Well, the MyBlogLog “Become a Pro Blogger” contest is over, and the winners have been announced
Even though I didn’t win the grand prize, I feel like I’ve won in other ways which I will get into below.

The winners:
Site (community members added between 11/8 – 11/30 – some link to posts about the contest)

1. Survival of the Feedest (477)
2. SEOlogs (424)
3. GorillaSushi (225)
4. Buen Amigo (213)
5. Collective Thoughts (177)
6. Crayon Writer (169)
7. A Blog about Nothing (156)
8. [link removed because I sold the site and they turned it into a porn site] (143)
9. Joe Tech (131)
10. TSP Blog (130)

That’s the line-up… If you’ll notice, I nabbed the #8 and #9 spots in the top 10. Not too shabby, I think.

I still think I won
I wanted the grand prize badly, but I mostly just wanted to be mentioned in the winner announcement, which I figured meant I had to be in the top 5 or 10. Luckily, it’s the top 10, and I have two blogs benefiting from it now. This is important because other blogs who placed (like mine) and even some who did not will copy the list linking back to those of us lucky enough to be in the top 10. The Web 2.0 Development Blog gives us a nice example of what I’m talking about. Thanks, guys! It’s good for SEO and it’s good for free traffic. Did you know that Google is reporting 12,000 results for the exact phrase, “mybloglog problogger contest”? I’ve also gained new readers and contacts in the past few weeks that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Finally, this gave me some incentive to get off my butt and be more active with MyBlogLog. Now that the contest is over, I plan to continue being active in adding new contacts, reading new blogs, and making new friends. The whole thing has been a rewarding experience.

What about my contest?
Don’t worry… I didn’t forget. For those in the dark I didn’t get in the top 10 by sitting on my hands. No. I put up a hundred bucks to one random winner for helping me get there and another hundred if I won the grand prize (at least I get to keep that $100). So it’s time, finally, to draw the winner with the help of random.org

Thanks to the following people for linking to the contest pages on JoeTech.com and [link removed because I sold the site and they turned it into a porn site] and got an extra 10 entries in the contest:
- http://www.contestbeat.com/on-mybloglog-maybe-win-100/
- http://itlife.escrito.info/2007/11/09/join-mybloglog-community-and-win-100/
- http://linkandearn.blogspot.com/2007/11/link-to-win-100.html
- http://blogodise.blogspot.com/2007/11/win-with-link-bait-me.html
- http://myblogcontest.com/100-for-joining-my-mybloglog-community/
- http://aboutblogcontest.blogspot.com/2007/11/join-mybloglog-and-win-100.html
- http://www.chewjekhui.chewontech.com/2007/11/get-100-for-joining-linkbait.html
- http://internetcashforyou.blogspot.com/2007/11/join-linkbaitme-mybloglog-commu…
- http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2007/11/saturday-edition-of-contests…
- http://www.blogcontestcentral.com/blog-contest-on-my-blog-log/
- http://www.mrprizes.com/individual/listingID_0851.htm (gone?)
- http://theprizeblog.com/2007/11/19/join-a-mybloglog-community-for-cash/
- http://indoconsoles.blogspot.com/2007/11/join-joetech-mybloglog-community…
- http://catsandcoupons.com/index.php/2007/want-to-win-100/
- http://www.reviewow.com/joe-tech-100-mybloglog-contest
- http://www.techtreak.com/2007/11/18/joetechcom-win-100-for-helping-him-to-win/
- http://www.freshgeeks.com/news/blog-contests-and-giveaways-roundup.html
- http://jobmob.co.il/blog/november-2007-contests/
- http://www.shankrila.com/tech-stuff/contests-with-cash-prizes-are-just-awesome/
- http://internationalfreebies.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-contest-100_30.html

We had a total of 549 entries. Here’s how I chose the winner, for those who care. First, I made a list of all the people who joined (That took forever, and I’ll have to think of an easier way next time). Then, for each person who posted about the contest (minus one site that has gone missing completely), I added 10 more entries. With my total of 549 entries, I then headed over to Random.org and asked for a random number between 1 and 549. Here’s the result:

I made sure to hit the “Again” button several times to test it, as always. It looks like International Freebies wins it, which I guess should be proof that it’s never too late to jump in. If the winner does not respond to the email I just sent within a reasonable time frame (I figure a week or so), I will give the $100 to the next winner in line. Thank you to everyone who entered!

Related posts:

1. Join my MyBlogLog Community, Get $100
2. 1,000 Entrecard Credits Contest Winner
3. Reminder: Two Hundred Dollars is up for grabs
4. 6,489 Contest Entries: 1 Winner
5. Another Month, Another $100 Winner!