Holding graphic design contests has its own benefits and advantages. One of the most important benefits of holding such contests is that you will have a good number of graphic designs at your disposal so that you can start your own business of providing web design and graphic design to other websites as well. All the competitors of the contests will be sufficiently compensated of course. If they are sufficiently compensated for their creations they cannot exercise any sort of right over them anymore. Hence you can conduct your own business of graphic design. It is also for sure that such contests will attract good number of designers from across the globe. The good the designs the better it would be for the blogs or websites. Web design has an active part to play in the positioning of the website in the search pages across the Internet.

As a matter of fact web design along with methods like article marketing, forum posting, link building and other forms of organic traffic building methods is very vital as far as the search engine optimization techniques are concerned. Graphic web design is no exception.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Here is an example of registration via SMS to Twitter:

You send a Direct Message to Netfirms via Twitter asking us to register a domain name for you. If the domain name is available we will register it for you and automatically add it to your existing Netfirms Control Panel and bill to your current billing profile. The only prerequisite is that you add your Twitter username to your Netfirms Control Panel. Please visit our tutorial with full details on setting yourself up for domain registration via Twitter. The instructions should be completed once only and you’re good to go after that.
1. Log in to your Twitter account (You can use any of the available Twitter apps)
2. Send a dm to @netfirms with the following: reg mynewdomain.com
3. We will confirm by replying to you via direct message at which point the domain will be added to your Netfirms Control Panel. The domain is now ready to be used.

To celebrate the new feature, Netfirms has launched a contest (see the Netfirms Contest here) that runs until October 7th. You can win a MacBook or one of four iPod Touches just by doing one of two simple things:

• Tweeting about the contest
• Registering a new domain name

If you are going to tweet about the contest, they ask that you use the following:
“Win a #free iPod Touch or Macbook from the @Netfirms #contest. Domain registration services via Twitter http://bit.ly/yJfJK”

To make it easy, just head on over to the contest page, and scroll down until you find “Click here to post this to your Twitter account”. Makes it easy, quick, and earns you an entry.

Don’t forget, you have to be following @Netfirms to have a shot at winning a prize, so don’t just push out the message, or you won’t qualify.

One retweet equals one entry per day. One domain registered equals one entry.

What does having more routes to register domains mean? Well, for me, it means that I’ll be spending even more money on my domain buying hobby. (I sometimes swear I should be banned from buying domains unless I have the content and design ready to go live.)

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

The winner will get a free custom WordPress theme from the team at Blog Design Studio, and the writing project runs until the end of November, so I suggest you get over there if you want a chance at winning a custom WordPress theme.

What do you need to write about?

Here are some of the examples of topic :

1. How blog design will change your blog’s value?
2. Why a blog design is important for your blog’s authority?
3. 10 tips to keep in mind before you get your blog designed!

For more details check out their post on Blog Design Studio.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

How do you enter? Just answer the following question on the Blogging Tips Forum:

What is the one blog that has a balance of great design, strong branding and excellent content in your mind, and please defend your selection?

You only have a few days to enter though before the contest moves onto the next prize, so get on there soon to have a shot at winning the prize.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Basically there are two parts. The first part can be won by being one of the most active participants. The grand prize for that is $200 which will be Paypal transferred into your account. Their are one thousand dollars in cash prizes to be won, so it can definitely be worth it to try you hat if you love being part of forums.

The second set of prizes include books, Premium WordPress themes and plugins, as well as a chance at a two hour consultation with me. To win these prizes, you have to stay active in the forums and each week a question or challenge will be placed on the board for people to take part in. The winner each week will win the prize of that specific week.

If you are interested in a great and easy way to earn yourself some nice prizes, check out Blogging Tips Forum contest.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Using Random.org and a spread sheet of entrants, I began selecting winners for the prizes. For those of you that don’t remember what was up for grabs, jump on over to the previous post related to the contest, and take a gander.

And now for the winners…

125×125 Banner on Xfep for 3 months
- Ryan Caldwell

One 468×60 banner on Xfep for 3 months
- John Leschinski

BuyWPThemes.com
- Angela Robson

Celebreader.com
- Kneale Mann

DesignRanked.com (and DesignRankd.com if winner wants it)
- Jason Fredin

FabCeleb.com
- Kiltak

HealthNewsFirst.com
- Jeffro

OneBigCanada.com (.biz, .info and .net if winner wants them)
- Jeff Pulver

TheBlogJob.com
- Lisa Sabin-Wilson

UpRanked.com (and UpRankd.com if the winner wants it)
- James Mowery

One Hour Blog Consulting from Me
- Kevin Muldoon

One Copy Each of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
- Katy Castro
- maheshkale
- Tom Leroux

I will be in contact with the winners as soon as possible (though feel free to contact me if you’ve won) to make sure all prizes are distributed. If any prize winner declines their prize, I will select using Random.org once again until we find a suitable winner.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

My only hope for the contest is that I get one entrant per prize listed. No more, no less. I hope that I have enough readers on this blog that would be willing to leave a comment or Twitter about the contest that I can give everything away without anything being left over, or anyone being sad that they didn’t win anything.

Do I expect to get a huge boost in rankings, back links, comments, new readers? Heck no! If that is what I wanted, I would have done the normal thing, and had people promote it heavily, got more people involved in making it this big deal, and went around to the contest blogs and got it listed.

This contest really is just for my friendly readers. So if you like this blog, leave a comment and you will be entered. So far, I think only half of the prizes have been accounted for.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

I have decided to run a small contest to giveaway a few things as a reward to the great readers of this site that constantly participate and make blogging here such a great experience. I haven’t run many contests before, but I have always enjoyed giving things away, and so I figured it was time to try my hand at it once again.

Prize Pool

Three Copies of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett – An amazing book for any skill level and worth far more than the twenty-five dollar list price on the back of the book. Problogger is already in its second printing and includes some very timeless advice. I have read the book cover to cover more than a few times now. Prize includes shipping fees from me to the winner anywhere in the world.

Various Domains registered at Godaddy.com – Each domain has a different expiry date, but if you have been looking for a great property to build that next project on, no doubt one of the below will probably inspire you. As winners of domains are selected, they will get first choice on which domain, or domains where listed as a possible package, that they would like.

• BuyWPThemes.com
• CelebReader.com
• DesignRanked.com (and DesignRankd.com if winner wants it)
• FabCeleb.com
• HealthNewsFirst.com
• OneBigCanada.com (.biz, .info and .net if winner wants them)
• TheBlogJob.com
• UpRanked.com (and UpRankd.com if the winner wants it)

One Hour Blog Consulting from Me – with a list value of fifty dollars, I believe that an hour of my time, one on one in any medium you desire, could be a huge opportunity for your blog to grow in exciting new ways. Looking to monetize, but you are confused on how to make more than a coffee worth of money per day? Wanting to leverage your content better? Trying to figure out how to promote things better in the social media world? Issues with your WordPress theme? I will use my expertise, and connections to help you with your blog.

One 468×60 Banner on the front page of Xfep.com for 3 months – with a value of $360, adding your non-animated banner just above the title of each and every single post on Xfep.com as well as above the first post title on the front page will allow your brand to be noticed resulting in new traffic to your blog.

One 125×125 Banner on Xfep.com for 3 months – with a value of $120, you will be able to add your square advertisement graphic above all others on Xfep.com for three months. The exposure could mean new readers, new subscribers, and the chance to promote your own products, services, contests, or just your brand. Building brand equity is invaluable.

How to Enter

I wanted to make it easy to enter, but I also wanted those willing to go the extra mile able to have more chances at the above prizes, and so like many successful contests, I have built in a system where the more things you do, the more entries you get.

One Ticket Each

• Relevant and Approved Comment on Xfep.com
• Follow me on Twitter – davidcubed
• Invite me to a beta for a service I am not yet a member of. [dave.phoenix at gmail.com]
  Brightkite is off the list
  Aviary is off the list
• Twitter about this contest (don’t forget to let me know)

Two Tickets Each

• Promote Posts from Xfep.com on popular Social Media promotion sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious or Sphinn. Make sure to contact me through the contact form with the relevant details of what you did, or it won’t be counted.
• Post about this contest on your blog (250 words or above to qualify)

Five Tickets Each

• Submit guest post for Xfep.com that gets approved (over 500 words).
• Talk about Xfep, or one of its posts on your own blog (excluding the contest post). Add to the conversation.
• Purchase an advertisement on Xfep.com

Winner Selection

Eligible participants will be randomly given a number or numbers dependent on how many ways they enter. Once numbers have been put into a spreadsheet and double checked for accuracy, I will run a random number generator online with a randomized hash as the seed for the random number generator. I will start with the domains, and then the advertisement positions, consulting, and finally the three copies of the books. Winners will be removed from the spreadsheet so that they cannot win multiple prizes.

Important Dates

Contest Open: Friday, July 18th, 2008
Contest Closed: Friday, August 15th, 2008 @ 11:59 PM EDT (GMT-4) [2359 hours]
Draw: Monday, August 18th, 2008
All Prizes Awarded by: September 1st, 2008

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

RealWD has created two great WordPress themes with their RealWD Corporate and RealWD Elegante premium themes.

RealWD Corporate looks to me like it would work best for a business blog but especially for the smart make money online blogger, as it gives strong positions to recent posts, RSS subscriptions, and information about the site and author. It comes standard in a really nice blue, orange, grey and white colour scheme. It includes space for some large standard advertising sizes as well as some non-traditional ad positions that will work well with the design.

RealWD Elegante moves the meta data box to the bottom of the page, moving the posts higher up in the page. The colours are grey, red and beige, and seem to compliment each other well. It includes the 125×125 pixel advertising spaces that are very popular today, and has a strong sense of style.

Both themes are widget ready, and provide support for Gravatar. Both themes have also been tested in a myriad of web browsers and will work with WordPress 2.2 and above.

Out of the two, I would personally be more inclined to use the RealWD Corporate theme, but I always recommend users pick the theme that suits them the best.

Each theme is $75 and includes lifetime access to support, as well as being special in that for the $75 cost, the authors do not require you to retain any footer link, something that usually costs hundreds of dollars to remove in other premium themes.

The Contest

Interested in the themes, but don’t have the money to shell out currently? Link to the WordPress Themes page on RealWD (that’s www.realwd.com/wordpress-themes/) and comment here to let me know that you have linked to it with the URL of where I can find the link, and you will be entered into a contest to win one of the two themes.

Some ways to quickly earn opportunities to win:

• Link to this post as well as the RealWD theme page: 5 entries
• Link to RealWD’s theme page from a post on your blog relating to WordPress themes: 3 entries
• Link to RealWD’s theme page from your sidebar or blogroll: 2 entries
• Twitter the link to RealWD’s theme page: 1 entry

If you don’t comment here to let me know where I can find your entries, they won’t be counted. Enter now, as this contest will be over soon. The end date is May 6th, 2008. Prizes will be awarded on the 7th.

Domains you can win include:

Uprankd.com (Upranked.com as well)
Onebigcanada.com (and .net, .info, .biz if you want them)
TheHealthBattle.com
FabCeleb.com
DesignRankd.com (DesignRanked.com as well)
CharacterDir.com
CelebReader.com
BuyWpThemes.com

So if you want to feel like a winner, and snag yourself a good domain, check out the Domain Giveaway Contest.