Their company, Genwi, recently launched iSites.us, a site that enables people to easily create an application for the iPhone and Android platforms with little effort, and little cash outlay. The whole process involves $25 (or $99 – see below), some image preparation, and about 10 to 15 minutes of your day. This is followed by a week or two of waiting, depending on demand.

Preparation and Planning

iSites offers a couple different pricing options. The more expensive option gives you full control over advertising, allowing you to have your own ads embedded in your app or none at all. The cheaper option (the one I chose) is $25 and includes their own ads in your application. The ads really aren’t in the way, so for me, this was not a problem. If you want your own ads, you’ll need to make sure you have an account with the ad network you choose, but either way, give it a little thought and determine what will work best for you and your budget.

Another thing you need to worry about is your brand management. Before starting, think about your application’s title and description as well as keywords. Additionally, there are a few images you have to have ahead of time. You need an icon, an iTunes display image, a banner and a splash screen image (see the iSites Learn More page to get a peek of the image size and file type requirements. It’s best to have these images all ready to go to streamline the creation process.

Finally, you should grab the category feeds for your blog or site so you can have categories in place when the app launches. The more frequent your content, the more categories you may want to have set up.

Creation and Approval

The creation process and completed application is better seen than described, so I’ve included a video showing the process. For the most part, it’s about 10 minutes of filling out web forms and uploading some images. After that, it’s just a game of waiting for an email announcing the completion of your application.

There may be the rare case in which your application is not approved. In this case, you’ll need to revise text, images, title, etc until it’s approved. When the whole process has been completed, you can just search for your app and download it.

Completed Application

Once completed, the application doesn’t have a lot of features, but it does have some of the important ones. When you start up the application, the first thing you see is the splash screen. I saw at least one other company creating iPhone apps while inserting their own brand here, so I really liked that iSites helps you insert your own branded spash screen here. The app then loads up to the Home screen which shows a listing of your recent posts with thumbnails where available. Each post can be selected to view and read. While reading a post, you can jump up or down a post, favorite it or share it via email, Facebook, or Twitter. The sharing options are a must for an application like this.

Over all, the application is really smooth and brings my blog to a whole new audience pretty seamlessly. Better still is the ability to manage it from the iSites web site control panel. From the control panel, I can change my images, description, etc. Additionally, I can add or change categories and other feeds. This really does feel like a pretty decent blend of control and simplicity.

Application Analytics

I love numbers. More than just any numbers, I love numbers that tell me people are reading what I write. Even before purchasing my app creation, I was a little excited about the prospect of seeing how many people downloaded my iJoeTech iPhone application. Once the app has hit the app store, you have analytics at your fingertips via the iSites web site control panel.

Amazingly, I had a nice bunch of downloads of my app before I even knew it was in the App Store. Pretty exciting. While it’s fun to watch, the numbers are important as a barometer for how your keywords and other criteria work to get someone to look at your app and then to download it.

What’s Missing?

I’m not sure if the analytics pages cover just the iPhone downloads or both iPhone and Android. I’d love to see analytics for both on the same graph. It would also be nice if the application had an option to open a post in Safari. Most of all, though, I’d love if there was some way for the application to hook into my Wordpress and let the user submit a comment right from the app.

Conclusions

I’ve been wanting to create a JoeTech.com app for the iPhone for a while now and although I had seen other offerings, this one resonated with my mostly due to the ease of setup and the low cost. It truly is pretty amazing that I can give JoeTech.com readers a customized iPhone application so easily for only $25. I think every blog should have such an app and iSites.us is the place to get it done.

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{hi|hello|howdy|greetings|gooday} there, i just {stumbled|came across|discovered|found|saw} your {blog|website|site|web portal} via {google|yahoo|bing}, and i must say that you write {exceptionally|pretty|interestingly|awesomely} {well|good} on your {blog|website|site|web portal}. i am really {impressed|taken|moved|motivated|struck} by the {way|mode|method} that you write, and the {content|message|subject} is {superb|good|great|quality|excellent}. {anyway|anyhow|anyways|in any event|in any case}, i would also like to know whether you would like to exchange links with my {blog|website|site|web portal}? i will be more than {happy|willing} to reciprocate and {put|enter|insert|drop} your link off in the {link exchange area|blogroll|link section}. {waiting|looking|anticipating} for your {reply|answer|response|respond}, thanks and {cheers|have a great day|enjoy your day|gooday}!

To other bloggers, this may look a little familiar. It’s the popular complimenting blog spam. The idea is to compliment the blogger so that he or she will want to approve the comment. Once the comment is approved, the spammer has a link back to their site and, depending on the threshold of the blog, the spammer has a previous comment and may be auto-approved for future comments. The script seems to choose randomly from each of the variable pieces of content to eventually form a comment that is supposed to appear to be hand written for your blog. Don’t get fooled by this junk.

The spam I got was from michaelwoo.net, which is the web site of some kid who seems to think he’s on the right track in online marketing. His contact email is me@michaelwoo.net which he spells out on his site as “me@michaelwoo dot net”. I find it funny that he’ll use a script to comment spam popular blogs, but takes measures on his own site to prevent spam-harvesting scripts from getting his email address.

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Phoenix isn’t the only city to have a WordCamp. They’re all over and they’re a great way to get a ton of important blogging tips for only about $30 to get in. If you’re a blogger, find your local WordCamp and buy your ticket early because our WordCamp sold out. I learned way too much to post it all here, but I’ve pulled out the most important tips for you below:

Read and Re-read Before Publishing

Originally expressed during the keynote from Lorelle of Lorelle on WordPress, this was reiterated throughout the day by other speakers. Be it text or video, photos or audio, take a look when you’re done and edit as needed. Then read through it again just to be sure. There’s nothing worse than publishing a post only to have someone point out mistakes after most of your readers have already seen it.

Publish With Intent

Whether you’re writing a review, a how-to, or just an editorial piece, do it with intent and know what your intent is going into it. Loreelle reminded us that if you publish with intent, it will show through to your readers.

Don’t Plagiarize

It’s easy on the web to just take good content and share it as your own. Lorelle couldn’t stress enough that this is just unacceptable. Not only can it make you look bad, but you’re also not offering anything original to your readers.

Be Timeless

Yet another top tip from Lorelle is to write timeless content, and I couldn’t agree more. Unlike a newspaper, you want people to find your post for the first time months or years later. When they do, it shouldn’t feel old or outdated.

To Stand Out, Be Outstanding

What a great point made by Dave Moyer, from wordcastpodcast.com. When you look at a blog and it’s just OK, you probably won’t be back. It’s the outstanding blogs that are rewarded with reader loyalty.

Make Use Of Keywords

GoDaddy.com not only sponsored the event, but they threw in their SEO expert, Jim Christian. In addition to a lot of other great SEO tips, Jim reminded us that you should use your target keywords in the post’s title, description, keywords, and any tags. You can’t retain readers if they can’t they find you to begin with.

Engage Your Audience

Writing is only half the job, cautioned Jayson Cote’ from WPCOOP.org. The other half, he says, is engaging your audience, and I agree completely. I don’t always respond to every comment on my blog, but I try to personally respond to most and this theory carries over to your social media as well. Social media is a two-way conversation.

Find Your Unique Voice

Merlin Mann of 43 Folders, the best speaker of the day in my opinion, warns against being average. He says, “It is very hard for someone to become you because of blank. Find out what that blank is.” This will also make it a lot easier for people to remember you. Most of the sites I visit are from memory and not bookmarks.

Give More Than You Get

Merlin could not be more clear about his stance on social media and blogging and how he hates that so many people want to create a selfish, one-sided relationship with their readers. Everyone wants to be successful and help themselves, but the best way to do that is to give first. When you do that, good things will come back to you.

Form = Function

That is to say that neither form nor function is most important. When you design or choose a template for your new blog, be sure to think about design, but make sure you think about usability and function, too. The two should compliment each other.

I hope these tips help you and if you have your own, please leave them in the comments.

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Last year, Michelle and I found ourselves in the presence of some of the top bloggers at a dinner thrown by Market Leverage. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to the dinner this year as we had so much going on. In fact, we missed out on a few things, but the weekend was still productive and a lot of fun.

Thursday night, we attended the TechSet party at The Bank night club in the Bellagio hotel. Budweiser sponsored free beers for a while, which was nice because the drinks were expensive. After a couple hours, the club kicked us all off the tables to open up table service, which cost anywhere from $750 up to $25,000, so we bailed. Before we left, however, we got up and danced (which I almost never do), and I was able to surprise NikNik and Reggie from MyTechOpinion.com. I guess I didn’t tell NikNik I was able to make it out after all, because the look on her face was priceless. Sadly, I didn’t really get a minute to stop and chat with them after that.

Friday morning, Michelle and I met Krystyl on the way into breakfast. She’s a social queen who I meant to meet last year and never did. I also met Brett Bumeter from Softduit Media on the way from the Hilton to the conference and enjoyed our chats on the walk over and at the exhibitors hall. I got to see online business consultant, Jim Kukral again and finally got to meet Drew from BenSpark.com. I spent some time running around the hall, engaging in discussion with the various vendors, and I started by finally meeting Ashley Edwards from IZEA. There were several companies that I became familiar with last year and some new stuff, but there were really just a couple things I found exiting that were actually new to me.

After a little relaxing back at the hotel, Michelle and I headed to an early anniversary dinner at the Benihana Japanese steakhouse in the Hilton. It’s a bit pricey for a steak dinner, but the quality of the food was comparable to what I’d find here for the same $50/plate or so. The real reason we went was for the experience. You sit at a table with 5 or 6 strangers and the chef prepares the food in front of you. The chefs do a good job of entertaining the whole time, too. It’s half cooking and half juggling. After dinner, we headed to see the Cirque du Soleil show, KÀ, which was just amazing. The tickets were given to me in order for me to provide an honest review of it, but it will cost me because now Michelle and I are eager to go back and see the other shows.

Saturday, I headed back over to see the opening keynote, which was a celebrity-filled panel on how celebs use Twitter, essentially. It included Anthony Edwards (ER, Revenge of the Nerds), Jermaine Dupri (music mogul), Robin Antin (Pussycat Dolls), and Matt Goss (who I hadn’t heard of). Planned but cancelled was Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) and the panel was moderated pretty well by Brian Solis. Jermaine Dupri came off as a jerk, but a lot of what he said made sense, too. I think it was just how he came across as if he were the only one who mattered that bugged me. Anthony Edwards was full of analogies and was really polite and had some important points, too, as did Matt Goss. Robin Antin didn’t seem to bring much original perspective or anything really thought-provoking to the conversation. There were some differing opinions on exactly how much you should be sharing on Twitter and on how much you should really interact with fans. In all, though, it gave me some things to think about and it changed my idea of celebrity tweeters a little. It made me feel a little more open to trying to connect with someone regardless of their celebrity status. Anthony Edwards also took a moment to send out his very first Tweet in front of us, which I thought was pretty cool.

After the keynote, I saw John Chow for the first time of the weekend, so I walked over to say hello and he noticed that the IZEA booth was empty, so we decided to take it over. I swear John Chow has all the good off-the-cuff ideas. Last year, he had a contest to give away MarketLeverage’s money and I joined in. This year, taking over IZEA was a blast and I think we did a good job, too. A little confusion about when Ashley and Ted Murphy (IZEA CEO) were supposed to be there led to a test of how much John and I knew about IZEA and its Social Spark, SponsoredTweets, and Sponzai. Eventually, a stunned (but laughing) Ashley and Ted showed up and I got to meet Ted for the first time. There was so much interest in the IZEA booth at the time (mostly from John stealing people from other booths) that even after Ted and Ashley showed up, John and I continued to field questions to help with all the overflow. What antics will John and I get into next year, I wonder.

Saturday evening was reserved for a visit with Amy, a friend of Michelle’s that she hadn’t seen in years. She and her husband, Greg, have been living in Las Vegas, so we headed over and had a good visit with them and then headed home Sunday.

If you’re a blogger and serious about it at all, you need to be at BlogWorld. If not for all the sessions, you need to go just to connect in person with people who you’ve been interfacing with online and meet new people. I was pleased to finally meet several people I’d wanted to meed for a long time and enjoyed meeting lots of new people who I hope to continue to connect with online. Next year, I think I’ll plan for all the sessions again. I skipped them this year and although I probably wouldn’t have made it to many of them due to time constraints this year, I still feel like I missed out on some valuable information and interaction. For those who didn’t go, be sure to next year and find me and say hello.

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I had a winner for this contest, who I emailed and never heard from. I sent a follow-up email today, so we’ll see if I get to mail that out soon.

I had two winners for this contest, but neither responded to my DM tweets to collect, so I’m having a super fast 1-day contest again to give it away.

I held this contest last week and drew a winner who I’ve emailed today.

Finally, a previous contest winner who won a PS3 from a scam artist posing as a sponsor. After some time trying to get the “sponsor” to do anything close to forking over a prize, I went out and bought the prize winner a PS3 system myself. As it turns out, she’s looking to give that prize back out to a charity this summer, as she won’t need it.

It’s been a fun week for prizes, and I’ll have more prizes to give out soon, but I need to actually send some of these out first. Look for more contest announcements here and on Twitter as soon as I send one or two of these out.

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A year or two ago, I didn’t like payperpost , but it wasn’t their fault. What I didn’t like was the back-handing that Google was doing to all the bloggers to tried to make a couple bucks for their opinions. Google dropped me from PR5 to PR0 overnight and with the frustration of trying to get my page rank back up came fear that it could vanish just as easily. Because of that, I stayed away from PPP and a couple other sites for a long time. To be fair, I shouldn’t even say I didn’t like PayPerPost, because that’s not really accurate. Regardless, I found myself sans that revenue stream until recently.

I got an Alpha key a few weeks ago so I could check out the new site before it officially launched and it was a nice change from the old PayPerPost I remembered. The first thing I noticed was the new elegant design. It’s simplified and they’ve cut it down to only the necessary goods.

It’s not as great as SocialSpark (another IZEA site), but It looks like it’ll be much better when they come out of alpha and have more opportunities available. It’s hard to tell where it can go from here and how some of the searching and sorting features will work out until there’s more available, but it’s off to a pretty good start. The only thing that really bothers me is the very limited time frame we get to complete an opportunity. Id love to see them open that up to at least a few days. In any case, after a long time away, I’ll likely be logging into PayPerPost every day to check opportunities like I do currently with SocialSpark. Welcome back, old friend.

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The above is a modified version of an original photo by jblyberg

That’s right! You can now get your JoeTech.com fix anywhere on your Amazon Kindle by just purchasing a subscribtion. The current price (as set by Amazon) is only $1.99 per month. If you try it out, send me a photo and I’ll send you back something cool (maybe a gadget or a JoeTech.com shirt or something).

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No monthly fee option
Even though you get unlimited email and texting for about $20 a month, for someone like me, that seemed like a waste to pay monthly for something I already get in my iPhone. For someone without email capabilities on their phone, it’s a decent deal. After trying out a new pricing model of $399 for the Peek plus lifetime service, they found that given the choice, 70 percent opted for the one-time price. Frankly, I would, too. On the Peek site, you’ll pay (at the time of this writing) about $50 for the device and $20 per month. That means you’ll have spent just over the $399 one-time price in 18 months. If you think you’ll want one for more than a year and a half, the one-time price is the better deal.

Update your blog from it
If you blog, this is a new selling point for the Peek. It seems that Dan over at GeekyPeek.com installed Postie in WordPress and was able to update his blog from the Peek. (source: CrunchGear).

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The contest launched just over a week ago, and we’re still getting sponsorship requests, which is great. November is all about growing our prize pool, so I’m still working with potential sponsors for even bigger prizes. If you want to sponsor, it’s never too late.

This week, I would like to also point out that Bl.ogology.com has thrown a Palm Treo 650 (slightly used – Sprint only) into the prize pool. Thanks, Bl.ogology.com, for adding to the excitement!

The New Media Super Contest has 81 prizes from over 50 sponsors worth over $4,200! Take a look at the prize and sponsor list below.

Premium Sponsors
While we link out to all sponsors as a way of thanking them for adding to our prize pool, we also wanted to thank the premium sponsors, who went the extra mile to add larger prizes to the contest.

Pinky Arcade [UPDATE: PinkyArcade gave us the run around for months until I finally just bought the PS3 myself for the winner]
The 5 member team at Pinky Arcade contacted us early on to ask if we’d like to have a 160GB Sony PS3 to give away in the contest. If you are a gamer, you would notice that this system isn’t released yet and it’s going to be the latest model for the widely popular, PS3. No strangers to giving away tons of free prizes, Pinky Arcade has already given away huge gift cards, consoles, and mp3 players. All these given away for simply playing some free games on the site.

BadEvan’s Gay Blog
Evan also joined up as a sponsor early on, not only by helping promote via Twitter, and other “new media”, but also by throwing in around $1,500 in advertising, reviews, and cash.

EcoPower and EcoVista
The other day, the sales team at EcoPower sent me an exciting email. They had heard about the contest and wanted to sponsor it with some unexpected, but cool, prizes. Their EcoPower and EcoVista products help you save fuel in your automobile and electricity in your home or office. The products are pretty inexpensive, too, so they offered up three of each!

Platinum Sponsor Prizes ($100 and up)

Sony PS3 from Pinky Arcade [UPDATE: PinkyArcade gave us the run around for months until I finally just bought the PS3 myself for the winner]
$100 cash from JoeTech.com
Citrus theme license from Unique Blog Designs
Palm Treo 650 (slightly used – Sprint only) from Bl.ogology.com
1 Year of hosting on DreamHost from afrogtokiss.net
125×125 banner ad for one year from afrogtokiss.net
125×125 banner ad for one year from JoeTech.com
Text link AND 125×125 banner ad for one month from Anshul Affiliates
125×125 banner ad for one year from BadEvan.com
one month of pimping from BadEvan.com
one month of pimping from BadEvan.com
Site review on BadEvan.com from BadEvan.com

Gold Sponsor Prizes (under $100)

10,000 ec from JoeTech.com
10,000 ec from Archon Digital
125×125 banner ad for one month from Winning the Web
125×125 banner ad for one month from Name Sherry
EcoVista M1 from Eco Power
EcoVista M1 from Eco Power
EcoVista M1 from Eco Power
EcoVista M2 from Eco Power
EcoVista M2 from Eco Power
EcoVista M2 from Eco Power

Silver Sponsor Prizes (under $50)
EcoPower from Eco Power
EcoPower from Eco Power
EcoPower from Eco Power
$25 cash from BadEvan.com
$25 BP gas card from AutomoBlog.net
Review on sitegorge.com from Web Buzz
Review on sitegorge.com from Web Buzz
SEO consultation from Web Buzz
SEO consultation from Web Buzz
2,000 ec from Realm of Prosperity
2,000 ec from Random Detox
125×125 banner ad for one month from Heart Random
125×125 banner ad for 3 months from Lankapo.com
125×125 banner ad for 3 months from Damia.Lnkapo.com
Review on needlessproductions.com from NeedlessProductions
125×125 banner ad for one month from Contestu.com
Review on anshuldudeja.blogspot.com from Anshul Affiliates
2,500 ec from sofhaljamil.com
3,000 ec from BadEvan.com
5,000 ec from TechByPC.com
125×125 banner ad for 12 weeks from TechByPC.com
125×125 banner ad for one month from MyFashionLink.com
125×125 banner ad for one month from MyGossipGirl.com
125×125 banner ad for two months from The Positive Life
Blog makeover from The Positive Life
125×125 banner ad for one year from Alanzain
Text link for one year from Alanzain
125×125 banner ad for one month from Nspeaks

Bronze Sponsor Prizes ($10 and under)
$10 cash from Slave to the Internet
$5 cash from The Positive Life
1,000 ec from Journal of Journey
125×125 banner ad for one month from Multiply Themes
125×125 banner ad for one month from 24patrol
1,000 ec from Web Buzz
1,000 ec from International Freebies
125×125 banner ad for 3 months from Better Interpersonal Communication
125×125 banner ad for 3 months from Free Famous Quotes
125×125 banner ad for 3 months from Gift Reviews
1,000 ec from Contest Whiz
1,000 ec from LOL Celebs
1,000 ec from kisahberuang.com
1,000 ec from MichealPark.org
1,000 ec from Anshul Affiliates
One Secret Tip on the winners blog from Anshul Affiliates
1,111 ec from The Chetan
125×125 banner ad for one month from sofhaljamil.com
Text link for one month from Blogging from Scratch
Text link for two months from The Positive Life
1,000 ec from The Positive Life
125×125 banner design from The Positive Life
1,000 ec from DailySMS.in
125×125 banner ad for one month from Submit Your Contest
1,000 ec from Jo’s Reviews and Ad Space
1,000 ec from Programming The Life
1,500 ec from Affiliate-Revenue.info
125×125 banner ad for two weeks from Affiliate-Revenue.info
2,000 ec from Kasakk.blogspot.com
125×125 banner ad for one month from Kasakk.blogspot.com

How to enter
There are a lot of ways to enter. If you do any of the following, you get entries into the drawing. Even though we have over 70 prizes already, making it easy for everyone to win, your odds of nabbing the Platinum prizes increase with each entry you earn. Most of the ways mentioned below are very easy and take very little time, so try a few or all of them and good luck! Entries must be earned before January 1, 2009 to be eligible.
- Tweet the contest at Twitter.com (must include “#joetech”) (5 entries/once per day)
- Tweet “@joetech I hope I win” at Twitter.com (5 entries/once per day)
- Follow joetech on Twitter.com (10 entries) (all current followers already entered)
- Blog about the contest (must include the pre-formmated contest html, unedited, with working links and images) (100 entries)
- Stumble the contest at StumbleUpon.com(10 entries)
- Comment on the contest post (1 entry)
- Subscribe to JoeTech.com via email (existing subscribers will be entered automatically) (20 entries)
- Subscribe to sponsors via email (20 entries each/participating sponsors only)
- Email me (joe@joetech.com) a blog post title or other detail proving you visited a sponsor’s site. (Subject must include “NMSC ENTRY” and you should include the url of the sponsor site.) (10 entries/once per day)

Badges, Buttons, Banners, and HTML
This contest is about spreading the word about new media and by new media. That said, it’s important for you to have the tools to help you promote it. It’ll earn you more entries, too. Below are some blocks of HTML to make it very easy for you to post about the contest or add a badge or button to your site or blog. Please note that it is important for the images to come from JoeTech.com (as they do in the codes below) so they will automatically update with new prize total information.

Blog post HTML
Get the HTML here

Badge HTML
<a href=”http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc”><img src=”http://www.joetech.com/ads/prize_total.gif” border=”0″ /></a>

125×125 Button HTML
<a href=”http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc”><img src=”http://www.joetech.com/ads/nmsc_125.gif” border=”0″ /></a>

Text Link HTML
<a href=”http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc” alt=”New Media Super Contest”>New Media Super Contest</a>

How to sponsor
Although the contest is already under way, we’ll accept sponsors and prizes until the very end. Currently we’re looking for more cash and electronics like laptops, iPods, etc., but feel free to be creative. Remember to think big. The better your prize, the more attention you’ll get in the contest. Premium sponsors will receive special mentions in contest posts, in addition to all the name recognition and traffic the contest will bring naturally.

To sponsor, just email joe@joetech.com with the subject “NEW MEDIA SUPER CONTEST”. Each prize should be worth at least $10 U.S. Include the details about the prize or prizes you are offering, the U.S. dollar value of each prize, your site or company name and the URL to link to. All sponsors will be added to the list as seen above and updates will be posted on every Thursday.

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When I decided to put together the biggest contest JoeTech.com has ever seen, I set the bar high and decided that I really want this to be huge. I’ve been working hard to make that happen, and it’s starting to show. Currently, the prize pool is over $3,500 in cash and prizes and continuing to grow. I’m also looking for more large sponsors still. If you work closely with any company that you think might want to throw in a Macbook, other computers or electronics, lots of cash, etc., let them know about the contest. The updated info will always be at the following URL:

http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc

In this update, I want to talk about a lot of the prizes we have so far, some generous early sponsors, people who’ve promoted the contest already, and questions that have been asked.

Cash and prizes
Let’s start with the generous sponsors and all the prizes so far. It’s still early in our sponsorship phase, and already we have over 63 prizes in our prize pool, including over $200 in cash, almost over 32,000 credits at Entrecard (about $190 value), a LOT of advertising on various blogs, blog and ad redesigns and reviews, a copy of the Citrus Theme from Unique Blog Designs, a bunch of advertising, Entrecard credits and cash from BadEvan’s Gay Blog, and Pinky Arcade’s generous sponsorship of a Sony PS3 game system. [UPDATE: PinkyArcade gave us the run around for months until I finally just bought the PS3 myself for the winner]

Early promotions for extra entries and bonus prizes
Last week, I told you that you can promote early and win more. Since then, there’s been some twitter posts, blog posts, forwarding the contest details via email, etc. It’s great to see so many people diving in and helping make this contest huge. Here’s just some of the links and mentions from this week:

Winning The Web post (author Gyutae Park inspired the idea)
Prof Web Marketing post (included the badge, too. Great!)
AFrogToKiss.net post
Badge on Lankapo
Badge on LOLCelebs.com
Badge on alanzain
Basge on Blogger Widgets
Badge on Tugazone
Badge on TuneMoney
Badge on Affiliate Asia
Tweet from @badevan

If I missed you, let me know. As I mentioned before, I’m setting aside some of the prizes for people who promote the contest early. Just promote the contest with a link to it and you’re in for extra entries and prizes. Below are the HTML and BBCODE (for forums) for the banner shown at the top of this post and the badge (which you can see in my side bar). These will both update on their own as we get more sponsors and the contest launches.

BANNER HTML:
<a href=”http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsx”><img src=”http://www.joetech.com/ads/nmsc_banner.gif” alt=”New Media Super Contest” broder=”0″ /></a>

BANNER FORUM BBCODE:
[url=http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc][img]http://www.joetech.com/ads/nmsc_banner.gif[/img][/url]

BADGE HTML:
<a href=”http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc”><img src=”http://www.joetech.com/ads/prize_total.gif” border=”0″ /></a>

BADGE FORUM BBCODE:
[url=http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc][img]http://www.joetech.com/ads/prize_total.gif[/img][/url]

Questions and answers
When will the contest launch?
You can get early entries as mentioned above, but the contest truly launches on November 12, 2008.

When does the contest end?
The contest will go until January 1, 2009. That may seem like a long time, but it gives us more time to get new sponsors and more time for our loyal readers to gain more entries. All of the entries will be gathered up as early as possible in January and prizes will be awarded as soon as we can draw all the names. I’m shooting for January 10.

Can I still become a sponsor?
Yes! You can become a sponsor at any point until January 1, 2009. Of course, the early sponsors take advantage of more links and press like the upcoming NMSC Contest Sponsor Love post.

What do I get as a sponsor?
Sponsors not only get the benefit of giving back to the community of bloggers and the people who read the blogs, but you will also receive links back from all the blog posts about the contest both here and on participant blogs across the web. Premium sponsors will be mentioned often and sometimes even placed in the contest creative as I’ve done with Pinky Arcade and Bad Evan in the banner image above.

What should I give as a sponsor?
You can give tangible items, cash, advertising, or Entrecard credits. So far, we have a lot of Entrecard Credits and advertising. While we’ll certainly accept more as prizes, we’d love to see more sponsors like BadEvan.com and PinkyArcade.com offering up electronics and cash. You should sponsor at least 1,000 ec or your prize should be worth at least $10. Really, though, you should be thinking $20 or more in cash or consumer electronics like iPods, TVs, laptops, digital cameras, etc. The more exciting your prize, the more attention you get in our posts and announcements.

I want to sponsor a bunch of prizes! How do I do it?
Just send an email to joe@joetech.com with the subject “NEW MEDIA SUPER CONTEST”. Include the details about what you would like to sponsor, the name and URL of the site responsible for each prize

Who can win?
As long as I or another sponsor can legally send your prize to you, you can win.

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