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Social Media Mania & A Chance to Win Viral Sign Up Generator

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:58:01 +0000

OK, we all know that Twitter is exploding thanks to some recent events with Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey… right???

There are also dozens of new Twitter tools popping up all over the place… and I have bought a lot of them. I have also refunded a couple that were just simply crap.

Well today I was approached by someone about a new product they wanted me to review, and to be honest I deny about 90% of them because the are usually just looking for a way to bypass paying for a review. Which is not a bad thing, but I only have so many hours in the day as it is and I need to focus on things that directly affect my bottom line. Its called running a business

Anyway… as you know… well you should know… the pastures here have a pretty cool contest going on with prizes in excess of $3000 and in the previous contest post I mentioned that each day we are going to have a surprise give away. Sooooo…. wait, should I ramble more or get to the point????

GET TO THE POINT COW!

OK, fine, be that way. The email was from the owner of a new product called Viral Sign Up Generator and what it does is combines your email opt in with your twitter follow.

You need to understand, if you think that Twitter is stupid, a fad or some other negative thing… you need to look in the mirror and say to the person looking back.. “What Are You An Idiot!”

Twitter is constantly bringing in 1% to 2% traffic from every message I send within the first 5 minutes. That means if at this moment there are 8000 followers, then as soon as I tweet a message I get anywhere between 80 and 160 visitors. You may think that does not sound like much, but that is consistent and giving me fantastic results. I want to remind you that all the $3000 in prizes was because I twittered 8 times (at different times and in different ways) that I needed sponsors…. hint, hint (did you catch that). In case you missed it, I twittered 8 different times (because some people work, some people sleep and some people live in other time zones) and I used different words every second message. I did not do this manually, but instead used the PRO version of Tweetlater.com which is very cool. It allows you to spin your text so it posts different variations.

Anyway, as for this tool that was brought to my attention… I immediately looked at it because this was on my list of things for my programmer to do. I have a Twitter tool that i use right now, that he is packaging up for me to offer others and after that i was going to have him create this exact tool. There are 2 huge things that are going to help your blog this year… increasing email subscribers and increasing twitter followers (I promise you)… and this tool helps with both.

It combines your auto responder service with twitter and packages it all together in a beautiful little package.

So just so you know, this is not a paid review… or a review for a friends product, this is me telling you that I like this tool!

I only have one complaint, the installation instructions were not as clear as i wished but i got on AIM with them and they totally agreed with everything I had to offer for advice. The installation is very easy, just do what I did not do and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE VIDEO.

So now you know I recommend this tool to you… but I also have some good news. I am giving away (I got permission from them) two FREE copies of this script to two of you. One winner is already selected, the second winner will be selected tomorrow based on who participates today.

So here are the very clear instructions.

IMPORTANT –> If you want to participate in this contest for a chance to win some of the $3000 in prizes, you need to first CLICK HERE and follow the original contest instructions. Once you have completed that, you can come back to this post and be qualified… but if you already have done that then you a good to go

Mandatory Criteria #1… Subscribe to JoeTechs RSS at http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeTech
Mandatory Criteria #2… Click Here to tweet the following message “Checking out the SEO service SEO by the Hour http://seobythehour.com/“
Mandatory Criteria #3... you must fill out the following form (yes this is the script i was talking about. IMPORTANT, once you fill out the form you will be brought to a page that has the twitter bird (this is showing you that it is posting to your account), this page will then redirect back to here

WAIT There is MORE… What the above steps did, is entered you in a chance to win a copy of this script BUT it also gave you another point towards winning the grand prize… and I have 1 more “Optional thing” for you to do to earn yourself an extra point.

Optional Task – Click Here to Follow http://twitter.com/TerriLorah (She is the sponsor of the ($106.00 Value) Free Gourmet Candle products (Melting Pot, 2 Bags of melts, an 8 Oz. Spa Sations candle and 2 16oz. Jar Gourmet Candles. PLUS a Mystic Melon Bella Bar too from http://www.usamade.scent-team.com/videopresentation.php

Last but NOT least – Fill out the comment form below with the details so I can pick you as a winner

Ohhh.. and i almost forgot… I said there were two copies we are giving away and that one winner was already selected. That winner is Kikolani. Congrats, i have sent them an email and you should hear from them soon. The winner of the second copy will be announced tomorrow along with details of another draw I am having

Win over $3000 in Prizes with the JohnCow Social Media Mania 2.0 Contest

Jason Katzenback — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:40:40 +0000

Let The Games Begin!

First of all, welcome to the kick off of the Social Media Mania Contest here at JohnCow!

The purpose of this contest is twofold. The first is to get more exposure for JohnCow (kind of obvious I know) but the second is to teach my readers some cool tips and give them a chance to win some cool prizes.

I need to mention that I LOVE Social Media and it is 100% responsible for providing over $3000 in prizes to this contest. I simply posted a few times on Twitter and Facebook and let the JohnCow RSS feed spread the word a bit too. In other words, what took me about 5 minutes to set up, got me in return over $3000 in cash and prizes to offer all of you… and yes I will be explaining exactly what I did.

But first I want to cover some details of this contest and that needs to start with the rules…

The Rules:

Contest Starts May 5th 2009 and Ends May 12th 2009.
You MUST be 18 years of older to participate. Sorry everyone who is under the age of 18 but there are just too many risks involved otherwise.
JohnCow and its owners are NOT responsible for the shipping of prizes. This has been made clear with the sponsors and I will pass the winners info to them and also will provide the winners the contact info of the sponsors.
Unclaimed prizes will be void after 30 days. We send an email and post it on this here blog and if within 30 days the winners do not claim the prize, sorry.. you snooze you lose.
Winners must still be actively following JohnCow and the other top sponsors in order to qualify for their prize at the time of drawing.
All participants agree to our Privacy, TOU and Disclaimer
Participants acknowledge that it may take 4 to 6 weeks to receive some prizes.

What Can You Win? –> Check out the AWESOME prizes!

So far, here are the SWEET Prizes… valued at over $3000!

($300+ Value) Chinavision Projector Cell Phone from JoeTech.com
($400+ Value) 5 Hours of Link Building Service, $50 cash via Paypal and a permanent blogroll link at SEO Blog from James Harrison
$200 Cash via PayPal from http://wpunlimited.com/
$250 in Free Passion Products of Your Choice from Enjoy Intimate Bliss
($200 Value) SONY PSP 3000 Ratchet & Clank Limited Edition Bundle from Making Money With PPC Coach
($500+ Value) FREE 6 Months Access to…
($280 Value) FREE 2 Year Access to GoStats PRO PLUS $100 Cash Via PayPal from http://gostats.com/
($200+ Value) FREE Custom Made 10K Gold Military Ring (For you or someone you care about), from…
($197 Value) Free 1 year Access to Tweet Riches Pro
($106.00 Value) Free Gourmet Candle products (Melting Pot, 2 Bags of melts, an 8 Oz. Spa Sations candle and 2 16oz. Jar Gourmet Candles. PLUS a Mystic Melon Bella Bar too from http://www.usamade.scent-team.com/videopresentation.php
($120 Value) 3 Months Free 125X125 and 585X80 Banner Advertising on PR4 blog at http://the-dude.co.uk/
($110 Value) One Month Free 125X125 Banner and Product Review Advertising on PR3 Blog with Alexa of 27000 at http://www.thewwwblog.com/
($75 Value) Free Video Review of your site, product or service on one of my favorite blogs IMwithJoe
$35 Cash via PayPal from http://www.mymerchantaccountblog.com
($35 Value) 1 Month Free 125 X 125 Banner PLUS 1 Month Text Link Ad in Sidebar on PR4 Blog with Alexa of 50,000 from Blogging Tips to Make Money Online
Free $25 Plug-In Scentsy Warmer & Accessorie from http://www.scentsy.com/niffer
$30 Cash via PayPal from http://www.maheshkukreja.com
$25 Cash via PayPal from http://blog.therealtruthaboutmlm.com

How Are Prizes Awarded

Each player will get an opportunity to earn “points”, these are done by accomplishing simple tasks. The different tasks will be worth different points. Each point will represent one chance to win, so if you have earned 8 points, that means that you have 8 chances to win. So if you had 8 and I only had one, that means that in the draw, you would have 8 tickets in the bucket and I would only have one.

Winners only win once, so if you are selected as Winner #1, you can no longer be selected.

Prizes are given out in the following order…

Winner #1 – Selects Any 5 of the Top Prizes.
Winner #2 – Selects Any 4 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #3 – Selects Any 3 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #4 – Selects Any 2 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #5 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #6 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #7 – Selects Any 1 of the remaining prizes.
Winner #8 – Gets the 1 remaining prizes.

The winners names will be mentioned here on JohnCow.com on the day specified and the winners will have 30 days to claim their prize. They will also be emailed

Lets Get Started

So here we go…and take notice that the first 4 steps are required to qualify

Part 1 Required Steps:

Completing these steps will register you for one point in the contest.

Step #1 (Required): You must be a follower of JohnCow and Click Here to retweet this message “Check out Amazing Prizes that Are Super Easy to Win at http://bit.ly/16yXzv @johncow you rock!”

Step #2 (Required): Click Here to follow on Twitter our Top Sponsor JoeTech.com

Step #3 (Required): Click Here to follow on Twitter our Top Sponsor SEO by The Hour

Step #4: Leave a comment below of the steps you completed so your points can be calculated (all points will be verified) IMPORTANT – Review below jobs before commenting.

Part 2: Optional but Recommended Steps

Step #5 (1 Extra Point): Become a friend to JohnCow on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616647906

Step #6 (1 Extra Point): Sign up as a “Google Friend Connect” and Join My Site

Step #7: (1 Extra Point): Click here to give WPUnlimited.com a thumbs up on Stumbleupon

Step #8: (1 Extra Point): Go to http://yourpassionconsultant.com/consultants/intimatebliss/catalog.html and then find the a gift that made you say “WOW” and then add the link to that page below in the comment field made available.

Part 3: Follow Along Everyday for More Chances to Win… and Special Daily Draws

For the next week, each day I am going to be posting 3 very simple jobs for you to earn more credits. Each job will be for a top sponsor PLUS one of the other sponsors and I will also include a cool “Social Media Tip”… for example, tomorrow I am going to explain how I was able to get so many prizes through Twitter… I also will be giving away some random prize (the value will change from $20 to $477) each day. So be sure to check back tomorrow!

NOTE: Comments will go into moderation, so only post one comment please

Get A Crap Load of Exposure – New Contest in Need of Sponsors

Jason Katzenback — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:12:16 +0000

Want a boat load of exposure for your product, website and twitter account?

I am setting up a new contest that will be starting next Tuesday and I am in need of new sponsors.

I am also going to include the top 2 sponsors in the contest itself.. meaning that there will be a requirement in the contest to “Follow You” on twitter. I gained 1000 new twitter followers alone in the last twitter contest…. not too bad eh?

This exposure does not mean only twitter exposure, you will also be featured here on JohnCow.com and in lots of my personal promotions.

The top sponsors will be those that offer the most valuable prize and sorry but I am not accepting a “$97 value ebook” as more valuable then $50 cash… and because of that, the primary 2 sponsors can only be either cash or a physical product.

If you do want to offer a membership, ebook, template, software or anything similar to that, YES I will accept them, and you will get exposure BUT you will not be qualified to be one of the TOP 2 Sponsors that get to participate in the contest.

For anyone that sponsors a cash or physical product prize of $200 or more will also get a free JohnCow.com review post of their product or website (this costs $200 on its own).

Contest is only for those 18 years and above… sorry if you are not 18 yet… but thems the rules.

So far, here are the SWEET Prizes…

($300+ Value) Chinavision Projector Cell Phone from JoeTech.com
$200 Cash via PayPal from http://wpunlimited.com/
($400+ Value) 5 Hours of Link Building Service, $50 cash via Paypal and a permanent blogroll link at SEO Blog from James Harrison
$250 in Free Passion Products of Your Choice from Enjoy Intimate Bliss
($200 Value) SONY PSP 3000 Ratchet & Clank Limited Edition Bundle from Making Money With PPC Coach
($500+ Value) FREE 6 Months Access to…
($280 Value) FREE 2 Year Access to GoStats PRO PLUS $100 Cash Via PayPal from http://gostats.com/
($200+ Value) FREE Custom Made 10K Gold Military Ring (For you or someone you care about), from…
($197 Value) Free 1 year Access to Tweet Riches Pro
($106.00 Value) Free Gourmet Candle products (Melting Pot, 2 Bags of melts, an 8 Oz. Spa Sations candle and 2 16oz. Jar Gourmet Candles. PLUS a Mystic Melon Bella Bar too from http://www.usamade.scent-team.com/videopresentation.php
($120 Value) 3 Months Free 125X125 and 585X80 Banner Advertising on PR4 blog at http://the-dude.co.uk/
($110 Value) One Month Free 125X125 Banner and Product Review Advertising on PR3 Blog with Alexa of 27000 at http://www.thewwwblog.com/
($75 Value) Free Video Review of your site, product or service on one of my favorite blogs IMwithJoe
$35 Cash via PayPal from http://www.mymerchantaccountblog.com
($35 Value) 1 Month Free 125 X 125 Banner PLUS 1 Month Text Link Ad in Sidebar on PR4 Blog with Alexa of 50,000 from Blogging Tips to Make Money Online
Free $25 Plug-In Scentsy Warmer & Accessorie from http://www.scentsy.com/niffer
$30 Cash via PayPal from http://www.maheshkukreja.com
$25 Cash via PayPal from http://blog.therealtruthaboutmlm.com

Not accepting anymore sponsors.. but WOW thanks for the great response.

WIN Big Time with StoreStacker!!

Jason Katzenback — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:25:48 +0000

GIVEAWAY REGISTRATION IS CLOSED!

We are adding up all the tickets and will be announcing the winners on Thursday August 28th!

Announcing the StoreStacker Sponsored Give Away

With the click of a button, StoreStacker creates your own niche-based affiliate store, pouring targeted products into your website from Ebay, Amazon Shareasale, Overstock, Clickbank and more. Now thanks to StoreStacker you can also WIN the following Prizes…

Choice of an Ipod touch or Iphone 3G
StoreStacker Full with all plugins
RSStoblog
ContentSolution

Bose companion 3 speakers
StoreStacker Base
ContentSolution

Bose around ear headphones
StoreStacker Base
ContentSolution

Ipod shuffle
StoreStacker Base
ContentSolution

Registration into this fantastic giveaway is an absolute breeze PLUS you can also earn extra “Tickets” to dramatically increase your chances to win.

>>Registration and Earn 1 Ticket (This is mandatory for all participants)

Step 1 – Subscribe to JohnCow.com via email. If you are already registered (have downloaded the ebook), you do not need to register again. Register here:
Step 2 - Subscribe to http://storestacker.com/jcgiveaway.html

>>Earn an Extra 3 Tickets - Twitter or Pownce a post that links to this contest page (Must comment below with link to post to prove it)

>>Earn an Extra 3 Tickets – Twitter or Pownce a post that links to http://www.storestacker.com (Must comment below with link to post to prove it)

>>Earn an Extra 5 Tickets – Vote up and comment on the Squidoo page at http://www.squidoo.com/make-money-online-blogging (Must comment below with link to post to prove it)

>>Earn an Extra 15 Tickets – On a publicly accessible blog that you own, make a post about this contest and it must be a live link directly to this page and must also have a live link to http://www.storestacker.com (Must comment below with link to post to prove it)

If you perform all steps to earn all available tickets you will have earned a total of 27 tickets, which means you will have 27 times more chances to win then someone who just registers for the single ticket.

Give Away Dates:

Registration for the “Give Away” begins on Monday August 11th and ends Sunday August 24th at 11:59 midnight eastern time.

Rules:

Participants must be at least 18 years of age
All criteria for the registration must be completed in full
No registrations will be accepted after the deadline
Winners will be selected by random draw and each participant will have the opportunity to enter more then one “Ticket”

Prize Delivery:

This physical products in this contest are only available in Canada and the USA. The contest itself is open to all areas, but physical prizes will only be delivered to a USA or Canadian address. If you are selected and live outside of the USA or Canada, you may donate the prize to a follow up contest. This follow up contest will have the website of your choice (pending our approval) as part of the contest registration criteria (lots of exposure).

Disclaimer:

Johncow.com is not responsible for the delivery of the prizes, this will be handled directly from Scott Trimble and Halfagain LLC, the owner of StoreStacker. Prizes may take up to 30 days for delivery.

GIVEAWAY REGISTRATION IS CLOSED!

We are adding up all the tickets and will be announcing the winners on Thursday August 28th!

How to Promote & Run a Contest – A Case Study of An Aud Life dot Com

Jason Katzenback — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:00:12 +0000

If you have been a reader of JohnCow for a while now, you will know that we are constantly holding contests here. Contests are fantastic ways to get a good amount of exposure, gain readers and more.

One of the huge advantages of us having a well established blog (along with lots of business contacts) is we have been able to sponsor some pretty sweet contests that have not cost us a single penny. This however does not mean that if you are just starting out and have few (if any) contacts that you can not hold a successful contest. What it does mean however is you are going to have to work a little harder to get some buzz going for it and you may have to spend some of your own money on the prizes.

Over the next week or so I am going to put together a case study for promoting a new blog which includes how to hold a contest and we are going to lay out every step of the process here in a blog series so you can learn first hand how to do it. The blog I am going to use for this is a blog that my beautful wife of 12+ years just created at http://www.anaudlife.com

Since I first got into running a business online, my wife has had 0 interest in any part of it. She did not like computers, had no interest in running a business and had not a clue as to how to describe to others what it was I did. The only part that she had any interest in was spending the money that it generated

As a stay at home mother (raising our two daughters) she has recently started to show an interest in blogging and getting involved with some forums and places like FaceBook and about 2 months ago asked if she could have her own blog. After about 10 minutes of laughing (because I thought she was joking), when I could tell from the look on her face that at that moment she thought I was a jackass… I then said in disbelief…

“Are You Serous?”

Well, she was serious and so immediately it popped into my mind… “What a great opportunity for a case study for my readers!”

So the first thing I had her do was list the top 5 things she was passionate about and loved to research on the internet. Number 2 on her list (after shopping for clothes) was rheumatoid arthritis. You see my wife was diagnosed three years ago at the age of 30 with rheumatoid arthritis and in fact it had gotten so bad that she had to use a cane full time. Once she knew what the cause of the pain was, she immediately began researching and testing treatments and everything else related to this condition. She has since eliminated the need for a cane completely and has become very physically active (our dog cant even keep up with her anymore).

As soon I saw this on her list –> BINGO!

You see, having a niche that you are 100% passionate about is a niche you want to be in. You can write with passion, relate to your readers and best of all it encourages you to learn even more about the topic so you can have stuff to write about.

Over the past 4 weeks Audrey has started to piece together a blog that is pretty darn good and she has done it by herself…

She has wanted to learn how to do it and so alI I have done (other then a little graphics help from some of my office staff) is provided some direction. It is a definite learning curve for her (little things like how to write a title, researching keywords, using forums for ideas and so) but I am very proud of how well she has done so far.

She is now at the stage of starting the promotion for her blog and this is the part that I am going to get a little more involved in and this is also the part that I am going to completely share with all of you. You will see first hand what we are going to do and the first part of this is going to be planning out the promotion strategy and organizing a contest.

So, you are going to want to get your pen and paper ready (you will want to jot down ideas that pop in your head) and get ready for some fun learning. I also recommend, if you have not done so already, that you subscribe to our blog so you can keep up with us… we will also be putting this into an ebook form for all our readers after it is done.

PS – One of my good online buddies is putting together a wicked contest for you all that will be hosted here on JohnCow starting next week, so stay tuned!

So out of curiosity…

[poll id="8"]

Part 1 – Planning Your Promotion Strategy
Part 2 – Understanting the How and Where of Your Promotion Strategy
Part 3 – Planning the Subscriber Traffic Strategy
Part 4 – Planning a Contest to Get the Buzz Going
Part 5 – Planning the Contest Criteria

Answer My Questions for $100 at Amazon

Jason Katzenback — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:34:17 +0000

We are in the middle of finishing up the next keyword post but we wanted to ask a question, that came up based on a couple moos from the post “What Would X Do Without The Internet?“. The comments were…

If you cant read it, the moo says… “It’s really wierd how easily these famous bloggers get away with the online money for writing basically nothing useful… Are we hooked too much into the online stuff?”

A couple of moos down, another reader “Caleb” responded with…

Again, if you cant read it, the moo says… “Ajith: I don’t really see those particular types of posts -like when Chow shows pics of his dinner for example- as nothing useful because it gives the reader a sense of the blogger’s personality and lifestyle. This makes it more REAL to the reader…
…and YES we are hooked!”

So our question to you is…

What is your opinion on this topic?

Should blogs be all business ONLY?
Is not one of the attractions of blogging –> getting inside the mind of the blogger?
What do you look for in a blog and what brings you back… what gets you hooked?

The way this is going to work is there will be one winner of the $100 Amazon Gift Certificate and that will be based on quality of answer. We will select the winner on Monday May 12th… and if there are more then one “high quality” answer, which based on the majority of your comments already we are sure there will be, then we will simply pick a number… but you MUST put a little thought in your answer. The winner will be notified by a blog post here and so you may want to subscribe to our rss feed to be notified

PS –> If you have not already, sign up for our RSS Feed to stay up to date on fun contests like this and to be notified when the next “Super Awesome” Keyword Research post is made.

REMINDER This Ends Today – Win An XBOX360 Elite And A Copy Of GTA4!

Jason Katzenback — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:18:00 +0000

This contest, that is brought to you by Top Hosting Center, ends today… we are going to draw the winner tomorrow so if you have not already registered, then Click Here to learn how to Register to Win a …

Xbox 360 Elite console: The console is equipped with an HDMI port, HDMI cable, a black wireless controller and black Xbox LIVE® headset. It also comes with three powerful core processors, 16:9 cinematic aspect ratio, anti-aliasing for smooth textures, full surround sound, and DVD playback with upscaling capabilities right out of the box.