Welcome to part III of this Gurushots article series. My guess is that those in the know join either just before the last 24 hours so as not to cost a key to enter, or in the last hour, so there's time to receive the full number of views before the challenge ends, but you only have to vote once. Get 'All Stars' 3. People actually need to vote positively to at least 100 photos a time to get full exposure. The main advantage of entering late is that you don't have to bother with multiple voting sessions to keep your exposure up, and you don't have to feel bad watching your top ten photo plunge to #500 with hours to go. A good photo has factor 3. Today, I would like to give you a user review of an online photography website called, "Gurushots.com". and I am the founder of Digital World Beauty. I've also noticed more professional photos enter the last 24 hours I was worried that if I enter the last 24 hours the guru would have already picked their photos so I've been going back and forth entering early and late to try and get guru picks haha. No, it is not. Watermarks arent really accepted and personally, I dont vote for photos with Watermarks. Many of the original gurus9 are still there and run challenges from time to time. While the highest number of users are between 20 and 40 years, some are in their 60s using this website. Utilize your auto-fill feature during the day when competitors are looking at voting on photos on the platform. Your email address will not be published. The best time to swap an image into a challenge is when there is less than a day (24 hours) left before the challenge ends. Furthermore, nobody cares about your award-winning budges outside of this website. Its a major problem in the game platform as it shouldnt make a difference if votes were evenly distributed during the challenge running time. (LogOut/ The context of the conversation was that I had good images and they wanted me to join the team and win more comps. It is worth keeping in mind that a click from a Master is worth 8 votes verses a click from Rookie which only gets the photograph 2 votes. By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. . There are not only important for you to progress in the game, but they are also an indication of the Gurus taste. Early averages may be as low as 5-5.5 votes per voter while some periods within the last day can be upwards of 6.5-7 votes per voter. One of the best parts of GuruShots is accessibility! Lastly, if one of your photos is not receiving enough exposure, you can use swap. If you've connected your calendar you'll be . Check out the GuruShots review below by Stalemate Studios: NO, GuruShots does not own photos. Interesting math: for any given challenge youre in, dividing the current number of points by the number of voters (use the notifications drop-down menu on the website to see how many voters youve got), you get the average voting power of the voters15. This is the second article on GuruShots, the photography game. But a lot of folks actually DO enjoy this game-like social platform, and its a great way for beginners and enthusiasts to improve their photography skills. Absolutely there are bots that have been placed in the game, often using images that are copywritten. This means that your voted photo receives 50 votes. Winning the public vote requires you to have impeccable timing and knowledge about how the current implementation of the Gurushots system works. ), Before reading this post, make sure you read my short and sweet guide-slash-tutorial on Gurushots to learn more about the app and how to use it. Done! If you enter late in a challenge, you may be asked for a key as the challenge may be in a locked state. I do have a challenge waiting in review called Rusty places which never passed the review process. What's Next? In the first article "How to Become a Guru at the GuruShots Game" I described how to create your photographer profile, how to enter challenges and play. My friend won twice and doesnt know what to do to get the money. It's time for our readers to vote for their favorite business and individuals in Nacogdoches and be wary of scammers. And then GS changes the algorithms. On one challenge, Combine a Swap (change a picture with less votes) with a Fill (maximum views). The Bordeaux Library saw . Just go to the website and sign up. Playing on the bigger screen would allow for better image visualization. Personally, I do put all four photos in one shot. I became an active member back in early 2015. The main reason for leaving the game the first time was that I noticed I was spending too much money to play the game. Check out the challenges. If you are an upcoming photographer looking forward to exposing your artistic work without spending GuruShots is your best option. It is similar to Instagram but lacks bio information and a website. Answer: In order to unlock Guru you have to (see image below): 1. Thanks for sharing, Bilstar! You have to wait for the next match. Its not. In my own experience (I'm at champion level), the biggest influence on my scores is not when I join but the quality of the photos and their relevance to the theme. Does this also apply if the swapped in photo out performes the swapped out photo? Its definitely not something that you can find in Google lol. Photographs with strong, bold, natural (or close to natural) colours draw . Level requirements can change from one challenge to the other. Another addition to the game is that now youll get a notification when the challenge organizer is actively picking up photos and GuruShots will encourage you to swap one of your pictures to get attention. How to look at past contests to see how I faired. See this map for your state's voter laws to find out what form of ID you need to vote in person on Election Day, or if you can vote without an ID. Yet, you can still see a challenge lasting for 15 days from time to time (500px started something called Quests and they last for a month). I also work with other affiliate partners and may be compensated from the links below. GuruShots - Photography is very safe to use. Youll also have answer to your question: Here are the 10 ways to make money with photography. One of the biggest questions that users seem to have about using Gurushots is how to get more votes for the images they submit to various photo challenges. Basically a best-of-the-best approach from the viewpoint of the Guru who created the challenge. If I have a free swap available I may swap to a new photo towards the end of the challenge. The key to success in Gurushots isn't a mystery, it's simply about getting more votes. The information contained on Digital World Beauty is intended for informational and educational purposes only. I dont know how these requirements are set, its not at the challenge creation time, maybe at review time by the moderators. Ive got enough Guru Picks, All Star Ranks and GS Points to move into Master rank but Im stuck at Champion because I cant seem to get any Top 5% ranks. Not only it is a scam, it has nothing to do with photography. Get the validation you crave for amateur photos and poor editing . Hi Strelok, thanks for sharing your experience. Sorry to hear about that. What are your thoughts on this platform/game? Your chance of winning is better!!! If you join too late, you might miss the free boosts requiring you to use a key. It's a place where photographers and GS enthusiasts can communicate naturally - a place where fun and photos matter! I always make sure to market this as well on my social media and website. What I found was they were swapping and boosting a new image then, filling the meter around 5-10 minutes before they game. I declined because I got the vibe that they were recruiting players. I would have preferred different names instead. If you are raising your exposure meter in the wee hours of the morning when fewer Gurushots users are looking at and voting on images, you wont get very many votes by the time your exposure meter starts dropping back down. These will allow your photos to get noticed, resulting in more votes in the competition. But, if the challenge is in the locked state, youll need a key to unlock it and enter the challenge. Id be most interested at seeing your ptf. Usually, they are locked during the challenge and only open randomly once during the challenge. DerekatCharnwood 4 yr. ago. Choosing when you vote (or use auto-fill) is the key to maximizing your exposure level to get more votes. I was in the lead for days in one challenge right up to where there was only 47mins left ..yep in the lead with only 47mins left ..wow.I thoughtBut in the end I finished in 15th..15TH ??????? Spending time on Gurushots. Dont miss part 2 where I give two examples to explain how much time you should expect to play in order to be successful. To unlock a single key that will allow you to boost one photo will cost $2.99. The simple and direct answer is yes. While Guru is not a platform for selling artwork, you can still make money. And as a gaming platform you have to spend money, cheat, and have good luck. You will get the same number of views whether you enter early or late, but one possible difference might be the rank of the voters. There is a teams leaderboard. To move the needle, I would have to create a support request, then maybe Ill get some attention, and maybe theyll approve some of them. Despite the shortcomings in the voting system, Gurushots remains popular due to the monetary reward for winning and prizes in the form of bonuses for further . With these tips, I hope you get better at GuruShots and eventually become a Guru! Let the meter run all the way down and swap your winning image back in about 30 7 minutes before end of the challenge (this depends on the exposure algorithm of the challenge you are playing, they are different, fast and slow. You can leave a team at any time (or being kicked out by team leaders). Thanks. To do this you need to get your photographs seen by as many players as possible and make them stand out. Swapping is encouraged by GuruShots for underperforming photos as they require a voting session to expose your newly swapped photo. An update was published later in 2019, that you should read too. These are activities where the goal is to get as many votes as possible (by participating in as many challenges as possible, obviously). The previous guide was published at the end of 2018 followed by an update two months later. (Image: Atalaya Castle, Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina; All images are the original photography of the author. Here is a bit of advice regarding Gurus pick. I didnt play a lot in 2020. You can create your team or join an existing one. You will undoubtedly find posts and articles online that explain how swapping at certain times is the ultimate key to gaming the game and getting the highest rankings (and most votes) on Gurushots. It is by far the most complicated aspect of the game. As for the suggestion about voting views, I know the team are always open to new ideas but this is one that they have chosen not to implement. Thus, the best time to use the boost is to join during the stated period and swap a lot. None others than the ones already on the blog post Im afraid, Thank you for your much appreciated tips and tricks! I think you have to be lucky to some extent and swapping often gives a huge advantage to finding that luck. My photos have definitely improved by doing the challenges and whereas when I started I was delighted when they reached premier level, now I'm quite surprised if they don't get 'all star'. liamshootsthings 4 yr. ago. Here is what I found out5,6. I reached the Guru Status after just 12 days. Press J to jump to the feed. Here is how it works. In week view, you can add the time slots directly to the calendar. Hi feel the same! Teams are divided up into leagues based on the score they achieve each Season. (Which is not exactly fair.). This game is about having fun. Thus, I have accumulated quite a few earned swaps (I never buy swaps, fills, and boosts) without having shots performing sufficiently poorly for me to want to swap. If you decide to enter early in a challenge is because you may just love to browse (and vote) for great pictures! Join the Game! The best way to win a nonprofit voting competition is by not entering. This example is for a one photo only challenge. Of course there could be even more lower level users joining then as well, it's hard to tell. Thank you for your help! Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. The standard view is displayed on the photo as the number of times a photo has been viewed on the platform. Surely there must be times when gurushots users are more active. Take advantage of swaps: Swapping at a specific time is the key to gaming and gaining the highest ranking. Part II coming up this week where Ill explain, mathematically, how much time you can expect to spend on GuruShots if you want to thrive. Should We Worry About the CoronavirusVaccine? The 2021 edition is out NOW! The views will be the same, but the vote to view ratio will be higher if you enter late. Step 2 That's it, now to vote (automatically)! If you become one in GuruShots, you have the privilege of running challenges and are in a position to issue Gurus picks and Gurus top picks. Im not done with this guide yet. Was hoping they would have made some changes to that but not going to waste my time on this nonsense again. The same small group of people wins most challenges, because they learned how to manipulate the rigged system best and when exactly to enter, boost, swap and fill. Good photos are an asset needed but not enough. I will be gratefull for the answer. These are not free to use. Team leaders want active players otherwise they will kick them out of the team. Get an account on GuruShots. GuruShots users include both males and females. View all posts by Numeric Citizen. There are actually a few things you can do to increase your chances of getting more votes for your photographs. Unsuspecting newbies entering this game have no idea what hit them. GuruShots is a great start. The more the fills, swaps, and keys, the higher your chances are for winning. Im just one win away from Guru, but dont seem to be able to get that one win! Unfortunately, I dont know as I never won the first prize ! It is much harder to compete in generic themes as you compete against everyone. Two-photos challenges are new. Landscape photos perform better than portrait ones. I am in the camp that this whole thing is basically a rigged system. This way seems to get you much more votes all along the process. As a guru, you can create your contests and decide on the winner. No matter what i do, guru decides. Viral Vote is a free photo competition with real cash prizes! Still on the subject of notifications: expect a lot of promotional popups while using the games website or the smartphone application. I have a couple of questions: Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. They are a type of Leaderboard that ranks Teams using Team Score in a predetermined period of time, a Season. As your team wins, members receive rewards like fills and swaps. Users without special keys will be kept out. Its one of the most time-consuming parts of the game, it is crazier than playing in a team. Viral Vote. Submit your email below for the discounted price! Thats why, in order to play the game, you have to agree to their terms, which state that they can only be prosecuted in the state of Israel. This means that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and other Amazon stores worldwide. It seems, quite frankly, to be a coordinated effort in disenfranchisement. I tried again this afternoon swapping a photo into a challenge with just a few hours to run. Ive been a GuruShots player for about 3 weeks, I achieved Expert quite soon but could not move on. Hope this helps. I am enjoying submitting my pics and I am always learning in the field of photography. The iPad still lacks a native app, which is sad and tells a lot about the lack of attention to the art form. The person that made the negative comments above seems very bitter and negative. It is very annoying. Over the past six months that Ive been using Gurushots, I have seen countless photos that either comply with the challenge in the barest terms, or not at all. Some people might have difficulties finding enough photos to enter a four-photos challenge. This game is so twisted in its conception; it is mind-blowing. Track your progress in real-time throughout the game. You dont have to pay to play at all. If you are not sure to understand the theme meaning, open the challenge and look at the current guru picks or the current ranking. Why? Going from Elite to an All-Star level in a challenge requires many more votes than before, making it harder to reach the top level. Social Using GuruShots. If you have Fills available, use them when you enter a challenge and see quickly how your photos are performing. A Quick Overview of GuruShots . Be picky when selecting photos for a challenge. Make sure you take photos that are worth submitting to a photo challenge. They used to run 40 challenges at the same time, now they run about 20. Reading (And Complying With) the Challenge Guidelines. This time, I want to give you the best tips and tricks on playing the game. My advice would be to go through the top 100 photos in a challenge you like, then try to work out how to do something similar. Here is a scenario: Lets say a Dominant Blue challenge (4 photos) is going to end in 2 hours. I joined exactly 2 hr before close. You will also want to make sure that you swap in when your exposure meter is maxed out, and as with voting or using auto-fill at the most opportune times make sure you perform your swaps when your images are most likely to be seen by the biggest audience. Boosts are locked throughout the challenge and unlock in a random window of time once during the challenge. 1. Low exposure levels equal low (but not no) exposure, naturally, and the images for users with the highest exposure levels get rotated so that everyone with a high exposure meter level gets an equal shot at getting their images seen by voters and viewers. Hi, Thats quite an audience for your artwork. Five fills can expose all contest submissions to thousands of viewers at $1.99. Im not convinced if this makes a big difference as you can earn keys pretty easily. They often belong to people for whom half of their achievements consist of successful swaps, which is why this is a game first and photography can take a back seat. Best of all, many GuruShots contests are free to enter. The question is: why would anyone want to do all that? Press the boost key.. It is a worldwide photo contest, and its an interesting way to challenge yourself, to step up your photography game, get exposure, and meet like-minded folks in this community. This guide is based on my gaming experience1 after returning to the well-known photography game, GuruShots, after a very long pause away from it2,3,4. . Fill>boost>Swap or Boost>Fill>Swap? Also make sure to join our Community Discord server: https://discord.gg/hxYkYTu They are not upfront about this either. Dont miss part 2 where I give two examples to explain how much time you should expect to play in order to be successful. Best photos never win. Appreciate it , I Totally agree with Strelok. Furthermore, as it is just a game, fast voting stands in the way of carefully selecting the best work of a photographer. This doesnt mean, however, that you can start a swap avalanche and flood a challenge with swap after swap and expect it to be successful in terms of votes. They do that to people they dont like. Thanks for the Tips. The game is SO rigged and used as a crowd funding so the execs can go from country to country, exhibition to exhibition on the players dimes. Either way, the only way to find out whether youll like it or not, is to trying it and seeing it for yourself! The time left in the Season is displayed in each leaderboard. Also, bear in mind that the voted view differs from standard views. The depletion of exposure bonus is faster than it used to be to maximize users engagement with the platform. To win you need to enter at the peak voting time. Gurushots has a consumer rating of 1.66 stars from 68 reviews indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. No worries if you cant answer. This exposure diminishes by, I don't know, let's say 20% per day. The game design is based on the same principles behind social media: to get you engaged as much as possible. In a four-photos challenge, starting with four photos is not always the best strategy. . People didnt like them as they required way too much time for too many voting sessions and keep your exposure level high. Honestly, after my research, I left and joined another photography game which is fantastic. What is the best time to boost in GuruShots? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I'm stuck on veteran because i can't get top 20% or any guru picks and I'm wondering if you guys have noticed entering as soon as it opens or maybe 1 or 2 days before the contest ends is best? Only the obvious ones go to the top which means, more often than not, caricatural images. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Time is shorter for fast challenges, which accumulate votes faster.). Once complete, you can easily view the results of your free online voting system to make any additions or edit your . I suspect this is the case for many players. This is according to federal law. It seems when I'm boosting these particular photos though that they only get 200/250 more votes overall, which is odd (and frustrating) because I get over 600 votes extra sometimes with a boost on a photo that doesn't perform well initially. The more you vote, the more exposure your photos will get. However, the maximum views are dynamic and change as the challenge progresses. I am stuck! Some of this is just getting more experience of what people like to vote for. Vote per view ratio: This is where the thinking gets a bit tricky. Lets see why Im being so severe here. To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Speaking of running challenges: I still have seven challenges waiting in the review queue after more than a year (read my article about how challenges are created here). Also, when I became a Guru they had legit prizes at the time. The best strategy is to vote for the worst shots, as to not benefit the real competition. Shoot to play and join the race for votes from anywhere in the world. One Nashville lawmaker has figured out the best times to avoid the crowd. Generally speaking, for me at least, I perform better in very specific challenge themes. How To Use Gurushots Auto Vote and Boost This script uses Nodemon to restart if it crashes. Im sorry but I dont do support for them. Any advice for that specifically? Its really given me a platform to showcase my photography and Ive been displayed in multiple photography galleries and magazines because of GuruShots. The one thing that slowed me down was that I needed to get the necessary 150,000 Points. The privilege of running themed challenges comes with great responsibility for the community. If they dont see it they cant pick it. If you think this game is all about photography, think again. Choose a few options to ensure a higher likelihood of finding the best time for everyone to meet. We have thousands of Gurus and users who rely exclusively on free and earned resources. Teams can challenge each other. Have you joined GuruShots with the sole intention of winning big? I would say Its a get hooked system..as any spend nothing big win a lot lottery..with all get hooked tips&tricks.nothing more nothing less.if U a borred, and have some spare money go for it . That is when the higher voting power users are voting. The one I put in rose rapidly through the voting into the 1400s and then came to a virtual standstill. This way, the under-performing photo is a swap candidate. Add four photos, wait a half an hour to see which is getting the most votes. You can do it with Facebook, Instagram, or just create an account.