Is It Best To Enter Faa Contests At The Last Minute?

Taking the "contests" seriously enough to try entering at "the last minute", is taking the contests tooooo seriously.

You said yourself you know it's all about exposure but don't take my word for it. Keep entering and sooner or later you'll understand it IS too frustrating to worry about.

You not only have to contend with sometimes absurd rules, and guidelines, but if you try to win on your own merit, you'll more times than not be out-voted by some that don't care and solicit votes not only from their friends but some fellow FAA members as well.

It didn't take me long to figure out the frustration part and adjust my mindset accordingly. I enter almost every contest I "catch" in time but I have no expectations that I will win. I do place on occasion, honestly, without solicitation (even when it's allowed) and I enter that occasion in my FAA blog for posterity because I figure when you win such an event with the odds so stacked against you, it's even a bigger accomplishment than a straight contest.

I always thought the same way. Enter at the end.

Think we all have felt the frustration at times. Done it your way numerous times, oftentimes voting for too many and not allowing our own to ever get seen.
Some seem to consistently put up the last hour or so.

Have many times place lots of votes after a good many show on the leader board; go back later and do it again several times before the contest ends. Sometime, i'm just too burnt out, and it is just a game in a way. Just wish more voted for there works to get it to a place where we can see them, but many contest are just too large.

Large contest I often just skip around and vote on something every few pages until I reach the end, then hit several odd pages on the return.

You are right. it is too time consuming, so I don't always do it. It would be nice if images were randomized throughout the contest, but that would create other conflicts.
No easy solutions, but lots of awesome works that would probably win, only will never get voted on. It's up to the people to put theirs up to be seen.

The only time I feel totally disgusted is when one person grabs the top ten spots. Their works might deserve a win or two, but I've personally felt anyone's works competing against many hundreds, or thousands of images were not deserving of that of taking the whole kit and kaboodle. Happened several times in the past, but not for a while now. If their works were really deserving of that, I'd be right in there voting for them, but not for all the spots. Best to you Thomas!!

I don't bother with entering the last minute or hour or even day, in fact, I may be one of the first to enter. I'm sure that's not a good strategy for getting your image seen by voters that go through each image page separately. I do vote for my own image since that's the only way you're assured of getting it to appear on the Leaderboard page where I'm sure many if not most people go to vote anyway. As you mentioned, some of the "contests" allow too many entries to page through all of them (if you want to have some assembly of a life outside of FAA).

When I do a competition - I allow 10 votes only - to try to stave off that problem where the pictures 'nearest the top of the pile' are only the ones ever voted for.

Personally, I always jump to the back, to consciously overcome the draw of the first few, which might stop me looking further.

But yes, your surmise might hold a grain of truth: post last in the competition, and more might see you/vote for you.

Glad to see somebody is using faa 'tactically' :)

i think the contests are so unimportant, it doesn't make a difference when you post it. i use it as a lightweight advertisement and that's it. winning them is pointless. you can wait to the last second, but meh. its not worth playing it like a game.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

and you already know who will win...the person that has the most facebook followers. they will flood the site with fake points just so they can win a fake contest so they can feel good about themselves.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Hi there :-)

Well, for sure, contests are not do be taken tooo seriously, but since that is the issue here - I think the whole
contest and voting procedures need some basic new directions and rules.

That one should have to, needs to resort to 'tactics' to even get noticed, - shows that the present contest and
voting system is perhaps more then just a bit 'malfunctioning'.
Currently - as rightly mentioned by Brian, there are indeed way too many 'absurd and silly' rules by certain
groups administrators who like to throw their "I am the Boss" rules dictates (some one page long!) around.

Also there should be no more than One Contest Entry because more than one or two - brings in a flood of entries which
are too time consuming and a Certain Deterrent for Potential Customers and the voting artists to wade through.
(and especially mind-numbing when the art standard is low in the majority entries of a given contest)

I am not in favor of 'vote restrictions'.
If there are more Top Class images than the numbers allowed to vote for,
then that is unfair for those top artists. I like to vote for All Deserving Artists
- which is only fair and right.

Another part that needs improving is a simple notification procedure for new contests and voting reminders.
Currently, it's all over the place with each administrator doing their own thing. Some kindly
provide a link to a new contest and for the voting - others do not.

But, despite all those minor contest irritants...have fun,
Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

Yes Mike Savad is very much 110% correct !

Although I have won one or two contests - without soliciting anyone, the FAA Contests
needs a serious New Way of operating

After all - if I were a potential customer and constantly see mediocre contest winners,
I would not look at FAA contests anymore.

Hartmut :-)

I don't bother entering a contest unless I happen to bump into one that would work well and that is nearing the end of submissions. When I see contests with a few days of submissions left I don't bother since you'll be buried under a mountain of entries by the end and will most likely never be found by anyone.

But I agree there are much better things to be focusing on as far as advertising is concerned.

I enter every contest that I have applicable images for. I don't take them seriously, or even check back to see how many votes I got. It's just and easy place to drop a link back to yourself, and get some exposure. As others have stated, it's hardly worth the effort of making a game of it.

What Toby said, exactly that!

If FAA monitors these posts, perhaps they'll look at the voting process. I enter lots of contests. I'm in one called Water (voting just started) and my image is on the 13th page. I'm not even going to bother clicking through 300+ entries to vote on mine - it's too frustrating and too time consuming.
You can view the images by page. It would make sense to do the voting by page as well - if you want to see a bigger view of something click on it. If you want to vote on it, go ahead. That way, when there are 17 pages of entrants, the viewer can at least view thumbnails of entries and if they see something they like, vote on it, then go back to the page views.
Simple solution instead of having to click through every single entry.
And I know the contests are all meaningless. Kind of like winning a 3rd grade soccer trophy!
I also know that's not where my marketing efforts should be going.
That's a whole different story!

and PLEASE don't put a win on your resume!!
If you really care about the contests ( back in the day we had REAL prizes!!) then make sure you vote for yourself as soon as it starts and get yourself seen on the leader board.
Other than that, don't waste any energy that you think you are using to market your work to buyers.

Yes Thomas, I do also hope that FAA reads all of these comments and makes Contests for Customers and Artists - USEFUL !

The only reason to enter contests is if doing so would increase sales. It doesn't, so don't waste your time.

"FAA" monitors all depending on what you mean by FAA.

Keep in mind there are all of eight full time employees, I think and a handful of other people that could loosely be called "FAA." The reality is that FAA is actually Sean for the most part and to be honest and somewhat blunt there are much more important things to do that will actually increase business revenue than to "fix" how contests work to try and please everyone which cannot be done anyway. (The pleasing everyone part.)

I really don't mean to come off as a jerk but the reality is that contests are just a fun social thing to do and a way you can get seen by other artists and maybe a potential customer or three but really not something that needs to be stressed about.

Hi JC, :-)

Of course you are right JC, there are Much More important things to do than to 'fix' a faulty (or mere fun) contest system.
But, since that is the issue here on this (mere social) discussion page / forum, those who are 'annoyed' by faulty (voting
and entering) contests, we may as well discuss it.

And despite it only being a Minor issue, anything that FAA's Sean (and the Contest Administrators) can do to improve it
and make it easier for the buying customers (and contestants) should be welcomed.

Cheerio, Hartmut :-)

Contest are good exposure among other people trying to sell.

If you want to find buyers, you have to get off the hamster wheel and go outside. Market yourself out in the world not inside the bubble.

Summary:
1. Contests are silly, but fun and do get you some exposure - mostly to other artists
2. The current voting system is flawed and favors the most recent entry
3. It could be fixed but they may not have the manpower to do so
4. If you're relying on contests to boost your sales, you're probably not selling very much

I already know contests are silly. I still like to enter them to see other treatments of subject matter that I like to deal with as well. I still wish there was a better way of voting. If they could just fix it so you could vote off of the page previews versus the individual entries, that would automatically make it 30 times better - (30 entries on a page versus clicking through 30 to get to number 31). They'd just have to find some IT guy who could flip a switch when the voting begins so you could click to view a larger image of the one you want to get a better look at from among the page entries and cast your vote.

I'd rather spend the limited resources on things that matter. Keeping the web site up and working. Keeping away the bugs, making sure Google finds us etc. The IT guy is the owner. I don't think he wants to waste his time waiting to "throw the switch" at the appropriate time on every contest. Do you have any idea how competitive the job market is these days and how much IT guys earn? Contests don't contribute to the bottom line so they are low priority.

I happen to be one of those on FAA that enjoy entering contests! However, I wholeheartedly agree with JC who states that "the reality is that contests are just a fun social thing to do and a way you can get seen by other artists and maybe a potential customer or three but really not something that needs to be stressed about." I also enjoy seeing and getting inspiration from viewing others works of art.

Some of my "two cents worth" from my contest experiences:

1. Re Thomas' original question: I do often enter a contest late because I have made it a personal commitment (most times) to go through all of the images in a contest when I vote. If a contest looks like it is getting too many entries to comfortably do that, I will not enter it. I also do vote first for myself to get on the leaderboard (some people only vote for images from the leaderboard) but then vote for others also. I do not vote on popularity, who I follow, etc. but solely on what I think are impressive images that fit the theme.

2. I personally feel the number of entries should be limited to no more than 5. Contests that allow 5 to 10 entries usually get too big real quick.

3. I wish all contests would allow unlimited voting. It is much more time consuming to limit votes while going through the images than to just vote as you go. I think limited voting leads to: voting until you hit the limit and then stopping, voting only from the leaderboard, voter solicitation crucial to score a win, and even less contest participation. If I see a contest only allows 5 votes, I will often not enter.

4. Again, I don't take the contests too seriously! If I win, great! If not, oh well. . . Many times obviously the best images win but also many times mediocre (IMO) images win due to lots of other factors. That's life in a mini-scale. :)

5. I plead guilty to having a gallery of contest wins on my website. I appreciate those wins because I feel I won them fairly on the merits of my work. I do note in my gallery description that I do not solicit for votes in any contest I am in.

I am retired and photography is my creative outlet and passion during this phase of my life. I love the opportunities that FAA provides as an outlet to sell and display my work. I am not looking to make a living off my photography but certainly do enjoy the occasional sale! For me, contests are another part of being on FAA that I enjoy. If I have time, I will even vote in contests where I haven't entered an image. This is just what I do. :)

I am sorry to be rude and like JC I don't mean to come off as a jerk, but to me it is obvious that not many actually get the idea of the contests at all. Why do I say that?

Because the number one thing that is most likely to help result in a sale for anyone in those contests is the number one thing that people seem to complaining about. The fact that people promote the hell out of their entries in these contests on their Facebook or other SM sites is what is going to draw potential BUYERS from outside FAA to the contest and the images. Other than that, there is really no reason to be in the contests, IMHO.

I don't think FAA (Sean's) idea for the contest was to really run meaningful contest as much as just supplying another method for exposure, that hopefully would result in sales for FAA and the participants. Of course I could be wrong but looking at the emphasis on selling here it is an assumption that comes fairly easy.

And there is nothing "fake" about these votes. Fake votes to me would be someone that figures out a way to vote multiply times for themselves, which can be done incidentally. Soliciting others to vote are not fake votes. They are real votes and people looking to sell via the contests should be doing as much of it as they can. And if everyone did it, the more likely it is that anyone in the contest may win a sale!

No reason not to put them in on your resume either. You go with what you got. If that is what you got, that is what you go with, IMHO. It gives you something to brag about in you FB posts. I used to do it all the time. It got a lot of attention.

And then occasionally contests are run by people who have a screw loose. Just dealt with one such yesterday. Same with groups. I don't see how either are worth anyone's time.

Tendency to agree with you JL. Not sure about the screw lose of the contest administrators (LOL) but the time can be better spent, IMHO.

Of course there is a way to turn them into a promotional opportunity. As mentioned above I used to do it all the time and it got a lot of attention on both FB and Twitter. I still do it with contests but not like I used.

For anyone interested I will go put the promotional idea in its own thread.

Here is how I turned group features and contest wins in to promotional tools https://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=3763816