National Tv Contest Voting Issues???

Do you realize you need 250 votes in order to be in the National TV contest. I think that's a lot!

there is a link for the voting part, a question is one thing, but the rest is kind of cheating.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Cheating??? How??? Because I'm trying market myself?? And there's is something wrong with the link. I just had another person tell me that they tried to vote and couldn't due to the fact that when they clicked on the link it said they already voted. Which they had not.

I was thinking about posting this comment in another thread that I saw earlier in the day but I figure I'll post it here. One of the things I noticed about this site and I mean this in the nicest way possible is while the people on the site may be very good artist. There aren't really a lot of very sales oriented people here. I have worked in high pressure sales for the last 4 years. I know how to produce numbers. It's not easy but sometimes you do what you have to do. I have noticed a lot of the people here market only within faa. Artist are not going to buy each others artwork. Mike I think you are smart. I think you know how to market your art well and I'm sure you have established a great following. However I have seen a lot of people on the site complain about this contest. They don't like the spam or don't want to solicit votes. What I don't understand is why? Personally I think whoever came up with the idea for this contest was pretty smart. It creates exposure. Not only for faa but for you and me as well. Think about it. If I get 250 people to vote for my entry. That is 250 new people, non artist that are being introduced to faa and they all have the possibility of seeing your artworks. Does anyone know how many people entered the contest? Last I checked there were maybe about 5,000 entries. Say each person submitted three entries. That is 1600 people. Now say each person gets 250 votes. That won't happen but lets say it does. That introduces faa to roughly 400,000 people. To the people that say they don't want to ask for votes. No offense but I think your stupid not to.

Now personally I really did not think I would gain any votes by posting my images here but then again why wouldn't I try? It's not cheating. Someone might see something I've done and like it. You never know. And Randy one of my pictures has gotten about 30 or so votes in roughly about one day. If I don't get to 250 before the end of February. It's only because I have gotten very lazy and someone needs to fix that stupid link.

Promoting yourself is fine. But if you promised your friends that you would vote for them if they voted for you then yes, it's cheating. If you look around a bit you will see the frenzy of vote trading and solicitation going on. As soon as I saw how the contestants were behaving I took my photos out of the contest. It's shameful.

because your supposed to be bringing in people from the outside. and because there is a link to that and the thread probably should have been closed by now like the others were.

here's the thing - this contest - this is the 3rd year as far as i know. when they first made it, people were taking back votes, trading then taking them back, there was a lot of back stabbing going on. there were vote clubs on facebook and it was like a spam marathon, because they do allow votes internally to a degree (though less this year). it became annoying. i found it a waste of time, i would rather show people new stuff then to win some contest. i have yet to see the commercials of the past on tv myself.

and i understand it creates exposure - but how good? because if a company spams heavily, do you think better of that company? for example, viagra - is spammed to my box daily. it makes me not want to buy from there. i can't say how much of a spike if any, of how many more sales result with a contest like this.

the 250 - are they new? aren't these the same people who you were already advertising too? are they voting? or are they looking and buying? when someone says - help me, i need votes, and you vote on them, do you look at the rest of the site? do you even remember the sites name after you vote? its the same thing here. that's how i see it.

the contest is a sound and fine idea. i just don't like the constant spamming. and you will see, just like other hopefuls out there, that the last 50 votes will always be 50 votes because people will take their vote back and give it to someone else. you can't just have 250 votes because of this, i'm guessing they still don't lock. you need 400 votes just to be safe.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If your using the same router, like maybe your friends are at your house trying to vote, I don't think that will work. They will have to be using WiFi or a connection from a different router.

Kevin!!!! This ^ is probably what is happening. The 2 people I saw that had issues were work friends. We all connect to the same wifi when we are at work. One of the my other friends told she was able to vote but when her husband went to do it. I wouldn't allow him. It said he already voted. It's probably because they were running on the same wifi. Thanks!!!!!! That was really annoying me. I'll have to test that theory today.

And I haven't asked any friends on here to trade votes. For one I don't really have friends on this site. Two even if I did I don't really see that as being very productive. Why would anyone do that??? It completely defeats the purpose. Like I said earlier. The people here need to learn to market themselves outside of this site. They really had vote clubs? Yeah Im kind of starting to see your guys point. That's a little pathetic. Personally I know how I'm going to gain the majority of my votes. I come from a very large very Irish southside of Chicago family. I had a good family friend ask me yesterday if she could vote everyday because that's how we do it in Chicago. Those were her exact words. I guess I'm lucky. I don't know we will see.

Kathleen, I think that may be the case, sounds like it anyway. It may be a way of them stopping people trying to play the system by voting from multiple emails or something.
Best of luck

they had clubs, they had huge fights. people were hoarding votes and giving them out like currency. it was almost like a bloodshed event, kind of sad. then it took months before the commercial cam out, and i've only seen it on youtube. i don't know where or when these commercials play on tv.

if your all connected to the same wifi then the system probably assumes that your the same person and your trying to cheat. it's probably an unknown qualifier. and also works against the telling new people about the site. all these are your friends. i think someone tried this using a school once.

within a week you'll see facebook things popping up - vote for a vote. or even groups set up for that. in the past group leaders tried that - those people will probably be tossed if they try now.

i feel with the amount of time it takes to push the contest, to push those 3 images up there, i could advertise a 100 different things that might catch the eye better and be just as beneficial to the site. and still have time to make something new. i'm pretty sure your friend can vote - once.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Wow I really did not know. I can't believe people will act in that manor over a simple online contest but I guess I wouldn't put it past anyone.

I still think that if I were to recruit a family of people to vote. All living under the same household connected to the same wifi. They should be able to if the chose but all of your points are very valid. It is a shame. I guess there will always be those few people that ruin things for others.

that's the part i wait for though. popcorn ready. how crazy will it get this year? hard to say, fun to watch. i remember one person actually had the nerve to research how many things people have sold (i guess by the sold page and searching?), i think where they lived and a bunch of stuff that shouldn't be together. she was kind of tarred and feathered after that. then she came running into this forum and cried foul, but first she changed what she said from the day before. so nothing made sense at all. and it was really just a lot of venom. mostly the voting should be done be people outside the site. it wouldn't really prove useful for the site, if your entire family voted, schools etc. it should be new people.

but keep an eye on your votes and see if they go up or down.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

That Kevin dude sure is smart :)

I am cantankerous. If someone I don't know at all asks me for votes, I will intentionally go vote for something else. If I vote, it's going to be for my choice of image.

Not that you were doing that, Kathleen, just a comment on the whole thing.

Kathleen! I wish you best in the world and hope you do hit 250 votes. I will be working on marketing myself and I'm not really sure where I should start, but anyways I wish you the best!

Wouldn't it be better to submit only one image rather than dilute the votes between 3

Mike your story is pretty funny. I guess I am going to have to look through these forums a little more then I do. But correct me if I'm wrong in saying if I told someone I knew that I had entered this contest and say that person had told other people. Isn't that introducing new people? From my experience word of mouth is the best form of advertising in any form of business.

Randy I wish you the best of luck as well! I'm sure you will figure out a way to market yourself!

And Jessica I guess I didn't really look at it that way. I just figured the more entries I posted the more of a chance I had for winning. So I don't know. I guess we will see.