Dan Perry

John Honeck of JLH Design Blog.

Not only did he create two great posts about the Google Fridge, but as I was reviewing his blog for its’ win-worthiness, I noticed we have too many weird similarities:

• We’re both from the Midwest (Me - Illinois, John - Minnesota)
• We were both born in 1968
• Both of our blogs reference beer (John, you should see my breweriana collection: 150 mirrors, 1,000 cans, 60 tap knobs, etc.)
• His blog’s Articles section has crashed, causing a database error.
• My comments have crashed, causing a database error.
• His current blog post states his blog is worth $38k. We both have inflated senses of self-worth!

Three of the four judges voted John’s post the best. Congrats to John, and a HUGE thank you to all those who participated. I plan on compiling a “lessons learned” post later this week about my online marketing competition (OK, now we can call it linkbait!). Lots of great stats to come.

John, send me your mailing address, and I’ll ship it out this week, so it arrives in time for the Super Bowl, and once again, Congratulations!

Now Tamar, Barry, Matt and I have the task of reviewing all the entries, and choosing a winner. Sorry to say, but this may take most of the week (LOTS of entries!). I plan on reporting next Monday who the lucky winner of the Google Fridge is.

I also plan on compiling a post on the impact this contest had on my site, complete with all the important statistics, insights, and lessons learned. For now, here’s a sneak peak:

My blog was just over a month old when the contest began, and was averaging 335 pageviews/day and 79 User Sessions. During the contest, the average daily pageviews rocketed to 4,471, and daily user sessions jumped to 1,174, an increase of almost 1,500%!

Lots of other cool stats to share, including the launch of a press release, which played a key part in the traffic, in addition to the social piece. Look for it soon.

Thanks for all the support, and check back in a week for the winner.

I acquired a Google Fridge a while ago, and have decided to give it away to one lucky reader. First, some specifics on the fridge:

There are a lot more pics at my Flickr page.

I also made a little video showing some of the coolness of said fridge. It can even be used to keep things warm. Multi-purpose!

So how do you win this awesome piece of schwag? Just write a blog post outlining what you’d do with it if you won, and link to this post. I’ll see the trackback, and you’re automatically entered! Also, leave a comment on Tamar’s Schwag Addict post, just to make sure.
The contest runs for a week, ending Monday, January 14th, 2008. There are 4 judges (Tamar Weinberg, Barry Schwartz, Matt McGee and myself), and we’ll pick a winner about a week after that. I’ll link to the winning article for all to see.

For those without a blog, you can send me an email at golf01 at gmail dot com, but really, why aren’t you blogging? Looking for a great reason to start! I’ve just given you one!

Best of luck everyone; Now bring on the submissions!

Since the weather was nice this morning (Christmas Eve), my wife and I went for a ride to look for a few last minute items before we spend the next day and a half with the family. Of course, every store we went to wanted to collect our email address. Sometimes I just want to buy something, but that doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.
I’m sure that I’m not the first to think of this, but how about having a little fun with the email address for this type of situation? Here are a few ideas.

• flushthis@
• myjunkfolder@
• crapcollector@
• thisiscrap@
• ihatespamemail@
• ihatecorporatespam@
• corporatecrap@
• mycrapemailaccount@

and my personal favorite: thiswillbeflushed@

Be creative; mix and match. The possibilities are endless, and if you can’t get one at gmail, try hotmail, live.com, yahoo, etc. Nothing better than seeing the smirk on the associates face as you provide this email. Spread that holiday cheer!