a 1000 things that don't belong. and if the contest starter had to go back and filter through it all, i think they would restrict the number themselves.

but if you don't want to be hidden, do as said, find contests that don't have that kind of rule.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I get more votes if I enter late, but get more views if I enter early. Which is better? (Well, sales would be better, but that's another story!)

If a contest doesn't please me, I find another to enter instead. Easy peasy!

Hi Mike, Iris and Joseph,

Thank you for your comments.

Mike I agree that there are too many images that don't fit and a contest filter would a very good idea.

Iris I too look at the whole (images) page but even that is not fast enough when there are hundreds and hundreds of images.

Joseph, of course everyone should participate as they see fit; but that does not do justice to the participating artists who enter contests with
very high submission numbers - if then no one looks at their images or does not vote for them - because those high numbers have become a tedious chore.

Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

As far as entries that don't fit the contest, I try to weed those out of mine, but Ido miss them some. Just trust that they will be weeded out eventually. I've been surprised at how many non-railroad submissions I am getting to the railroad group I just took over though.

EDIT -- Thanks for reminding me to go through my current contest to weed out the non-compilers.

Hi Wendy,

I guess you do get more views when you enter early, but only at an early stage - but you do get indeed more votes when you enter late - simply because voters do not want to wade through hundreds of images to get to the (early submitted) ones at the end of the list, - which is what I find unfair to the earlier participants who put as much effort into their work as those who enter late.

Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

On the other hand, there are some odd-ball types like me, who start viewing/voting from the last page and work forward. (Well, maybe I'm the only one - but I remember always being near the back of the line in elementary school. LOL)

------------------------------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com

TBH I don't see the purpose of contests at all except to give someone bragging rights (or maybe a feature on someone's Pinterest page or something like that). How often are there actually potential buyers viewing and voting on contests?

Hi Bill,

WHADDYA KNOW, I have done that 'starting from the back' too.

Alas, that does not make voting for hundreds of images any less time consuming or tedious.
And that discourages many from looking at the work or voting for artists - who have put a lot of efforts into their work
and who participate in those MEGA number contests.

Cheerio, Odd-Ball Hartmut :-)

Hi Toby,

You made some valid points.
I guess, like with so many of our human actions,
there are good and not so good reasons to participate or not to participate in any contests.

Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

I think that totally depends on the topic of the contest. If you know that there are going to be oodles of entries, yes, by all means keep it minimal. If it is an off topic, you can go higher. Also Hartmut, if you vote early in the contest and your work is in the leaderboard early, your chances of winning goes way up no matter how far back your image is. That is if your image is good. Then again, I have seen work that gets multiple votes because of being in the leaderboard early that is not so great.

Hi Phyllis,

As I said elsewhere, its a good point to increase the limit if it is a topic of little interest - or decrease it, when there is a high interest.
And you made another good observation that sometimes 'certain' works get high votes (or even win), when they are 'not so great' ,
but are clearly voted for 'en masse' by friends and relatives.

But that is another story for another discussion, or for something administrator should look into - like not accepting every sub-standard
picture or removing those 'not so great works' before voting takes place.

Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

My opinion on contests is they do not belong on a selling site. I do believe I have made a sale or 2 from them but imagine if we had user curated galleries geared to buyers instead of contests and groups geared to sellers?


Searchable user curated galleries is a proven way to engage visitors . Contests is not.
A few simple rules could make curated galleries just a fun as contests and achieve more sale.

BTW if you have a contest and limit who can vote you are pretty much destroying any sales potential these might have.

I agree with you, Bradford!

imagine if we had user curated galleries geared to buyers instead of contests and groups geared to sellers? Searchable user curated galleries is a proven way to engage visitors.

Agreed. So - can something like this be arranged? If not here - how about off-site with everything leading back here (to appropriate Artist's galleries)?

------------------------------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com