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

Almost 4,000 votes !!

Yes!  We are almost in 4,000 votes in the American Made contests sponsored by Martha Stewart. As I told you before, there are 5 categories and I am in the one named "craft" there are almost 1,000 participants and some of them are running again for the second time. It is a hard competition, a couple of them already have 16,000 votes, but there are many who will pass to the finals. For what I have read, last year were 1,000 nominees and 1000 pass to the finals, I guess that if only in the craft category are 1,000 more than a hundred will pass to the finals, so I still have a chance.

Maybe you have been wondering why I am putting myself into this stressful competition, and the answer is easy, to have more exposure, to increase my fans and to have money, of course, the prize is 10,000 dollars!! With that money I will be able to build my dream studio in the garden.

I have been collecting photos in my Pinterest account, and there is one that I really want. One surrounding by flowers, with big windows, and since it is in the garden it will allow me to go back and forth to my house in no time :). In the studio i will have shelves and a potter's wheel, that will be great since I only can use it while in the studio. If you are a potter or have you tried one you will know that there are good days, when everything runs smoothly, those day I would have been able to make more than 4 mugs or bowls, but there is no time for more. And there are the other kind of days, when nothing works, everything I tried on the wheel collapsed, too much water, to fast building the walls, bubbles... argghhh! everything that you can imagined happen, those are horrible days. Wouldn't it be nice to avoid those days and just work more hours on the good ones? With a wheel in my house I will be able to do just that :)

Here is the studio I want, you can look at more images in my pinterest board, or here

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-urban-chicken-coop-turned-c-134711

Don't you think it is beautiful, don't you fight for it if you have the chance, well I am doing it, and I am sure I will have it some day, if not winning the prize I will build it anyway, it will just take some years, but brick by brick I will build it.

If you like my work please vote for me, wherever you are, it is an online competition, so you just have to register with a FB account or with an email and any password, and you can vote for me up to 6 times per day everyday until the 13th. Thank you!!

Here is the link: http://www.marthastewart.com/americanmade/nominee/80557