Win a Wii from Contest Beat!

The Monetizer has heard great things about the Nintendo Wii. First and foremost, it's the cheapest priced video gaming system amongst the big 3 (PS3 and Xbox 360 are steep). Second off, they offer family-friendly games and hours of fun. There's even been news of some senior centers using these items to have bowling tournaments, which is a great use of the technology. There's no actual bowling balls involved, just the Wii Remote Controller. There's also no stats on how many controllers have been thrown at flat screen TV's, but the Wii is definitely a video gaming novelty with its special motion controller. It also seems stores can't keep these hot items in stock. Targets and Wal Marts have lines of hungry customers looking to snatch up the video game system for themselves, or as gifts for their loved ones. Luckily, the blogosphere has made it easier, and free to get your hands on one!

A great site called Contest Beat is giving a Wii away to anyone who participates in their latest contest. Cellforcash.com is sponsoring the giveaway and their site can help you sell your cell phone. To enter this contest, you will need to write up a blog entry to let others know about this great Wii prize giveaway. There's several other ways to get entries such as subscribing to their feed. Check out the full details about the Wii contest at Contest Beat.

(Note: this prize will replace my recently sold original X-Box as The Monetizer's official video game system).

Goodbye BlogRush, Hello TopSpots!

It was time for the Monetizer to kick that BlogRush widget to the curb. BlogRush seemed like a helpful widget at first, but Entrecard is a better idea. I've seen better traffic, an increase in subscription rate and networking opportunities all thanks to the Entrecard widget. On the other hand, BlogRush is only good if you had a good wave of traffic coming through. That's just my belief, because it gives you more credits. More credits gives you more times your headline shows elsewhere. So a John Chow, ShoeMoney or ProBlogger would have headlines showing everywhere, and that's just fine. Some people are swearing by BlogRush. Others claim Entrecard isn't so great to use. It's all a matter of personal opinion. I've seen good things from Entrecard and nothing much from BlogRush. So 1 widget survives the cut and the other must go.

In the absence of BlogRush, I have now added the "TopSpots" widget, available from Scratchback.com. You've seen this popular item on several other blogs, where it allows you to pay to add your site's link onto the blog's top spots. It's a good idea for those who want to get their blog or site noticed more. I've set the starting price at a very reasonable $5 on a Monetizer blog that has steadily improved in terms of Alexa traffic, PageRank and subscriber count. It's up to you to make that investment and your link will display for a full 30 days. So if you're interested head to the sidebar and grab your top spot, while it's still priced low!

If you'd like to add your own Top Spots widget to your blog, head over to Scratchback.com and sign up! You can choose from several colors and styles of widgets including seasonal holiday themes. There's also an option to download a Photoshop template of the widget so that you can customize it for your blog. Several other blogs have taken advantage of this such as 45n5.com, ZacJohnson.com and now The Monetizer. They also offer a blog directory, yet another way to get listed and get noticed!

Special thanks to Jim Kukral for helping me get the widget customized and up and running!

Find Your Web Hosting Choice!

The following is a sponsored post. Web hosting is something The Monetizer is very aware of, and definitely will be in need of in the future. As this blog continues to grow, I'd like to be able to better modify it and add new elements to the design. When it's time to make that move, finding adequate and reasonably priced web hosting will definitely be key to this.

A site I just learned about is webhostingchoice.com. They offer a search engine and directory listing full of Web hosting plans, based on the criteria you specify. You enter your monthly price you'd like to pay, disk space and bandwith allotment you'd like and your set up fee (usually this should be $0). From there webhostingchoice.com will return several results based on your criteria, and hopefully one will suit your needs. I did a search on $5 a month hosting with no set up fee, and HostGator was amongst the listings as well as several others. The site also offers a FAQ section, a guide to scams online, info about domains, servers, bandwith and more. The site has a very easy to use interface and is a great source of information on web hosting considerations.

So maybe you're in a similar situation as The Monetizer with a blog hosted on Wordpress or Blogspot right now. It might be moving time. If you'd like to check out some of the top options for web hosting, head over to http://www.webhostingchoice.com and start your search today.

Win an iPhone from a Facebook MoneyMaker!

Lara Saad can be described as the "Facebook MoneyMaker". She currently authors a blog called "I Make Money on Facebook" which gives you a step by step plan to join facebook, make friends and make money! Since she's done well for herself via various online money making ventures, she's decided to give a little something away to her blog readers. Lara is giving away one of the coolest items on the planet, the iPhone. This is the most popular phone on the planet which plays MP3s and movies, takes pictures, gives you Wi-Fi internet, stores information and even makes phone calls! It will do everything for you except fold your laundry and cook you dinner (these may come in future versions of the phone).

I decided to throw my Monetizer hat into the mix for this contest. I've now entered several blog contests, from $100 prize give aways to those give away the iPod Touch, and now the iPhone. Even though I don't currently use AT&T service, I can switch within a few months, so this prize will be welcome. Or maybe this prize becomes a Monetizer giveaway in 2008!

Full details for Lara's contest:

Deadline: January 1st, 2008 (the winner will be drawn at 11:59 AM CST on January 1st, 2008 and the prize will be sent out on January 2nd)

How to enter: You can enter the "Win an iPhone" contest by doing one of the following (or all of the following):

1- Leave a comment on the post "25 Steps to Make Money on Facebook" (You will get one entry ticket)

2- Subscribe to the RSS feed via email (You will get one entry ticket) at her blog.

3- Write a blog post about this contest and once you finished your post let Lara know by sending an e-mail at lara.saad@yahoo.com (You will get three entry tickets)

So there's a total of 5 entry tickets you can accumulate by doing Steps 1, 2 and 3. And start your new year off with a new tech gadget to woo your friends, organize your life and play the latest MP3s!