- 414 entries
- 24 countries
- Difference between nr. 1 & nr. 50 is only app. 35 votes!
- 60% (app. 250!) of the contestants didn’t put too much effort in getting votes
The statistics make us both happy & sad.
- Happy for the many contestants & even more the 24 countries that are represented. That is really cool!
- Still about anyone is still able to win, because the difference is very small in the top.
- But the thing what made me wonder is the following: People enter the contest & they upload a picture, write a motivation that this is THE thing for them & that they will do anything to meet their goal. And then, and then…………………….. They do nothing??!!
The top 50 did certainly put very much effort in gaining votes. They sent their page to friends; put it on their weblog & Facebook etc etc. They are really motivated to win, very cool to see.
Ok let’s see what the next 2 weeks will bring. Good luck to everybody!
Posts
First of all, thank you very much for this blog post. And congrats to all of the girls who made top 50! I even voted for some of them myself.... YES, I am IN the contest and I STILL voted for other girls. There are not many other contestants who do things like that, but I believe in helping others and being kind.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all - I feel like your angle here was a little bit cruel towards the rest of the girls who did not make the top 50....
How can you say that those other 60% did not put too much effort into getting votes. You don't know what they did or did not do. You said "People enter the contest & they upload a picture, write a motivation that this is THE thing for them & that they will do anything to meet their goal. And then, and then…………………… They do nothing??!!" That was mean. :( I would not be surprised if I were included in that 60%, but it is not because I have done nothing! I have done everything that I know to do, as I am sure most all of the girls have.
I am sure that almost everyone has done the same things the current top 50 did, which is promoting on our social networking sites. For me, that is all that I can really do. I do not have a big family to vote for me, and much of the family that I do have would not vote for me anyway because they do not support my modeling for hobby. I also do not have huge networks on FB or Myspace, so there are not a lot of people there to vote for me & many of them don;t care enough to register an account to a site that many f them have no interest in joining. It's sad, but I can not hold it against them.
I am just as motivated as the next girl to win this, but I don't happen to know as many people as some of the other girls probably do & I don't know any other way to try and get votes. That does not mean I, or others like me, are not motivated or trying!!!
If you are so sad about the fact that 60% of us are "supposedly" not putting much effort into getting votes, then I suggest you do the following: in one week (halfway into the contest) you can remove the bottom 50% or 60% of vote getters. If I am included in that percentage, so be it, this would leave you with only those girls that you seem to think are deserving and/or trying to win, and it also would cut the number of contestants by half and make things easier on everyone.
I have only one or two more ideas for promoting/asking for votes - it might or might not help me get into the top 50 - but it is all that I am able to do.
For some people, all they have to lean on is "fate" - it does not mean they care less about their dreams. You might have hurt a lot of girls feelings with your post.
Tallulah makes some valid points ... there may be some culutural bias [seeing as how this is an international contest with 24 countries represented!] at play also though - perhaps in the author's culture it is OK to be so forward with this kind of comment.
ReplyDeleteTallulah I agree with you though. I think we all did what we know to do (eg posting on FB, twitter etc.) and that is the nature of the contest. It's just that - a voting contest. None of us have campaign mangers, marketing budgets or anything, we are just promoting ourselves & spreading some love & awareness for a cause. :) Unfortunately it is competitive and some of us are not so big on being competitive at the expense of others..
Best of Luck to the Top 50!
Sorry for the typos, but I think everyone will understand what I was saying.
ReplyDeleteI think I could have got a lot more votes if they didn't have to have an account and log in to win. I don't have many friends in the industry yet and I thought that was part of the point? Networking after? Oh well. Wish you all the best but I never ask my friends to sign up to things they don't want.
ReplyDeleteThank you for understanding, Aletha. I was worried that some of what I said might be taken the wrong way. It means a lot to me that you understood what I was trying to say. And thank you for bringing the cultural differences to my attention too, you are completely right. ;) It is important though that contest providers be more careful about how they word things.
ReplyDeleteSteffanie - you are right... it can be very hard to get people to sign onto a site that they have zero interest in. Some of my voters who are joining really don't have any interest in fashion at all, they made an account to vote for me and they will never again go back to the justproud site.
ReplyDeleteI understand that justproud is doing it like this so they can run the contest fairly though... if people were not forced to make accounts, then that would leave an opening for some people to cheat.
Thanks for your contribution Tallulah, Steffanie & Aletha.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should have made some more gradations
in my writing, so for that my appologies. Its hard work: running this company and being transparant in communication as well; being Dutch in nature makes me upfront indeed :-)
To make some remarks & better understanding for what I wrote: I didnt write it based on the votes but on page views, tracking tools of traffic etc (so my writing wasnt based on if you ask people to join). So itnt if one is or isnt in the Top 50, which makes her determent; but what people appearently did combined with the motivation. Ofcourse people can have not much relatives or friends, but I find it hard to believe for 250 people, dont you think? 5 yes, 15 yes but 250 ? That would surprise me, but ok.
Its not a value judgment from our side or something like that; we just want to emphasis still everybody has a chance & want to motivate them to remain in action.
Hope this cleared some of my writings. Good luck!
Thank you, Geert, for coming back to clarify your posting. I do understand that it must be a great deal of hard work & I really appreciate all of the work you are doing.
ReplyDeleteI am going to keep on trying to squeezw my way into the top & I am really looking forward to the launch in January & more contests as well. :)
You're welcome Tallulah,
ReplyDeleteIts a great pleasure doing this all; and you are right: just make sure you get enough votes to make it to the top & be sure there will be MUCH MORE contests as from January when the full version of the site is live!
Im serious by saying: together we will make this work!
First and foremost I want to thank you for finding a way to put this up here without saying who had the highest votes. Seeing myself there makes me feel more confident that I have a shot. Honestly, I did not think I would get that far - not for lack of trying or determination - but because I did not think I had as many great friends as I do. It resparked my desire to BEG people to vote and after making another facebook, forum and AIM plea to all of my friends, I just have to wait and hope!
ReplyDeleteSecondly - while I do agree it was kind of rude to call out those girls who did not get alot of votes I do understand where you are coming from. Going through other pictures and motivations I saw alot of people saying that family and God was their motivation and while I don't doubt their desire I have to wonder how much do they want it? I'm not insulting anyone but I know that I am doing this first and foremost for myself. To make my dreams come true. If my family, friends and others can benefit from my happiness I will not hesitate to share with them.
Thirdly - Tallulah - you made great points but as I was thinking (and as Geert said) they probably have a system. How many people after registering clicked the little T or F or M for twitter, facebook and myspace? How many times did the link pop on those sites? How many people kept their picture on the facebook page?
etc etc...
I'm not sure if anything I just said makes sense but I wanted to drop my two cents >.<
niennaaikanaro - congrats on being on of the top 50. That is awesome <3
ReplyDeleteAnd yes - I understood what you were saying ;)