How to Get More Votes Online: 12 Tactics, Free First
The short version of how to get more votes online: tell the right people, make voting one tap, repeat on schedule, and pay for contest promotion last. Free tactics come first, because personal asks, email, texts and local press cost little and rarely clash with a contest's rules. Paid contest promotion earns a place only after those have run, and only where the organizer's rules allow outside promotion.
By Victor Brown · Last updated
How do I get more votes in an online contest?
Online contests ration each person's clicks, so more votes come from more people returning on the contest's own clock. The Arizona Daily Star Readers' Choice allows one vote every 24 hours, Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the 'Burgh one per hour in each category, and Rhode Island Monthly's 2025 poll one per email address for the whole of April.
Each limit changes the plan. Under a daily limit, the entry that wins is usually the one whose people remember on the ninth day and the nineteenth, long after the first excited round of shares. Under one per email, the whole game is reach: every person you know, asked once, at the right moment.
The count is often the entire contest. The Arizona Daily Star says its program has no judges at all, because the community nominates, reviews and votes. Pittsburgh Magazine says there is zero connection between advertisers and winners. So the only lever an entrant holds in polls like these is people: finding more of them, and keeping the ones already on your side.
Which free tactics actually work, and which should you skip?
Free tactics work when they reach people who already know the entry: customers, family, members, parents and coworkers. A bakery in Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the 'Burgh or a baby photo in the Illinois State Fair's People's Choice gets its steadiest count from personal asks, its own email list, its own social accounts and a card at the counter.
I'd skip vote-exchange groups, where strangers trade clicks across unrelated contests. The people in them won't come back on day ten, and a cluster of unconnected accounts showing up together is the kind of pattern an organizer's review is built to catch. Pittsburgh Magazine reserves the right to remove a finalist when evidence of stuffing is flagrant. Nobody wants their entry to be the example.
Shared Wi-Fi is the quiet trap. Rhode Island Monthly counts only three votes per IP address, so a voting table at the shop, with every customer on the store's network, stops counting after the third person. A card with the link, used later at home, keeps each customer's choice countable.
- A personal message to one person: their name, the direct link, your category and the closing date, in four short lines.
- An email to customers who signed up to hear from you, sent the day voting opens and again near the close.
- A counter card or receipt note with a QR code that opens the category page itself, not your homepage.
- Posts on your own Facebook, Instagram or TikTok accounts with the link in the first line, pinned until the deadline.
- One line in a partner's newsletter: the coffee shop next door, a school PTA, a church bulletin, a club group chat.
How do I keep voters coming back daily?
Daily contests reward a reminder that lands at the same hour every day the rules allow. The Arizona Daily Star's 24-hour window does not reset at midnight, so a reader who voted at 9 p.m. cannot vote again at 8 a.m.; a reminder sent each evening around the same time keeps that reader on the clock.
Voter fatigue sets in long before the deadline. The first week runs on goodwill. By the third, the same message reads as nagging and people stop opening it. What keeps a long window alive is new material on the same schedule: a photo from the kitchen, a short story about the person behind the entry, a thank-you to the people who have voted, the standing if the organizer publishes one.
Keep the ask lighter as the weeks pass, not louder: a parent asked every single day for a month will remember the contest, and not kindly. Hourly polls such as Best of the 'Burgh need a different kind of care: say plainly that the limit applies per category, so a reader refreshing the same category every few minutes knows only one click an hour counts.
How do I use email and text without annoying people?
Email and text work for a contest when every message carries one link, one deadline and one instruction, sent only to people who know you. The Arizona Daily Star even accepts one vote per day by text message code, which makes a text reminder a short route from your ask to a counted choice.
Frequency follows the contest's limit. For a once-a-day poll, I'd email when voting opens, once a week after that and on the last day, and keep daily nudges for text, for the people who asked for them. For a one-per-email poll such as Rhode Island Monthly's, one email and one reminder are the whole plan; a third message adds nothing but irritation.
Multi-category forms need the most explaining. The Santa Barbara Independent's Best of Santa Barbara counts a reader's nominations and votes only after they fill in at least 20 categories, and the nomination round is write-in, so people must know your exact business name. An email that spells the name as it should be typed, and notes that answers could be edited between June 4 and July 1, saves readers from a half-finished form that counts for nothing.
- A subject line naming the contest and the category, so the message can be found again in a crowded inbox.
- The direct category link, plus what the form will ask for: an email address, a photo number, a write-in name.
- The closing date with the hour and the time zone, written out in full.
- An opt-out line in every bulk email, and texts only to numbers whose owners agreed to hear from you.
What happens in the last 72 hours before voting closes?
The last 72 hours of a contest bring back the people who meant to vote and forgot. Peninsula Daily News closed its 2014 County Fair Photo Contest voting at 11:59 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, a deadline before lunch that would catch out anyone planning to vote that evening.
Three days out, I'd send the deadline with its exact hour and time zone, once by email and once by text, and repeat it on your own accounts. On the final morning, one more text to the people who said yes. Same link, same limit, same people. The only new thing is the clock.
Spikes are what organizers notice. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in 2024 the Park City online cocktail contest collected more than 200,000 submitted votes where about 5,000 were normal, organizers suspected software that generated email addresses, and the results were declared invalid while they investigated. A late rise from real people looks like the entry's own history, only busier; a count that jumps fortyfold looks like Park City.
How do I get local media to cover my entry?
Local media cover a contest entry when there is a story beyond the request for clicks: a family business's history, a cause, a photo with a scene behind it. A paper that runs its own readers' poll, such as the Arizona Daily Star, is an awkward target for coverage of one nominee, so pitch outlets that do not run the contest.
A pitch fits in four sentences: who you are, which contest and who runs it, why the entry has a story, and the closing date. Send it to a named reporter or editor who covers your neighborhood or your trade, with one good photo attached. A community radio host, a neighborhood newsletter or a school bulletin is easier to reach than a metro desk, and its audience lives where your supporters live.
Sometimes the paper is the contest. The Peninsula Daily News received 45 entries in its County Fair Photo Contest and let online readers pick three winners; the Illinois State Fair names the photo with the most votes in each category its People's Choice Winner on the fair's last day. In contests like those, the coverage already exists, and the job is sending people to that exact page with the entry's number in hand.
When should I add paid promotion to a contest entry?
Paid promotion fits a contest entry after the free list runs dry, and only when the organizer's rules allow outside promotion. Rhode Island Monthly's FAQ answers no to whether a business must advertise to win, and Pittsburgh Magazine says its poll has zero connection between advertisers and winners: paid contest reach brings attention, while the count stays with the organizer.
Voting Now does not sell contest votes. We run paid contest promotion: ads, native PR, our own social accounts and a network of partner groups and bloggers, aimed at real people who decide for themselves whether to click. Contest promotion is priced the way advertisers price leads, with a quote agreed before anything runs, and nobody here can tell you in advance where the entry will finish.
Example scenario (illustrative - not a client result): a bakery in a daily readers' poll has used its email list, its counter card and its own posts, and the count has flattened well before the close. That is the moment paid contest promotion aimed at local food lovers could add new people, if the poll's rules permit it. If the rules forbid outside promotion, we decline the contest and the free tactics are the whole plan. Send us the contest link for a free analysis on WhatsApp, and the rules get read before anything else.
| Tactic | Cost | Rule risk | Typical effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal message, one person | Free; a few minutes per person | Low: each person makes their own choice | A steady early count from people who already care |
| One link with exact instructions | Free | None | Fewer people giving up halfway through the form |
| Category checklist for long forms | Free | None | Readers reach the 20-category minimum Best of Santa Barbara sets |
| Daily reminder on the contest clock | Free | Low when it repeats the published limit | Supporters return on day ten, not only on day one |
| Email to your own list | Free, or the cost of an email tool | Low when sent to people who signed up | A reminder customers can find again in their inbox |
| Text to close contacts | Free | Low with each person's permission | Quick clicks, plus text-code votes where the Arizona Daily Star allows them |
| Posts on your own accounts | Free | Low when the link opens the official form | Followers who already like the business or family see the ask |
| Counter card with a QR code | Printing only | Low; avoid one shared Wi-Fi where IP caps apply | Walk-in customers vote later from their own phones |
| Partner newsletters and groups | Free | Low; partners share the link and people choose | New circles: neighbors, parents, club members |
| Local press or radio pitch | Free; time to write four sentences | None | One burst of attention and a reason to trust the entry |
| Final 72-hour reminders | Free | Low if the rise matches the entry's own history | Brings back people who meant to vote and forgot |
| Paid contest promotion | Contest quote agreed first, priced like advertising leads | Depends on the contest's rules; some forbid it | New real people see the entry; the organizer decides the result |
Step by step
-
Read the voting limit
Find the line in the official rules that says how often each person may vote: every 24 hours at the Arizona Daily Star, hourly per category in Pittsburgh, once per email in Rhode Island. Every later step follows that clock.
-
List your people first
Write down everyone who would choose your entry without persuasion: customers, family, members, parents, coworkers. Group them by channel, email, text or social account, so each person hears from you in the place they actually read.
-
Send one complete ask
Each message carries the direct category link, what the form asks for and the closing date with hour and time zone. For a multi-category form like Best of Santa Barbara, add the 20-category minimum.
-
Repeat on the contest's clock
Schedule reminders to match the limit and change the material each time. Once-a-day contests get a weekly email plus texts for those who opted in; one-per-email polls get a single reminder before the close.
-
Add paid contest promotion last
When the free list is exhausted and the rules allow outside promotion, paid contest promotion can reach new local people. Check the rules first and expect new attention; the organizer still decides the result.
Questions and answers
How to get votes?
Votes come from people who already know your entry, asked one at a time with a direct link. A personal message with the category, the link and the closing date gets a click from a friend or a customer; a group post asks nobody in particular. Start with the people you can text, then your email list, then your own social accounts, in that order.
How to get more votes?
More votes come from more return visits inside the contest's own limit. The Arizona Daily Star allows one vote every 24 hours, so a reminder at the same hour each day keeps your supporters on the clock. Pittsburgh Magazine's hourly limit per category rewards readers who check in at lunch and again after work.
How to get a lot of votes?
A lot of votes means a lot of different people, each voting as often as the rules allow. Widen the circle through partner businesses, schools, clubs and local press rather than pushing the same people harder. A sudden count far above the contest's history draws questions: Park City's cocktail contest results were declared invalid while organizers investigated suspected software-made votes.
How to get lots of votes online?
Lots of votes online depend on how easy the form is to finish. Best of Santa Barbara counted a reader only after choices in at least 20 categories, and the Illinois State Fair's People's Choice photo form asks for the photo's number. Tell people exactly what the form will ask before they open it, so they don't give up halfway.
How to get people to vote online?
People vote online when the ask is personal, the link opens the right page and the deadline is clear. The Arizona Daily Star also accepts one daily vote by text message code, which suits people who rarely open email. Match the channel to the person: a text for family, an email for customers, a pinned post for followers.
How to get votes on social media?
Social media brings votes when each post links straight to the organizer's voting page. A like, share or comment on your post counts for nothing unless the contest's rules make the platform's reactions the count. Post on your own Facebook, Instagram or TikTok accounts, ask partner pages to share once, and pin the post until the closing date.
How do I get someone to vote for me in a contest?
Ask the person directly, by name, with the link and one sentence on why the entry matters to you. Make yes easy: name the category, say what the form asks for and how often they may vote. Then thank them. A person thanked on the first day is far more willing to come back on the second.
Sources
- independent.com. independent.com/2025/06/13/best-of-santa-barbara-ballot-how-to/.
- marketing.tucson.com. marketing.tucson.com/readers-choice.
- sltrib.com. sltrib.com/artsliving/2024/08/02/park-city-cocktail-contest-rigged.
- pittsburghmagazine.com. pittsburghmagazine.com.
- rimonthly.com. rimonthly.com/content/uploads/2025/03/t/b/BORI25-FAQ.pdf.
Voting Now does not generate email addresses, script clicks or arrange vote swaps for any entry; the Park City cocktail contest, where organizers suspected software-made emails, had its results set aside as invalid. Nobody here can hand an entry a place among Pittsburgh Magazine's finalists or a Readers' Choice title, because each organizer counts the result and can remove an entry. Political or governmental votes are not taken, and a contest whose rules forbid outside promotion gets no paid contest promotion from us.
A contest vote sits under two rulebooks, the platform's and the organizer's. Meta's Spam standard lists offering anything of monetary value in exchange for engagement as a covered behavior, and the Santa Barbara Independent says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Voting Now reads both rulebooks before it plans anything, and a clause that forbids outside promotion ends the job.
Contest platforms check votes as routine. Easypromos runs each vote through 11 security controls and does not count one that fails any of them, and Woobox says voting fraud is becoming more common as contests grow popular. Voting Now promotes to real people who choose for themselves, at the contest's own pace, and none of this is a method for getting past a check.
Under 16 CFR 465.8, buying fake indicators of social media influence for a commercial purpose can violate the FTC's rule, which is one reason Voting Now promotes to real people and does not bring in bought counts. The FTC's Endorsement Guides also require a paid creator to disclose the connection clearly. Whether outside promotion is lawful for a given contest is a question for a lawyer, and Voting Now takes no political or governmental votes.
No quote promises a win, a ranking or a vote count, because the organizer counts the votes and applies its own rules. The Santa Barbara Independent, for one, says it will disqualify a business that offers voters incentives of any kind. Nothing runs before the client approves a written quote.