10th
Feb/08

Rss Subscription Contest, Round 1 ($5 prize!)

Posted: 5:03 am by tom in Blog, Marketing, Push Standards

rssprogresschart3.jpg

After my last post discussing personal missions I’ve been really motivated to think of a creative, completely different way of gaining subscribers. I’ve always loved creative marketing techniques and so was pretty excited about this concept.

I’ll be running an ongoing contest for the duration of this blog where I reward people simply for commenting. That’s right, commenting, not subscribing. My goal is to reach 50 RSS Subscribers as quickly as possible (I have 17 31 so far). When I eventually reach 50 subscribers I will pay a random commenter to this post $5 via paypal as a kind of celebration.

How does it work? Well you can track my progress through the image at the top of this post. I’m trying to find out how to get a script or plugin developed that will update itself automatically, but for now I couldn’t wait to get started! I’m simply going to update my rather crude progress chart design at the end of each day based on my new subscriber figures.

Remember, in order to be entered into the contest to win $5 you need to comment on this post. Current subscribers are also welcome to enter, just leave me a comment. :)

RULES: There is only one rule: in your comment you must leave your paypal email. This is simply so that people don’t spam under different names in an attempt to increase their chances of winning. I don’t intend to spam you, and hate spam myself so please replace the ‘@’ in your email with ‘(NO SPAM)’. For example: contest(NO SPAM)pushstandards.com. When this round of the contest concludes I will select a Paypal address at random and send the $5 prize to that address.

The idea behind this ‘progress chart’ is to provide my visitors with a more interactive way to see how the site is doing. Hopefully it should encourage people to subscribe as they will want to see that 50 subscribers mark reached as soon as possible so that they have a chance of winning the contest.

Another big aspect of this idea is that it doesn’t stop at 50 subscribers. I will be making a new post for each round of the contest, and as my subscribers increase I will increase the prize amount and set a new goal / chart image. I was thinking about something like this, although it’s by no means final:

  • Round 1 - 0-50 subscribers ($5 prize)

  • Round 2 - 51-100 subscribers ($10 prize)

  • Round 3 - 101-250 subscribers ($15 prize)

  • Round 4 - 251-500 subscribers ($20 prize)

  • Round 5 - 501-1000 subscribers ($50 prize)

    • Hopefully by the time this reaches the last round there will be quite a lot of buzz about the ongoing contest and this should help promote the site nicely. Anyway, please let me know what you think about the idea, and get subscribing/commenting today!

    PS: Sorry for the incoherent post, it’s 5am and I’m dying of tiredness. Also to let you know, tomorrow I’ll be getting the train back to university (6 hours yay! :/) so I probably won’t get to post until late in the evening. On that note, I’m off to bed, but I hope that you enjoy the contest and please post any questions in the comments or contact me by email.

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my feed now!

    Please subscribe via RSS or Email!

    20 Responses to “Rss Subscription Contest, Round 1 ($5 prize!)”

    1. KieranG, on February 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am Said:

      Count me in! ;)

    2. tom, on February 10th, 2008 at 10:49 am Said:

      Good stuff Kieran :) Sorry but I had to change the rules slightly (see original post) in order to keep things fair for everyone. Please provide your paypal email in the format mentioned and you’ll be included in the random draw.

    3. KieranG, on February 10th, 2008 at 11:11 am Said:

      Ah goddamn, wrong… Kierangill (nospam) gmail.com
      Doh :)
      Delete other comment!

    4. tom, on February 10th, 2008 at 11:27 am Said:

      No problem, comment deleted :)

    5. Stanley, on February 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm Said:

      Hi! Great way to get new readers!!
      I am also a web designer by the way. If you want to get as much RSS readers as possible, I would recommend to highlight the “Subscribe to RSS” sign on the top of your website, perhaps add some bright (orange?) label or large icon of RSS feeds.
      Please let me know what you think about this… :-)

    6. KieranG, on February 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm Said:

      Thanks Tom! :)

    7. tom, on February 10th, 2008 at 2:48 pm Said:

      No problem Keiran :)

      Stanley: Thanks for the kind words, and the ideas. I’ll consider using a larger RSS icon definitely. Do you wish to enter the contest? If so please remember to leave your paypal address as a comment (see original post for how to do this). Also I’d appreciate your subscription if you want to stay informed ;)

    8. Tish, on February 10th, 2008 at 4:27 pm Said:

      Great contest idea, Tom!

      chattiekat (no spam) gmail.com

    9. tom, on February 10th, 2008 at 5:29 pm Said:

      Thanks Tish, good luck in the contest :)

    10. Simonne, on February 16th, 2008 at 11:04 pm Said:

      OK, here’s my comment, and I’ll also subscribe, because I like your blog. If you want to get some more funds for your contest, you are welcome to check out mine ;)

    11. tom, on February 16th, 2008 at 11:16 pm Said:

      Thanks Simonne, I’ll go check out your contest now :)

    12. EmmaB, on February 17th, 2008 at 1:38 am Said:

      digitalworldbaby(NO SPAM)gmail.com

      Im In! and ive also subscribed

    13. tom, on February 17th, 2008 at 3:22 am Said:

      Thanks Emma :)

    14. Blogging Diary Week 2! : pushstandards.com, on February 20th, 2008 at 5:36 pm Said:

      […] is especially pleasing is my rising RSS subscriptions. It looks like my RSS contest will be progressing to the next round very […]

    15. Rss Contest Update. : pushstandards.com, on February 21st, 2008 at 3:00 am Said:

      […] a very quick update regarding the rss contest that I’m running. As you can see from the counter above I’m very close to reaching my […]

    16. slide, on February 21st, 2008 at 6:06 am Said:

      subscribed….

    17. megavegalicious, on February 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am Said:

      Stanley is right! Your RSS button is very small, I could barely see it. I put a very big button on my site (i found it here http://www.flickr.com/photos/photopia/455572466/ ); I didn’t burn my feed yet though. Good idea with the contests…

    18. tom, on February 21st, 2008 at 12:43 pm Said:

      Thanks, it’s definitely on my list of things to do! Do you really have over 800 subscribers on your site? Nice work!

      By the way guys thanks for subscribing, but you’ll have to comment with your paypal address (see the format to do this in the original post) to be including in the competition. Hurry before Round 1 is over!

    19. RSS Subscriber Contest Round 1 Winner! : Push Standards - Blog of Tom Ross, Web Designer and Young Entrepreneur, on May 4th, 2008 at 3:22 pm Said:

      […] of my longer term readers may remember when I started a contest whereby I would pay one of my readers $5 upon reaching 50 […]

    20. Srikanth G, on May 19th, 2008 at 11:00 am Said:

      Wow!! amazing idea….I wish I might lucky to get it

      worldicons(NO SPAM)gmail.com

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