How People Get So Many Votes

how it is possible to get 100+ votes for a blog post.

Method 1 : Blindly promote a lot of posts.

Method 2 : Read a lot of posts and promote them.

look at the number of comments on every post. 

They interact a lot with other bloggers - by reading and commenting on other people's posts, liking their posts on social networks etc

I also leave comments on many bloggers (hindi english both) .. but thy dnt come back .. I dnt like this .. 

Not everyone will comment back. Post 100 comments. Atleast 10 will return the favor. 

Make a list of bloggers who comment back. If you like their blogs, regularly read their posts and comment. They too might do the same. 

The trick is easy Bhavana! It's called the art of 'give and take' which rules Indivotes. Here I'll explain it to you short and crisp:

1. First, add a good number of your fav blogs to your network

2. Then RELIGIOUSLY votw for all their posts DAILY(If you have time once in Morn and again in the night)

3.Read their posts, show them love by leaving comments

4.Follow the aove steps for atleast 15 days

5. Tada! See the results for yourself. You'll be getting more votes than anyone else! 

Hectic process na? Kya karen, Some things in life aren't free! 

Thank u Bushra .. wat to say I have tried this thing voting commenting ( not regularly still did tht) but unfortunately very few ppl turned back.. aajkal bhalai ka zamana nahi rahaa .. however, there are some fellow bloggers who votes regularly and thnks to them that my posts get some extra views

Do it regularly BL! Bhalai hoti hai...you just have to look for it in the right place  On a personal note, I would advice you to note care much about votes. Instead utilize the time you spend reading and commenting on other's posts to write great creative content on your own blog and promote it on social media sites!

Thnks again  Bushra.. actually I dnt write regularly .. I cant (contest are another thing0 .. so maybe this is the issue that ppl sometimes forget abt me .. I used to write stories and essays and book review and tht too once in a while so I cant blame the readers .. between I will try to follow some of your tips 

Great! I would like to give you one more tip, and I think it's the best one I have ever given to a blogger: Try keeping your post short and crisp. Short posts attract more visitors then long posts can ever do! This is from my personal experience. When I post short fictions(55 words or 100 word fictions) I get surprisingly high traffic and reader engagement 

yes this a week point of mine .. I am tend to write long stories say 3-4 parts .. though I have written some short stories as well .. but when it comes to a serious issue I cnt stop myself .. I ma better in short essays 

I personally think....one should not compromise on their writing style. If one loves writing long stuff ( i do :D ), then go ahead -- one should write what one truly enjoys writing....not merely to please others. Yes, you can break up the post into part1, part2, part3 etc and post different parts as sequels. those who love reading long stories will read it anyways.

I agree with Nandini. Changing one's style just to make a futile attempt to appeal to more people will only be detrimental to a blogger. Instead, it would be better to write a long one and split it (as ND already suggested) and then link them to form a cohesive, coherent and compelling point.

If it is a story that spans several posts, try to end each post with a slight tinge of suspense so that readers are intrigued by what's next.

ND and Siddharth .. yea I cnt change my writing style coz every subject story theme has its own demands .. for example there r two stories of mine which are divided in 4 parts and some others r in 3 or 2 parts ... and yes I got readers as well as ..I mostly pic subjects from real life and real ppl wid lots of descriptions.. I alwasy got readers for the long stories and appreciation from the serious readers (whose feedback I actually lookfor) .. so no regret on that front 

Ah that's encouraging to hear. Good for you.. :)

Black hat trick  - Add all newbies to your network. By default, 'Network Add' mails are turned on.  As they are new, they are likely to add you back. Your IV posts will shown in their 'Posts from My Network' page. 

I tried this trick for those who were not getting much votes like me ..but seems they were not interested in this vote thing.. and I think they are samajhdaar 

I'm old on IB, but I still add back people, though, a bit carefully. Once I was added to someone's network, I added that person back, and inreturn, that person started abusing IndiMail by sending SSP links, and I was pissed off. I removed that person from my network, then tried sending an IndiMail telling why I did that, but, wasn't allowed, so, I added that person back to my network, sent an IndiMail, and then, removed that person from my network.

CK .. thats a tough exercise 

Bhavana If you want I can give you a table containing information about the total number of IV votes received and given by each blogger. 

and how did u manage to reach those data and figuers .. a spy in the IB network . Renie look someone stealing your data .. 

between.. do send it to me .. information are everyone's right 

he is ranjipedia for a reason~

If I don't like someone's content then what ever be the amount of times they have voted for my post, I don't vote for them and that is true with most of the people. You may end up getting votes first few times but if your blog is not good you will never get readers and forget comments, yes you may still get few votes which are actually of not much use. *Personal opinion*

perfect

it cud be true to some extent but my experience speaks otherwise .. log bakwas bhi likhte hain toh bhi commnts ki line lag jaati hai .. anyways ther are so many colors in the rainbow.

DVD .. u r suppose to join the SSP club.. see u there 

Yes, different people might have different taste. Agar bakwas likne pe comments milte hain toh wahi likha kar 

gaurab .. israda yahi hai .. full on bakwas .. wanna join hands ..

Feels nice to read this, Gaurab. :)

10k meagre fees  u kidding me .. I wud better do it myself .. koi sasta sundar upaay ho toh batao .. itne paise toh nahi hain mere pass  

koi ni, humara tem bhi precious hai 

Sabse sundar, tikau upaay toh yahi hai ki multiple id banao aur khud ko hi vote/promote karo...

multiple ids means have multiple blogs ----- anyways once... i saw someone voting for their contest entry with their 2nd profile --- 

i see those with sibling.spouses.parents too as bloggers having an advantage too...siblings vote n comment -- encouraging each other

Too much effort for too little success, don't you think?

kapil ... a big ROFL .. itne bhi vele nahi baithe 

ND .. spouse, siblings factor  I wasn't aware of it .. though I noticed some common surnames ( unique surnames not much heard) .. hmm now I understand 

there are quite a few of them...prominent ones 

got it .. some very respected names .. lets not spoil their fame 

Getting multiple ids or Blogger siblings/spouses/parents won't help much as we can at most get 8 Votes (considering 4 members of our Family vote for us & all of them are star-IndiBloggers! If they aren't star-IndiBloggers, we can hope for 4 Votes only from them.)

But, what about the other Votes? Many Votes are needed for our Post to make it to IB's Home Page...

Similar is the case with Comments. 4 Family-members can write 4 Comments for us!

Ranjipedia & Bushra's suggestions are apt.

I never 'vote'... and I don't care for votes. But yes, I do love commenting (but then this is because I love reading posts)... and somethimes my comments do tend to be harsh and scathing, but then this is because I'm not the sort who'd want to comment as a protocol to entice people to come and comment on my posts.

If only the world had more like you ... :)

I agree. A couple of principles.

1. If I visit I do try to leave a message to show (a) that I was there and (b) that I actually read the post.

2. I don't like or vote if I don't like it or feel it is worth promoting. If it moved me enough, I will probably end up writing about it and referring a link back to the post so that people too can experience (hopefully) what I experienced.

I see so many blogs that are badly written, are cluttered with ads, that simply put a post up for the sake of posting. And these are far more popular and ranked at a level I don't know I can ever reach.

Most of these bloggers are in it for the money and don't care about "what" they produce, but they sell it aggressively by networking and cross liking / voting etc.

My objective is to learn how to write, so any likes, comments that come my way are a huge bonus because of the feedback I get.

ajesh +1

Some bloggers, whose writing I admire, are not in Indiblogger, so never worry about these votes. I stopped worrying about them after I won the "Top Post on Indiblogger" badge. And I got that badge for an entry which I don't even consider in top 25 of my best posts. I have only 70 posts on my blog 

uh - did you stop worrying about the bloggers you admire or the votes? :)

It's the votes

NSV .. this is the thing surprized me most.. content hardly matters when it comes the number of votes.. anyways .. 

Bhavana, 'Votes & Comments' need a lot of effort. 'No pains, no gains'.

Many points have already been shared by the experienced Bloggers in this thread.

I first got the 3-digit figure of Votes for a sweet Contest-post that didn't even win! I have learnt- Max Votes don't make us win... So, why make our 'Condition Serious'?

Rather, writing quality content & sharing it across Social Media like Twitter can earn us new readers.

It is helpful to contribute to Blogging sites, resources & networks- like WriteTribe & International Writing Prompts. They request us to- 'Visit other Blogs & Comment'. We can post our stories, read & comment for others, and get feedback from writers around the world. We need to be active and acknowledge feedback by visiting our visitors.

this voting thing has hardly anyhting to do wid winning any contest... wat made me surprized was the number of votes.. but anyways now I got the answers (the pain and gain thing ) 

I dnt take part in prompts, writetribe etc.. I am sach a kazy person that I am managing Ib is enough for me  and I dnt use twitter .. not much.. I cnt understand how does it works ..moreover the twitter page looks soo dullll .. 

and I know ppl say tht write quality content.. so here I am .. i wrote some real mature stuff (be it stories or essays.. and it went totally unnoticed) there is a story of mine in 4 parts.. based on a real life incident.. when I was writing it, I was so excited coz the topic was diverse.. but wat happened tht niether of it parts cud manage to get 100 views.. so this is thing taht discourages me most.. anyways.. a magazine editor liked the story.. maybe it will see the print world some day ( in coming months)

the question is how long can one play this game --- i take part in many of these international prompts too....i didnt make effort to comment on any ( i dont like such conditions at all in the first place -- nevertheless i participate just to satisfy my own creative urge )....some comes and comment on mine thats fine////if they dont come thats fine too...i dont reciprocrate just to fill my blog with their return comments --- is it really worth it or satisfying feeling to get those comments? not because they are really interested in what we wrote but just cos we commented on theirs? for me it is not i dont want go thru such pain for such stupid gains...lol ( ppsstt...nothing personal...jussst saying my opinion on the pain/gain thingy )

In my case, my Contest-Posts & IndiSpire Posts have earned higher number of Votes & Comments.

Also, older Contest-Posts & past-Topics Indispire Posts are still getting Votes from people not in my Network. This proves that such Posts are being read & voted by Bloggers. Makes sense to write for Contests & IndiSpire

Also, many Popular Contest-Posts, with good number of Votes, haven't won even a Consolation prize...

Votes are needed to make it to the IB HomePage after which many read & comment. Social Media is important to promote our Posts in this tech-age.

@Bhavana, Best wishes to you for the print-world! May your stories get published soon. Do share the great news with us

@ND, I shared "No Pain, No Gain" as it is true for life - Blogging included. 'Gains' may not be comments, Gains can be readers or even personal satisfaction. To 'satisfy own creative urge', we have to write our Post first!

Most Blogging network sites function on the interaction & reciprocation premise that we visit one another. Even, I like writing for such creative prompts, but I sincerely adhere to their rules that we must 'visit at least 5 Blogs'. (The Founder-Members repeatedly request the contributors to do so.) From my experience, all those 5 for whom I write comments, may not even visit my Blog, leave alone write comments for me! Also, many read and don't comment. But, there are random visitors too (for whom I haven't commented) who share a few words and it feels great that our Blogs are read.

Gains-> Personal Satisfaction for us, Our Blogs earn Readers & if lucky, Comments! Most writers love feedback!

Most writers love feedback!

true...but only genuine ones and not conditional feedback ( in my case )//// i read those rules and visited many posts too ---- but never left any comment, unless i really want to ( which is rarest of rare case ) ...nothing/noone can force me lol......and to be frank comments from them dont make me feel good at all..knowing they are just following comment back rule..lol   isnt this a weird world...hahaha

Blessed are the non-Silent-Readers who share 'genuine' comments & blessed are those who receive them! May the tribe increase

Then, LOL in Blogging will mean- 'Lots Of Love'

hmmm,...different things gives joy n satisfaction to different people...some feel blessed in this daily merry-go-around of vote/comment thingy, some dont care a dime....

to each his own...cheers to that~ n happy blogging

I would like to share one more exprnc of mine regarding the serious readers or genuine readers .. it happened during my administration training.. one day I was having breakfast in dining hall when a colleague came and sat in front of me and wid a regular gud morning he started talking abt one of my story which he read yester night .. the leading lady name is Ayesha/meghna .. he liked the story and at the same time he had his own suggestions and views etc .. that guy reads only english literature so I was kind of surprized and happy too.. while our discussions were on another colleague  came and sat next to us .. he overheard our conversation and asked .. "who is this Ayesha .. u guys talking abt?"  before I cud answer him  another female frnd came wid the breakfast plate in her hand, she stopped at my chair and said "kal aapki aayesha se mili..bahut achhi lagi" . 

the guy who was asking for ayesha was now more confused and i was laughing ... soon everyone in our hostel came to know .. ohh that lady in room num xyz writes "something".

in short, when we write we want some sort of feedback .. we all can differentiate between the genuine one and the back scratching one .. there wud be 10 formal courtesy comments but if two wud be the genuine one then it gives a lot satisfaction and happiness ..

thank u all anita, ND, Ragini for sharing your views on this issues.. I am overwhelmed to see the response.

First I am not Talking about Other blogging Communities.

1.My Other Blog Which I am not giving attention now a days still get traffic due to SEO and labels.

2.Contest and Indispire Posts do get high votes for me as well around 40-50.

3.Getting onto homepage is completely diffrent thing as it depends on timing of the posts I have seen a post with 19 Votes in top 10 aswell.

4.Commenst like nice post , well done do irritate but if the content is good and reader is serious then he/she is bound to come back.

5.I dont take negative comments to heart , after all traffic is what all matters ;)

6/if the Question is how long can this gam eis played ,My answer is till eternity,The number of votes doe snot matter , the posts which promotes the brand even by flaunting rules is bound to win , no matter what and its not a case of sour grapes.

7.Twitter/FB Page came work wonders only if you are actively active .you know What I mean,

8.Content is the King but the King cant stay alone without the state and an Army and servents ofcourse.Be it widgets,platforms,traffic orgainic,SEO,activeness and uniqueness.

9.I published my story no one bought the book Desire v/s destiny , But I dont care , I now am a freelancer writer even after I was bashed up by a famous IB bloggeer for being a porn writer even when I was writing erotica,he still is famous and later on said he did not knew the difference.It did not stop me , Its only the passion for writing which makes  you write more.

10.I have never won any contest , NOt even have got the valid entry prizes on IB but that does not stops me from writing and sharing.Votes does not matter

11.I personally never cared about votes , I always cared about traffic be it from IB or anything else and IB not even been in top 10 traffic traffic generators.

12.There are strong social media players which generates traffic , IB votes can make you happy once in a while but even your heart knows they dont really matter if you arenot getting that much visitors from IB.The number of votes is never equal to the traffic IB generates.

13.Blind voting is every where If this will make you loose heart then its your problem only and only you can sort that out.

Cheers to Blogging and Cheers to IB.Baki sab moh maya hia!

@DVD, So many points here! This is a Post by itself. You must share it on your Blog

Cheers to Blogging & Bloggers! Jai Ho!

@Anita I have posted that on my Blog Now

Hi Bhavana   Here's my take on the votes debate! 

Votes, I believe are all about how big your IB network is, plus how active the bloggers in your network are. And yes, obviously about the content too. But first the network part.

So say for example I have 500+ people in my network. So the maths is that even if 40-50 people vote for my post, chances are that post will figure on the homepage. Plus there are votes from people out of your network too, who came across your post, like it and promote it. So many of my votes come from people I don't even know.

 When I joined IB, initially I did not understand the concept of network, and would never add bloggers. It's gradually that I figured that adding the blogs you like makes their posts easily accessible when one went to the Posts From My Network tab. Now since there were only a few people in my network, I used to get very few votes (not discussing the content part) Plus, I hardly knew anyone so was very reserved about commenting on posts I enjoyed reading. But gradually, things changed since there are encouraging and warm people here, who motivate you, read what you write and appreciate your posts and also suggest ways to improve your craft. This 'encouragement' at some level encourages the blogger to reciprocate the warmth, and in turn 'promote and appreciate others' (newbies plus fellow bloggers).

An SSP example - I recently tried my hand at making a video from my phone camera, the video is pretty amateurish (of course) but I still shared it here. And the comments have been pretty matter-of-fact, but at the same time encouraging too (and they are nothing like 'wow, you did a wonderful job'. etc) and I am sure the next time I make another video, I will do better than this. 

Plus I will reiterate what Gaurab, Anita and ND have already said - three different perspectives here and all hold true- Now as ND says - many have an indifferent attitude towards voting. And come to think of it, votes indeed are superficial. In so many recent contests, posts with highest votes did not win. But what's really bizarre is the fact that people who get less votes are the ones who always go about questioning vote ethics. Voting for me is just a way of showing that yes I was there on your blog and I like what you written. 

And no, I don't think it's anything to do with 'give and take' or 'scratching each other's back'. Personally I believe if I don't enjoy someone's post, I will not vote for it or waste my time there. Plus I believe people today are too time strapped to indulge in virtual back scratching. And what for? Virtual votes, that actually account for nothing? No, I think we all can do better than that! So a big NO to the back-scratching theory.  

Another moot point is the content

I believe we must understand that we are not competing for a writing competition here (barring the contests, that is) - as to who writes better. The common agenda here is our love for communicating and sharing - our thoughts and opinions - through words, photos, videos and art. And that is why we blog. Now we have already discussed 'content' on another thread. Who decides what's good content and what's bad? Are we all self-appointed judges to dismiss some people's work as trash and some people's work as a masterpiece. Are not our blogs all about our perspectives, which again have been defined by a host of factors.

Another example. Say a blogger is quite fond of sunrises and sunsets. He lives in a high-rise by the sea and at every single dawn and every single dusk, he finds something new in the 'routine' of sunrise and the sunset. The many shades of sky, cloud patterns, the moon peeking from some corner of the sky, flock of birds in flight...et al mesmerise him every single day. And so he clicks photos, adds a couplet about nature and shares the post on his blog. And he does this every day...for he believes that all sunrises and sunsets are unique. Now for many this would be mundane, boring...but he finds it unique and so he puts it on his blog. And also may be there are many readers who look forward to those sunrises and sunsets...who knows. If somebody doesn't like the post..they are more than free to ignore it and move on to the ones they like. But demeaning and criticising someone's work as inferior does not seem right, no? We are not literary critics here, are we?

So in my humble opinion, people don't just vote randomly, at least not all of them...100+ votes can't come on what you call bakwaas or sub-standard posts.  

And I love Eassays

I never thoiugh this thread will be alive after so many days with so many Great comments.

well said ragini .. we all are here to share our work and not to judge others .. not all post that gets 100+ are sub standard ... its about individual perspective.. how they see the things .. let me share an experience of mine.. there is a blogger added on my network both on fb and IB .. now tht person writes only sad poetry and tht too heavy stuff.. here am not critisizing the work but reading almost same stuff (same feeling only words differ as u gave the example of sunsrise sunset hting).. one fine day I commented on his fb wall post ki bhai ab koi naya topic likho ab bahut hua .. he didnt react much said thank u wid an exclamation smiley and thst it .. I thought he will delete me frm fb and frm IB too but he dint evn till date he votes for me .. so this is called understanding and respect of each others thought .. and this is how  blogging networkflourishs  

DVD .. now when u love essay then its your moral responsibility to read them as well (specifically mine) or u want me to send the link through indimail  SSP u see

'....network flourishes.'

Exactly that Bhavana! See you got it right all along!  

I read Bhavana 

I replied above :P 

Is it true that blogs that are on Blogspot or Blogger.com have a higher probability of getting more comments than those that are self-hosted?

Yes It surely is in countries like India where its still popular.

What makes you think so? 

Dig out the stats r

Try a google search tumblr v/s blogger v/s wordpress 

Anita .. two book reviews and a short story are published already 

and now when I am in full mood to share my exprnc then why not one more .. months ago, a fellow blogger on a hindi story of mine that aft a long time she is reading a hindi story and enjoyed it. those were really encouraging words.

recently when I posted a book review of a hindi bestseller, three fellow bloggers (two of them are not well verse with Hindi) honestly accepted they  cant read whole text still whatever they read was interesting enough .. so here one can say that they are just resiprocating but I think it is much more than that... and these little things touch our heart as a writer.. 

All the best Bhavana ji !

DVD ji .. aapko bhi aal the best for SSP 

Bhavana, That's great! Keep it up

That Fellow Blogger was me!   I read Hindi after so long thanks to you! And yes, I truly appreciate. That was a genuine comment as usual  

Very touching & motivating when we get such feedback. Best wishes to all writers!

welcome Anita .. yes you and one more person I was reffering that time.. its easy to differenciate between a genuine one and back scratching thing coz the language will speak itself.. 

DVD ... thnks for this analysis .. and yes I am more worried about traffic ..coz my blog gets limited traffic through IB, fb, google+ etc .. so I want to know how to increase it.. 

you touched almost every single aspect of this issue.. and I too have done freelance writing for some time and I know some ppl earning their bread and butter (brown bread and french butter) through this work only.. however, I could never believe that this freelancing can get you regular work and  constant sourse of income.. do share some thoughts on this topic ..

I dont think thats in scope of this thread but still there are many communties that help freelancing.

Its difficult to start but once you build a repo its piece of cake.

Networking is a major factor if you post on a site like Indiblogger where there are thousands of bloggers.  Sure people will read random posts but they will be more inclined to read and promote a blog that they have read before.  Unless you are a well known author and people flock to read you, you will need to do groundwork to establish a readership.  Find blogs that appeal to you and start interacting there (the flip side being that your blog might not appeal to them).  If they like your comments, most bloggers are likely to respond (most, not all).  As far as content goes different readers have different ideas as to what constitutes a good writing style, so what I write may not appeal to many readers.  But interacting with other bloggers is one way of getting your work noticed, and if you are happy with what you have put up then that's really all you can do.

Hi Bhavana!

I read through a long list of pro bloggers replies on the thread, and they all provided many valuable opinions.

Here are my 2 cents and what I believe:

You have to kinda figure out - whom you're writing for?  For others or for yourself? For monetizing or just as a hobby? To become famous or to let it be?

If it is the first case, you can , should and must, like, read and interact with a lot of bloggers and regularly! And ofcourse, don't expect to let the votes to start flowing in right away, assume the 10:1 ratio as someone pointed out earlier, and act accordingly. And of course, blog regularly to stay in it.

If not, then you can write those long stories you liked yourself, put in all the extra efforts you can, and write at the frequency which suits you or when you can manage time. And when you get whatever crowd you do get, value it and discuss your thoughts with them on a more relatable level. Numbers won't matter then. :)

Sorry for the lengthy reply. But I can't help either. :D