5,063 votes!!!

Yes, we have made 5,063 votes yahooo!!! I am so happy and so excited! When the competition started I though that 5,000 will be all that I will need to get into the finals, I read an article about another nominee who had that and pass into the finals, but lately I also discover that last year there were a total of 1,000 nominees, this year there are 1,000 only in my category!! This is a very stressful competition, and it is only online, I can not imagine how it would be to be a politician, fighting and begging for votes. I guess that is why they have a big campaign team, a marketing team and so on. I am doing it by myself, at home in my computer.

However, I have a huge support system, I have family and I have amazing friends, I don't have a big fan base in my FB page, because I don't have a big business, I haven't being doing for many years, I don't even have a studio. All I do has been made in the city community studio and in the little room of my house, I call it the "room of requirements" I only wish it work the same way that in the Harry Potter's books.

I am in this competition because I want a studio, I want a wheel and some tools, I am so small that I can not think of getting my business bigger I am in the getting a business stage. However, even when I am that small I am leading (at this moment, things change so fast with online voting) the Florida nominees, yupi!!! I am still processing that,that will put me in the number 20, I am 20 among 1000!!!!

Few days after the competition started, I took the time to look to all the nominees in the craft category, there were close to 1000, perhaps 998 or something like that, and I was the number 54, a week later I look again to all those 55 again and I was the number 24. I didn't look to all of them, because there was a big gap between them and the rest, so my thinking is that they will keep running behind, I can be wrong, of course. But it is so tedious to look to all the pages, that I am just concentrating on those 55.

I have noticed that even when there are some who keep increasing the votes (the leaders) most of the people with big number are now decreasing, and I think is because even when you have a big group of fans at the beginning what you need is a loyal and constant group who vote everyday, and that is what i have, very, very loyal and caring friends, there are not hundreds, but they made their voice heard, and it is show on the constant number of votes I have every day. They are truly amazing friends!!!

I have to say that if I want to win the competition I need more people, and that its very difficult, I need people who can sit in front of the computer every day and vote, and that's a lot. I think that in order to do that I have to increase my number of fans, so my page can be show in more Facebook's news feed. But how to do that??? I really need some marketing lessons.

Anyway, if you, whoever you are, wherever you be wants to contribute with the edification of my studio please go to the link below, register and vote. You can vote up to 6 times every 24 hours until September 22nd. Thank you!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557

You can also go to my FB page and click on LIKE, that way it will help me to get to more people

https://www.facebook.com/BarroyArena

Thank you for all the help!!

Monica