Student: I don’t know what to do.
Master: Then I cannot help you.
Day: October 7, 2007
Which prizes are left?
Are you following Darren Rowse’s Problogger Birthday Bash $54,000 giveaway? Here are the prizes with the ones already offered up scratched out.
Hawaii Stretch DVD – Best Hawaii Vacation Bloghand-beaded lucky gemstone necklaces and a bottle of I ALLOW IN WINS Essential Roll-on Oil – Contest Queen3 domain names from namecheap.com (AWARDED) – Groovy VegetarianCD – Zane Tate – Leisure Lab$100 Gift Certificate – site only (jewelry) – Lisa Marie Dias Designs(3) cleaning solution kits (enviro friendly) – Morris Green Cleanvarious cd’s and dvd’s and posters (11) – On Target Media Group2 winners – pick from bargains on site from – The Bargain Queenone month of winner’s choice of business coaching for writers, artists, or entrepreneurs and one month of group business coaching for 8 winners – Center of Muse(3) t-shirts and coaching sessions – Explore Life BlogSEO/Internet Marketing pkg – Freezing Hotone year membership – coaching program – Jill Koenigone full month unlimited assistance from a virtual lifestyle organizer along with a get-back-on-track basket – Mary Jo Rulnick5 Secure Delivery Pro subscriptions for free, for life – Secure DeliverySEO services – SEO Aware$300 AdWords management package and $300 cash – SmallFuel Marketing1 Month of Wellness Coaching (three 45 minute sessions with a certified wellness coach) – The WellCenter GroupLogitech Cordless Desktop Wave Set – Derek BeaucheminKingston 8GB portable USB drive – Geeky SpeakyIt’s Alive Game – Jer GamesEnSpire Series Stand-By UPS – NetLink WebPeppermint Marshmallow Pinwheel Pastries & photo/art – Nika’s CulinariaFrescobaldi Laudemio Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2006 Harvest – Olive Oil Passionbook and soy coffee – Soy CoffeeThe Logitech G5 laser gaming mouse – StarFeeder20 cigars and starter kit – Stogie Reviewtea package (pot, warmer, tea, spoon) – Tea Party Girlcollectibles from Binions Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas, NV – The Collecting Life$100 Gift Certificate to artisanscup.com – Artisan’s Cup (Teas)2G digital video camera ERV – Associated ContentLogitech G15 gaming keyboard – Blogging Tips4 x 1lb bags of Gimme Coffee beans – Time For Coffee and TeaRhinoskin Aluminum HardCase for Treo 700 series smartphones – Treo Today1 truffle tree (first year care & maintenance) – Truffle Tree$50 cash – [Geeks are Sexy] Technology News$300 cash – 1 Cool FileNew blog installation & customized template package (AWARDED) – Angela Wills$25 Amazon Gift Certificate – Another Old Movie BlogMedia Interview Training (AWARDED) – Author Media Training(3) 6 month subscription to both svcs. – Babble Soft1 new 8GB iPod Nano – Back in Skinny JeansBarefoot Bunny Slippers – Barefoot Parties$25 Amazon Gift Certificate – BazPhoto wallpaper measuring 6 foot x 6 foot – Better Wallpaperblog analysis + 125×125 ad (AWARDED) – Blog About Your Blogone hour blog consulting (AWARDED) – Blog Louder$250 cash – BlogFlux400 word review & feedhost PRO (1 yr) token (AWARDED) – Blogging Fingers$50 cash or a Amazon Gift Certificate – Blogging With Cents1 year – Access for your (3rd-12th grade student) – Book Test OnlineCaddy – Water bottle holder + carrier – BVT ProductsFlickr Pro Upgrade – Cheap Shooter$501 cash – Chitika6 art photography prints – 3 each of 2 – Christina Perduedesign and color analysis – office design (AWARDED) – Color ThemesComplete Blog Contest development package (AWARDED) – Contest Bloggerblog header design (AWARDED) – Cory Millercustom logo design (AWARDED) – David Airey2 LG 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors – DisplayLinkHow to make PR work online ebook (AWARDED) – distilled: pure website expertiseebook, book for entrepreneurs, and press release & dist. on PRweb.com (AWARDED) – Egg Marketing Blogframed sports photo – Eye On The Ball Images2yr subscription to Nylon Mag – Fashionista TV$1000 donation to charity of winner’s choice – Free Money Finance$25 Amazon Gift Certificate – Freelance Writing Jobs$200 cash – Genealogy Reviews OnlinePampered Pooch Package & Doggie Mommy Pack – Good Doggie$333.33 Cash – Grown Up GeekIpod touch with (8GB) – Help Desk Geekcustom logo design (AWARDED) – Holiday for Every Day1 year subscription to Home Exchange Site – Home Based Holidays1GB iPod Shuffle – I Hate Bad Service6×6 Custom oil painting – One custom full color single pet portrait – Intricate ArtiPod Video or Nano-Extreme Makeover (new LCD, front plate, rear plate & battery) – iPod Repair of Memphis8 GB video iPod nano – It’s Write Now10 articles of 500 words each custom-written to the winner’s specifications (in progress NOW!) – JCM EnterprisesJewel Caddy, “NO Tangle” Jewelry Organizer – Jewel CaddyWhatever Wall Clock – Kim and Jason2 entrepreneurial books by Kirsty (AWARDED) –Kirsty Dunphey – speaker, author, entrepreneur, retired at 27assorted baby and kids items – Lille Punkin’ Reviews$20 Amazon Gift Certificate – Lulu3 night stay in FL condo near Walt Disney World – Magic Vacation Villas25 tubes of New & Improved Mederma (AWARDED!) – Mederma for scars15 x 13 Limited Edition art print – Melissa Roberts3 books of the winner’s choice – Meryl Evans – Content Maven10 coffee mugs – Mighty Mugs16 x 24 poster of one of my photos – Mike Cavarocad spot for pet-themed site – Million Dollar Pet Pixpremium design/dev WordPress package (AWARDED) – Nathan RiceThe Google Story (book) + $10 – No Full StopHome Office Virtual Organization Package (AWARDED) – Organize & SimplifyOrganized Outcomes Remote Stylist Prize Pack (AWARDED) – Organized Outcomescustom WordPress theme (AWARDED) – MiloChild Guard – Personal Self Defense$300 cash – Publicity HoundA Little Twist of Texas book + postcards from travels – Raven’s Roadslinkbait boot camp (AWARDED) – Remarkable Communication3 nights in Sedona, AZ – Retreat and Heal$35 Amazon Gift Certificate – Sea Slugs! Anime BlogSeekZap Premium Directory Submissions (AWARDED!) – SeekZap12 copies SEO Book – Aaron Wall (AWARDED!) – SEO Book$150 cash – Simple Kind Of Life(2) $500 cash and free Premium upgrade subscription for 6 months to SKY.fm radio – SKY FM RadioInternet Radio directory and mp3 (AWARDED) – Street Smart Marketing30-45 second theme song for use in a blog site or website (AWARDED) – Tamra EngleThe Essentials of Trading Course DVD – The Essentials of Tradingtwo FREE nights at a Bed and Breakfast in Puerto Rico – the Palmetto GuesthousePro voice production package (theme, voice, music) (AWARDED) – Tim “Gonzo” Gordon$50 Amazon Gift Certificate – Viral Electronics50 pesos, 2 Jamaican dollars, 5 Canadian dollars, 50 American dollars, and an unused NFL Pro Bowl Ballot from 1994 – Wall Street Fighter5 hours writing/editing services (AWARDED) – Zach Everson
Content Theft Worsens
If you follow my comment feed, then you may have noticed that I am getting huge amounts of trackback spam. Why not just turn off trackbacks? Because these people are stealing my content, and likely your content, for their own personal gain and the trackback is the easiest way to find them. Yes, they generate a link back to Reality Me which in theory should help my page rank but not when it is with duplicate content. I have installed the Antileech WordPress plugin but I am still figuring out how to use it without cutting off my feeds to legitimate readers. If you do end up getting a "this content is stolen" message instead of the actual post, please email juggler at gmail.com and I will fix it. That said, can you confirm which feedreader you use based upon the following:
- Blogdigger/2.0 (http://www.blogdigger.com/; contact@blogdigger.com) Referred by: http://www.zimbio.com/Jaycees/trackers/7/Blog+Search+Tracker
- Feedfetcher-Google; ( http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html; 6 subscribers; feed-id=3701543567382179734) Referred by: http://www.google.com/reader/view/
- Feedfetcher-Google; ( http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html; 9 subscribers; feed-id=8604077678671105327) Referred by: http://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my
- Feedster Crawler/3.0; Feedster, Inc. Referred by: http://ranchero.com/
- Gregarius/0.5.4 ( http://devlog.gregarius.net/docs/ua) Referred by: http://blognetwork.knoxnews.com/feed.php?channel=81
- Liferea/1.4.3b (Linux; en_US.UTF-8; http://liferea.sf.net/)
- NewsGatorOnline/2.0 (http:/www.newsgator.com; 1 subscribers) Referred by: http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/WebEd2.aspx?fld=0
- NewzCrawler/1.8 (compatible; MSIE 6.00; Newz Crawler 1.8; http://www.newzcrawler.com/ )
- SharpReader/0.9.7.0 (.NET CLR 1.1.4322.2407; WinNT 5.1.2600.0) Referred by: http://127.0.0.1:12108/sharpreader/page.html
- Wasabot/1.4 (+ http://www.wasalive.com ) Java/1.6.0_02
I am assuming that Blogdigger, Gregarius, and Wasabot are used by content thieves.
Is $1000 for someone else not worth YOUR time?
I am really enjoying participating in The Problogger Birthday Bash Darren Rowse and Lara Kulpa have put together. I do find it a little troubling that when they offered a prize of $1000 to your favorite charity it only generated 24 qualifying entries! Now turn it around. Instead of offering a decent sum of money for someone else, offer a $20 gift certificate for yourself and they got 724 comments! (not all of those would have been qualifying but I’m not going to count). Granted, there was a prize in that post which could have gotten you $500 for yourself but winning any other prize did not disqualify you from entering the charity giveaway. Every single Problogger reader should have entered the charity giveaway!
Ok. Let me get off my soap box and add in a little rationality.
- The money for self contest required no effort, just a comment under the post itself with as little as one word in it, so it makes sense that the number participants would be far greater.
- We assume that every reader of Problogger, due to its subject matter, has a blog BUT that could be a false assumption; ergo, the participation in the money for self would be higher.
- Not everyone is into charities. And that’s ok. So the participation in the money for self would be higher.
- The charity post required a little substance and effort. Unfortunately, effort and substance do knock a lot of people out of the game. Therefore, the money for self would be naturally higher.
All that said, it does make sense that some of the other contest posts would generate more comments. But only 24 valid entries for giving $1000 away to a meaningful cause?! Surely we should have done better than that! Karthik shares my sentiment.
Life is a participation sport. Get up! Participate! Be active in your community. Vote! Go to school board meetings. Pick up trash. Bring a shopping cart into the grocery with you instead of leaving it in the parking lot. Say hi to your neighbor. Hug someone daily! Volunteer your time. Leave a legacy. Make a difference!
I want Problogger to give STAR $1000
Darren Rowse of Problogger fame and Lara Kulpa are busy giving away $54,000 for the Problogger Birthday Bash. FreeMoneyFinanace.Com has agreed to help them by giving $1000 to the favorite (US tax deductible) charity of a person who blogs about it and has their post linked by from Problogger by 9am Sunday Oct 7, 2007 (50 minutes from now).
I would like Problogger and FreeMoneyFinance.com to give $1000 to Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR). $1000 will cover more than half the cost of a class of 4 riders for 1 session.
STAR’s mission is to foster personal growth and achievement by providing educational, recreational, and physically challenging therapeutic experiences using horse related activities for persons with disabilities.
Our oldest son, Tommy, has Asperger’s Syndrome. We blog about it at Asperger Teen. Tommy has lived a life of being told "never." He did not speak until about age 3. At age 6, we were told he would never read. At age 10, we were told he will never function in society and to lock him away in a home. The nevers go on. Tommy has surprised the world today is a well-rounded, good natured, polite 17 year old. If I never announced his Asperger’s, no one would ever guess. He has succeeded were many expected him to fail. We have STAR to thank in part for that.
Tommy’s success comes from the incredible support system that surrounds him. Shangri-la Therapeutic Academy of Riding is an important part of this support system. STAR has nurtured his love of animals, given Tommy confidence, and really helped his social skills. Tommy is now hoping to go to college to study in vet school!
As an independent consultant, I have broken many of the rules required for success. As such, we live with constant cash flow problems. Without STAR’s Rider Sponsorship Program we would not be able to participate. Whenever possible, I try to encourage donations to STAR because I believe in the program and by encouraging donations I feel I have giving back where they have helped me. I do not have the means to give directly. Whenever possible, I give my time to help STAR through efforts like our Blogathon blog. I have seen many more than just my son touched by their love. It is difficult to drive through Knoxville and not see a license plate with a reference to STAR or see someone wearing a STAR t-shirt. Their success and growth can only continue through the generous donations by people like Darren Rowse, Lara Kulpa, and FreeMoneyFinanace.Com.
Please consider STAR for the $1000 charity giveaway. Thank you!