Contest and giveaways are a great way to reward your community. They show you care, they show you want to encourage them and support them. They show you want to engage them and listen to their needs. But they can also backfire. How? Well, spend 5 minutes thinking of your contest and send out an announcement that actually shows you consider the crowd you’re trying to get to work for you a bunch of money hungry drones that cannot think for themselves. Enough to makes something sparkly twinkle their way and they’ll immediately jump to join your troops!

99designs is already the punching bag of many established designers. Now they have just managed to make it a bit worse. The crowdsourced design site has just launched a contest in which they will give away 9,999 dollars to a lucky winner. To enter the competition, a designer needs to win at least one design contest throughout the month of March. The more contests you win, the more chances of winning you have. Continue reading

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Hi everyone! As we’re so close to Christmas, a change of roundup would do us all good. So I’ve traded my reading list for a short and sweet goodies list: freebies, contests and promotions.

Are you looking for an awesome WordPress theme? You’re in luck, Alex of Blogsessive has just released version 2.2 of his Simple Balance theme, now with a cool Xmas Edition!

Hurry up to join Tamar Weinberg’s Christmas contest that focuses on making a wish for someone else. That’s a good change from our all to often selfish selves. Comment, tweet, but do join fast!

If you’re into amazingly beautiful, yet very healthy makeup, than you’ll love this! Robyn Bloom of Purely Cosmetics is giving away a set of ten brushes! Just review one of her products if you’re a customer for a chance to win it. If you’re not a customer, it’s time to get converted!

If you have some IT budget left and are in need of spending it on a cutting edge mail server, check out Axigen’s “Happy New Business Year” promotion for all three commercial products. If not, the header graphic is quite cool and fun to watch

And to get you all set up for a complete Christmas spirit takeover, check out what Chris Brogan has accomplished! He inspired a lot of people do to something nice for some less fortunate children.

Wish you all happy shopping if you haven’t found all those perfect gifts yet!

Disclaimer: I work with Axigen, Alex is my friend, I’m addicted to Robyn’s stuff, and I’m a huge fan of Tamar and Chris. Yet none of these are the reason for this post. You, my readers, and what you might need or find interesting or useful, are!

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