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.