Posts Tagged ‘contest’

Projects Update

// February 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Projects

Explore With Me

Project Explore With Mewas launched in October 2008. Since then we have been testing and adding features to the site such as WordPress MU, BuddyPress, forums, various plugins, new themes and a whole lot more. The site is about 95% complete and we want to launch as soon as possible.

I had originally set my launch date for early January but then decided to wait for the final release of BuddyPress and WordPress MU 2.7. I updated the site to WPMU 2.7 two weeks ago and now we are also running BuddyPress Beta 2.

BP v1.0 was due to be launched yesterday however they have decided to release it as a “Release Candidate” due to pending changes to WordPress MU.

The site is fairly bug free at the moment and everything is ready to go. We do get very good traffic and also are finding that users are joining which is a good sign.

I think we will hold off the “official” launch date until BP v1 and WPMU 2.7(.1?). That is when we will start pushing for advertising and concentrate on bringing the traffic in.

Free BuddyPress Themes

Project Free BuddyPress Themes went live in early January. It was an idea that turned into reality in about 2 hours so there wasn’t much planning involved. The good thing is that I have had time to work on small updates to the blog as BuddyPress is yet to be in final release so the uptake has been a bit slow.

I am happy with the blog in its present form, it is effective and gets the job done. Small updates here and then are always something I’ll do.

At the moment we have 6 themes available for users to download, with 2 of them being the default BP theme. We got three new ones this week so I am hoping that once the word spreads about BuddyPress designers will start designing custom themes and upload them to the site so other users can download them.

I am thinking of putting together a BuddyPress Theme contest to try to encourage users to start designing. I am just trying to put some prizes together. Once I get a few responses I will launch the contest. It is still in its very early planning stages but hopefully we can run the contest sometime in March if all works out well.

Analysis of Contest #1

// September 11th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Contests, Project Blogger

So my first ever contest has been run and won, with BBx ending up being the first ever winner on danielfelice.com! Congratulations once again – hopefully in a few years you can look back and say “wow I won his first ever contest and now look where he is!”

There was a hidden agenda to my contest which I am sure you all have figured out by now – and that was to increase the number of e-mail subscribers to the site. I now have double the amount of subscribers than I did before I ran the contest so I guess that means it was a success.

I have received more hits on the site in the past 10 days than I have ever received before. I don’t mean just a handful of hits – I mean a 500% increase in just a few days. It is only 11 days into the month and hits have already exceeded all of August.

However, I was a little disappointed that all of the hits did not convert into subscribed users. If that was the case I would have over 500 subscribers now. The contest post received a great number of hits in the past 10 days, however at the end of the contest there were only 5 entries.

I will now spend the next few days trying to work out where the hits came from to see if they actually came due to the contest or it was all a big coincidence. If it does turn out that the hits arrived due to the contest, then I need to know why users didn’t subscribe.

Maybe the prize didn’t justify a subscription, or maybe some users don’t like my content. It could be that some people don’t like receiving emails, or they prefer to visit the site rather than receive updates via e-mail.

Whatever the case is it is good to see the site growing. Hopefully hits don’t drop now that the contest has ended.

The aim of the contest was to increase e-mail subscriptions and they doubled – so my first ever contest was a success.

Stay tuned for the next contest!

The Results Are In!

// September 10th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Contests

It is time for me to choose the winner of my first contest! Five people have entered the contest which is great, thanks to all of you who entered.

To decide the winner I have given each entry a number based on the order they entered the contest. The list is as below.

  1. Don Rankin
  2. shawal
  3. BBx
  4. sena
  5. Pamela Plumley

I found a random number generator script at RANDOM.ORG in which I entered the below information.

So basically the script will generate a random number between 1 and 5 – and therefore a winner will be decided randomly and without my input.

And the winner is…

Congratulations to BBx – you have won my first contest and the prize of US$15! I have sent an e-mail to BBx and the winnings will be awarded once I get the PayPal details! BBx did not add a URL to the comment, so if BBx does have a website I will add the site to my “Favourite Sites” list.

Thank you for everyone who entered the contest – hopefully it is the first of many and I hope you all enjoy receiving danielfelice.com to your inbox.

Contest #1: Subscribe and Win US$15

// August 31st, 2008 // 9 Comments » // Contests

I am proud to launch my first contest on danielfelice.com! I have been toying with the idea of a contest for the past month or so, and I have finally decided to take the plunge and give it a go.

How to Enter

  1. Get danielfelice.com delivered to your inbox! Click this link to subscribe.
  2. Comment on this post with your name and e-mail address.
  3. On Wednesday September 10 a winner will be announced and US$15 will be paid directly into your paypal account. If the winner has a blog or website I will add their link to my “Favourite Sites” list on the right sidebar.

Why Subscribe?

  1. Get danielfelice.com delivered to your inbox.
  2. Stay up to date with “Project Blogger”.
  3. You may find some of my posts useful, especially if you are thinking of starting a blog

So for 2 minutes work you could earn yourself US$15 and a free link! Not bad….

Join Now