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:
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:
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:
BANNER FORUM BBCODE:
BADGE HTML:
BADGE FORUM BBCODE:
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.
Yesterday, I announced the New Media Super Contest, where the goal is to get as many sponsors as possible, spread the word using as much new media as possible, and then give away a lot of prizes, including cash, electronics, and a lot more. Yesterday’s announcement began the first phase, sponsor hunting. The sponsorship is off to a great start, with over $1,700 in prizes offered up in the first day. Keep watching the NMSC PRIZE TOTAL badge on the right to see the total go up and up.
While I continue to pursue and accept lots of new contest sponsors and great prizes, you can be earning early entries into the contest, before it even begins.
Just copy the code below and throw it on your blog, livejournal, myspace, forums, etc. You can also write a blog post about the contest, tweet it, or find any other creative way to spread the word. We’ll be giving out bonus prizes randomly to some of the people who help promote this contest before it starts. By the way, your tweet, blog post, etc. will still count as a regular entry, too.
However you do it, just point people to http://www.joetech.com/suggests/nmsc for the latest contest info.
HTML:
FORUM BBCODE:
Here’s what it looks like:
The more buzz we create, the more attractive the contest is to additional sponsors for even more prizes, so spread the word and let’s skyrocket that prize total! We’ve already gotten a great start, thanks to the PS3 offered up by PinkyArcade.com [UPDATE: PinkyArcade gave us the run around for months until I finally just bought the PS3 myself for the winner])!
It’s time for the biggest contest I’ve ever had on JoeTech.com. Sponsors in the “Joe Tech New Media Super Contest” will enjoy a ton of new RSS and email subscribers, site traffic, product/blog/website buzz and brand name recognition. I will be working very hard to promote the contest and in turn, the sponsors.
Here’s a few sponsorship ideas:
- CASH ($10 or more) – Think BIG
- Text link ad on your blog/site for a month.
- Text link ad on your blog/site for a year.
- Banner/125/button ad on your blog/site for a month.
- Banner/125/button ad on your blog/site for a year.
- A free review on your blog
- A free copy/license of your software
- Gift cards to Best Buy/Amazon/etc.
- Entrecard Credits (1,000 or more) – Think BIG
- Any product you would like to purchase – Think electronics (ipod, macbook, headphones, XBox, etc)
- Anything else of real value you want to offer.
The bigger the prize, the higher you get on the sponsorship list. I will start the contest in a couple weeks or so. More sponsors can join in after that, but it’s best to get in early. A big thanks goes to our first sponsor, AFrogToKiss.net. I’ve just announced this thing, and so far we have $500 in sponsorship already (this number will be updated in the image on the right).
I’m also going to be putting in more cash than I’ve ever given out in a contest before, and I’ll up the ante if I reach some goals by the contest deadline, January 1, 2009, so keep watching.
To sponsor or for more details before the contest is announced, email joe@joetech.com with the subject “New Media Super Contest”. Please include the prize you would like to offer and it’s value in US dollars.
Here’s why the partnership between Entrecard and SezWho is important for bloggers everywhere, and something all bloggers should be taken advantage of.
1.) Your blog will get more comments. Under the partnership, when bloggers leave you a comment, they will receive Entrecard Credits, the micro-payment currency that allows you to advertise on 14,000 high quality blogs. If there’s one thing bloggers thrive on, its comments. Comments are the blood of a blog if the posts are the organs. So it’s no wonder that any system that is going to get your blog more comments just rocks.
2.) The comments will be high quality comments. Since low quality comments don’t get rewarded with any credits, people won’t waste their time and energy leaving poor quality comments. People who take it upon themselves to comment will make sure to leave good, relevant and valuable comments.
3.) It will get you to leave more comments. Let’s face it. We’ve all been in the following situation: We’re reading a blog post, we have a slight desire to chime in and comment, but laziness takes over and we click away or x out. With credits on the line though, we’re all the more likely to actually leave our comments. Not to mention it might put you on a mission every day to go out and comment. Commenting is one of the tried and true powerhouse methods to drive traffic to your blog and develop a reputation. Any system that is going to effectively get me to comment more often rocks.
4.) Credits!! It’s no secret why we want credits. We want them so we can advertise on the 14,000+ blogs in Entrecard. So you can either go dropping cards until your fingers hurt, or you can start commenting on some blogs!
5.) Check me out. One of the coolest features of SezWho is that you can “check me out”. Just by clicking a link, you can see all the comments someone has left from all over the blogosphere. How cool is that. Ok, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with the Entrecard partnership, but I wouldn’t have installed SezWho if it wasn’t for the Entrecard partnership, so it gets on the list. I love seeing what other comments people have left on other blogs. You might not understand how cool it is until you try it.
6.) Reduced bounce rate. Entrecard traffic used to mean someone dropping their card and leaving your site. Every now and then someone would subscribe, or comment, or click an ad. But now, now at least 50% of the traffic is commenting. THATS HUGE! My bounce rate has dropped like a rock. Awesome. Nobody likes a high bounce rate.
7.) BACKLINKS. Every comment you leave is a backlink to your blog. So by leaving a few comments every day, your slowly and steadily building backlinks to your blogs. And you’re earning credits while you do it. Nice.
8.) It’s Viral. When a lot of people start commenting your blog now, and other people “check them out” from comments they’ve left on other blogs to see where they’re commenting now, a huge mass of viral traffic will follow them… directly to your blog. That may not make much sense at first, but you’ll see what we’re talking about.
9.) School of blogging. More than anything, what this motivates us to do, is to learn how to write posts that are more inviting of comments. It also motivates us to learn how to leave the best comments we can -and how to be valuable contributors. For only if bloggers find our comments useful, do we get credits. And only if we write our posts well, will bloggers comment. The whole system really is quite genius in how it works like that.
10.) And the final reason why the Entrecard SezWho partnership is important for bloggers is… drumroll please… it’s gonna keep us blogging. Let’s face it, if we pour our hearts out into post after post, only to receive zero comments, its a blow to our motivation and our drive. Without the support of commentators sharing their feelings, thoughts and opinions on our blog, well, why blog at all, right? Why build a baseball field if no one is going to play ball on it? There are 100 million more blogs now than there were five years ago. That’s 100 million more blogs competing for comments. That’s pretty intense. But with Entrecard and SezWho, you don’t have to worry about finding people to come comment on your blog. All you have to do is focus on writing quality content, and let the Entrecard community take care of the rest.
So there you have it. The top 10 reasons why the Entrecard – SezWho partnership is important for bloggers, and why if you’re serious about blogging, you should be using Entrecard and SezWho to catapult your community to new heights.
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]
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