Posts Tagged ‘Giveaways’

Book Review: Content Rich by Jon Wuebben

contentrich 126x300 Book Review: Content Rich by Jon Wuebben imageRecently I won a copy of Content Rich by Jon Wuebben from Andy Beal’s website the Marketing Pilgrim. First off, let me say a huge thank you to Andy for running the contest and that I received the book yesterday. In fact, I didn’t put it down and finished reading it this morning. Now my dog eared, sticky noted copy of this great book is going to sit on my book shelf for a few days while I absorb the contents and then I’ll reread it paying extra attention to my own comments I wrote the first time through.

In his book, Jon covers a lot of ground with an emphasis on ensuring content is unique, interesting and above all focuses on the reader. Think of it as user-centric writing for the new age. He also talks about how to use blogs to sell your product and reminds us that recommendations are a powerful sales generator:

 “Blogs are really great for another big reason: consumers end up buying from your compnay not because of you so much, but because of what other consumers are saying about your product or service, in the blog. ”

Buy Online: Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web Book Review: Content Rich by Jon Wuebben image

There are a couple other strong reviews for the book at the KISS Business and Business and Blogging that I recommend taking a look at.

WordPress from contests to templates, and a cool pumpkin to boot.

I found a couple of interesting WordPress websites today, there’s an ongoing competition going on but I think Eric has to win for the best WordPress website today, he’s done a great Pumpkin carving that is sure to amuse even Matt. Speaking of WordPress, if you’re looking for a WordPress expert for your next job you’re looking for some freelance WordPress work, you should take a look at http://jobs.wordpress.net.
On a more technical note, there was an interesting piece about stripping classnames in WordPress which pointed to a couple of great sources to how to fix this problem at MaisonBisson.com. And of course, a lot more press about the LinkedIn plugin here and here.
To wrap it up today … 21 WordPress themes:

Win an iPod Nano

Thanks all who took part, the contest is now over.

 

Win an 8GB iPod Nano just for linking from your website to thisismyurl.com.

The rules are really simple, write a review of thisismyurl.com and post it on your website with a link back to my site include a link to an article on my site, ideally as a review but it’s up to you. Leave me a comment below with a link to the article on your site so I can check it out.

The Winner will be selected randomly from those who follow the rules and enter. I’ll announce the winner on November 15th and order you a brand new 8GB iPod Nano from Apple before the holidays. Good luck.

Winter Wonderland Flash Animation Contest

November 16th – Thanks to everybody who showed interest in the contest, I had a lot of emails about it and there seemed to be some real interest but in the end, nobody sent in an entry. 

 

 

 

 


What could be better than building awesome Flash animations? What about building great Flash animations that reward you with up to $1,000 and a free copy of the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite (Production or Web)? I was reading a great article over at Upstart Blogger this morning and I thought, what better way to reward my readers than to give away a copy of something we could all benefit from.    

Create a Flash animation no longer than two minutes in length about winter, the winter season or holidays in winter. Contest closes November 15th and voting begins the next day! There are five different prizes, so best of luck.

fl cs4 bxshot 3in 281x300 Winter Wonderland Flash Animation Contest image

Now, I have some ground rules that you need to agree to first.

  1. You must use legitimate, licensed versions of Adobe Flash to create your animation.
  2. You must own the content or permission to use the content of your animation.
  3. You may enter multiple animations in this contest, but only one per entry.
  4. You may have a team or work independently but there is only one prize per entry.
  5. Your animation may be no longer than two minutes in length.
  6. Your animation may not contain anything vulgar, vile, disgusting or nasty.
  7. Your animation must focus on winter holidays, the winter season or winter related subject matter.
  8. Your animation must be original and will be exclusively hosted here.

How to enter:

  1. Create your totally awesome animation in Adobe Flash.
  2. Send me your SWF of your animation by email along with:
    • name
    • age
    • email address
    • telephone number
    • link to your website
    • a brief bio (100 words or less)
    • name of the animation
    • a brief description of the animation
  3. Wait for the confirmation email. If you don’t get one within 24 hours, send me a message to confirm I received your animation.
  4. Once your animation is posted, I’ll send you a second email and you’ll be able to see it online!

Prizes:

  1. First Place wins $500 and a copy of Adobe CS4 Creative Suite (Production or Web).
  2. Second Place wins $250.
  3. Third Place wins $100.
  4. Most commented video wins $75.
  5. Most linked to video wins $75.

Legal stuff and things I’m required to say:

  1. If you don’t get a confirmation email from me, you’re not entered in the contest.
  2. Contest entry ends November 15th, 2008 at midnight here in Fredericton.
  3. Voting begins November 16th, 2008 at midnight here in Fredericton and closes on December 15th, 2008 at midnight here in Fredericton.
  4. Adobe has nothing to do with this contest, nor do they endorse or sponsor it.
  5. You grant me the right to display your video here on my website.
  6. No purchase required to enter.
  7. I have the right to limit, refuse or reject animations for any reason.
  8. I reserve the right to terminate or withdraw the contest at any time without prior notice.
  9. The contest is subject to all federal, provincial, and municipal laws.
  10. This contest is operated under the laws of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.
  11. Comments, votes, links etc. are counted based on the data available on my website at the time of closing.
  12. It must be legal for you to enter this contest in your own jurisdiction.
  13. The prizes must be accepted as awarded. No substitutions or exchanges for cash or other items of value are permitted.
  14. Winners will be selected by a panel of three judges.

Best of luck! If you have questions, feel free to ask.

How to Increase your web traffic

When we talk about how to increase traffic to your website, the first thing that we have to decide is what type of traffic we’re looking for and then, once we’ve established quality traffic goals we can start talking about how to get people to visit your site.

It reminds me of a great meeting I had years ago while working for Corel Corporation in Ottawa Canada. I had been invited to a management meeting in the fall of 2000 to discuss how to increase traffic to our corporate store. The web marketing person at the time was there and she’d voiced the opinion that we needed to get a million visitors to the site. I corrected her and stated that we needed to get 10,000 quality visitors. Frankly, she annoyed me but beyond simply having a voice that could curdle milk she was also wrong. After some time, I gave up and blurted out that getting a million visitors to the site wasn’t hard so if we could wrap up the meeting I’d get started right away. The trick I told her was that if you want to get a million visitors to the web store, all you need to do is place a banner on a few dozen sites that read “Want to get fucked? Click here.”

Needless to say, this wasn’t the traffic the company wanted and most likely also isn’t what you’re looking for so instead of looking at increasing traffic, let’s look at how to increase quality traffic.

Right up front there are a few easy ways to help generate traffic to your site. First off, offer people something for free. Contests, giveaways and marketing promos are always a great way to keep people coming back. Online Flash games that feature your products, quizzes, calculators and downloadable forms are also powerful tools for helping keep people online.

Newsletters, RSS feeds, PodCasts and subscriptions will also help you recycle traffic back to your website after they’ve come for a first time. Keep in mind that unless you offer something truly unique, the best way to build traffic and keep traffic hasn’t changes since the days of Greek stages … quality content, delivery and writing.