I hate public voting

When I checked my email today, I was excited to find out that Mom Central was hosting a contest and they were going to give 5 bloggers each a $2000 grant to help them become successful!

I thought, this would be great because I really want to start a photography blog and I have great ideas for it-THEN, I started reading the rules and how they would handle the judging. It will be partially by public voting and partially by them.

How it will work will be like this. Everyone wanting to enter tells why they feel they need it and how it will be used. That's cool. Then, everyone votes for the blogger they feel should win. This part is not fair and totally contradicts the whole grant in my opinion. IF a blogger is in need of a grant, then I'm pretty sure they don't have alot of readers yet and their blog may not even be on the map. Sooooo, how the hell are they going to find enough people to vote for them? IF a blogger can get a lot of votes, then I'm pretty sure they already are branded and DON'T NEED THE FREAKIN' MONEY!!

This grant is to be used for SEO, advertising, platform fees, etc., etc. All the things that a little nobody needs to become that somebody that will probably get the votes. I HATE PUBLIC VOTING.

Now, they are trying to be fair and make three categories to pick from:

Category 1: The top 15 submissions with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the top tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)
Category 2: The top 15 submissions with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the mid-tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)
Category 3: The top 15 submission with the highest votes whose blog traffic falls into the low-tier of traffic(based on Alexa traffic rankings)

First of all, there should not be any blogs that should qualify if their blog traffic falls in the top tier. Second of all, even the bottom tier traffic will probably still be pretty good traffic. Third of all, if you have your idea, but haven't started your blog yet, how do you even get in any category?

When I first read that email, I automatically assumed (you know what they say about that!) that Mom Central would go through the submissions and pick a blogger who had a great idea and that in their opinion, were really worthy to receive it upon need-isn't that what a grant is? To me it's the little guy that is on to something, but just needs a little help to get going.

Public voting is just a popularity contest and the one with the most friends wins, not necessarily the one who deserves it.

Will I enter? I might. Do I think I'll win? Do I look famous to you?