30 Million American Idol Votes
or
30 Million American Idol Voters?

Like us, you may be a little confused if the American Idol show has more than 30 million votes each week or more than 30 million viewers. In fact, we have listened carefully this season to try to figure it out and we don't have a clue.

American Idol host, Ryan Seacrest has made statements such as "30 million of you voted last week" and "32.8 million votes were placed last week". So which is it? Votes or Voters?

It reminds me of the confusion between hits and page views (or visitors) to web sites, where hits is actually every file being requested, page views are actual web pages looked at, and visitors are unique visitors to the site. Note: a single web pages could have many images, and each image on the page will cause another "Hit". Many webmasters would tell people how many "hits" they were getting, either because they were truly confused or because that was the biggest number and that made them look more successful.

Unlike the confusion that webmasters may have had, there really is no confusion on the part of the management behind the marketing of the American Idol show.

Just like the webmasters that realized that the bigger the number the more successful you look, American Idol realizes this also.

One thing is for certain and that is that the number of votes is increasing each week and you will hear Ryan Seacrest make statements such as "Vote as much as you want", "Vote as often as you like" to encourage viewers to help make the vote count even larger.

So what happens when you hear American Idol's host Ryan Seacrest announce a new large vote count the next week and you know that you put a little more effort in that week to cast more votes? Does it make you feel like you played an important role in helping to make the shows new record?

That is exactly why we are marketing Speedy Vote's, American Idol voting software. It helps you, help the show make history. It helps you place votes for your favorite Idol contestant. It helps you get through on American Idol's busy toll free numbers to cast your vote.

Do you think the show will ever limit voting to one vote per household? If so, you better think again. It's all about marketing and the more people that call in, and the more votes that each fan places, the more successful the show is. It's like a magnet and it makes more people feel that they should vote also or that they should place more votes. Why? Because everyone else is doing it.

Do you hate the busy signals when you are voting for your favorite American Idol contestant? Well guess what. It is very possible to have phone voting without a busy signal. It's all about capacity. In fact, modern voicemail systems use high capacity lines coming into powerful computer systems that can handle huge call volumes. In fact, the calls come in on high speed digital connections directly to a computer.

Now look at it this way. Have you called in to place a vote for one Idol contestant and then another? Have you tried to place multiple votes for both contestants? Have you noticed that one of the contestants numbers may be busy more often than the other? You then may have thought: This idol contestant is getting more votes than that one. Sound plausible?

Now let's say that when you voted for your favorite American Idol contestant that you never received a busy signal. Wouldn't that be great?

The fact is, it would actually hurt the show. Here is why. When Ryan Seacrest announces that there was a new record this week of 32.8 million votes, the most for any regular show, and you know the lines were busy most of the times you tried, you know that is true. If you never received a busy signal while dialing any of American Idol's toll free numbers would you think it was true or would you have doubt?

Remember in American Idol Season 2 or 3, Ryan Seacrest announced on the show that they had 3 million votes placed that week? Do you American Idol fans remember having a busy signal all the time back then?

Now wait a minute. Did we just say that the votes are now about 11 times as many as back then and you use to get a busy signal back then also?

Well, if you think something fishy is going on, you may be right. Let's look at it another way. If someone tells you about a great restaurant and you go there and see a huge line waiting to get in, don't you say to yourself, This must be a great place, look at all those people?

Now one thing to keep in mind is that the company that handles all the calls is American Idol's sponsor Cingular, formally AT&T. Don't you think that a major phone company has the capacity to handle that many votes without giving you a busy signal? Could Cingular be deliberately making some percentage of calls have a busy signal? What happens next week if there are 45 million votes for American Idol contestants? What happens if in a few weeks if there are 60 million votes cast? Do you think they can handle the call volume?

So what is the real story here? The fact is, that getting a busy signal is like seeing the long line at that popular restaurant. The fact is, that American Idol wants you to place as many votes as you want. They want to hit even higher numbers of votes from week to week so that people see that the show is becoming even more popular.

Imagine going to that popular restaurant, seeing that long line, and being able to go to the front of the line. That is what Speedy Vote's, American Idol voting software does for you. You no longer have to wait in the line of busy signals trying to place your votes for your favorite Idol contestants.

Speedy Votes American Idol dialer works just like the redial button on your phone, except that it listens for the busy signal, hangs up and retires until it gets your vote through. The voting software will only place as many votes as you want, just as you would manually.

Now that you have some insights into what makes the show look successful (that long line of millions of American Idol voters) stop waiting in line. Use speedy vote so you can still do your American Idol civic duty (placing votes for your favorite Idol contestant) while doing something more deserving of your time than waiting to get through, like spending some time with a friend or family member, watching another show (maybe even on another network), etc.

If you were given the chance to go to the head of the line of a popular restaurant you would do it wouldn't you? Let speedy vote's American Idol dialing software take you to the head of the voting line and free up your time to do other things.

If you are the type of person that would rather wait in a long line, we recommend that instead of buying speedy vote, you buy a rotary dial phone and enjoy your time spent voting for your favorite American Idol contestants all the more.

Move to the head of the voting line