Contest is now over, thank you for playing!

One of my online friends, FranciscoIV, suggested we run a contest for guessing how many blog entries I write while on vacation. That sounded kind of fun, interactive and sort of Price is Rightish to me, so here it is:

Official MakeYouGoHmm Blog is Right Contest

Description of contest
Whomever guesses the closest to the total number of blog entries, without going over, in the comments area of this post only starting with the official starting post tomorrow to whenever we get back home will win 1% of our total projected trip fund ($44.32 USD) sent via PayPal. A $25 bonus will be awarded if anybody guesses the exact number of blog entries made during our vacation. The count starts tomorrow or whenever we leave (we’ll post), but you are welcome to start making your guesses now if you like.

An additional $25 will be awarded to the winning guesser if he/she writes at least one blog entry about our adventure on a blog that contains at least 25 blog entries prior to entering this contest. I don’t care how much traffic you do or don’t have, but your blog must have at least 25 blog entries prior to entering this contest (this means it’s not thrown together brand new) and a trackback must be sent to one of our posts made during the trip or this post in order to qualify.

So to recap it is possible for somebody to make $44.32 (prize fund) + $25 bonus #1 (correct guess of exact number of blog posts made) + $25 bonus #2 for writing a blog post on a blog with at least 50 blog entries = $94.32 sent via PayPal by simply making a one minute guess and short blog post and trackback. Yeah, the last bonus is a bit link whorish, I suppose, so don’t go for this bonus if you don’t want to. Somebody will gladly take the bonus money, I’m sure.

Contest time period
The count of blog entries will begin with “v4: Blog is Right contest has begun!” post at some point on Friday July 1, 2005 OR whenever we actually get in our car and leave, whichever is later and the contest will end whenever we get home.

Rules
1) only guesses posted in the publically visible comments area of this post at MakeYouGoHmm.com will count. Please keep in mind that first time posters are held in a moderation queue. Trackback post guesses are welcome but the actual guess must be visible in this post comment area on this blog in order for the # of post guess to count. In other words, you write a guess at your blog and then trackback here but then look here and don’t see the guess number (hint: use the guess number in the title of your post).
2) Using Price is Right(tm) style rules only guesses that are under or the exact total number of blog entries will count. Any guess over the amount of actual blog entries will not count.
3) Only new posts made by me (TDavid) here at MakeYouGoHmm.com during our summer 2005 vacation time period will count (so this post does not count as one).
4) One guess per person, please.
5) Guesses cannot be changed or amended once posted.
6) If the correct guess is shared by several people then the prize money will be split accordingly between the winning guesses (see #5, in that all bloggers will split the bonuses too)
7) $25 bonus for blogging about Blog is Right contest will only apply if the incoming link from the blog has at least 25 blog posts and a visible trackback (published on MakeYouGoHmm) is sent to notify MakeYouGoHmm.com of the existence (sorry, we won’t go looking through Technorati for it, you must send a trackback that is accepted and published on MakeYouGoHmm — since we do not use rel=’nofollow’ this will benefit your blog too)
$25 bonus for the exact guess will be awarded
9) no valid guesses means no prize will be awarded (so make sure somebody guesses zero posts, so we have to pay somebody)
10) winner must have paypal account (doh!) or be willing to get one
11) no purchase necessary to enter, void where prohibited by law

Strategy
I blogged during our last vacation (see July archives) so that might give a good indication of a minimum number of posts to expect in 2005. Keep in mind that this year we’ll have EVDO (broadband wireless) and in certain cities and locales I’ll have the capability to blog in the car (not while driving, of course).

Pubsub currently shows MakeYouGoHmm having an average of 11 posts per day but this is under normal work conditions, not during vacation. However, the wild card this year is the EVDO connectivity.

One strategy might be to set the number high and root me on if it seems like I’m not posting much or set the number low and encourage me to have fun on the vacation and not post so much to the blog (of course I enjoy writing, so blogging is relaxing to me). I will be reading other blogs from the road so what I read others saying very likely will encourage or discourage me from posting.

Another strategy would be to wait to make your guess, but if you wait too long the risk is the contest might be over. I’m not saying exactly when we are getting home on purpose but there are some good clues to our intended travel plans. There is a chance that we might alter our plans and get home much sooner than planned. Wait too long to enter your guess and it’s over.

Start guessing
Go ahead and use the comments below and make your guess or comment on the contest. This post will be linked at the top of the home page during our vacation or feel free to bookmark and come back later. All posts made during our vacation will be in the Travel category so you can subscribe to the Travel category RSS feed if you want to keep track of things there as well.

Good luck to all contestants!

Update 7/19/2005: Contest is over! The winning guess which is closest to 15 (the total number of v4 posts) is 13 by Antonio. Congratulations Antonio! Check your Gmail account for an email. Need your Paypal address so we can send you $44.32. Thank you to all those who made guesses.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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