Thought I would repost this original Voting Strategies post in its’ entirety since we are now down to the last wire. Please please PLEASE copy and paste this anywhere you see fit - but make sure you copy the entire post, as it credits the Soul Patrol and we want to make sure they receive credit where it’s due for coming up with this.
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If you are a Blake fan and have been voting for the past few weeks, you’ve likely seen these voting strategies before. These great voting methods were developed last year by our awesome friends in the Soul Patrol, and they helped propel Taylor to win the title of American Idol season 5.
My belief is that the best and most effective way to vote on American Idol is increasingly becoming text voting. Since you have no busy signals, you can get more votes through more quickly than constantly hitting redial and getting busy signals. If you have a Cingular phone with a text plan, OR if you have the disposable income to buy a Go Phone, texting is the way to go. You can even pre-program the votes into your phone - which is what I did last night.
Please don’t misunderstand - I am not telling you to spend money on voting for Blake. If you can’t, please don’t feel guilty for it - do what you can. Any way you can get them, every vote counts, and every vote matters. And remember - if you can, utilize more than one method of voting!
Voting FAQ’s:
1. Text Vote for Blake
TEXT VOTE, TEXT VOTE. TEXT VOTE with Cingular or AT&T Wireless Cell phones.
TEXT VOTING IS THE MOST POWERFUL WAY to VOTE
- No busy signals when text voting, NO CAPACITY LIMITS !!
- Each text vote counts !! 1,000 TEXT votes is much better than 12 land line calls!!
REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE with a Cingular wireless cell phone to VOTE for Blake. Every text vote COUNTS!
If you do not have a Cingular Wireless cell, then ask around and BORROW one!!
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE if you are new to texting.
Only TEXT VOTE to the number that AI indicates on the TV screen.
TEXTING = MASSIVE VOTES for BLAKE
New Go Phone users:
1. Make sure that your Go Phone has charged for 24 hours
2. Make sure that you have funds in your account to text vote. Each text vote will deduct .05 cents from your account.
2. Land line calling strategies
As soon as you hear that the line has connected through, DO NOT listen to the full length of the message – hang up and hit redial.
The shorter connection will free up the busy lines to allow for MORE incoming votes.
It is HIGHLY recommended that Blaker Girls/Boys DO NOT call in on the 1st line. Most likely the general public will be calling the 1st line. Try the second line, and if it is busy too, don’t give up! Keep trying instead of switching over to the other line. Remember that in general, the second line is the least used.
3. Online voting through Skype.com and DialIdol.com
It is highly suggested that Blaker Girls/Boys should utilize MORE than one method of voting.
Use Skype.com or Dialidol.com automated software to get in more votes than you would just hitting redial on your phone. Remember that Skype now charges for calls to landline phones.
4. Do not split votes
‘Nuff said. This is the finale, y’all. :)
One final thought:
I did it!!!!!!!!!!
I added unlimited texting to my cingular plan and now I don’t have to stress about voting for our homeskillet tonight. I am so stoked about this.
If anyone has cingular, I highly encourage you to do this. I didn’t have a texting plan, since I never text anyone but AI. To do this without a plan was costing me 10 cents a text. But to add this $5/mth unlimited text option, you have to have a plan. So I got the $5/mth 200 text plan, and then added the $5 for unlimited texting. Therefore I can vote as much as I want for Blake tonight for the low low price of $10. This will be the best $10 I’ve spent in a long time.
Anyway, just wanted to post that in case some of you were like me and wondering how the plan worked. :)
For that $10, Blake should send you a free T-shirt.
Ooooh, could it be one that he’s worn? :D
And could it come with him in it? ;)
Roll Tide Roll! You rock!
I have Verizon, but I do have a Go Phone and will be sending 500 texts his way plus phone votes when I’m done with that.
:)
I never thought that I’d say this (being a bulldog fan & all) but ROOLLLLLLLLLL TIIIIIIDDDEEEEE!!! I’m so proud of you!!!
VERY cool RollTide. I wasn’t sure how the unlimited texting thing works. I already have a Cingular text plan (the 200 texts for $5/mo), so I am going to call and add unlimited to mine right now! Is it effective immediately? If so, then I can text from my regular cell AND my go phone tonight!
WOO HOO!
Yes, I made sure it was effective immediately. :)
And jenlar, b/c you’re a Blaker girl Woof Woof - Sic Em Dawgs! ;)
This is for Sarah… Go Vols!
LOL, any Auburn fans here?
Wooo hooo, thanks PJ! I know that was hard for you. ;)
Now, the next 2 hours and 41 minutes need to hurry up and pass right on by…
Go Blake! Go Team Plaid! Save the Beatboxer, Save the World!
Pj, I had so much love for you until you went there. ;)
Please no barners. ;)
Just kidding - I can find some love for barners too as long as you vote for our homeskillet.
If you’re texting, don’t forget you can just make use of the resend button & send multiple votes that way. The only drawback is that it doesn’t keep track of how many you’re sending.
But you just do one VOTE message, then go into your outbox and you can resend over and over. :)
Nevermind. I figured out how to message her.
Oh I’ve programmed votes into my regular cell already since we know what his texting # will be (I’ll post that thread in a bit, just thought the voting thread should be separate today). I just hit resend on the go phone til the money is gone and I always know how much I started with, so I know how many votes I got that way. I’m such a loser. LOL.
Are the troops all over the net rallied and ready to go?
RollTide, I went to Bama!!! I was just hoping I didn’t have yell War Eagle for anyone. LOL. I will, though, if I have to do it.
Sarah, that’s how I calculate my votes on the Go Phone, too. LOL.
PJ, I know you’re a Bama girl - I was just kidding you about saying Go Vols. ;)
OH, gotcha Roll Tide! Heh.
Hey guys I just found this quote from Simon at msnbc.
He may actually be nice to Blake tonight. I sure hope so. He wanted Blake to do the Bon JOvi song and Blake is doing it.
Here is the excerpt:
What you’ve got is that you’ve got ‘the singer versus the entertainer,’ ” he continued. “And this is fascinating — I’ve never seen this before. They genuinely don’t know what the audience is gonna vote for here, because Jordin is the better singer and Blake is the better entertainer.”
Although he feels that Jordin is a better singer than Blake, Simon had a unique take on the pair’s actual career potential. “I think Blake would be easier to produce because he’s more contemporary,” said Cowell. “I mean, there are a lot of people out there like Jordin already. I think Blake is an easier artist to focus on
I always knew that besides Melinda, Simon had a soft spot too for Blake. Hey, he did not call him a Pop star for nothing.
Simon is absolutely right. There are already too many Jordins out there. Vote for Blake!
I’ll be doing the dial idol voting again tonight. With an extra phone line I should be able to get a ton of votes in since I got more with 2 hrs last week than with 4 hrs the week before.
you can’t text with verizon phones? Thats what I’ve been doing the whole season. So…I guess my votes never counted??
No, Allison. You have to call with verizon phones. You can only text with cingular. :(
YEAH!!! I really hope Blake kills tonight with the Maroon 5 song. I think he’s doing it to showcase his vocal skills … good for him! I have a feeling Randy will favor Jordin no matter what, and I hope Simon will stick up for Blake.
I am so voting-ready that I ate a whole bag of sour-sugar-coated gummy worms just to calm down. How’s *that* for flawed logic? Now my inner fangirl is on a sugar high!
Blake has already brought together the southern college football rivalries (*shedz one happy but emo tear*) and now he’s going to completely pwn the night! I wanted to hear She Will Be Loved last week, but I’m glad that he waited ’til this week. Our boy knows best *every*single*time* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And Iris, I fixed my MySpace. It should just let you add me now! If not, my e-mail is jennifer at jenlar dot com
GO TEAM PLAID! VOTE LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!! GO BLAKE!!!!!
We have confirmation of the winning single from the LA Times. Click the link for the spoiler.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-idolsong23may23,1,3760009.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews
You can listen to it here.
http://www.americanidol.com/songwriter/index.xhtml
Texting only works when you subscribe to Cingular/The New AT&T. For other phone companies, just use your cell and/or land line.
In texting messages, I do believe there is only one number to text your Blake votes to. For the cell/ land lines, there were 3 phone lines last week for the Top 3. Be sure to see and hear what Ryan says at the start of tonight’s show about the number of phone lines and the voting-hour window. It was 4 hours last year.
It is grand opera, a marathon, get ready with all your fingers and toes and machines. I will have to break out the booze and pizza very soon, gotta finish before the end of the show.
Oh, once you text and see “message sent” on the phone’s screen, you can just go and resend more text messages. For me, the Outbox folder takes a bit longer to hold the messages that I sent. When the text is sent, it is surely sent over there.