When Daniel contacted me about being part of his Blogger Face-Off series, I assumed he would put me with someone with a similar background to myself, some relatively unknown blog network backed blogger who had been around for a while, but instead, he put me against a fairly new blogging celebrity, John Cow.

I pretty much thought he would slaughter me in the poll at the end, despite he and I having some similar answers. His blog drives a fair bit of traffic, and he has many more RSS readers. Above and beyond all that though, he is very good at internet marketing, and has friends such as John Chow to help him when in need.

He and I both mentioned the post on Daily Blog Tips on our blogs, but I really wanted to win against him, and thanks to my friends, and readers, I was able to secure a victory over the Cow!

A huge thanks to everyone that voted, and Tom for letting me know the poll had closed, and I came out on top. This really means a lot to me, as I continue blogging, there is always the question in the back of your mind “does anyone know who I am?”

Thanks again to Daniel of Daily Blog Tips for featuring me. It was a lot of fun.

Originally posted on January 21, 2008 @ 12:38 pm

One of the popular misconceptions about most contests on the web is that people are providing something small for a chance at something huge in return. After reading Tyler Cruz’s post entitled “Effects of the Tyler vs Gyutae Contest” [link], I feel a little sick to my stomach with regards to blog contests.

Here is a bit from the article:

I ended up losing the competition and had to pay out $300, but I received 115 backlinks from 115 different blogs within an 11-day period. That works out to only $2.60 per blog, which is an absolute bargain. If you wanted to do this through PayPerPost or ReviewMe, you’d have to pay at least $10 for each post, totalling around $1,150.

And remember, around 95% of the blogs that voted for us were from “make money online” blogs, which means better targeted traffic and more related backlinks. If you tried to target those blogs through PayPerPost or ReviewMe, I don’t think you could get that type of volume within 11-days – it would probably take a few months, if not longer, and be much more expensive.

Basically, they took advantage of a wide audience of their peers, including myself, in order to gain large boosts for their blog in RSS subscribers, Alexa ranking and technorati ranking.

For me, this all leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and reminds me of the things I don’t like about the blogosphere. These guys didn’t do anything new, but Tyler presented the information in a way that my mind could easily digest, and I don’t like what I realized.

In any niche, there are only so many blogs that people will constantly and consistently read, subscribe to, or follow. By linking to the blogs involved in the contest, I am creating a situation where I could lose out readership to another blog in my niche.

I helped contribute to the growth of their blogs, and in return received very little. I might get a t-shirt out of it, but otherwise, what did participating in the contest do for this blog or for my audience other than exposing them to bloggers that I don’t necessarily want to endorse.

It is an interesting problem with contests, and I hope you will all appreciate this rant for what it is: an awakening. I hope that those of you that read this blog, won’t be underhanded with regards to your contests. Foster a community, growth and a positive change. Don’t just do things for your own good.

For those that find it hypocritical that I am writing about this, as I am currently running a contest to get a free domain. My contest is more about rewarding my current readers by creating a contest with a low barrier for entry, where theirs was about search engine marketing, building their brand off the backs of others, and getting links and traffic to allow them to boost their eventual income.

Originally posted on January 23, 2008 @ 7:09 pm

So, last time I gave away some Nintendo Wii related domains, and it was a lot of fun. This time, I am giving away four random domain names that I have in my Godaddy account. Domains that I hoped to develop, but never got around to.

And in no particular order, here they are:

BloggingShift.com – expires 10/13/2008
Somefoo.net – expires 1/10/2009
VRUnleashed.com – expires 10/13/2008
SmallReaction.com – expires 11/13/2008

If you want to enter, all you have to do is write a post on your blog that links to any post on this blog. You don’t need to use any special keywords, or write a novel.

Suggestions include:

• favourite post on Xfep.com
• domain giveaway contest #2
• best new blogging related blog ever!

Feel free to be as creative or not as you want to be. All entrants will be screened for quality, and then given a number based on when they entered. I will then use a random number generator to come up with the winners.

If you have a preference for a domain, please make sure you mention that in the comments of this post. One entry per person.

Contest runs from today, until January 25th.

Coverage
Contest Beat wrote about this contest.

Originally posted on January 11, 2008 @ 9:40 pm

So I have decided to run a little Christmas contest here on this blog, and the prize is one of two Nintendo Wii related domains. While it might be too late to set up a site to capitalize on the Christmas season, Nintendo Wii shortages continue, and that is something that could definitely be capitalized on.

The domains are WiiWe.com and WiiStart.com. They are both currently registered at Godaddy. Neither of these have been used for anything else, and are both very short and memorable.

To participate, all you have to do is link to Xfep.com from a new post, comment here with the URL of the post that links to eXtra for Every Publisher and then list which domain you’d like to have.

You will be put in a list, I will filter out sub-par results, and then the rest will be given a number and put to Randomizer.org to decide.

The winning post will be mentioned on this site, and the domain will be transferred over. With my years of expertise in domain appraisal, the value of these domains are both in the millions of dollars.

Contest Ends December 21st, at Noon EST (GMT-5).

Originally posted on December 14, 2007 @ 1:53 pm

So currently, there is a little contest between Tyler Cruz and Mr. Park from Winning the Web. The basic idea is to attract people to both sites, and whomever attracts the most attention via votes, wins.

I usually wouldn’t post about such things, but I really enjoy the Winning the Web blog, and John Chow is supporting Tyler. This is my chance to show I have more blog power than John Chow. While it is strange to go against my fellow Canadians, I really want to see Winning the Web win. Both John Chow and Tyler are Canadian.

Not only that, but I got an e-mail from the owner of Winning the Web, asking for my support. In trade, I am hoping for one of those cool t-shirts he has been showing off. Blog schwag is the coolest.

Currently, Winning the Web is the front runner, with almost twice as many votes as Tyler Cruz. This is a little funny to me as Tyler has almost four times as many RSS subscribers, making Winning the Web the underdog in that respect.

Why would you want to take the time to vote? How does $100 sound to you? That is just one of the prizes up for grabs in relation to this little contest. In case you are wondering if Gyutae, the owner of Winning the Web, is a giving guy, just check out his previous contest, where he gave away a Free John Chow review, worth $400 USD. Not only that, but one thing you will notice from his site is a wealth of knowledge, and a whole community communicating with him and each other. Most of his blog posts have a fair number of comments, something that hasn’t really happened here yet.

Maybe Gyutae needs to write a post on getting comments…Wait, he already did that.

Winning the Web reminds me a lot of John Chow’s blog, in the way that it positions itself and its advertising. It should be interesting to see where Winning the Web is in a year from now. Check it out, give it your vote, and let’s beat the John Chow effect!

Update: Winning the Web won! And even better, I am told my t-shirt should be on its way soon. I am an Extra-Large. Big congrats to everyone that won the $100 prize, and I am sure both Tyler and Gyutae are very happy with the results.

Originally posted on January 13, 2008 @ 7:40 pm