How much is it worth to be the "Best of..."?

We don't have a horse in the whole "Best of" poll discussion, but Daniel recently wrote about an alleged incident in which an un-named business bought something on the order of a thousand copies of a local publication in what appears to be a form of ballot stuffing. Given that buying that many copies is not cheap, it made us curious: How much is a "Best of" mention worth? Any guesses? (FWIW, when AOA has been mentioned in these polls, we see little or no immediate increase in traffic. Though we always appreciate the votes.)

Comments

I'm confused. Isn't that the point of "best of" polls? They want to sell as many newspapers as possible, so they create a situation where certain individuals will buy a ton of them and increase circulation. I don't see the problem.

And note that according to Daniel's description, they are not just filling out the ballots themselves, which is one way this blurb can be read. They're handing the ballots to people who come in the door and encouraging (or enticing) them to vote. This is a natural outgrowth of a popular voting contest whose true purpose, as Tim says, is to sell newspapers. Oh wait, I mean, I am shocked and will never patronize this place, unless it turns out to be somewhere I already like.

I think it depends on the nature of the business. A pizza shop will probably have a noticeable bump, if only temporarily, in profits. A website, maybe not so much.

@Tim: I suspect there are a handful of motivations for publications with these sorts of polls:
+ The results generate a lot of attention and readership
+ The results create an opportunity to approach the winners about advertising
+ It's a form of a marketing for the publication -- those stickers given out to the winners are also advertisements for the publication

Wait.. There are stickers? How do I get these aforementioned stickers or have I already burned that bridge?

Tim, I have it on good authority that "Best AOA Commenter" will be a category next year. Competition will be fierce, I expect compliment referrer traffic to increase by 13% and ego bounce rate to drop by half.

Really? This rumor has as much credibility as the story that my best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Jerry Jennings pass out at Bomber's last night.

I guess it's pretty serious.

The reader polls are a fantastic way for small businesses to get noticed. I saw a noticeable jump in new appointments after winning Best Salon in the Troy Record this year. We have been open for about 8 months now and it was a really nice (and free) way to have our name circulated. I can't imagine stuffing ballots to win...but I've definitely been more vocal on Facebook about the Times Union poll!

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