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Winning an iPod Touch for guessing the Dow
October 10th, 2008This is very weird. I never or rarely get into online contests because you always have to do a bunch of things to earn credits and get more chances of winning. It’s not that I’m lazy and I don’t want to do it, it’s just that the usual mandatory step is to subscribe by email and I really hate email subscriptions: I receive enough bloody emails and that’s why I use Google Reader to read my feeds. Then, you have to blog about the contest because let’s face it, subscribing by email will give you 1 entry and blogging about the contest something like 10-20 entries. So you better blog about it if you want to win a little something, right? That’s the second part I hate! I mean, if the contest is any good, people will blog about it anyway! No?
I’m not saying I’ll never blog about a contest, I’m just saying I kinda feel like a contest bitch if I blog about it just for more entries. In fact, I don’t see any problems, I just don’t want to feel like I’m “forced” to do it if I want to win anything. Anyway, it doesn’t matter I guess and I’m going off topic here so let’s get back on track.
The free iPod Touch
I checked my twitter feed this morning and noticed this little post from ShoeMoney:
Guess the Dow Jones? Man, I can do that! I mean, it’s an easy contest, isn’t it? Just a little reply to ShoeMoney for an iPod touch is quick and easy and the prize is interesting. I took 5 minutes to check on cnn.com and Google Finance to make an educated guess and that was really worth it!
The front page news on cnn.com was saying the Dow was about 700 points down on market openings but quickly went up again. I checked on Google Finance and the Dow Jones was about 140 points down. You know, big changes these days happen on market openings so I didn’t expect the market to change that much during the day. I’m no trading expert, that was just a guess based on my recent observations on the stock market. I finally made the guess that the Dow would close at “-132″, so 132 points down. Guess what? The Dow closed at -128! That’s called a frickin good guess! 
The result
Oh, look that’s me, I won the ipod!
That’s it
That’s it guys, I just wanted to share that with you! That’s a pretty good news to end this week and start that long weekend. Enjoy your weekend guys!
23 Responses to “Winning an iPod Touch for guessing the Dow”
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Did you guess right, and did you win ?
ZKs last blog post..8 Tips for Effective Site Submission to Directories
Of course I won!
I edited the post to make it a little clearer!
I saw shoemoneys response, wasn’t sure if it was you or not! Congratulations matey!
Clog Moneys last blog post..A series of fortunate events.
Congrats for freebie.
For me contests are pro/con balancing.
I mean one person is my reader, has a contest with tons of costly prizes and numerous ways to gain entries (some even don’t suck).
Other is passerby who just gathers subscribers and prize is blog review.
I obviously will consider participating only in former. Also group writing contests are best. You participate by actually doing something meaningful, not grinding someone’s subscriber count. I had recently won group writing on “engaging readers” topic.
PS commentluv is really stuck?..
Rarsts last blog post..Why you should stick to expensive USB flash drives
@Clog Money: Thanks a lot!
@Rarst: THanks
Congrats on winning your Group writing contest, what did you win?
Yeah CommentLuv has been acting really strange lately!
@Ben
Identity design (logo+stuff), premium theme, 500 business cards. Got theme already and waiting for rest.
Rarsts last blog post..Why you should stick to expensive USB flash drives
Congratulation Ben for winning it. Can you tell when its going to be held next time and what are the rules? I also want to participate in this contents. Thanks in advance
Man, that’s frickin’ awesome!
Can’t wait to see that new theme! Does it satisfy your need for a clean/elegant theme?
@Kim: I really don’t know to be honest! Your best bet is to follow ShoeMoney on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/shoemoney
Nice
Congrats on winning
Brunos last blog post..What Is Web 2.0?
@Ben
You can check it out here http://blogdesignstudio.com/edge/
It’s rather different and I don’t think it’s good fit so I am not switching.
I am content with my theme and hadn’t yet seen any (free or premium) that fit my taste that good. I got some feedback that it’s too plain so some tweaks are pending and I am thinking about hiring someone to redo header and footer (after I get proper logo).
Rarsts last blog post..Why you should stick to expensive USB flash drives
hey congrats…I’ve got a Halloween contest going on right now if you want to win hosting and domain package…check it out http://www.webmoneysuccess.com/2008/10/spooky-halloween-contest-win-domain.html
(sorry for the shameless plug)
@Bruno: Thanks mate!
@Rarst: I don’t think you should change, your theme looks much better than this one! Header/footer redo is a good option, especially the header as it’s what makes some blogs very unique.
@Teasas: I’ll have a looK!
Congrats!
I’m thinkin’ no to your question. I don’t think nearly as many people would blog about a contest if it wasn’t one of the rules….why create competition?
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do Advertisers Judge You By Design? What Do You Think…
@Dennis: Maybe you’re right, I don’t know what people would do to be honest. We would have to try!
The goal of a competition/contest is really just to gain subscribers and traffic!
Congrats on winning it. Anyway, contest is losing its novelty already. In fact, all the contests held around the blogosphere are pretty much monopolized by the same group of people who created blogs purely for contest. Most, if not all, will gladly unsubscribe when the contest is over.
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..Stop! Step Back and Think! by Miss Gullible
@Ben – there was one that I saw recently where the blogger was forcing a MINIMUM of 300 words when posting about his contest…..now that’s a bit much in my eyes, unless there’s maybe literally 1000’s up for grabs LOL
@Yan – as my dad always says “we live in hope and die in despair”, nice huh? LOL
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do Advertisers Judge You By Design? What Do You Think…
@Blog for Beginners: Thanks buddy! I thought about that as well, I’m curious about the ‘unsubscribed rate’ after a contest…
@Dennis: Man, asking a minimum in terms of post length is totally ridiculous!
@Dennis: Yup, it’s something unheard of and I’m caught by surprise as I’m one of the sponsors. Well, I hope everything goes well.
@Yan: I guess it really depends on whether your blog is worth to stay subscribed, the majority who unsubscribe are those I usually referred to as “the contest chasers”…. while those who stay are your loyal readers.
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..Stop! Step Back and Think! by Miss Gullible
Heh, I love Shoemoney, by the way Congrats!…
I must say that I have seen an iPod as the award for numerous types of contests, and they tend to be happily accepted by the winners. They have becomeone of the items of choice for Internet contest release.
Armen Shirvanians last blog post..Quality Builds On Itself
[...] record the first video for frogstr.com. It was a great opportunity as I wanted to show you guys the iPod I received from ShoeMoney and just posting pictures is good, but I thought putting it in a video was a way better way for me [...]
Congrats! That's nice. How do I connect with shoemoney on twitter?