Sunday, May 13, 2007

Countdown to a win

PhotoJournalism officially hit 750K today. This makes it 3/4ths of a million hits according to the hit counter that's been on the site the longest. I never expected to get 5K visitors, so this milestone is remarkable.

Let's make the rest of the trip to a million interesting. I'm offering two custom-framed, museum-quality, matted, signed prints as prizes for two individuals. One goes to the millionth visitor according to the sidebar counter. The other goes to the highest referrer when the sidebar counter passes one million.

What's the prize?
As stated, the prizes are one museum-quality, custom-framed print for each of the two winners. The print size will be somewhere between 8x12 and 11x16 depending on the actual dimensions of the image chosen by the winner. It will be matted and signed (I normally don't sign prints).

The winner gets an image of choice from this blog that I have authority to reproduce, but excludes photo mosaics. In other words, y'all can pick any other image I've posted with a © next to my name, NewsEagles or The Beaumont Enterprise.

For example, this image isn't included, but this image is. They were both shot for DMN, but the first is as staff and the second is freelance. Simply look at the copyright symbol location and pick your favorite.

As y'all hunt for a favorite, the counter goes up and each click is one closer to a million. A sure-fire way not to bump into "off limits" images is to simply look through the images tagged with labels. The labels are listed here. Although some won't be available, most are. Some suggestions for "wall art" might be Texana, wildlife, or my top picks from '05, '06 or '07.

I suppose I should note that older images may look out of focus on the blog, but it's a image compression problem from way back when. They're as sharp and clear as any of the newer images.

What's the catch?
There's really no catch. Whomever wins each of the two categories gets the prize.

I suppose I still need to be alive and semi-healthy at the time. If I'm dead or comatose (always a possibility with this job), I don't think I'll care too much about the contest.

There's one semi-catch though. I'm only going to pay shipping inside the U.S. If the winner is outside the U.S., we can work out some arrangement to get the framed print to you.

How to claim?
Millionth viewer
The millionth viewer has to do a little work because there might be two or three people looking at the same time in about 20 years when this finally happens.

Here's how to claim:
Post a time-dated comment on this blog stating "I'm the millionth viewer" or something similar. Then, immediately e-mail your name and location (city, state, country) to me at the address on the sidebar. Then, I can check the IP address against the comment. If they match, you're a winner. :-)

The winner must do both of these tasks to win. If I only get an e-mail or only a comment, it's not a winner. I'll post a note with the winner's name and general location (city, state, country) once there is a confirmed winner.

To pull this off without a hitch, y'all need to register with Blogger before this happens. It's simple and free to open an account. It should take less than five minutes. However, make the password easy enough to remember when it's time to claim a prize.

If you want to test the ID, you're welcome to do it in the comment section of this post.

Top referrer
Whichever individually-owned blog or Web site refers the most visitors to this blog before the sidebar counter hits a million wins. I'll post the results when the site hits a million. The winner needs to e-mail a shipping address and image choice ASAP. I'll send a congratulations e-mail if I can find an e-mail address on the blog. If no e-mail is received from the winner within two weeks, the next-highest referrer will be notified.

Referrers can watch their numbers here (offer excludes Fay, search engines, forums and other businesses). As of this post, here are the top five referrers to date.

1823   bhgrave.blogspot.com
899   inactionphotography.blogspot.com
714   missneworleans.blogspot.com/2006/02/sugas.html
580   blueridgeblog.blogs.com
430   majikthise.typepad.com

Note: To make this fair, all references need to come from one location. As in the case above, Laurie (Miss New Orleans) sent 714 visitors this way from her Suga's post. Bryon has sent 1823 visitors from his main blog. Although Laurie may send more visitors cumulatively from her main blog and various posts, only the top line matters.

Please don't cheat
I know it's fun to win and at least one reader of this blog is very competitive, please don't cheat. If a referrer comes to this site once or twice a day, cool. Welcome. However, don't click 50 times to drive up the numbers.

However, if a blogger wants to promote PhotoJournalism on their site and the referrer's visitors come here, that's fine and appreciated. :-)

Good luck to all.

Enough for now,

6 comments:

Bryon Houlgrave said...

Sweet ... no one's catching me. Mwahahahah!

(Um, is being a good sport a requirement?)

Phlip said...

OK he's got the referrer prize . . . did you get any clicks from my 5 regular readers? :P

I'm keeping my eye on that counter. A freakin' Admiral Dinghy print would totally rock. :D

Mark M. Hancock said...

Bryon,
Winners are good sports. Just remember Donncha also reads this blog. He's one of the WordPress founders and his blog is automatically on the sidebar of all new WordPress blogs. I think he could squish your stats like a little bug if he wanted. ;-)

Phlip,
You could always buy a copy of the print from the paper. It actually costs much less than the ones I'm offering.

Marie said...

Ok. So I may not win either, but does offering you cold adult beverages and a free place to rest your head ( and Fay's too!) in the Blue Ridge Mountain, earn a signed print? Just wondering;) and Just kidding. I'll see what I can do to get the counter clickin'

Mark M. Hancock said...

Marie,
Your offer would be a trade. This is a freebie. ;-)

Marie said...

I'm the millionth viewer!