(Image: Atalaya Castle, Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina; All images are the original photography of the author.)

Getting More Votes On Gurushots

Before reading this post, make sure you read my short and sweet guide-slash-tutorial on Gurushots to learn more about the app and how to use it.  This post assumes you already know the basics of using Gurushots, so things like swaps and auto-fills will not be explained here.  (Refer to the previously mentioned, and linked, post to find out what those are and how to use ’em!)

One of the biggest questions that users seem to have about using Gurushots is how to get more votes for the images they submit to various photo challenges.  Some people seem to think they have the perfect system for gaming the system, while others seem to be flailing away in the dark and either getting lucky (and getting good results) or failing miserably.

There are actually a few things you can do to increase your chances of getting more votes for your photographs.  Those things are: (1) selective use of the auto-fill option (or your voting ability); (2) advantageous use of swaps; (3) reading (and complying with) the challenge guidelines; and (4) submitting great photos.  Each one will be discussed a bit further below.

(Image: Micro image of small cactus plant’s bristles.)

Selective Use of Auto-Fill (or Voting)

While voting for the images of other users in each challenge you are participating in is a great way to boost the exposure level for your own challenge-submitted images, you don’t want to just start voting willy-nilly and hope for the best.  Also, because you should vote until your exposure meter is maxed out – which accomplishes the same thing as using the auto-fill option – this summary will interchangeably discuss either one (and will mean either one).

When your exposure is at the highest level, your images do not get “maximum exposure” at all times.  Gurushots actually has a discussion page that explains the exposure and how it works.  Basically, your images get “equal exposure time” along with the images of all other users who have submitted photos to that particular challenge, based on the exposure level for each user.  Low exposure levels equal low (but not “no”) exposure, naturally, and the images for users with the highest exposure levels get rotated so that everyone with a high exposure meter level gets an equal shot at getting their images seen by voters and viewers.

Choosing when you vote (or use auto-fill) is the key to maximizing your exposure level to get more votes.  If you are raising your exposure meter in the wee hours of the morning when fewer Gurushots users are looking at and voting on images, you won’t get very many votes by the time your exposure meter starts dropping back down.  If at all possible, however, you want to keep your exposure level meter filled at all times – so that when the exposure for everyone else’s images starts leveling out, your images will be primed to start rotating through the top spots in the voting feeds.

What this means is that you need to use your voting power or auto-fill at times of the day when the most users are likely going to be looking at and voting on images in the Gurushots photo challenges.  There are plenty of studies and research documents available that let you know when most people are using their online applications and engaging in social media functions.  Late afternoon and early evening are great times during the week, because people have come home from work, eaten dinner, and are settling in at home and checking all their programs, apps, platforms, and networks.

Make sure you are time-zone aware, however.  The best time for someone in New York won’t be the best time for someone in California, or Russia or France or Madagascar.

Advantageous Use of Swaps

You will undoubtedly find posts and articles online that explain how swapping at certain times is the ultimate key to gaming the game and getting the highest rankings (and most votes) on Gurushots.  While those posts are not 100% true, there is some truth to them.

When you swap in a new image to replace an existing one, the new image gets an exposure bonus to make sure it gets as much exposure as your other photos already have.  This means that a swapped-in image gets prime placement in voting feeds for a certain period of time.  This doesn’t mean, however, that you can start a swap avalanche and flood a challenge with swap after swap and expect it to be successful in terms of votes.

The best time to swap an image into a challenge is when there is less than a day (24 hours) left before the challenge ends.  You will also want to make sure that you swap in when your exposure meter is maxed out, and – as with voting or using auto-fill at the most opportune times – make sure you perform your swaps when your images are most likely to be seen by the biggest audience.

Reading (And Complying With) the Challenge Guidelines

Perhaps one of the most important things you can do, second only to the last item on this list, is to make sure your images comply with the challenge guidelines.  Over the past six months that I’ve been using Gurushots, I have seen countless photos that either comply with the challenge in the barest terms, or not at all.

For example, an image of a cat playing with a ball of string is not considered “artistic still life.”  A picture of your grandmother knitting a sweater is not “a man’s world.”  A sky filled with hot air balloons is not “minimalism in nature.”  Your daughter holding a kitten is not “animals only.”  And anything with color is not “black and white” anything.  READ THE CHALLENGE GUIDELINES before submitting your images.

Submitting Great Photos

The last thing you can do to make sure you get the most votes possible on Gurushots is the most important thing.  Make sure you take photos that are worth submitting to a photo challenge.  While many challenges ask for images that aren’t exactly worthy of framing and hanging in a gallery somewhere, there are several challenges that do ask for great photography.  Submit great photos!