I've been entering a lot of contests online lately. Turns out there are blogs that do a lot of giveaways. I can't tell you which ones because I learn of them through Twitter and just go register. I can tell you most of them are mommybloggers.
Most of the contests are run through Rafflecopter. It allows the giver-away-er to set different tasks for entries and, presumably, randomizes the winner-pick. To start, you usually have to give your name or comment on the post or simply click OK. That then unlocks other tasks that give you additional entries. These include tweeting or sharing the contest, commenting on a non-giveaway blog post, liking the blog on facebook and/or following it on Twitter, etc.
It's this last one that I want to talk about. It makes sense that you would want people to like/follow YOUR blog. You are running the contest after all. Sometimes, there is a group of 6-12 blogs participating in the giveaway and you get an entry for each like/follow. I'm cool with that too. Often, however, you're given, say, 25 entries for liking/following all of the blogs listed on another page. There may be 25-50 blogs listed there. Some of them even have multiple pages of like/follow links! Are you hoping I will actually READ all of those blogs? I don't have that kind of time. Plus, it turns out, Facebook and Twitter get really cranky when you suddenly start liking or following a buttload of people all at once.
To accommodate this flood of internet noise I will likely ignore (unless you have another giveaway), I created contest accounts for Facebook and Twitter. That way I can skim through the flotsam and jetsam when I want to without disrupting my regular reads (or ticking off my followers with tweets about contests).
My guess on the multi-follows is they're trying to boost their numbers to get better advertising rates. For an iPad or a smart phone or anything else shiny, I'm happy to artificially inflate your numbers.
Showing posts with label Contests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contests. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Friday, August 28, 2009
Big Ol' Grin On My Face
My favorite podcast, Geek News Central, recently hit show 500. As a celebration of that milestone, the host, Todd Cochrane asked for a new intro. The previous intro was produced by a member of the 'ohana' (Hawaiian word meaning family) but had been in use for about 300 shows. It was time to freshen things up a bit.
As an incentive to get our creative juices flowing, and because it is an as yet unreleased shiny gadget, Todd offered a brand new Zune HD to whoever created the new intro.
Guess who will be getting a brand new Zune HD. If you want to hear the winning entry, it can be listened to here. Frankly, now that it's had some time to sit, I think it's a little long (it's almost a minute) but Todd liked it.
:::: G R I N ::::
As an incentive to get our creative juices flowing, and because it is an as yet unreleased shiny gadget, Todd offered a brand new Zune HD to whoever created the new intro.
Guess who will be getting a brand new Zune HD. If you want to hear the winning entry, it can be listened to here. Frankly, now that it's had some time to sit, I think it's a little long (it's almost a minute) but Todd liked it.
:::: G R I N ::::
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Zune HD
Microsoft has announced its answer to the iPod Touch, the Zune HD, complete with touch screen and HD Radio. Gear Live, the site I won the Pantech Matrix Pro from, is giving one away! Wnat to get in on the action? It's real easy. Just visit http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q209-zune-hd-giveaway/ for details.
Monday, May 18, 2009
I Should Have Played The Powerball
There's been a lot going on lately that I have wanted to tell you about or comment about but I just haven't been able to make the time to get the posts written. Then, when I do have time, I generally can't recall exactly what I was going to write about which is why I posted my last post.
One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.
The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.
Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.
The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.
Now, to explain the title.
When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.
But wait, there's MORE!
In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.
When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.
One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.
The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.
Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.
The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.
Now, to explain the title.
When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.
But wait, there's MORE!
In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.
When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.
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