Newbie Question On Contests And Voting.

I always vote for my own submission and others, also

I think most people vote for their own images first to get them on the Leaderboard. That's why contests that only allow a single vote aren't very successful.

You are correct, Thomas, that there are usually only 1-2 votes separating winners. That is unless someone is very successful at soliciting votes or, just maybe, their image is so spectacularly better than everyone else's...

As usual, JMHO.

I vote for my own and others...the problem occurs when people who run contests only allow the same # of votes as the # of images each person is allowed to enter. Many contests only allow 1 entry....and 1 vote per person....thus multiple images only get 1 vote each

Unfortunately many people do not take the time to look at the entries but only vote from the leaderboard. You only have a chance to get a top rank, if You are on the board from the beginning. That requires Your own vote as long as the leaderboard is visible before the end of the contest. That is more important as more entries there are.

In my eyes the limitation of entries (or more specific titles than i.e. 'flowers') and the invisible leaderboard would help to get more worthy results. But that seems not to happen.

I also vote for my images and for others as well.

Both! Lol.
There is nothing to be done about it, so go with the flow and do it. I try to salve my conscience by sometimes not voting for myself if I really feel it's not up to the pace, and I almost always vote for others too - they deserve it, and it makes me feel better. BTW, I try to vote before I've checked out the leaderboard - a couple of times I've been pleasantly surprised to find that one of mine that I had deemed inferior had got several independent votes, sometimes more than another of my images that I strongly preferred!
There is no accounting for taste, and if any further salve for the conscience was required, it is pretty clear that many are touting for votes on social media, such that run of the mill pictures win contest because their 'jockeys' are better connected than better artists. I think FAA encourages this, because it brings more traffic to the site, and it's about economics, not art.

Vote for yourself. The contests have no prizes usually, there is no reason not to... That said I usually post to contests and never come back unless there is a cash prize. If I win the others good. I don't check if I won. That's not the point in entering these things. The wins mean nothing to a customer. I just want them to see the work there.

The 30 day rule has more to do with hit and run accounts that join just to vote on themselves.

----Mike Savad

I'm probably going to rock the boat with this.... but i'm totally against voting for your own image.

If at the end of voting and you only have the one vote which yourself voted for then your image although it's brilliant is not attracting peoples attention or to their taste.
l've entered numerous competions and never voted for myself just to get on the leaderboard, because of that there have been occasions where l've received zero vote but l can live with that, and go on to try other competions.

We all know there's touting for votes through social media or other ways and if that makes people happy doing that thats upto them but it detracts from the word "CONTEST"

No boat to rock Keith, it's all good! I think the point is that the contests are to promote site activity and maybe build some community and that's cool with me. As a reclusive "artist" I'm sure I'm not alone when I say your point resonates with me.

The bottom line is you have to love your own work, otherwise what's the point. Going forward I think I'm going to try and be a thoughtful participant by giving myself a couple rules.

#1) I'm don't upload anything I'm not proud of so I won't be entering anything I'm not proud of as my best effort.
#2) I'm not going to alter what I do just to post in a contest (like seeing a Black and White animal contest and just converting a color image from your collection to B&W
#3) I'm going to look at every image in the contest and ask myself, If it was mine would I have entered it instead of the image I did, if yes, they get my vote.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your feedback !!

A Good topic Thomas and agree with your 3 points

If you are a participant and you have only one vote you must vote for yourself....otherwise what's the point of entering the contest? If you have multiple votes, but you vote others too, it means you admit others are better than you...again why are you in the contest then?

Ok guys, you can also think on this. Contests bring sales. More sales than the groups do. (not saying groups do not, but contests bring more)

Proven our end

So it matters not who votes for who, or why... you are going to be seen by customers.

Thing is, customers do not always buy the winners, they go for any that catch their heart or eye, so cheaters are doing themselves no favours. But if the voting is for everyone, then solicitation is expected. Do not put 'no solicitation' when having an open to all voter contest, it makes no sense. You WANT people to share as it brings more customers!! So yes, vote for yourself if you wish.. in the contests I run I tell people to vote for themselves and at least one other person. I know that customers are seeing the images.

Abbie
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Technical Support and Members Manager
Fine Art America | Pixels.com
Manchester, UK | Santa Monica, CA

Contest voting etiquette... "do it your way"! But I like Abbie's suggestion to "I tell people to vote for themselves and at least one other person" To further that, I encourage members if they vote for 3 of their images in one of my contests, to balance it with 3 votes for fellow travelers.

P.S. Most of my contests are Private Entry and very rarely have 120 images to go through.

Contests here are just for fun and exposure. I just look at it as an easy way to get my work seen, I don't even bother to vote and rarely if ever check to see how I placed.

In addition, contests are feedback. If you post something in a contest and nobody votes for it at all, that might tell you something. I always vote for my own so I don't feel left out.

To add on to dougs statement, a contest is a way to find out what a customer may be looking for and what you may be missing in either item or keywords. If you don't have that keyword and you know you have that item, add the keyword. Or add the item. I find those contests that are specialty are the ones I tend to sell from.

----Mike Savad