Today, while I am traveling across many cities, I received this mail from Ryan at CellPhones.org about selection of this blog as semi finalist in cell phone contest. This is what he says -

I wanted to let you know that your blog made it to the semi-finalist round of the Blogger Appreciation Awards. Our judges looked over thousands of nominations and yours was only one of 200 (less than 10% of the submissions) that has been recognized for blogging excellence. While you did not make the final round of voting, you should feel proud of this accomplishment, knowing that we determined your blog to be in the top 10% of all submissions.

We encourage you to let your readers know about your accomplishment by featuring this badge on your blog

So thought to share this with you

It has been many days I did not join any contest as participant or sponsor. Last time I participated in a contest, Blogging Idol, I was honoured by title of first blogging idol by Daniel at dailyblogtips.com by various prizes in cash and webmaster tools for winning the contest.

After spending some hectic time in immigrating to UK, I am right now recovering from jet lag, setting up myself into new country and getting back to my blogging and online ventures.

I am still not in a position that I can give enough time to all my projects but I am expecting to get into that mode very soon. One of the motivation is to participate in some good contests. Last time when I participated in Daniel’s contest, I spent all July month after my finance blog to make sure that I give my 100%.

This is my motivation this time while I participate in dollarshower.com’s SEO contest

Updating my blog very regularly: This time my motivation is not to win the contest but get back into mode of working hard on my blog. As per the rules of the contest, I am already far behing in the contest.

One of the requirement of the contest is to share your Google analytics report with dollarshower.com. I am thankful that he is not believing on the Alexa rank or any other reports that has high chances of manipulation.

It was a question for me initially that how to share it, but I could figure out a way, and I am sure it would be a quick lesson for you too if you ever need to share your reports with anyone else.

Follow these steps:

1. Login to your Google Analytics
2. Go to Analytics Settings
3. Go to the bottom of the page and click on User Manager link
4. On next page, you would see a table with “Add User” link at right top
5. Give email ID of user you would like to share your Google Analytics report with and choose the website profiles that you would like to share reports of (whether you have one or more than one websites).
6. Add and Save changes, and the users you shared reports with would be able to see the Google Analytics statistics of your website in their Google account login.

I am sharing my stats right now for the contest (I made sure that he can only see my website profile that I want to share reports of by testing it with my another Google account), I would like to suggest you to go to the contest page and see how it goes.

 It’s pretty late isn’t it to declare this news! Well, first few days – I was not sure when to declare it on my official internet marketing, SEO and MMO blog – I mean the Life is Colourful blog. Later, it completely skipped from my mind that I could announce this good news here to share with my readers.

First Blogging Idol was organized by dailyblogtips.com well known blogger Daniel in the month of July. The contest was about gaining maximum RSS readers for your blog within one month. Whoever would gain the RSS readers with legitimate marketing ways, could be the winner of $3000 worth prizes. Yes, the prizes were worth $3000.

Here was the prize list:

• KeywordCountry.com: The best keyword tool for making money online.
• Yoast.com: The blog of Joost de Valk on SEO and WordPress.
• NotSoBoringLife.com – A blog with hobbies for everyone.
• BidVertiser.com – Make more money from your blog or website.
• SponsoredReviews.com – Make money with your blog by writing reviews

I got a cool lifetime subscription of worth $1500 from Ricky at keywordcountry.com (which Ricky sent me within a week), $700 worth SEO consultation from Joost de Valk (which I did not take yet) and $800 in cash prize from rest of the three sponsors.

These prizes are very precious for Internet Marketer like me. Specially the KeywordCountry subscription and SEO Consultation. I hope Joost De Valk would not mind that I am pretty late in setting up a meeting with him but I would soon talk to him online.

I talk to Ricky from KeywordCountry and I have found his software very useful. I am using it to its best abilities and even you can see the power of this tool for optimizing their websites and blogs by downloading the trial for free. I will soon have a detailed post on what it has to offer for internet marketers and SEO consultants.

I personally know the power of RSS subscribers, but somehow I am not really into running behind it, at least not for this blog if you have observed. Only time I tried gaining RSS subscribers specially when I had held a $3000 worth prizes contest at this blog. I believe, if people like you – they would opt for it or they won’t. Even for the finance blog that won the blogging idol prize, I used to get the RSS subscribers automatically earlier. Later, I just updated the useful content like buy calls, bonus issue, stock split, IPO issue news very regularly and circulated it in various finance groups.

I tried giving special attention in increasing the blog subscribers for this contest specifically because I knew if I give some time to it, it’s achievable. And if you read at Daniel’s post mentioning about blogging idol winner – the strategies I opted to shoot up 585 RSS subscribers in a month are very easy but few of them were uncommon.

I shared all possible data with Daniel for him to examine the legitimate efforts from all the angles and it all proved legitimate. If you would have observed, I was running a live commentary about this contest but that was out of mere liking of statistics and commenting as third person to avoid any conflicts among participants. I certainly was never biased in my commentary.

And as expected my blog proved to be the winner blog at the end. I was extremely happy on the day Daniel announced the winner. Sorry for the delay, but I am glad that I could share this news with you finally today!

Honestly telling you, I was so envious when I declared the winners’ list of my colourful blog anniversary contest. Everyone won so nice prizes leaving me all alone without any prize! I thought why not to try my luck and participate in my fellow blogger, Enkay’s Market Leverage contest.

You probably don’t know, but Enkay’s blog has tons of contribution indirectly in motivating me to take this Life is Colourful blog at a level today. If you were here last year around same time, he used to be very regular on his blog but kind of took a break meanwhile for his exams. Now he is back in action and I am pretty much sure you would like his writing style and posts to, so make sure to bookmark and subscribe to his blog as well.

He is holding a contest and giving away a brand new Asus EEE Laptop PC, a $50 AMEX Rewards Card and 3 2GB USB Pens to the participants collaborating with Market Leverage [That are some great prizes bro!].

He made it very simple – three ways to win these awesome prizes! Blog post, signing up to ML with his referral link and subscribing to his blog. Just head on to his blog and gain your points, as there are only few days remaining for the contest to get over.

It was a great time holding this colourful blog anniversary contest, interacting with so many nice contributors, whether they are sponsors of this contest or participants. Now it’s time to announce the winners – I know you don’t want to read anything else today other than the names of the proud winners of various prizes in this contest. I would write name of the winner in [bold] next to the prize to keep it easier to understand . So here you go!

Winner Announcement of Colourful Blog Anniversary Contest with $3000 in Cash and Prizes

Blogging Tools & Products, Webmaster Resources, Memberships
- A product to help you making money: Super Affiliate Blogger and WordPress Adsense Theme by Easywordpress ($194 value – 2 x $97) => [vasage]
- Two one-year subscription to GoStats Pro [One of the web's leading traffic stats providers] by GoStats ($180 value – 2 x $90) => [bm]
- Five One-Year VIP Memberships to CreateBanner.com by Xavier Media ($175 value – 5 x $35) => [Mitch, maverick, Sandracobb, Phoebe and David]
- 100,000 [One hundred thousand] Tnx points by Tnx.net ($125 value) => [Norhafidz]
- Two One-Hour Consultation Sessions by TheUniversiryKid ($100 value – 2 x $50) => [Sherry and wholesale CFL]
- “Building An Internet Business From Scratch – Making $1,000 After 24 Hours” DVD by Marcus Hochstadt ($100 value) => [Kris]
- Two copies of Direct Response Templates for Salesletters and Salesstickies by Carl “Kidblogger” ($74 – 2 x $37) => [trafficbandit and Jomari]
- Two Copies of “TO DO List Software” by Fruitfultime ($60 value – 2 x $30) => [Twine and sigit]
- One 30 minutes of blog consultation by The Net Fool ($40 value) => [SubmitYourContest]
- Blog Bundle Pack 2 [Specially designed for Bloggers] by 1 Cool File ($20 value) – [TheContestBlogger]

Cash Prizes

- $30 cash prize by Capitalist Guide ($30 value) => [India on wheels]
- $25 cash prize by Autoline Reviews ($25 value) => [Louis Liem]
- $25 cash prize by Health and Fitness Center ($25 value) => [Pinay Jade]
- $20 cash prize by Leisa Watkins ($20 value) => [The Contest Winner]
- $20 cash prize by Travel Tips ($20 value) => [maverick]
- $20 cash prize by New Homes Section ($20 value) => [A Contest blog by valmg]
- $20 cash prize by Social Networking Sites ($20 value) => [aeirin]
- $20 cash prize by Quality Vista ($20 value) => [Dinesh]

All prizes shall be given through Paypal

Books and eBooks

- Three copies of “Work Smart, Get Rich!” eBook Donated by The Net Fool ($45 value – 3 x $15) => [Nick, Pweng Bee and danandmarsh]
- Autographed Copy of “The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth” book by Leisa Watkins => [mia]

Dollar eBook from TheUniversiryKid as mentioned above. => [everyone participated in the contest, if you don't get the dollar book in a week, please drop me a line at lifeiscolourful dot com @ gmail dot com]

Advertising Space

- Four 3-months textlink at Life is Colourful ($360 value – 4 x $90) => [bm, Pweng Bee, mayank and SE7EN]
- Four 3-months textlink at Finance Blog ($180 value – 4 x $45) => [Tara, iskolares, Freezine, Norhafidz]
- One Greenland Country Ad Space at Buy a Nation ($125 value) => [aeirin]
- Full Set of Advertising Space by Roman Dock ($125 value)
Two 125 x 125 ($20 value – 2 x $10) => [Silla and Angelo]
Three 468×60 ($30 value – 3 x $10) => [ruby, swishersweetie and indocontest]
Five Textlinks ($50 value – 5 x $10) => [Million buck Canuck, SE7EN, My Journey From Debt, Pinay Jade and Suzanne]
One Full Review ($25 value) => [BlueWorkHorse]
- Four 3-months 125 x 125 banner slots at Article Rewrite ($120 value) => [danandmarsh, rhyan, sprittibee and Sherry]
- Ten Featured Links at Piggy Directory ($100 value) => [Missy (from G34 media), Suzanne, Pweng Bee, suspect, trafficbandit, The Contest Winner, Anuj Seth, My Journey From Debt, Dinesh and Nick]
- Ten Textlinks worth $10 bid each at BYDY Link Bid Directory ($100 value) => [indocontest, Suzanne, swishersweetie, David, Pinay Jade, sigit, Mitch, mayank, mia and trafficbandit]
- Four Express Link Submissions Forever at Mad Mouse Directory ($51.80 value – 4 x $12.95) => [Anuj Seth, My Journey From Debt, suspect and tech blog]
- Two Featured Link Submissions for One year at Mad Mouse Directory ($49.90 value – 2 x $24.95) => [sandracobb and A Contest blog by valmg]
- One 125 x 125 at Winning the Web by Gyutae Park ($50 value) => [Jomari]
- One Full Blog Review at Life is Colourful ($50 value) => [Nick]
- Five Featured Links at Directories.bz ($50 value) * These apply to directory submissions only, Flippable. => [sigit, kanan, sandracobb, rhyan and Sherry]
- Three Featured Links for Six Months at Massive Net Links Directory ($30 value) => [Angelo, TheContestBlogger, Suzanne]
- Three Featured Links for Six Months at Internet Stromer Directory ($30 value) => [Nick, Mitch and Pweng Bee]
- Three Featured Links for Six Months at Internet Ahead Directory ($30 value) => [k-inthehouse, kris and vasage]
- One 125 x 125 at Blogging Fingers ($30 value) => [indocontest]
- One 125 x 125 at New Homes Section ($30 value) => [Sueblimely]
- One 125 x 125 at Sueblimely ($30 value) => [Jomari]
- One 125 x 125 at Life is Colourful ($30 value) => [Suzanne]
- One Full Blog Review at Finance Blog ($30 value) * These apply to Finance service reviews, Flippable. => [My Journey From Debt]
- One 125 x 125 at Dot Com Mogul ($25 value) => [Pweng Bee]
- Two 125 x 125 at Vincent ($20 value) => [Sueblimely and SE7EN]
- One Full Blog Review at Lightnings Blog World (value $20) => [Pinay Jade]
- One 125 x 125 at The WWW Blog ($15 value) => [Louis Liem]

Entrecard Credits

- 2500 Entrecard Credits by Life is Colourful => [Norhafidz]
- 2000 Entrecard Credits by Sueblimely => [tech blog]
- 1000 Entrecard Credits by Lightning Blog World => [suspect]
- 500 Entrecard Credits by Vincent => [Suzanne]

Total: 6,000

So I am seeing many happy faces around . Congratulations to alllllllllllllll the winners! I am seeing few names chosen more than once, and I am really happy for them – Lucky a$$es!

Believe me, it was a lot of work for me to come out with results as I gathered data from comments, technorati, feedburner, stumble upon etc. I was more generous and wanted as many people to win as possible, so I divided the redundant prizes [like 2 banners at same blog like Nick's, it's better to give it to 2 different lucky winners]. This time I considered all the participants though few of participants missed to comment and I think that’s alright. It’s just added more work for me but I was motivated to get out the results today.

Feel free guys to let your readers know about your thoughts on this post today. I would be happy if you write about the contest results!

Contest winners, please claim your prizes and I would connect you to the sponsors of respective prizes.