4 Contests - 1 Winner - 1 Club - 2 Entrecard Memes and a Goat

If there's one thing I've learned about you, it's that you like winning things! And you like more traffic to your blogs! And you like really cool stuff, really really cheap. And you like to hear about others, just like you, who won something really big! And since I'm spiriting off to Atlantic City this weekend for the World Poker Tour Main Event, I'm going to cram a whole bunch of such goodness into one tiny, tiny little space.

Are You Ready?

4 Contests - 1 Contest Winner - 1 Club - 2 Really Cool Entrecard Memes and... a Goat.

4 Contests - Easy Entry

Android Guys - Guaranteed that less than 2% of the people traveling through here will have any clue what Google's Android is but that doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that the Android Guys are giving away 1,750 Entrecard credits on February 1st to 3 lucky Entrecarders for doing nothing more than commenting at their blog and/or something like this. Way to go, Android Guys!

Silence is Everything - Wowee, not an Entrecard contest, BUT, one of the prizes being offered is you get to author your own WordPress plugin OR PHP script. That pretty much means anything you want to get WordPress to do for you, the contest owner will make it for you! And it's actually 3 contests in 1 so there are more cool prizes - just for doing, well, this (mentioning the contest)!

AdToll's 13,000 E.C. Giveaway - I'm not even in it. I'm just mentioning this as a nice thing for both you and AdToll. The entry requirements are a little more than usual but as of right now, it appears to me that there are only 16 entrants. So if you can do a mere 10 minutes of work, you can have yourself a real probably chance at winning 1 of 3 prizes from 1k to 10k credits.

SUPERBOWL XLII - Instead of making you jump through the usual hoops, this is more like a big money raffle with multiple winners and no prize currently less than 750k. It's based on the quarterly scores of the SuperBowl so, whether or not you even care about football, you can just purchase your ticket in the Entrecard shop and kick back and wait for the news. Read more about it in the shop description.

1 Contest Winner - 2,150 EC!

Yes, it's for real! People really do win contests and they really do WIN big. Recently, I started the "WINNER TAKE ALL" Raffle Series.

Here you can see "Winner Takes All 2"

I started the "Winner Takes All" and "The Totally Silly Raffle!" Entrecard raffle series as a kind of "pressure relief valve" due to a huge proliferation of the standard, boring raffles that Dark Is Easy talks about here. Each incorporates 2 timeless, rewarding principles with which non-marketing bloggers struggle, but which we internet marketers accept as undisputable fact: make it easy, make it cheap with the opportunity for it to "go big."

So in the first "Winner Takes All", at 50 EC, 43 people entered the Sam Freedom "Thunderdome" and only 1 person left... 2,150 EC richer! And here she is...

Lady De La Luna!

What's heartfelt about this is that "Lady of the Moon" was saving up to buy Adii's awesome premium Wordpress theme, NewsPress and this win just shaved her time down considerably. Visit Lady De La Luna's blog. I guarantee you will never want to leave...!

1 Club - Wordpress Theme Club

I wrote about this just yesterday but, for the sake of my readers, it absolutely should be mentioned again. The WordPress Theme Club by "Small Potato" is one of the absolute BEST values in hot, wordpress theme design I've seen in a long time... in fact, EVER. For a mere $5 per YEAR, you are getting a MINIMUM of 1 new extremely well-done Wordpress template per month. That is a minimum, because some months there will be more.

If you are wondering that so many people will have these, just think about 2 things:

1. having 12 Wordpress templates each year doesn't mean you can, or will, use 12 templates. So not every member will be using every template.

2. just like you might not immediately run off and join, there's a darn good bet that 97% of the people coming through here (or hearing about this anywhere else) won't join either. I'm not kidding! It's a true (and sometimes sad) fact that netizens are often very distracted and either too lazy, cheap or broke to spend even 3 minutes and $5 to be involved with something that isn't a burning, hot necessity.

So, since these aren't free Wordpress templates, you can very well bet that relatively few people will ever be using any one particular theme that you might like. Even 500 people using the same Wordpress theme is a small drop in the bucket of total blogs in play today. So definitely check out the WordPress Theme Club if you like an "above the fold" value. ;-)

And finally...

2 Really Cool Entrecard Memes by 2 Hot Entrecarder Blogs

I don't toss something aside just because I don't like it. Only a fool would (heheh). There are plenty of things one might not like that are plenty good for his well-being but some of those dislikes can, ironically, make many of the things you DO like even better in the long-run. But I actually like memes. The problem most people really have with memes is that most of them are either based on total nonsense or they're poorly constructed. But memes, by themselves, are nothing to dislike.

That being said, here's 2 memes I find of great value today.

The Economy of Entrecard - Worth It or Worthless?

When it comes to my appreciation of Entrecard, I can say that JTPratt's "workin' it." And I admire that. Whether or not he actually likes Entrecard or finds it worthwhile, he's taking a serious look at it from as many angles as he can (including spamming my inbox - which I don't mind as long as it's good!) and he's paying homage to the fact that some of the best value isn't in Entrecard's ranking system but rather in working the community. To fulfill my part in the meme, without reprinting things I've already said, I'll just point you to my specific thoughts and feelings on Entrecard's worthiness in, "Entrecarders! Chaindrop My Site, Please!" and here are all my Entrecard articles, in general.

If you continue the meme, and blog about your experience with Entrecard since you signed up (on your blog) AND link to this and the original article - you can leave a link to it in my comment section on this google PR4 site. Go comment on his, too, just because it's a well-written article on a good, relevant topic.

Chaindrop 8 Above the Fold Meme

Thanks to Sweet Mummy for the tag in "Eight Great Sites" where her first line about me is just... priceless.

Dane and Alan, over at Chaindrop.com, have come up with an excellent meme for all of us evil chaindroppers. The truth is, chaindropping is not as evil as those with little experience make it out be. Chaindropping is just a way for Entrecarders to be more efficient at what they do. In case you haven't noticed, we chaindroppers are somehow managing to meet one another and read each others' blogs... hello?!

So get in on the Chaindrop 8 Above the Fold Meme by moving your Entrecard widget ABOVE THE FOLD so no one has to run around your site searching for it and you'll start to get more traffic both from chaindroppers and from memes like these.

Since 8 is a lot for a meme, it's likely that after this post has made a few rounds, we'll be picking people who've been picked before without realizing it but, nonetheless, they might still be worthy of another mention. So here goes - here are my 8 picks for Entrecarders with widgets above the fold:

Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey - Everything about this woman is classy and professional. Just look at her site and you'll see what I mean. She writes very well, has excellent advice and info on making money online and she stays connected to the Entrecard community. Right now, she's going through the pains of moving off blogger to a Wordpress blog but as long as that Entrecard widget stays above the fold, then EJ Cooksey is in like Flynn!

Rice for Poor - At first, I thought this site might be a scam or a bit of a bleeding heart venture but shortly after arriving, I went and played the game and it expanded my already massive vocabulary. Whether or not they actually give rice to the poor or the fact that they don't update the blog much doesn't matter to me. We're talking about CHAINDROPPING, folks. As long as that Entrecard widget remains above that fold, not only will hunger be elimited by the year 2010 but millions of inner city youth are going to become increasingly litemarite... er, literate. Now go click the widget and play!

WidgetsLab - At first look, if the 'L' isn't capitalized, the name looks like Widget "Slab", however, this site is anything but dead. True to its name, Widgets Lab has all kinds of awesome, crazy up-to-date information regarding all kinds of widgets for all kinds of widget-needs. Big widgets, tall widgets, fat widgets, skinny widgets, you'll find them here. And you'll also find their Entrecard widget hitting you right between the eyes from the first moment you get there. Kaching!

Tetsujin's Blog - I can't tell you if "Tetsujin" is as common as "Smith" or "Jones" in Japan, but what I can tell you is that Tetsujin's blog is not so common. How could it be? It's from North Dakota! lol Nothing about Tetsujin is blah-humbug ordinary - it even runs in his family. Right now, his dad is trying to build a wall made of rocks from all 50 U.S. states. And as long as Tetsujin keeps that Entrecard widget above the fold, I've a feeling he's gonna eventually get his father those rocks!

Kevin H. Davis - Kevin H. Davis... Kevin H. Davis... has quite a ring to it, doesn't it? No need for aliases, no need for crafty clever names - just a name with the middle initial to help differentiate from all the other Kevin H. Davis' out there with internet marketing blogs. Well, once you read even one of his posts, you'll see why he doesn't need to play fancy tricks with his names. Plus, anyone who puts their Entrecard widget above the fold, in my opinion, is an instant Kevin H. Davis-style genius. Period.

The Office Cubicle - This is "Bored Office Employee" taken to the next level. True to its title, it's like a mixed bag of office cubicle goodness and gossip. Whether it's ranting about Microsoft Vista, praising a long-awaited Outlook Express feature or just railing on about the up-coming SuperBowl, chances are, if you've ever spent time in an office cubicle, you'll relate. And with his Entrecard widget at the top, he can definitely expect either to be fired or promoted... there is no in-between with an above-the-fold widget.

Evil Woobie - I like tagging Evil Woobie. It could just be the manimal in me but I like to think it's due to something higher... something finer... like her ... like.. well, I tried. ;-) The truth is, I'd be surprised if no one else has tagged her yet because Evil Woobie has a lot to offer; not only in love, romance and dating but, in general. Besides, Filipino bloggers are massively on the rise and no meme is complete without one - especially if they wear their widget above the fold. Go get woobied. (update, she got tagged by Turnip)

Blue Stem Winery - What good is an Entrecard meme without an extraordinary after-meme wine? Well, you find just such a thing at the Blue Stem Winery blog - along with an Entrecard widget above the fold. Even if you aren't a connoisseur of wines Blue Stem Winery will take you by the hand and show you how. And if you've never heard of a sommelier, you're in need of a visit - it will help you win more rice for the poor at... rice for the poor.

Honorable mention has to go to Turnip of Power just for writing, "I Hate Memes". He already got tagged, but he really cracked me up. Boy's got talent!

Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to leave my office cubicle, grab Evil Woobie and head over to Tetsujin's house... with all these above-the-fold Entrecard widgets making chaindropping a snap, that leaves us plenty of time to down a few bottles of rice wine and play with our widgets.

Oh Yes, and the Goat...

Now, Please, Click Here to Ping Me...

Technorati Tags: wordpress blogging blog tools blogging tools wordpress theme wordpress themes free wordpress themes blog widgets make money webmaster tools entrecard entrecard meme entrecard contest sam freedom chaindropping

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WordPress Theme Club - The Irresistable Offer!

Who'd have thunk it?  All internet marketers know that one of the keys to success is known as...

The Irresistable Offer

Well, when it comes to Wordpress themes, that's what you're about to encounter.

While I usually like to write lengthy, fun posts with lots of pictures, this is one is just plainly and simply about one HECK of an irresistible offer for anyone who ever needs a Wordpress theme...

WordPress Theme Club

ps.  Even if you just like to download awesome WordPress themes "for that rainy day...", you can, in no way, shape or form, ever regret taking advantage of what you're about to see.  Way to go, Small Potato!

Wordpress, blogging, blog tools, blogging tools, wordpress theme, wordpress themes, free wordpress themes, blog widgets, make money, webmaster tools

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Make MASSIVE Money Online Using Entrecard - The Missing Ingredient!

It's not often I hate someone online much less a business, but when they do something absolutely amazing and forget to call me first, it's a bit of a challenge to not go postal. But I can let that go since what I'm about to show you is "the missing ingredient" that will allow you, and many others, to

Massively Monetize Your Entrecard Experience

Those who've been following my gallivanting over the past five years know very well...

There's Not A Whole Lot That Really Impresses Me

In the 5 years I've been working online, plus the 30 years working in my family's uber-successful business, I've developed not only a "sixth sense" about opportunities but a "seventh" and an "eighth." In short,

Anyone who has visited my blog these past couple of months knows that one of them is

ENTRECARD

Because Entrecard provides "the little guys and gals" MASSIVE benefit in terms of

• more targeted traffic than most new or low-budget bloggers have ever experienced;
• loads of untargeted traffic which can still, quiet easily, be harnessed and made useful;
• social networking via the forums and shop and it's all FREE...; plus
• incredible 3rd party synergies like the one I'm mentioning next...

PROJECT WONDERFUL

The cat is out of the bag on this one, though it's not "the missing ingredient." While Project Wonderful is not limited to Entrecarders, they are catching on by the droves. Because Project Wonderful...

• allows brand new bloggers to get a fast taste of what it's like to monetize their blogs;
• allows intermediate and advanced bloggers to auction prime real estate at decent prices;
• gives Entrecarders greater advertising reach not only on more Entrecarders blogs but countless people across the Project Wonderful landscape

Even those once dreadful "chaindroppers" that many Entrecarders don't know whether to love or hate.. are stopping to look around a little bit longer to see if there's any good Project Wonderful-related advertising opportunities available on blogs they're passing by - especially if they can see the Project Wonderful ad blocks near the Entrecard widget.

So, If That Was It, Things Would Still Be Pretty Grand...

Because what impresses me THE MOST are...

SYNERGIES

"The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects."

So, Here It Is...
THE MISSING INGREDIENT

Listen closely now... because this is where even the least amongst us has the opportunity to start a huge avalanche of income just by rolling one tiny little stone. I have praised Entrecard up and down, IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, because it has done something for ALL ITS MEMBERS such that even the LEAST ESTABLISHED bloggers are in a supremely better position to grow rapidly than the 100s of 1000s of non-Entrecard bloggers starting up every day.

Most of them are just dying for the traffic that even the LEAST of Entrecarders gets to his or her blog every day.

So Where's the Money?

But, how are MOST bloggers, let alone the newest bloggers, going to make any REAL money just toolin' around Entrecard and placing Project Wonderful Ad Blocks on their site that probably won't even sell for 3 cents in the beginning?

Easy...

Right Here,
Doing Something We All Already Do
ALL OF THE TIME

(Well, hold on just a sec...)

MARK MY WORDS...

• Entrecard keeps loading up the barrel with more and more fish every single HOUR of every single DAY;
• Project Wonderful, whether or not you actually make significant money from it, gives you unfettered access to both very highly-traveled Entrecard AND non-Entrecard blogger's blogs for a very, very reasonable daily fee... and sometimes for NOTHING.

Just like someone got to advertise on your Entrecard widget for 2 credits when it was new, you can EASILY get to advertise on new blogs at Project Wonderful for mere PENNIES! And if you spy a blog that gets 15,000 hits per day, it's absolutely worth spending up to $10 for a day, or more to get your ad on it...

IF...

IF You Have a Place to Send Them That Will Pay You For It Big Time and for a Long Time

SO WHERE'S THE MONEY?!?!?

Right Here
10 Levels Deep...

...And For Doing What You Already Always Do.

Entrecard, blogging, blog tools, blogging tools, increase website traffic, traffic exchange, web 2.0, social media, social networking, social bookmarking, social news, blog widgets, website traffic, make money, webmaster tools, project wonderful

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FeedBurner Feedcount Chicklets Gone Wild!

Imagine the look on my face when I looked at my feedburner feedcount chicklet and it said,

And I was like,

Now THAT'S What I'm Talkin' About!

I've watched my feedburner feedcount chiclet climb from 229 to 308 in just the last 2-3 months since I took blogging way more seriously but I always felt, somewhere in my gut, that something wasn't right with Feedburner's reporting on feed subscribers.  And there were no shortage of others who had complained about the various discrpencies.

So, at 1,074, I was like, "Now THAT just seems more like it..." but a quick jaunt over to the Feedburner Forums saw a handful of people having the same problem - TOO MANY SUBSCRIBERS!

I had to wonder why more bloggers weren't complaining and then, being the "controversy blog" owner, it dawned on me...

They Were Probably All Thinking the Same Thing And Gearing Up to Sell Ad Space at Double Their Usual Price!

Ya gotta love marketers and money-hungry bloggers...!  Anyone else see a huge leap in their feedcounts?

(UPDATE: When you're done reading this article, here is the follow-up)

Technorati Tags: feedburner feedcount rss internet marketing blogging blogging tools feedblitz

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Just Say NO Daddy to GoDaddy!

Bob Parsons, owner of big fish domain registrar, GoDaddy.com, is crying "personal foul" over FOX's refusal to air one of his racy commercials during the nationally televised SuperBowl.

Just a few days ago, Bob wrote a kind of boo-hoo post that was only marginally above the juvenile tone we've heard, as of late, from the likes of "Girls Gone Wild" founder, Joe Francis, who is currently imprisoned.

With the logic of a disturbed 9-yr old, Bob explains that using the term "beaver" while referring to a "stuffed beaver" is really about a "stuffed beaver." Now, how many of you really think it's about a "stuffed beaver?"

Congratulations, You Get a Cookie.

Anyways, instead of rehashing the whole event, here's my reply to Bob amidst all the usual "You go, Bob!" fanatics.

Are you serious, Bob?

Do you really not get this to the extent that you can't even appreciate the other side of the coin? I can appreciate that meatheads love to party 'round football games - I was once one of 'em. But I can also appreciate that sports are also a family event and lots of kids watch the games, too.

Now, I'm not down for LEGISLATING morality but if a TV network wants to make the call on what THEY think is good or bad for its viewing audience, I'm ok with that. And, thankfully, they're smart enough to not cave to this sophomoric nonsense that calling a real, stuffed "beaver" has anything to do with beavers at all.

They know that even an 8th grader is smarter than you when it comes to that - even the 8th grader would know what you meant.

Do You Know Why, Bob?

Because others like you were allowed to do it BEFORE you somewhere else and so the kid picked up on it. And I think it's ok for people with conservative values to fight back a little before "poor me and my freedom of speech" people like you further erode peoples' dignity and their perception of women.

As regards the Victoria Secret's ad they are allowing, lingerie is lingerie... it can be sexy and classy. Making jokes about "beaver" is low-class and crude. Y'wanna make a joke about it to your buddies, go ahead. Y'wanna air it on national TV during prime-time when families with young kids are watching it, go...

"choke your chicken."

It's really about a chicken, right?

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Should ads that, quite clearly, refer to women's vagina as "beaver" be allowed to air during nationally televised sports events just because they've done so cleverly? Remember, we're not talking about 11pm or 12pm but during prime time family viewing and KIDS do happen to love sports. Is FOX within its rights to reject such ads? And even if you don't like FOX for political reasons, can you be objective and see why they would allow a classy Victoria Secrets ad while disallowing an ad that objectified women's genitalia as animals?

Kudos to you, Bob Parsons - you made it onto Sam Freedoms Internet Marketing Controversy Blog.

Technorati Tags: bob parsons godaddy superbowl new engladn patriots san diego chargers green bay packers new york giants nfl football fox danica patrick candice michelle joe francis girls gone wild internet marketing

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Controversy At the Semmys - A Scene Out of Deliverance

Welcome to the SAMMYS
Sam Freedom's Version of The SEMMYs

Cruising through Sphinn, I found a controversial marketing sphinn for an Andy Beard post, titled, "The Semmys - Highly Controversial Just As It Should Be" and, naturally, seeing the word "controversial", my brow involuntarily raised. Surely, a REAL controversy blogger, like myself, would be included in there somewhere. Right?

After all, I AM number 10 in Google for "controversial marketing" - and without even trying. Right?

However, I don't actually write about controversial marketing directly - I leave that to the academics. As the saying goes,

"Those Who Can't DO, Teach."

Plainly and simply, at the risk of sounding like a marriage contract - I DO. The internet is rife with examples of my controversial marketing - some easily found, others not. The fact that I don't publicize log stats and various earnings testifies more to my intent to both not reveal "trade secrets" and also to not get people artificially hyped up about their personal potential.

The "controversial" marketing that most people think of as controversial marketing is very tame and all nicey-nice, indeed. - like on the level of running into the middle of a big meeting, calling everyone a "pee-pee head" and then running back to their blog to field complaints.

But It Just Ain't So...
It's A Little Bit More Involved Than That

"boy sure got a purty site, ain't he?"

But it really makes me want to pat such wanna-be miscreants on their skulls and say, "How cute! Ok, now run along!" Because, as Chris Brogan likes to repeat more times than Rain Man, controversial marketing (like social media) is ALSO...

"...about the conversation"
"...about the conversation"
"...about the conversation"
"...about the conversation"

So I'm Opening Up a Conversation With You

This Was A Conversation, Right?

That being said, not a-one of my illustrious posts were anywhere to be found on the Semmys site. Now, I've Sphunn, Stumbled, Dropped and Tweeted my way into the New Year just like everyone else but what I found, instead, was nothing short of...

A SEM-ified Scene Out of the Movie "Deliverance"

In other words, the SEM crowd kept it, for the most part, "in the family" - they all "did it" with each other.

So what's a REAL controversial marketer to do except...

...Be Controversial!

That's right, rather than just peeking into the big incestuous gala and continuing on my way, I've decided to inject MY deserving articles into the SEMMYs my OWN way... by creating...

...The SAMMYs!

Essentially, the SAMMYs are almost the exact same as "the SEMMYs" except each category includes one of MY articles that should have belonged in there in the first place. As I'd told Matt McGee, if a certain percentage of fresh, new faces from OUTSIDE the community were included, it might have the effect of enriching the community as opposed to, once again, publicizing all the same old names we see day-in and day-out in the Sphinn Zone...

So Now, Without Further Ado... I present to you...

SEO

Get Your Vaseline Out, Google Is At It Again! (re: Paid Links)

PPC

Oh, It's Gonna Be A Click Fraud Christmas...!

Google

Wikipedia - Google's Anna Nicole Smith

Blogs & Blogging
10 Reasons Why You Might Be a Pussy Blogger
Comment Whoring Outside the Box

Link Building

PayPerJokes Crime and Google Does Evil - My First Review

Social Media

A Quick Jaunt Into Data Mining on Twitter

Rants

Warning! Big Twitter Is Watching YOU!

LOL Funny!

5 Undeniable Reasons Why Chitika Linx Probably
Won't Be Working Out on My Internet Marketing Blog

Online Marketing / General

The Battle for Your Brain...!

Reputation Management

Persona Non Grata Sam Freedom

Viral Marketing

So, Bigmouth, You Think You Know Viral Marketing?

Good luck to Everyone and Congrats to the Judges:

Aaron Wall Andrew Shotland Andy Beal Andy Beard Barry Schwartz Bill Slawski Brad GeddesChris Winfield Christine Churchill David Mihm Deb Mastaler Eric Enge Jeff Quipp Jennifer Laycock John Andrews Lee Odden Lisa Barone Logoworks Loren Baker Matt McGee Michael Gray Rand Fishkin Simon Heseltine Stoney deGeyter Sugarrae Tamar Weinberg Todd MalicoatVanessa Fox

Technorati Tags: sem seo sphinn matt mcgee social media google ppc search tech local search reputation management viral marketing blogging online marketing internet marketing link building semmys Aaron Wall Andrew Shotland Andy Beal Andy Beard Barry Schwartz Bill Slawski Brad Geddes Chris Winfield Christine Churchill David Mihm Deb Mastaler Eric Enge Jeff Quipp Jennifer Laycock John Andrews Lee Odden Lisa Barone Logoworks Loren Baker Matt McGee Michael Gray Rand Fishkin Simon Heseltine Stoney deGeyter Sugarrae Tamar Weinberg Todd Malicoat Vanessa Fox

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Who ELSE Wants to Advertise on Peter Foti's Forehead??

You heard me right. I'm bidding on someone's forehead.

But not just ANYONE'S forehead; I'm bidding on Peter Foti's forehead.

Now who is Peter Foti?

I don't know but, now, we've entered into a precarious relationship where no one knows who will get more benefit if my winning bid prevails. Will Peter Foti's blog see a massive spike in traffic due to the Sam Freedom phenomenon? Or will Sam Freedom's blog see a massive spike in traffic from either bidding on, or winning, Peter Foti's "Buy My Forehead!" experiment? Or both?!?!?!?

Who can sayyy? Who can sayyy?

But, if *I* were Peter Foti and *I* were selling space on my forehead, I would create a whole new website called, "peterfotisforehead.com" and not only CONTINUE to sell my forehead space long into the future, but also create a running gallery of all photos displaying all winners' website addresses on my forehead.

Not only would that increase the chances of the Peter Foti forehead buying experiment catching on - whether from some news organization desperate to fill their 1% quota of feel-good news - or from a bunch of bloggers with reach (cough, cough), picking up the story and blogging about it, but it would also give potential head buyers more of an incentive to bid. Imagine, when Peter Foti's forehead goes viral, the photo of your ad would be seen by millions!

But That's Only If *I* Were Peter Foti
Because *I* Would Do That

In fact, you all could use something cool and fun to blog about right now, couldn't you? Well, why not write a little post about Sam Freedom's bidding experiment on Peter Foti's forehead experiment and that way, you can tell your grandchildren, "I made it happen...."

Go Ahead, Make It Happen....

Technorati Tags: peter foti buy my forehead sam freedom peter fotis forehead creative advertising ad display internet marketing social media entrecard

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One Heckuva GiveAway Entrecard Contest?

Many of you know by now that I'm not a huge fan of the standard "Send Me Tons of People to Compete With You" type Entrecard contests but Mike over at Bloggin-Ads.com is trying to do something a little different.

So pop on over - you have until Jan 31st to enter and can win up to 12 prize packages full of various cool things contributed by other bloggers. Go check it out now...

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Entrecarders! Chaindrop My Site, Please!

For those of you too young to get the title, "Chaindrop My Site, Please!" it's a spoof on a late, but legendary, comedian, Henny Youngman's, famous line, "Take my wife, please!"

Well, STILL, I see the usual round of blog posts occasionally referring to Entrecard traffic as "junk traffic"...

Well, Are YOU Junk Traffic? Am I Junk Traffic?

Who IS This Junk Traffic?

As an internet marketer, I know that if 3-4% of the people who visit your site purchase something, you're considered a success. If you're getting 6-8% conversion, you're a god.

So it's not only NOT difficult for an internet marketer to APRECIATE all the traffic that comes from Entrecard but it just seems like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" to see so many people without a clue as to just how valuable it REALLY is...

It's situations like these where I chide the naysayers and unabashedly refer to them as such things as "academic retards" - you know, the ones who pull out their charts and their graphs; their slide rules and their stats sheets; and so on and so on until they make some high school level conclusion as to why Entrecard traffic might not be the best traffic and blahblahblahb lahb blahhhh...

IDIOTS...

If they were just sitting in a coffee shop somewhere in East Bumscrew, I wouldn't really pay it much mind but they're all around you and you have to listen to them every single day muddying the waters of what YOU, otherwise, SENSE to be CLEAR and TRUE...

ENTRECARD TRAFFIC is Better than NO TRAFFIC At All

The fact is MOST NEW BLOGGERS GET ZERO TRAFFIC FOR A LONG, LONG TIME AFTER THEY START. But Entrecard has changed all that. Entrecard has allowed people who just started blogging last week to meet all kinds of new people, interact with them and PARTICIPATE in an ECONOMY which, to them, is VERY tangible.

The ONLY Conclusion You Need to Know

So, here's the REAL conclusion you need to understand with every fiber of your being:

You need people who are going to help you learn how you CAN do something.

You DON'T need endless reams of stats and charts pulled up by some amateur problogger wanna-be's telling the OPPOSITE of what you INTRINSICALLY know to be true.

Because there are VERY few role models and examples of people who think-outside-the-box in most of our immediate lives, the "academic idiots" can truly SOUND very bright and their nay-saying can SEEM very tempting to believe. But always, always, always ask yourself, "Does this person really understand my situation?", otherwise, you might find yourself back at square one actually believing,

"Ahhhh, it's so much nicer now without all that junk traffic. I can actually hear the crickets again..."

SO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
AFTER MOVING MY ENTRECARD WIDGET
TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG....

"CHAINDROP MY SITE, PLEASE!"

If you're new to Entrecard, here's some help:
10 Simple Ways to Squeeze the Most Out of Entrecard for Your Greater Advantage

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10 Solid Reasons Why Football Square Entrecard Contests BLOW Ordinary Entrecard Contests AWAY!

For those of you who participated in the First Entrecard Square Football Contest, congratulations, and thank you. It was a test run, put up, in haste, the day before the games began so there was hardly any time to get a large prize pool going. But prizes were distributed fairly and everyone got something and it turned out to be both fun and a great help for designing next week's prize distribution. Again, thanks for your participation!

During the process, I realized something even more profoundly than I'd suspected at the outset: the Football Square Entrecard Contest is the best type of contest for Entrecard Credits going right now! And here's a quick visual as to why.

(Here's a Short, Simple Two Paragraph Explanation Titled, "Square Football Pools" if you need it.)

WHY THE FOOTBALL SQUARE ENTRECARD CONTESTS ARE THE BEST TYPE OF ENTRECARD CONTEST RIGHT NOW.

And Here's The Dirty Details to Sink the Point Home...!

Most Ordinary Entrecard Contests:

1. Unlimited Entries (and you're required to invite them!);
2. Relatively Few Prizes (1 to 3 prizes from 700 to 13,000 EC of which it's more the former than the latter);
3. Writing Requirement - You are usually required to advertise the contest. So, even though the odds of winning, and the prizes, are low to begin with, you are required, as your ENTRY FEE, to write about the contest so that others may come join the ordinary contest and, thus, lower your odds even further. How nice! How many of these contest advertisements are good for you OR your blog? The contests get all the links and advertising while you get poor odds and, in most cases, nothing!;
4. Prize Pool Never Increases - You'd think there'd be SOME benefit to advertising a contest other than allowing you to compete with everyone you send to it but there isn't! When your contest advertisement (entry fee) causes someone else to join, it not only lowers your odds of winning, but it doesn't even increase the prize pool if you win! Awesome, huh?;
5. Random Drawing - One doesn't have to be paranoid to know that some people are more trustworthy than others. But when you have to advertise the contest and jump through hoops to compete with unlimited people for poor odds at winning relatively few credits, you'd better hope the contest owner's cousin or "business partner" hasn't entered, too!;
6. If You Lose, You Lose - there is no 2nd chance drawing and you get no backlink. It's over. You just invited half the planet to the contest, lowered your odds of winning and then lost and have ZERO to show for it. All good for the contest owner, almost no good for you unless you beat out all the people you invited.
7. Whimsical Contest Endtimes - Deadlines, and drawings, can be decided by something as simple as when the contest owner thinks you've sent enough traffic and gotten him, or her, enough backlinks. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

10 SOLID Reasons Why the Football Square Entrecard Contest Is Superior!

1. Limited Entries - 100 max per event;
2. Many Prizes - 4 Main Game Prizes - Multiple 2nd Chance - plus Guaranteed Link Love;
3. No Jumping Through Hoops - You are not REQUIRED to clog up your blog with advertisements for each of these types of contests. Your entry fee is a one-time reasonable payment of Entrecard credits and that's it!
4. The Prize Pool Increases - In Football Square Entrecard contests, each entry increases the size of the prize pool so while advertising is not required, it IS in your interest to help maximize the prize pool.
5. Guaranteed Link Love - No matter what happens, you end up with a backlink to your website (as long as your site doesn't violate Entrecard's terms of service). In most contests, most entrants do everything but end up with nothing. In a Football Square Entrecard contest, you do almost nothing but never walk away empty-handed!
6. No Cheating Possible - Football Square Entrecard Contests are based on game scores from REAL, LIVE national sporting events that are instantly verifiable on 100s of sites all throughout the internet. Theoretically, cheating MIGHT be possible in the "2nd Chance" round but
   • 2nd Chance Drawing amounts to the smallest portion (about 15%) of the prize pool; and
   • 2nd Chance Drawing is a BONUS - in other contests if you lose, you lose, end of story.
7. If You Lose, You Win - As mentioned above, in Football Square Entrecard Contests, losing the main game still leaves you with multiple chances to split the Entrecard Credits from the BONUS pool (about 15% held in reserve). And even if with all these chances you still haven't won, you still have Guaranteed Link Love which no other contest offers ALL participants.
8. Clear Contest End Times - Entrecard Football Square Contests don't end when the owner says. They are based on real live sporting events that have set times and days.
9. Social Value - While Football Square Entrecard Contests do not afford the same social opportunities that a bar or office pool would, there's a LOT greater interest in getting to know a bunch of people who tracked results of a real live event along WITH you, rather than people who just waited 6 weeks to get their names pulled out of a hat. In the former, the connecting point is a sporting event; in the latter, the connection is a hat (and probably a dirty one, too!).
10. Educational Value - You don't have to even like, or understand, football in order to both play AND win a Football Square Entrecard contest, but it's more than likely that you will take something new away from each Football Square Entrecard Credit contest. Anything that increases your "conversation potential" is of immense value to you.

And THAT is why Football Square Entrecard Contests are Superior to Ordinary Entrecard Contests - You Don't Even Have to Understand or Like Football to Win Multiple Times! Get An Entry Now!

See the Current Football Square Entrecard Contest.

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First Ever Entrecard FOOTBALL SQUARES Contest!

Entrecard Tip of the Day:
If you have something to post to your blog, chain drop AFTER you post it, not before. It'll get more eyeballs on your new post.

WELCOME TO THE FIRST EVER
ENTRECARD CREDITS FOOTBALL SQUARES CONTEST!

( UPDATE: 01/05 - SAT GAME NOW CLOSED. NOW TAKING ENTRIES FOR THE SUPERBOWL! CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS. )

"I see so many of the same old same contests, but this is, honestly, the most innovative Entrecard contest yet. Genius idea." ~ Fantasy Baseball

Taking Entrecard Contests 3 Links Up the Food Chain!

16-20 Chances to Win 26 Prizes!
Plus TWO Backlinks to Your Sites!
MAIN GAME LIMITED TO 100 ENTRIES!

What Are Football Squares?

You don't need to be a football fan in order to know the thrill of winning something big! And that's what this Entrecard Credits Football Squares Contes ll about - winning big! If you NEED and WANT an explanation of football squares which are, by the way, mindlessly simple, here's a very quick 2-paragraph explanation, titled, "Square Football Pools".

It is only 2 paragraphs, so if you don't know what a football square is, read it for there are BIG winnings to be had!

PRIZES!

With All 100 Entries Sold, You Can Win 1500 EC Up to 16 Times!

And Non-Winners Get Another 10 Chances to Split 4500 EC!

1. You do NOT have to understand football or even like it to win big, multiple times! With each main game entry, you will automatically get 2 backlinks to your site and be notified if you win. Those who DO understand this would never let me get away with not paying, and all winners will announced in another blog. If you WANT to track it, you can do so at the NFL website,
   
   BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UNDERSTAND FOOTBALL FOR MANY CHANCES TO WIN MANY CREDITS!

2. Main Game entrants can win up to SIXTEEN (16) times! Based on a sell-out (300 EC x 100 Entries = 30,000 EC in pool), that means each 300 EC entry can win 1500 EC not just once, but 16 times! That doesn't mean you win 1,500 and you're done. That means you can win ANOTHER 1,500 EC again! Yes, up to 16 times!
   
   If there is no sell-out, prizes will be lower and any empty squares will be GIVEN AWAY AT NO CHARGE to those who signed up first.

3. Bonus Game (Sun) will split almost all of the remaining pool (15% - up to 4,500) between TEN (10) randomly drawn winners. All entrants are eligible except those who already won in the main game.

How to Enter
There Are 2 Ways to Enter

1. Main Game Entry - Get Your Entry HERE then drop your card and you'll be assigned 4 Squares (1 for each game) for a chance to win up to 16 times. Buying more entries doesn't increase the amount of times you can win - but it DOES increase the ODDS of you winning.

2. Bonus Game Entry - Write Short Post About This w/Link for Entry and drop your card.

3. Main Entrants choose between a link back to their website or their Entrecard info page.

RECAP

There are 4 NFL football games this weekend. Each 300 EC gets 4 squares, the E.C. goes into the pool (sellout = 30,000 EC) and 5% (sellout = 1,500 EC) will be given away at the end of every quarter of every game. The remaining 20% (sellout = 6,000 EC) will be evenly divided amongst 10 Bonus Game Entrants. Only 100 Main Game Entries Available. In the event of empty squares (not all entries bought) prize amounts may be lower and empty squares will be GIVEN AWAY to those who signed up first.

BUT I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

If, for some reason, you are still not comprehending this, here's the simplest version - Each time you ENTRY, you get

• Sixteen 16 chances to win up to 1,500 E.C. (you can win more than once!)

• If you do not win, all non-winners will still get a chance to split up to 4,500 E.C.

• No Matter What, You Will Get 2 Backlinks to Your Site.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ACTUAL SQUARES

GET YOUR ENTRY HERE

(This one started late and I reserve the right to cancel and return credits (or enter you in next weeks) at my discretion if not full enough.)

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Sphinn, Stumble, Tweet and Drop Your Way Into the New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Let's Start With A Little Work-From-Home Humor

Last night, being 12/31/07, I was sipping a glass of bubbly with a large group of friends and one of them surprised me a bit with a softly whispered question, "Is tomorrow a holiday?"

Almost giggling with perplexity at how a person could not know after 50 years worth of New Year's Days, I just couldn't give a "yes/no" type answer.  So I replied, "Well, I work from home in my underwear, so it IS for most people, but not for me!"

Onto Bigger and Brighter Things

As far as blogging goes, the whole last year of 2007 can be summed up for me in the last 4 months and mainly in the names...

Fun Sphinn Articles

Useful Twitter Articles

No StumbleUpon Articles?

Very Helpful Entrecard Articles

I had no interest in blogging to the bigger non-internet marketing community until I got back from a long vacation that lasted from July to Sept.  What rocketed me into the much bigger blogging universe was an internet marketing-oriented social news site called, "Sphinn" and some inspiration from Andy Beard with quality articles like this.  Andy doesn't realize it but, through his blog and Sphinn, he was quite a "window" into the bigger blogging world for me and he graciously answered all my questions with more information than I was generally accustomed.  Andy and I had gone back quite a ways where we met on Michael Green's internet marketing forums.

Oooh, Oooh, Sphinn Me, Baby!

Fun Sphinn Articles

Sphinn is still running VERY strong but since I first happened onto the scene a mere couple of months ago, more and more spammers and manipulators have found out about it thus making it a little harder to get a qualified article to "go hot."  But they're introducing a lot of new functions that should, ideally, help keep things under control. 

Through Sphinn, I met a lot of very cool and friendly people; too many to list here, but you definitely know who you are - two, for example, who are liked by a lot of people are Shana Albert at Social Desire and Marty Weintraub at AimClear.  You can see them both, along with 18 other Top Sphinners in my recent article,

Top Sphinners - How Much Are Their Blogs "Worth?"

Shana is god's gift to the social media scene.  I know she doesn't think so but the reason I say this is because she serves as the perfect example of how any down-to-earth, non-techie person can go from unknown to well-known as long as they're willing to put in a little elbow grease in the beginning.  It's not that she doesn't have a field of expertise - she does, but it's just not really internet-based.  But that didn't stop her from making massive, positive contributions to the social news communities, thus, earning their respect and support in return.  Go Shana!

Marty is just a bright, sensitive guy who is very community-oriented and not ashamed to admit his love, er, addiction, er... whatever he calls it, to the social media scene.  He's proven time and again how committed he is to supporting both the Sphinn community and it's members.

There are definitely other Sphinners equally, or far more, worthy of mention.  Either I just don't know them or I lack any depth of relations with them yet but, hey, it's only been 3-4 months I've been there... and I can only expect Sphinn, and the quality interactions, to grow.

Stumbleupon THIS, Little Lady!

No StumbleUpon Articles?

I'm STILL relatively clueless about Stumbleupon - I mean, as to what it takes to make a site really grab some Stumblethunder.  Unlike Sphinn and Twitter, there seems to be more to the Stumbleupon inner workings than elsewhere and I've not had the time or inclination to delve into it.  But rest assured, it is there, and THEY, whoever they are, are there.  It just seems that whether or not it is well understood, it is a good idea to at least have an SU account and to do some stumbling.  Without even trying too hard, my SU friendships have grown considerably AND a couple of my articles have been receiving a steady stream of "Stumblethunder" ever since.

10 Reasons You Might Be a Pussy Blogger
Wikipedia - Google's Anna Nicole Smith

If you don't have the StumbleUpon Toolbar, get it.  And stumble the sites that you love and that support you and, in unexpected ways, you'll start seeing some of that "Stumble Love" coming back your way - statistic logs might exaggerate a little, but they don't lie completely!

Twitter Me This!

Useful Twitter Articles

Twitter not only has a LOT of very loyal users but I maintain that it is popular not only for the ability of reaching 1000s of people with WHATEVER happens to be on your mind at the moment but ALSO because many people deeply sense that it MUST have some massive potential that has yet to be unconvered.  I actually HAVE covered rather extensively in a half dozen, or so, Twitter articles that many Twitter users found both noteworthy and stimulating.  In fact, the moment I'm done writing this article, I'll just pop on over to twitter and mention it to my 200+ followers and some of you will be reading this right now.  So we already KNOW, and appreciate, the power of Twitter.

Twitter also has many 3rd party gizmos surfacing with fair regularity so I could have this post automatically Tweeted via RSS if I so choose.  And I can search for all kinds of keyword phrases on Twitter to see what people are mindlessly twitting about that day and it has led to some interesting discoveries.  And since Twitter tweets ARE indexed by Google, intelligently made Tweets can yield unexpected results down the road. 

While no personalities stand out on Twitter other than those who stand out pretty much everywhere, it's the most genuine, down-to-earth, immediate way for anyone to reach a lot of people who occasionally have something important to say.  Reaching people was even easier after people read my article,

"Quick Free Tip on How to Get Followers on Twitter Fast!"

Wherefore Art Thou, Entrecard?

Very Helpful Entrecard Articles

Is it so cliche to always save the best for last?  I can't honestly say "Entrecard is the best" of those listed because each, in its own way, offers a different experience and a different way to get eyeballs on your site.  But if your main goal IS to get eyeballs on your site then ENTRECARD wins hands-down, end-of-story.  Visits from Entrecard are not always targeted to your site but many have discovered that, for several reasons, it doesn't matter:

1. Targeted Entrecarders WILL see your site;

2. All Entrecarders are people with wants and needs;

3. All Entrecarders who drop cards at your site benefit you; and

4. Unexpected subscribers from lateral categories becomes evident;

5. Entrecard is new, fresh and buzzing with a growing mass of warm bodies;

6. And the opportunities to creatively benefit and form joint ventures is wide open.

7. Oh yes, and without Entrecard, I would not have met Evil Woobie.

I have yet to hear anyone complain about "lack of traffic" on Entrecard and have soundly refuted those who hastily referred to Entrecard traffic as "junk traffic" in my articles, "10 Simple Ways to Squeeze the Most Out of Entrecard for Your Greater Advantage" and "Super Advanced EntreCard Strategy - Squeezing the Most Out of Your Chain Droppers"

Besides, Entrecard andEntrecarders can be pretty funny sometimes!

In Conclusion...
My New Year Resolutions

While these services did not just pop up in the last 4 months, they've somehow converged on the blogosphere together in such a way that has left the last 4 months VERY INTERESTING and with some super-huge, massive opportunities for all those who combine them in the years to come.

So, I make the following new year's resolutions which any of you can follow, tweaking to account for your specific conditions:

For the Month of January Only

1. Sphinn and Stumble a Minimum of 5 New Articles Per Day

2. Sphinn and Stumble a Minimum of 10 Sphunn Articles at Sphinn Eacy Day

3. Stumble Entrecarders Who Stumble Me

4. Comment On a Minimum of 10 Entrecard and Sphinners Blogs Per Day

5. Find 1 New Non-Self-Promoting, Interesting Thing to Enrich Twitter Followers Every Day

6. Drop 300 Entrecards Per Day;

7. Run a Minimum of 11 Unique, Totally Mind-Blowing Entrecard Contest This Month.

8. Evaluate and Tweak at End of Month for February and Report in Blog Post.

Some people might do 100 times those numbers, at times.  But remember, that is EVERY DAY and it should account for your particular circumstances should you follow suit.  Just like "salt to taste", well, sphinn, stumble and drop to taste!

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!  

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