PureBlogging

Just a quick contest reminder and a word of thanks to a couple of people…

Contest Reminder
Don’t forget that sometime before August 31st, one lucky PureBlogging subscriber will win $200 in cash! All you have to do is either subscribe via email or RSS and look for a secret message that will appear at the bottom of one of our blog posts. The message will only be shown to those viewing via RSS or email and will replace the normal “Sponsored By” message that follows some of our posts. Good Luck!

Thank You Chris Garrett!
Chris Garrett had a little competition to see who could refer the most members to his new Authority Blogger Forums. Thanks to a lot of help from you guys, PureBlogging came out on top. The prize was a guest post written by Chris and a mention on his blog.

Thank You Brandon Hopkins!
Brandon held a contest where he gave away an iPod Shuffle in a random drawing. All you had to do was link to his site and to his sponsor’s site and you were in the drawing. I must be doing something right lately because PureBlogging was again selected as the winner!

Weekend Links will be a little late today but I’m working on it… don’t worry.

Would you like to have a chance to win $200 by simply subscribing to my RSS feed?

Like I said in a comment the other day, when I decided to run this contest it was a little more unique. Unfortunately, I waited too long and there are a few similar contests already running but I promised you a contest so here it is…

Here’s how it works. Subscribe to my RSS feed using your favorite RSS reader and sometime before August 31st, I will publish a secret RSS-only message to the bottom of one blog post. It will be down below the article where you see the “Sponsored By:” links in some of our posts, so keep an eye open.

I realize that some of you may prefer to get your updates by email so don’t worry… you can win too! Subscribing via email will give you the same chance to win! That’s right, the email edition will also run the secret message sometime before August 31st.

Once you’ve found the winning message - it will be obvious, you won’t miss it - simply email the message to contest@pureblogging.com. I will then pick one lucky reader at random.

BONUS: If we reach 1,000 subscribers by the time I pick the winner, I will give away an additional $200 to another lucky winner, so be sure to tell as many people as possible to increase the prize pool!

If you haven’t taken the time to subscribe to our RSS feed, I’m hoping this will encourage you to do so. If you don’t already have an RSS reader, I would suggest one of the following:

1. Bloglines
2. Google Reader
3. Rojo
4. NewsGator
5. FeedShow

So, if you would like to win some free cash, here is your chance. Subscribe to our RSS feed, or subscribe via email and you could be a winner.

No, this is not a new weekly feature but there are few really nice contests that I felt you should know about. Most of you have probably already seen these but I’m going to list them here just in case.

• The Prize Blog is currently having a 6-day blogging competition where each day a different prize is going to given away to some lucky winner. Prizes include: cash, MP3 players, blogroll back links, Bloggeries Blog Directory listings, and complete site reviews. It looks like 3 prizes have already been awarded but there’s still to get in on the fun… if you hurry!
• Mr. Gary Lee, who runs an excellent internet marketing blog, is giving away a free iphone! You should know the drill by now… just write a post on your blog about the contest and follow the linking instructions. In this case, you need to link to his new project about golf equipment and to PinkDeals.net where you get a free online coupon for most stores on the internet.
• Betshopboy is running his first blog contest and is giving away 7 cash prizes! To enter you need to post a review of his blog and subscribe to his RSS feed… check out his blog for full details.

That should keep you busy for a while…

By the way, I finally came up with an idea for my next contest but you will have to wait… I’ll announce the new contest on August 1st.

Maybe I should have bought a lottery ticket this weekend…

On Friday, I found out that I had been selected as the winner of the $100 cash prize from Blog-Contests.com. Thanks guys! By the way, they have added an interesting twist to the contest listings on their site… not only will you find great contests, you can actually vote for your favorites. Be sure to check them out if your looking for more blog contests to enter.

But the good news doesn’t stop there… A few minutes ago, I was informed that my post has been selected as one of the $100 winners in Daniel’s Blog Project Three. How cool is that? A big thank you goes to everyone that voted for me… I really appreciate it!

Here is the complete list of winners and runners-up:

Winners

• L’Amour De Blog: 3 reasons why blogging is like being in love (13 votes)
• 3 Reason Why Entrepreneurs Succeed! (11 votes)
• 3 Ways to Track Your Comments (11 votes)

Runners-up

• Three reasons to try a marathon (10 votes)
• 3+1 Things Blogger’s Should Never Ever Do (9 votes)
• 3 + 3 + 3 Places Where You Can Get Free Icons For All Seasons And Reasons (9 votes)
• The 3 P’s for Creating a Successful Website (8 votes)
• Three essential steps to great blog posts (8 votes)
• How I built 10,000 links in 3 weeks (7 votes)
• 3 Must Do Things For A New Blogger (7 votes)
• 3 Sure Fire Way to Advertise Your Blog on a Shoe String (7 votes)

Of course, this is really good news for you too. My recent good fortune means that I have $200 more dollars to giveaway.

Now all I need is an idea for a contest.

As part of Blog Project Three Daniel from DailyBlogTips asked us to read all the entries and pick our favorites. Well, there were 115 total entries so I decided to stick with the posts about blogging. Yes, I’m lazy…

Anyway, here are my favorites:

• 3 Tips to Increase Blog Readership by Kyle
• How To Sell Your Blog in 3 Easy Steps by Ahmed Bilal
• 3 Sure Fire Way to Advertise Your Blog on a Shoe String by Engtech
• Three Steps to Keeping your RSS Feed Readers by Matthew
• 3 Ways To Get Me To Not Visit Your Blog Again by Sean
• L’Amour De Blog: 3 reasons why blogging is like being in love by Phil
• 3 Reasons why I suck as a blogger by Ben
• Three Things That I’ve Yet To Achieve as a Blogger by Rhys
• 3+1 Things Blogger’s Should Never Ever Do by Arpit
• 3 Reasons Why You Should Use Storytelling by Daniel

And just in case you missed it, you can read my entry here: 3 Ways to Track Your Comments

I know you guys are always looking for more contests so I thought I would mention a couple of friends who are currently running contests.

• Ms. Danielle is giving away the Microsoft Zune that she won from John Chow. You better hurry, the contest ends on Friday, July 6th at 11:59pm PST…. and I believe that would be tomorrow.
• Ryan Shamus would like to give one lucky commenter a home microbrewery set. Who ever posts comment #504 will take home the prize! By the way, if you’ve never made your own beer, I recommend giving it a try. It’s a lot of fun.
• Blog-Contests.com wants to give you $100. All you have to do is mention them on your blog and let them know about your post. Check their site to get the details and find more blog contests.
• Brandon Hopkins is having a contest for an iPod shuffle. All you have to do is link to him and link to his sponsor and you’re entered.
• Roberta is giving away Suzanne Vega’s new CD… just leave a comment letting her know why you want to win and your entered!
• The Prize Blog also wants to give you $100! You need to link to the main page with the anchor text “The Prize Blog” and link to the contest page with the anchor text “blog contests“. Then shoot them an email to let them know about your post.

That’s all I have for now… did I miss any?