Contest Blogger

Giveaway Contests & Sweepstakes to Win a Car Online

contestblogger — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:24:55 +0000

Ferrari. Lamborghini. Corvette. When we hear these awesome, expensive sports car names, the first thing that comes to most of our minds is how we will never be able to afford one. The thought that often follows is a common one: how cool would it be to win a brand new, expensive car or truck in a sweepstakes or online contest?

Very cool, apparently. Every year, many people actually win these types of cars in giveaway contests and sweepstakes, and all of them inevitably say that it’s an experience of a lifetime. But regardless of what kind of vehicle you want to win–a Mustang, a Porche or a great truck from Ford or Dodge Ram–there are a few simple pointers you can follow to make it a little more likely.

The first bit of advice might be heartbreaking, but it’s the truth: it’s extremely unlikely that you will ever win an online contest or sweepstakes that offers a new car or truck as a prize. Once you come to terms with that, and if you still feel like taking part, then by all means do so with great enthusiasm and optimism!

Secondly, remember that you can increase your chances of winning a new car by entering numerous sweepstakes at one time. There is nothing that stops you from tossing your name in the hat for a bunch of different giveaways, and the more contests you add to the list, the better your chances of being a winner.

One thing that most people might not realize is that some sweepstakes make you pay the taxes for a new car if you are lucky enough to win one. A lot of people simply can’t afford this kind of added expense, so it’s important to check the rules of any contest you are entering to see if you’ll be required to pay the taxes if you are a winner.

Enter to Win Shopping Spree Sweepstakes & Contests Online

contestblogger — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 18:29:35 +0000

Shopping spree sweepstakes & contests are some of the most popular online giveaways today . . . and more stores are learning that it’s a great way to attract new customers and publicity. In fact, the reason why shopping sprees are such a common type of promotion is that the companies who put them on usually make back many times the amount of money they actually put into it.

The reason why is simple: although there might only be one or two winners, the people who enter shopping spree contests are much more likely to visit the store and buy items . . . even if they don’t end up winning. Publicity is worth a lot of money for big brands and stores, and online sweepstakes are one of the best ways to get people to promote your brand on the Internet.

So, how does this info help you become a winner of a big shopping spree? Well, it’s important to keep in mind that these types of contests are being launched regularly every week, and you should be able to find dozens of opportunities at any given time if you pay attention to sweepstakes sites like Contest Blogger.

Secondly, you need to remember that while your chances of winning a single shopping spree sweepstakes are pretty low, you become more and more likely to win with every contest you enter (and hey, who says you can’t enter more than one at a time?). In fact, some of the so-called “expert sweepers” who win thousands of dollars worth of free stuff every year aren’t any more lucky than most people . . . they just enter a ton of contests every month!

Shopping spree sweepstakes usually take one of a few different forms: the more common “gift certificate” themed contests, which simply award you a certain amount of money toward purchasing products at a given store; and the less common “timed spree” contests that let you go nuts in a store and shove as much stuff in a cart as you can in a predetermined amount of time.

Contest To Win Sesame Street Character USB Thumb Drives

contestblogger — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:03:39 +0000

Now here’s a contest that my 2-year-old daughter would love to win. Head over to Musing Maniac to get your name in the hat to win one of six different Sesame Street-themed USB thumb drives. The winner gets their choice of Abby, Grover, Elmo, Ernie, Big Bird or Cookie Monster. Hey, where’s Oscar the Grouch?

Each USB drive comes with a full length movie and storage space for lots of videos, photos and written content. Musing Maniac gives you several different ways to score entries in the contest, so go check it out. A winner will be announced on September 15.

SweepstakesHub.com & MyTekLife Team Up To Showcase Sweeps

contestblogger — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:00:20 +0000

Here’s some exciting news in the online sweepstakes world: SweepstakesHub.com and online magazinge MyTekLife have announced a “strategic alliance” that will have them working together to offer sweeps and product marketing for major brands and companies. Here’s more info from a press release:

“Under the arrangement, companies can have a product/service reviewed in MyTekLife while offering that same product/service as a sweepstakes/promotion at SweepstakesHub.com. MyTekLife will chronicle the user experience with the product of the sweepstakes winner in the magazine’s next issue – bringing the brands’ promotions in the digital world and the consumer experience full circle.”

Sounds like a great arrangement that will help bring about a lot of opportunities for both product promotions and sweepstakes aficionados. Make sure to check out both sites when you get a chance.

Is This the Most Ridiculous ReCAPTCHA Image Ever?

contestblogger — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:37:56 +0000

I’m a big fan of reCAPTCHA, which is a popular anti-spam Web tool that Google acquired last year. Not only does the free service stop Web spam, but it also helps to digitize books and newspapers at the same time.

If you’ve spent any time online at all, then odds are you’ve attempted to decipher a reCAPTCHA image in order to register for a website or fill out a form. And if you’re anything like me, some of the “words” that the tool offers up can seem to be all but indecipherable.

This reCAPTCHA image that I was hit with today while creating a new hub on HubPages, however, really takes the cake. Check it out the screenshot (and no, I didn’t Photoshop or otherwise manipulate the image) :

The first word is “molocues,” and the second is . . . well, some sort of a mathematical formula, I think. How the heck is someone expected to type that out on a standard computer keyboard?

Thank goodness for the “refresh” button on the reCAPTCHA form, which I find myself using more often than not when it’s time to decipher one of these things. One of my coworkers swears that the answer to the formula is “1″, but I didn’t spend any time trying to calculate it.

What I did spend some time doing, though, is Photoshopping a few other suggestions for equally perplexing images that reCAPTCHA might want to use in future anti-spam efforts. Check it out:

If you can think of better ones, then roll with it . . . create a few funny reCAPTCHA images of your own and share them with your blog readers. In fact, if you drop me a note here on Contest Blogger, I’ll even put a link to your post right here for everyone else to check out.

PlayTokens.com: Something New & Unique in Online Contests

contestblogger — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:49:45 +0000

We see a lot of online contest and sweepstakes websites here at Contest Blogger, but rarely do we ever discover anything that hasn’t been done before. PlayTokens.com is an exception to that rule, and we suggest that all of our fans go and check it out.

Here’s what makes PayTokens.com different from all of the other contest sites out there: you can actually end up getting great free prizes from the site even if you never win one of the contests they showcase. Here’s how PlayTokens puts it in their own words:

“New contests are listed on a regular basis on playTokens. To enter a contest, check out the contest page you are interested in. Verify the eligibility requirements and submit an entry for the final draw. The number of times you can enter a draw is based on the conditions of each contest.”

“Even if you don’t win the contests, playTokens.com offers you a way to earn playTokens. Once you have accumulated enough playTokens™, you can trade it in for one of our many great prizes.”

And from what we can tell, the prizes that you can buy with your earned PlayTokens look like they aren’t half bad. Do us a favor and go check out PlayTokens.com. We think it’s on the way to becoming a very popular site!

The Difference Between Sweepstakes and Plain Old Contests

contestblogger — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:58:09 +0000

Meaghan Edelstein wrote a great post today over at Mashable all about how online sweepstakes and contests are being used as promotional vehicles across the Internet, and it’s worth a read. She sheds some light on the difference between legitimate sweepstakes and plain old contests:

“So what exactly are sweepstakes? Sweepstakes are contests that have all three of the following elements: something of value is given away, it is awarded by chance, and entrants must provide consideration for their entry.

“If any one of these elements is eliminated, the promotion is not a sweepstake. For example, “Free entry” and “No purchase necessary” have proven practical as a means to eliminate consideration. However, one can avoid the complications of sweepstakes altogether by running different types of promotions.”

Download The New Free “Money” WordPress Theme

contestblogger — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:06:31 +0000

Contest Blogger is excited to announce that it has just released a free WordPress theme based on the design we use right here on this site.

Called “Money,” this is a clean, two-column, widget-ready WordPress theme that you can download for free and use on your own blog or website right away.

Please check out the free Money WordPress Theme and let us know what you think! If you like it, we hope you will install “Money” for use on your own WordPress site.

Contest Giveaway To Win “The Evil Dead” Movie On Blu-Ray

contestblogger — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:21:39 +0000

“The Evil Dead” is a classic horror/humor movie with a huge cult following, and now it could be yours for free if you enter this contest from film-book.com. All you have to do to enter is subscribe to the film-book.com email newsletter, and a random winner will be drawn at the end of August.

I’d enter myself, but I haven’t made the upgrade to Blu-Ray yet from my old DVD player. Quick question: is it Evil Dead part one or part two that has the main character fighting with his own severed hand? That’s a classic scene.

Here’s hoping that a Contest Blogger fan is the winner in this giveaway!

Inspiration Just Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

contestblogger — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:36:46 +0000

One of my favorite bloggers, Chris Brogan has a great post today about where he finds the inspiration to do what he does everyday. It’s a really good read and made me think, what are the things that inspire me to do as best as I can in the online contest and sweepstakes projects that I’m involved in?

My number one inspiration is my family, of course, and making sure that I do as good a job as possible in everything I take on so that I can better provide for them. Beyond that, though, is a real love for Internet marketing in general and keeping up-to-date on all of the best practices that make a website easier for users to navigate.

How about you: what are the inspirations that you find in your life in order to do a better job at whatever path you have chosen in life? Regardless of what it is, make sure that you really appreciate the inspirations in your life and what a big role they play in your success and happiness!

Got An Ugly Chair? Win A Free Recliner In This Hilarious Contest!

contestblogger — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:40:11 +0000

If you’re anything like me, then you have a favorite, comfy chair that is nice to sit in but isn’t very pretty to look at (my wife makes me keep mine in the basement). Well that ugly chair could end up winning you a brand new recliner if you enter this hilarious ugly chair contest from SmartFurniture.com!

To enter, all you have to do is send SmartFurniture a photo of your ugly chair and tell them a bit about its background. The winner of the contest will receive a brand new Stressless Recliner, and the runner-up will get a gift card for 500 bucks. Another five random entrants will get 50 dollar gift cards.

This is a great example of how a website can use a contest and product giveaway to increase visitors, backlinks and notoriety. Kudos to SmartFurniture.com for thinking up such a fun and unique contest!

Contest To Win A $500 Back To School Shopping Spree

contestblogger — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:43:45 +0000

If you have school-aged kids, then you definitely know how expensive it can be to buy new clothes for them when it’s time to go back to school. Luckily, Contest Blogger Forum member “Shopping Queen” has posted a great back to school contest that could win you 500 bucks worth of new clothes over at Shop.com.

These kinds of Back To School online sweepstakes and contests only happen once a year, so make sure you enter or you’ll have to wait until next season for another chance. Here’s hoping that you’re a winner and all of your back to school shopping needs are taken care of courtesy of Shop.com!

3 surefire ways to run a totally radical blog contest

contestblogger — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:06:52 +0000

Check it out, dude: there’s a new sensation sweeping the Blogosphere, and hundreds of bloggers are quickly discovering that it’s the best way out there to get backlinks, increase traffic and generate tons of publicity. It’s called the Blog Contest, and regardless of whether you’re an A-lister or get fewer hits per month than you have toes on your feet, you can use this hot phenomenon to drive your blog to new levels of success.

It’s the truth: in most cases, using your revenue to promote your own well-run blog contest will result in more quality backlinks and notoriety than you’ll ever get from buying links or advertising from other sources. But like any other campaign, the success of a blog contest is directly related to how well it’s planned, put together, and run by you.

Luckily, Contest Blogger is here to tell you the secrets to running a totally radical, totally successful blog contest. The top three are listed below, and we’ll reveal more in coming weeks (so I guess you’d better subscribe to our RSS feed, huh?).

But don’t let the development of your blog contest end there; check out other successful contests, track the success of your own, and communicate with your readers to find out what kind of contests or projects they’d like to take part in.

Top Three Ways to Run a Radical Blog Contest

1. Don’t get too caught up in the prize

I’ve seen way too many bloggers lament about the fact that they can’t afford to offer the kind of cash and prizes that the A-listers do. Well boo-freaking-hoo. Listen, there are plenty of examples of low-budget blog contests that were huge successes. Remember, you are giving your readers something for free; if it’s a fun and relevant prize that compensates them properly for the entry requirements, you’ll get plenty of participation.

And don’t overlook the fact that many people take part in blog contests not out of an expectation that they’ll win, but just to have fun and participate in a community.

2. The simpler, the better

Don’t make your readers jump through a million hoops in order to enter your contest, dude. Requiring a short review of your blog or a couple of backlinks is fine, but you won’t get many entrants if they have to write a 500 word post about your blog and link back you using seventeen different anchor text phrases.

And keep in mind that the entry requirements should roughly correspond with the value of the prize. While you may get dozens of bloggers to put your banner at the top of their blog if you’re offering a new car, you probably shouldn’t require much more than a backlink if you’re giving away a gift certificate.

3. Never, ever violate the trust of your readers

This one is common sense, dude: if you set rules when you launch your contest, don’t change them halfway through. Believe it or not, I see bloggers do this pretty frequently. Either they aren’t getting enough entrants and cancel the contest, or they get more than they thought they would and decide to increase their requirements. This is a great way to piss off everyone who has entered your contest and guarantee that they will never visit your blog again.

And here’s an even more self-destructive, ridiculous thing to do: offer a huge prize for backlinks, then totally fabricate a winner so you don’t have to pay out. This takes a lot of cajones and isn’t very common, but I’ve seen it happen. . . and let me tell you, there’s no better way to totally destroy your reputation as a blogger than by deceiving the rest of the Blogosphere. Bloggers are pretty savy, and someone will find out about your con eventually.

If you set rules, don’t change them . . . and if you promise a prize, make sure you award it to someone! Remember, your first blog contest will show your readers whether they can trust you or not. Distinguish yourself as an honest, professional blogger today, and your future contests will be even more successful.

Sponsor a contest and showcase your product or site on Contest Blogger!

contestblogger — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:59:41 +0000

Contest Blogger isn’t only the best source on the Net to find new online competitions, sweepstakes and blog contests. We also run contests of our own to reward our readers and keep things interesting. Contest Blogger’s contests always generate huge levels of participation and buzz among our hundreds of readers, who have learned to trust us as a source of fair, fun competitions with cool prizes.

Are you a company with a product to promote or a webmaster who wants more traffic to your site or blog? Check this out: you could team up with Contest Blogger and spotlight yourself to our readers by becoming the sponsor of our next Contest Blogger Contest.

How can you do it? It’s super simple: just contact us to let us know you’re interested in being a contest sponsor, and indicate the prize you would like to offer for the entrants. It could be a cool product, a free subscription to a service, a cash prize, or anything that might pique our readers’ interest.

If we accept your offer to be a contest sponsor, we’ll put together a Contest Blogger Contest focused around your prize and promote the heck out of your site or service in the contest post. And if you’re interested in getting backlinks for your site, we can even make it a rule for entrants to link to you on their blogs!

As a sponsor, you’ll see your name and prize at the top of Contest Blogger in a Featured Review, and get a thirty-day text link to your sponsored contest in our sidebar.

Being a Contest Sponsor is an easy, affordable way to show Contest Blogger’s hundreds of readers how cool your service or site is and increase your exposure in the Blogosphere. Drop us a line and team up with Contest Blogger for insane amounts of traffic and publicity today!

Ultimate List Of Contest, Sweepstakes, Free Stuff & Coupon Websites

contestblogger — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:23:32 +0000

Regardless of what you’re willing to pay money for, the odds are that there’s someplace on the Internet where you can win it, get a discount on it, or get a sample of it for free. More and more people are starting to realize that there’s no reason to fork over cash for something that they can get without paying a dime . . . and scores of websites and blogs have cropped up that feature daily online contests, sweepstakes, free samples, free stuff and coupon discounts.

There’s never any shortage of free offers to showcase; literally hundreds of new contests and discount coupon offers pop up every day online. From million-dollar sweepstakes to small free product samples, a person could spend hours a day online entering contests and signing up for free stuff. In fact, there’s a quickly-growing group of people who actually make a full-time living by winning contests and collecting free online stuff.

There’s a reason why companies and websites offer so many contests, sweepstakes, free samples and coupons: because it makes them lots of money. In exchange for the relatively small amount of their budget that is devoted to giving stuff away for free, they get lots of publicity and names to add to their database of potential customers.

If you plan on trying to rake in as much free loot as you can online, there are a few tips you need to follow in order to be successful. First of all, don’t think that you’re going to win any big prizes automatically; it can sometimes take many years of entering sweepstakes in order to win a substantial, expensive prize.

Secondly, remember that your success often hinges on consistency. The more contests you enter, and the longer you keep at it, the more likely you are to win big.

Luckily, there are dozens and dozens of websites online that make it easy for you to scan the most recent contests, sweepstakes, free stuff an coupon offers. Below is a list of the most prominent and high-quality sites that we could find to help you in your effort to win stuff online and get great discounts. They’re organized into three sections: Contest & Sweepstakes Websites, Free Stuff & Free Samples Websites, and Online Coupon & Coupon Code Websites.

We hope you’ll take some time to check out all of the great sites below and bookmark the ones that you like the most. If you know of a website that you think should be added to this list, please contact us and we’ll make sure to add it.

Contest & Sweepstakes Websites

Sweeps Advantage
About.com Contests
Contest Blogger
Contest Hound
YouTube Contests
Contest Guide
Contest Alley
Contest Girl
Online Sweepstakes
Lucky Contests
Digital Point Contest Forum
Grandma Jam
Contest Central
Online Video Contests
Win Prizes Online
Sweepstakes Today
Sweepstakes.com
Cash Net Sweeps
Sweeties Sweeps
Sweepstakes For Me
Sweeps Nation
Sandy’s Realm
I Sweep Daily
Sweepstakes Lovers
Sweepstakes Forager
Best Sweepstakes
Mr. Sweepstakes
Free Sweepstakes Online
Sweepstakes Mag
Big Sweeps

Free Stuff & Free Samples Websites

Totally Free Stuff
Free Stuff
Yes All 4 Free
Sweet Free Stuff
Freaky Freddies
Free Stuff Times
Free Stuff 4 Free
ThunderFap
Yo Free Samples
Hey It’s Free
Free Stuff Channel
AZ Free Stuff
Just Free Stuff
Teen Freeway
Shop 4 Freebies
Free Deal of the Day
1 Free Stuff Site
Enter Free Stuff
AAA Freebies
Volition
Totally Free Crap
High Stuff
Guide 2 Free
That Freebie Site
Seriously Free Stuff
Free Stuff Page
Free Stuff Bug
Free-n-Cool
Free Snatcher
Free Stuff Plaza
No Junk Free
Go Freebies
Free Mania
Daily New Free Stuff
Mr. Free Stuff
Go To Free Stuff
The Free Site
Free Stuff Headquarters
Active Free Stuff
Free Stuff Crazy
1 About Free Stuff
Best Free Stuff Online
Free Stuff Friend
Cool Freebie Links
Free Stuff 4 Baby
Free Stuff Geek
Only Free Stuff

Online Coupon & Coupon Code Websites

Coupons.com
Coupon Mom
Coupon Cabin
Smart Source
Wow Coupons
ValPak
Cool Savings
My Coupons
Retail Me Not
The Grocery Game
Red Plum
Coupon Kim
Coupon Chief
Coupon Mountain
All In One Coupons
Hot Coupons
Shop By Coupons
The Coupon Clippers
Coupon Album
Find Savings
Ultimate Coupons
Coupon Smarter
Deal Coupon
Coupon Trunk
Discount Spies
Coupon Surfer
Moms View
Guzzus
Printable Coupons
Deal Taker
Daily Deal Coupons
My Savings
1001 Coupons
Free Coupons
Fat Wallet
Coupon Claim
Deal Tattle
Dot Deals
Enbargain
Grocery Coupon Guide
Coupon Over
E Deal Finder
Jump On Deals
Deal Seeking Mom
Coupon Refund
Brad’s Deals
Current Codes
Deal Catcher
Latest Coupon Codes
Coupon Dad
Internet Drug Coupons
Grocery Coupon Network
Orlando Coupons
Best Online Coupons
Coupon Grove
Coupon Saver
Organic Coupons

Avoid Getting Cheated in Online Contest & Sweepstakes Scams

contestblogger — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:59:53 +0000

There are lots of great opportunities to enter online contests and sweepstakes on websites and blogs across the Internet every day, but you should never take it for granted that a contest is legit. While most sweepstakes are completely above-the-board, there are always a few shady operators out there who can ruin it for the rest of us.

Here are a few simple tips that you should follow to avoid getting cheated in a contest or sweepstakes scam. Most illegitimate contests and sweepstakes can be identified pretty quickly if you just take a close look, and always remember that you should never take part in any kind of online program or contest if your gut tells you to be careful.

1. Never Give Personal Or Financial Information

While it’s fine if a website requests your name or email address in order to take part in a contest, never make the mistake of handing over your social security number, bank account number, credit card number or other sensitive personal and financial information. There’s no legitimate reason for any sweepstakes or contest to need this as an entry requirement, and you can never be too careful with all of the online fraud and identity theft in the world today.

2. If The Prize Sounds Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is

If a brand-new, amateur blogger is promising a cash prize of $2,500 for the winner of his new online contest, then it should raise some red flags. While there are legitimate sweepstakes out there that award expensive prizes, they are few and far between. Unless you see proof of past winners or the contest is being sponsored by a big-name, trusted brand, then don’t take the time to enter . . . because the odds are that there aren’t going to be any real winners at all.

3. Don’t Enter Foreign Sweepstakes And Contests

While a person’s nationality isn’t an indication of how honest they are, there are many reasons why you should avoid entering contests and sweepstakes if they are being run by foreign citizens. Even if the blog contest is legitimate, you can inevitably run into problems with currency exchange rates, prize shipping and handling, and difficulties in getting a hold of the contest administrators. It’s better to stick with entering contests that are put on by residents of your own country instead.

I told you so: Ashwin Khanna is full of crap

contestblogger — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:32:40 +0000

I don’t usually get angry in blog posts, and I hope you’ll forgive me if my writing suffers because of how completely ticked off I am right now. I’ll try to stop and take a periodic deep breath, but it’s tough to stay calm while telling Contest Blogger’s readers that they have been completely duped by the one of the biggest con-job shams I’ve ever seen in the blogosphere.

Why we’re totally ticked off

Not that it had to be that way. I warned everyone that Ashwin Khanna’s $2,500 backlink contest was a total load of crap back when he started it. I’m not sure how many bloggers took my word for it, but from the looks of things, a lot of people took the bait and fell for this huge lie.

And in the process of preying on the trust of the blogosphere, Ashwin got a whole lot of backlinks to his piece of crap blog, will probably end up getting a PR 4 at the next Page Rank update, and came out with one hell of a Technorati ranking.

The reason this makes me so angry is because of the way he did it: by hosting a total sham blog contest and promising bloggers that he would give one lucky winner $2,500 if they would link to his pukebag blog.

You see, blog contests are what we specialize in. I know how hard many bloggers work to to sponsor honest, fun contests to reward their readers and promote their sites. There are bloggers out there who are struggling and saving just to put together a $25 contest for their readers. And seeing someone like Ashwin Khanna trick so many bloggers into linking to his garbage, and then cheating them out of the reward, really ticks me off.

The Saga of Ashwin Khanna

For those of you who haven’t been following the ridiculous saga of Ashwin Khanna, I’ll fill you in on the details:

A while ago, I came across this dude named Ashwin Khanna whose blog was showing off one RSS subscriber, a Technorati authority of six, and less posts than I have toes on my feet. And he was claiming to be running a contest to give away $2,500.

Wait, it gets better. Ashwin, who had titled himself “Another Internet Entrepreneur Trying to be the next John Chow,” didn’t even have a deadline for his $2,500 ”blog extravaganza.” Which was, to me, more solid evidence that a bull**** card was totally in order.

Couldn’t be easier to enter!

So, what did a blogger have to do to enter this “blog extravaganza?” Give Ashwin first right of refusal on their next child? Tattoo “Ashwin Khanna Dot Com” on their rear ends? No, nothing quite so complicated as that. To win $2,500, all you had to do is copy and paste the following exclamation-point laden snippet on a blog post:

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

And that was it. Never mind the fact that with that much money, Ashwin Khanna could have bought more targeted, Page Rank heavy text links, reviews and advertising than he would ever get from running a backlink competition.

Since the dude didn’t have a contest deadline listed, I figured he might just say that the contest would end in the year 2315. At least that would have been sort of funny.

Something still smelled fishy

Anyway, after I published the original post, Ashwin changed his blog’s motto, added a contest deadline of August 20, and promised that his competition was, indeed, genuine. At that point, I promised I would publish a post saying “Contest Blogger is Full of Crap” if he really gave away the $2,500.

But I still smelled a rat, especially when I noticed that Ashwin’s About Page gave us the following peek into his mysterious life:

18 year old blogger from the UK, accomplished tree jumper and expert in woven artefacts.

Dude, what the heck is a “tree jumper?” And how do you become an accomplished one? And if you were really an expert in woven artifacts, wouldn’t you at least know how to spell it? The enigma deepened.

Soon after that, The Link Bait made a prophetic guess that Ashwin would declare a friend or some made-up entity the winner so he didn’t have to really give up any money. And Ashwin changed the rules of his contest yet again. Now he said that there weren’t enough entrants, and that he had to have a minimum of 50 or he wouldn’t give the money away. Fifty links for $2,500 . . . now that sounds like a great deal.

In the end, it really was too good to be true

In spite of the fact that Ashwin’s bogus contest was way too good to be true, though, I watched as dozens and dozens of trackbacks started showing up on his contest page from eager bloggers who were linking back to him just for the tiny chance that he might not be full of crap.

I never saw Ashwin’s RSS number go past thirty, but his Technorati authority soared to almost 500 and his piece of trash blog is now being predicted to get a PR of 4 on the next Google update . . . all thanks to a lie that took him no more than a few minutes to think up.

And make no mistake: it was a total sham. Yesterday, Ashwin made the long-awaited announcement: the winner of the $2,500 had been chosen! Strangely, though, no blogger’s name was given; just a link to a bullcrap barebones site that was just set up two days ago. The total number of posts on this blog? Two.

What really makes me angry is that Ashwin is insulting everyone who took part in the contest even further by putting absolutely zero effort into making it look like there was a real winner. I mean, the dude could have done any number of different things to make his sham a little more convincing. As it stands, though, he’s ending the con job by sticking his thumb into the collective eye of the blogs he stole linkage from.

Backlinks are valuable. Be careful who you give them to

This post is getting way too long, so I’ll end it with this: be very careful of what you believe in the blogosphere and of who you reward with backlinks. If a contest seems too good to be true, it’s because it is.

Ashwin Khanna is now going to be able to make some pretty good money through Text Link Ads and other methods once the Page Rank update hits . . . and he did it by lying right in your face.

Update: Kudos to Bloggrrl, who did some research of her own and discovered that Ashwin copied the one article on his bogus blog directly from The New York Times. Looks like he’s graduated from sneaky-but-legal blog con jobs to outright plagiarism.

Another Update: Here’s a link to Ashwin’s original blog, 30 Gigabytes Dot Com, where he apparently made a portion of the $2,500 in prize money.

Ashwin Khanna is full of crap

contestblogger — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:27:31 +0000

Okay, so I come across this dude named Ashwin Khanna whose blog is showing off one RSS subscriber, a Technorati authority of six, and less posts than I have toes on my feet. And he’s claiming to be running a contest to give away $2,500.

Wait, it gets better. Ashwin, who has titled himself “Another Internet Entrepreneur Trying to be the next John Chow,” doesn’t even have a deadline for his $2,500 ”blog extravaganza.” Which is, to me, more solid evidence that a bull**** card is totally in order for this one.

So, what do you have to do to enter this “blog extravaganza?” Give Ashwin first right of refusal on your next child? Tattoo “Ashwin Khanna Dot Com” on your rear end? No, nothing quite so complicated as that. To win $2,500, all you have to do is copy and paste the following exclamation-point laden snippet on a blog post:

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

And that’s it. $2,500 here I come! Never mind the fact that with that much money, Ashwin Khanna could buy more targeted, Page Rank heavy text links, reviews and advertising than he’ll ever get from running a backlink competition.

Yah, yah, I can hear you while I’m typing: Contest Blogger, you’re falling for a scam! This dude posted a bogus, unbelievable contest because he knew it would be great linkbait that would get a reaction—and backlinks—from blowhards like you!

Yup, you’re right. But here’s the weird thing: if this guy really is bluffing, I sort of admire his chutzpa. I mean, it takes a lot of cajones to just flat-out lie about running the biggest cash award blog contest of all time, reap the backlinks, and then never name a winner. I guess this guy’s philosophy is “if you’re going to lie, lie big time.”

Then again, he never really declared a deadline, so I guess he could just say that the contest ends in the year 2315.

And the second reason why I devoted such a long post to Ashwin Khanna’s bogus contest?

Well, that’s simple. If its real, I sure as heck don’t want to miss a chance to have some crazy dude give me $2,500 for a backlink.

UPDATE: After I published this post, Ashwin changed his blog’s motto, added a contest deadline of August 20, and promised that his competition is, indeed, genuine. If it is, more power to him . . . in fact, I’ll even publish a post saying “Contest Blogger is Full of Crap” if he really gives away the $2,500. Scout’s honor.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Link Bait is betting that Ashwin will declare a friend or some made-up entity the winner so he doesn’t have to really give up any money. I’ll need to see a post from a legit blogger saying $2,500 was put in their PayPal account before I’ll say Contest Blogger is full of crap.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Jason Clark noticed that Ashwin’s About Page gives us the following peek into his mysterious life:

18 year old blogger from the UK, accomplished tree jumper and expert in woven artefacts.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Ashwin is changing the rules of his contest yet again. Now he says that there aren’t enough entrants, and that he has to have a minimum of 50 or he won’t give the money away. Fifty links for $2,500 . . . now that sounds like a great deal.

The Blogosphere Is Letting Ashwin Khanna Know He Sucks

contestblogger — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:55:10 +0000

It’s official: the blogosphere really doesn’t like Ashwin Khanna now that his bogus blog contest and scam to get backlinks from other unsuspecting bloggers has been uncovered. A while ago here on Contest Blogger, we uncovered this guy to be the cheater that he really was–and it’s produced quite an online backlash.

All across the web, other bloggers have been writing features about Ashwin and his bogus contest. If you aren’t familiar with the story, here’s what happened: Ashwin said he was running a contest that would award some lucky person $2,500, and that all you had to do to enter was link back to his site from your blog. Lots of people linked back to him and fell for his scam, and he ended up not awarding the money to anyone.

If you don’t already know this, it’s worth repeating: backlinks are very valuable if you’re a blogger or webmaster, and you should be very selective in just who you link back to online. By getting so many backlinks from across the web, Ashwin’s blog ended up getting a lot of search engine juice and ranked very high for relevant keyword phrases . . . but it all backfired on him.

When everyone who had linked back to Ashwin as part of his blog contest realized that they had been taken for a ride, most of them deleted their links and posted about the scam they had fallen for. Ashwin himself eventually had to give up his blog and delete his content, since no one would take him seriously.

So, what’s the lesson from all of this? Simple: always make sure that you do a little research before entering a sweepstakes or blog contest. If a prize seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. And if you’re running a contest on your own site, make sure that you don’t promise anything that you don’t intend to deliver.

Win $100 In The Ashwin Khanna Revenge Contest

contestblogger — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:12:51 +0000

Check it out: I hate to be the one to break this to you, but if you entered Ashwin Khanna’s $2,500 contest and gave him a backlink from your blog, you’ve been had. It was a con, a sham, a lie, a complete crock. Go ahead and check out all of the sordid details if you want to, but be prepared to get mad.

I won’t launch into another rant about this dude, but suffice it to say that Ashwin’s con job really ticks me off. You see, blog contests are what we specialize in, and I know how hard some bloggers work just to offer a small prize for their readers. It just doesn’t seem fair that some con artist should be able to get everyone’s hopes up, be rewarded with hundreds of links, and then not live up to his end of the bargain.

Did you get cheated by Ashwin? Let me give you $100!

That’s why Contest Blogger is launching the “Ashwin Khanna Revenge Contest.” I don’t have enough money to award someone the $2,500 that Ashwin cheated you all out of, but Contest Blogger does have an extra hundred bucks left in its advertising budget for this month. And because I don’t want Ashwin’s dishonesty to sour all of you on blog contests, I’m going to give that $100 to one of the bloggers who entered Ashwin’s bogus contest.

And in the process, I think we can all have some fun sticking to the guy who fooled so many of you into giving him backlinks.

You see, so many people linked back to Ashwin’s blog that his Technorati ranking shot through the roof . . . and he may end up getting a high Page Rank during the next Google update. That means he will be able to make a bunch of money selling links on his site, and he got there by lying to everyone who linked to him. Check this out:

Let’s put his Technorati rank back where it belongs!

But if we work fast, we might be able to take back all of those links that Ashwin stole and put his Technorati rank back at 10,000,000 where it belongs. That’s why I’m making the entry requirements for this contest simple: if you were a blog that was tricked into linking to Ashwin Khanna, just go change that link to direct to the Contest Blogger homepage.

That’s right: only bloggers that were fooled by Ashwin are eligible to enter this one. Just go to the post you wrote to enter Ashwin’s bogus contest, find the link you gave him, and redirect it to Contest Blogger. You can contact me to tell me you entered if you want, but we usually find all trackbacks and will keep a record of them.

On Friday, September 7, I will pick a random person who got played by Ashwin to receive a real prize of 100 bucks. And hopefully, by that time, Ashwin’s rankings will be back in the toilet where they belong!

Note: there’s no better way that I can think of to get the word out about Ashwin’s big lie than by trackbacking to every single blog that entered his bogus contest. There are hundreds of them, so the list is very long, but I’m reproducing every single one at the bottom of this post. I don’t know if it will work or not, but I’m crossing my fingers that you’ll all see the trackback and come check out this post!