It’s been one month since i launched my charity skydive competition. The aim was to raise $1000. I raised just over $200 online so it means i hit 20% of my target which isn’t bad at all.
The actual skydive will now not be taking place until the spring time. Why? Well, firstly the money is needed and although i could scoop the rest together in a month or two, it just means more work for me on top of everything else i have like college, BeerChief and other online stuff. Plus the friend i’m doing this with also needs more time to gather the cash! Secondly, we have the weather.
Skydives can only take place in reasonably good weather. Given our unpredictable weather in Ireland, not many skydives take place from October - March and the last thing i want to do is take a day off college, arrive there and then be told to come back another day…
So i’ll now be doing this skydive probably around March 2009 which gives me loads of time to reach the $1000 target. I’ll probably run one or two more competitions to tie in with this and i’ll be much better prepared next time around… this competition has taught me a lot
So anyway, like i said before, to ensure total transparacy, i’ll reveal the entrants and their lucky numbers. I’ve just added nicknames to an excel spreadsheet and applied the different weights (30 tickets for blogging, 100 for donating etc…). You can check it out here and if it doesn’t make sense, it will later on.
21 entrants in total which means everyone is guaranteed something I’ll try to publish a screencast tomorrow showing me picking the winners and prizes. If i don’t get it up tomorrow (i’m extremely busy this week), it’ll be up on Friday and i’ll send out emails then too.
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I’ve been back at college 3 weeks now and you’ll have noticed a real drop in my work ethic online. Whilst some of that was due to slow connection speeds and none at all at times most of it has been down to the fact i’m using much more of my brainpower at college and burnout in the evenings.
There’s a mountain of stuff i’ve learned but some of the more interesting stuff includes;
OSI layer model
basics in javascript
how to form questionnaires and get accurate results
pings / ip’s / subnet masks
routers / hubs / switches
how memory works
Then i pick up on some nuggets of unrelated stuff like why airplanes turn off all lights when coming in to land, how/why a CPU is powered by a quartz crystal, how electricity is made, what you need to become a lecturer…
That’s just the stuff i can recall off the top of my head and i’m fairly well up on it all now. You could give me an exam in any of that i’d pass. So i am much more focused on college this year… i set my stall out to get an average of above 70% and so far so good. 9am or 4.30pm, it doesn’t matter - i’m alive, alert and absorbing information. Last year, i’d be done by 2pm (mentally), and i’d be thinking ahead of what i’d be doing that evening when i got home.
Online, i’ll be glad to get this skydive competition done and dusted. It doesn’t look like i’ll hit the $1k mark this month, but i’m sure i’ll come up with more creative ways of raising some cash
This ALWAYS happens, but ironically, this month has been pretty good for me in terms of revenue online. Although i haven’t done much and it’s probably been my worst month in terms of work rate this year, i’ve made $60 in affiliate earnings and another $150 in ads on this blog (some of which was put in to the charity skydive fund).
Typical So if you want to make money online, you just gotta stop working and focus your attention on offline stuff - worked for me this month
So far, i’ve raised $174 out of $1000 for my charity skydive. Whilst i’m sure that’s $174 more than what some of you thought i would get i think there’s room for improvement.
What i need now is just pure exposure to get traffic in and get eyes on the competition. So what i’m going to do is open up more FREE ways of gaining entry in to the competition and review the current rules so here are the updated contest rules (anyone already entered will have their entries adjusted accordingly);
Comment on this post = 10 entries
Blog about this competition = 30 entries
Donate a cash amount above $1 = 100 entries
Do all 3 = 200 entries
In total, there are over 35 prizes valued at over $2500 including;
4 x 1 copies of “Work Smart, Get Rich” (courtesy of ebook-rich.com)
4 x 1 monthly buttons ads on smemon.com (courtesy of me)
1 review on smemon.com (courtesy of me)
To spice things up a bit, i’m going to be 100% transparent and draw up a full list of entrants and the amount of entries each person has. Basically a huge database in which you’ll be assigned your ‘lucky numbers’.
I’ll make that available to you guys on October 1st and then on October 2nd i’ll make a screencast of myself using random.org to choose the winners.
That ensures everything is 100% transparent and all of the prizes and winners are genuine - i can’t do much more than that. Some people have suggested that people who don’t know me may think winners could be rigged etc… to save me cash or gain friends and i hear that. So in response, i’m going to be as open as i can
For those of you who don’t know me, rest assured the prizes are legit, the winners will be legit and any ‘profits’ are all going to Charity, every single cent To cap it all off you’ll be helping to push me out of a plane at 10,000 feet - so what are you waiting for? Comment or blog or donate cash NOW
It’s 3 days in to my charity skydive contest and so far, i’ve raised $79. So i’m almost 8% there
Honestly, i wasn’t expecting people to be so generous in their donations… i thought maybe $5 tops per person but some people have donated $25/$35 which is great to see and i have to thank those who’ve donate so far
I wasn’t sure what sort of reaction this would get, but it seems to be fairly positive, i just need to work harder at promoting it.
I’ve also just completed a site which is going to be flipped and the cash put in to this. The domain was donated by one of my readers and i’ll talk a bit about the site tomorrow. It should fetch $100+.
Anyway, i’ve only got 6 entrants so far (last time i checked) in to this competition and at the minute, they’re all gonna get something pretty valuable
Don’t forget i’m giving away over $2500 in prizes including 4 x $50 CASH prizes along with a free revolution theme and 3 x yearly estibot memberships! Plus lots more (again thanks to my sponsors for all of the prizes).
All you gotta do to enter is either blog about the competition or chip in just $1 or as much as you can afford. If you do both you’ll get three tickets in to the prize draw at the end of the month
During competitions, everyone seems to get a great deal bar the people who put up prizes. I’m determined to look after my skydive competition sponsors and make sure they get their fair share of credit throughout the month for putting up prizes. They’ll also be getting their logo on the t-shirt i’ll be wearing for the skydive. Here’s a brief guide on who’s who;
Collin Lahay
Collin is an 18 year old e-marketing whiz kid who carves out a living for himself online. Profit wise, he takes in over $2k per month consistently which is a nice chunk of change for anyone still in college working part time He’s took part in the Top Affiliate Challenge and the 700+ RSS subscribers he has shows you the content he puts out isn’t just rehashed stuff - it’s quality.
Mark Walsh
Walsho and I go back a good bit… in fact, i’m not quite sure how we met, but i’m pretty sure it was because of our blogs. Although you won’t see him working online much these days, when he is online, he knows a thing or two about flipping sites and making some cash and he’s also an excellent writer… producing several successful ebooks and making it in to one of Ireland’s national broadsheet newspapers
Estibot
Anyone who reads this blog will know i’m a big fan of estibot. It’s free, it’s accurate and it’s a great tool to have bookmarked. If you’re in any way involved in buying / selling / valuing domain names, estibot is your best friend.
Brian Gardner
Anyone who buys wordpress themes will have heard of Brian. Anyone who WANTS to buy wordpress themes will also hear of Brian This guy is the man responsible for producing the ‘revolution’ themes which are generally regarded as THE hottest themes out there at the minute. There are some free themes on Brian’s site, but check out the paid ones and you’ll see the difference. Works of art if i say so myself
Jon Lee
jonlee.ca is a personal tech blog focusing on tech stuff Definitely worth a read with articles like how to build a quad core PC for under $500 and in depth reviews… if any of you ever wanted to know about a nokia n800 - check out jon’s blog - you won’tbedisappointed
The University Kid
I’ve been following jason’s progress from day one on TheUniversityKid. One thing that seperates him from other bloggers is the fact he makes his readers work Putting up a password protected post was genius and i know it netted him at least a couple of hundred RSS subscribers. I know i subscribed to his RSS feed for something similar a good while back. The fact i haven’t unsubscribed since isn’t because i’m lazy, it’s because i always pick up something new from his posts. In terms of transparancy, TUK is about as open and honest as they come… you may have to ‘work’ a little though to get the information
The Net Fool
Jim of TheNetFool is another college student, another teenager, and another successful make money onliner Jim also has some pretty useful articles on there like ‘bum marketing‘ and ‘creating an effective link bait post‘. Another blog i’m subscribed to
Site Flip Guide
SiteFlipGuide is an ebook produced by Mark Walsh (see above)… i got a free review copy and Mark also gave me a few copies to give away as prizes and this ebook is definitely worth a read. It’s $10 to buy, but it’s a bargain at that, particularly if you’re new to this business.
Ebook-Rich
This ebook, titled “work smart, get rich” was produced by Jim of TheNetFool.com. In it, Jim explains how he made $16,000 in one month. Who wouldn’t want to read about that?!
I’ll try to publish a screencast tomorrow showing me picking the winners and prizes. If i don’t get it up tomorrow (i’m extremely busy this week), it’ll be up on Friday and i’ll send out emails then too.
most of it has been down to the fact i’m using much more of my brainpower at college and burnout in the evenings.
i think there’s room for improvement.
