Usually the neoboards do make a difference, but for me at least comparing last week (zero advertising) with the other two weeks (advertising one or two days only) was only a loss of 10 votes. The 40 some votes I got this week had to be from here or perhaps from whoever saw my art gallery entry and hit my look-up from there.
I'm trying neoitems this week. I've sadly neglected that forum.
I used to grab about 30-50 voites there; about the same number of votes I get if I advertise here.
I also got votes from neocolours when that forum is open. One time I did have a link to their new forum, but I lost the link. I am registered there if they haven't moved yet again.
If I could advertise there as well I can grab about 100-130 votes from this forum, neoitems, and neocolours.
The weeks in the past when I used to advertise obsessivly along with posting in the neopets fan forums I mentioned, I could grab well over 200 or even 300 votes if I was extrememly lucky.
Lets say I went on the BD chat and someone like herobi (sorry I forgot how to spell her name) or another all time famous person chatting, I'd just sort of tag along and try to follow along with their conversation, and just casually drop my link in my sig or mention the BC casually. I could gather some votes.
I think it also has to do with species. When I used to enter in ruki and buzz on a regular basis I would get more votes. I think it may have to do with there being less entries in the species, so there may be more followers, or perhaps even my very competitors voting for me on weeks they are not entered. It would seem reasonable, because I do the same with a lot of my other ruki and buzz competition.
(I may be snappy at them when I'm entered, but when I'm not, then I'll support them) On rare occasions I get competitors that vote for me even when they *are* entered which seems kind of odd to me.
I suspect that' more likely to happen in species where there are fiewer pages to browse. The more pages to browse, the fewer votes per entry. That would explain why ogrin is so tough lately. It's like trying to enter in Gelert and Lupe. Both of those species always have a lot of entries.
I think it's safe to say that not being in the neoboards *does* hurt your vote tally, but if you can find alternative places, in some species you can pull it off.