This week is a special week for Blogussion. It is the first official long-term series of posts to ever be published on the blog, and our first contest. In the one year and three and a half months this blog has been around, I have never done either of the two. But now, I want to do it, and I want you to be excited as hell for it.
Thank you to everyone who participated, you can read the winners here!
In a nutshell, Design Versus week will be a combination of a series of design related articles, as well as a contest. Those two things will be leading up to the launch of a new Blogussion design that I have been developing for the last few weeks. It’s really going to be an exciting week here.
Design Versus Week
The name sounds a little odd, but Design Versus Week will be a 5 day series of articles that will compare two different elements of a blog design in order to find the “best” of the two. There will be one post published every single day from Monday the 5th to Friday the 9th.
These articles will be directly related to the contest, which I will get into later, and our new design, which I will talk about upon launch. While designing the new Blogussion theme, I thought about many different elements and what sort of things I should try to include in the new design. That is where I derived the ideas for these match-ups, which are listed later on in this post.
The Contest
I think I have a really cool contest in store for you guys. It’s really easy to participate in, as all that is really required is you have a Twitter account. Yes, I chose to run this contest through Twitter.
The great thing about this contest is there will be three winners. A first, second and third place winner will be chosen based on how much you support Blogussion during Design Versus Week. If you really get into it and help spread the word about it, you will have a better shot at winning some of the fan-freakin’ tastic prizes I have lined up.
Because this week is all about blog design, the prizes in this contest will also be design related. It only makes sense, right? Here are the prizes:
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First Place
Value: $800+
The first place winner of the Design Versus Week contest will win over $300 worth of blog design related prizes, and a custom design by Alex worth over $500+
- 1 Developers License of the Thesis Theme for WordPress
- 1 copy of the Blogussion Theme for Thesis
- 1 custom Thesis design by Alex Fraiser [Blogussion designer]
- 2 years free web hosting from WPWebHost
- 1 copy of Rockable Press’s How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer eBook
- 1 copy of Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr’s Digging into WordPress eBook
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Second Place
Value: $345
- 1 Developers License of the Thesis Theme for WordPress
- 1 copy of the Blogussion Theme for Thesis
- 1 year free web hosting from WPWebHost
- 1 copy of Rockable Press’s How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer eBook
- 1 copy of Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr’s Digging into WordPress eBook
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Third Place
Value: $211
- 1 Personal License of the Thesis Theme for WordPress
- 1 copy of the Blogussion Theme for Thesis
- 1 copy of How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer OR Digging into WordPress
- $50 via PayPal
How to Participate
After reading the awesome prizes we have, I bet you’re wondering how to join in on the contest and potentially win them. It’s very easy to participate. Like I said before, this is a Twitter based contest, so you will need a Twitter account. But I’ll break down what you need to do in more specific steps:
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Make sure you have a Twitter account.
You can’t join a Twitter contest without a Twitter account! So be sure to signup if you haven’t already, or just double-check to make sure your Twitter account is still there.
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Follow us on Twitter
It’s important that we know you’re participating, so please follow @Blogussion on Twitter now. We can’t track your entries if you do not follow us on Twitter.
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Retweet posts from Design Versus Week
It’s pretty simple. As an article in Design Versus Week is published, tweet it to your followers. There will be 5 articles published as part of Design Versus Week, so for each article you tweet, that’s one extra chance you have to win a prize.
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blogussionvs will count your tweet
Tweets will only be counted if the hashtag blogussionvs is included at the end. If you decide to tweet the article by clicking the “tweet it to your followers” button at the top of the article, the hashtag will be included automatically.
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Wait until Sunday
Sunday, April 11th is the day the three lucky winners will be announced. Be sure to tweet each article every day of the week to increase the chance of you winning.
How Winners are Determined
The way winners are determined is easy. A service called TweetAways will be used to track this contest, and it will pick a winner randomly from everyone who has participated. It is a completely fair system, and includes everyone who meets the minimum requirements:
- You follow us.
- Your tweet mentioned @Blogussion in it.
- Your tweet has the hashtag blogussionvs in it.
Your tweet must include both of those keywords for your tweets to count! Don’t forget them or misspell them!
Contest Rules
Cheating is wrong, and I can guarantee you now that cheaters will not win this contest! I want this to be as fair as possible, so I will be looking to make sure that none of the following have been committed by each potential winner:
- No duplicate accounts
- No multiple tweets
- Do not included the hashtag more than once
- Only include the hashtag on posts from Design Versus Week
Do not tweet with multiple accounts. Please use one account for each time you tweet. Anyone caught using multiple accounts will be disqualified!
Please tweet each article only once. Anyone caught tweeting an article multiple times will be disqualified!
Please only add the hashtag to your tweet one time. Anyone caught adding multiple hashtags to a single tweet will be disqualified!
Don’t retweet past articles on Blogussion and add the blogussionvs hashtag to them. You can guess what will happen to those caught doing this. 
If you need any of these rules clarified, don’t be afraid to ask via Twitter or the comments section below.
This Week’s Schedule
Just to get you guys into the spirit for this week, I have set up a schedule for you of what to expect from Blogussion. I have the articles outlined for you and their date of publishing.
Get Notified When We Update
I highly advise you subscribe to our RSS feed to be notified of when the articles are published. The sooner you get your tweet out-of-the-way, the better!
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Monday, April 5th
Rebranding vs. Refreshing Your Blog Design
A comparison between completely rebranding your blog design, or simply refreshing the look every now and then.
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Tuesday, April 6th
Light vs. Dark Blog Designs
Is it better to blog with a light or dark design? The pros and cons of each will be discussed Tuesday.
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Wednesday, April 7th
2 Columns vs. 3 Column Layouts
Both popular layouts for a blog design, but which is the most beneficial to your blog?
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Thursday, April 8th
Fat Footers vs. Small Footers
Both have benefits that could outweigh the other, but which is the best in any situation?
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Friday, April 9th
Minimal vs. Compact Blog Designs
Whitespace over blocks of space? In this post, Blogussion will be compared to my more minimalistic blog, Asnio.
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Saturday, April 10th
Check Your Progress
A reminder will be published to the blog with a checklist of things you need to make sure you have done in order to have a fair shot at winning a prize.
Contest Winners Announced & Design Launched
The three winners of the competition will be announced, as well as the launch of the new Blogussion design. Design Versus Week will come to a close, and the prizes will be distributed to the winners.
Questions? Concerns? Speechless?
I hope you take advantages of Design Versus Week on Blogussion. It will be a great opportunity to learn some interesting things about certain design elements, as well as a chance to win some amazing blogging prizes.
I want you to use this post to ask any questions, post your concerns, or tell me how incredibly excited you are for Design Versus Week. I want this to be an exciting week for Blogussion, and you can help make it that way! All it takes are a few tweets.
See you tomorrow. Happy Design Versus Week!
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?Sounds awesome! Those prizes look excellent- hope I win one!
Can’t wait for the series, too. I anticipate some very practical stuff in this one! Thanks, Alex- this is exciting!
.-= Steven Corbett´s last blog ..New PHPmotion Thumbnails Mod! =-.
Exciting is understatement. I am going through by pass. Free design by Alex? Dream come ture!
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
superb awesome contest alexa and the prizes are excellent.
keep it up
.-= Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..Google PageRank update : April 2010 =-.
Great idea Alex! I’ve seen a bunch of competitions, but none has had me as excited as this one! The prizes are extremely well thought out. Great going Alex!
Looks the series is going to have plenty of practical information for designers and bloggers alike. Can’t wait for it!
All me best,
Ajay
Hey there, very nice contest
These are awesome prizes. Most prizes are ebooks I have never heard of. These on the other hand, are way cool. Congratulations are your first contest, can’t wait to see the articles.
.-= Patrick Toerner´s last blog ..10 More Wordpress Plugins I Can’t Live Without =-.
I liked the way you write all your blogs. Keep it up.
It’s really very informative and useful post.thanks for sharing this useful information with us.keep blogging. Looking forward to reading your nest post. Thanks a lot.
You got me waiting for tomorrow, I have subscribed to your RSS, followed you on Twitter and waiting for the contest to get on the roads. On the other hand I find that articles that will be published during the contest will also be very informative and enjoyable. Waiting to read it.
.-= Netchunks´s last blog ..Who Rules The Social Web? =-.
W0ot!!! Now get a whiff of that awesomeness! Love it man. My unreplied emails – totally justified!
I can see how creative – extra extra extra creative you’ve been with this post – now I can imgaine, no I can see, no! I can FEEL how Awesome the new design is. And truly I tell you – it ROCKS!
Looking forward to the hours before us. There surely is great stuff here for us.
PS: Use bit.ly with ‘Tweet it on Twitter’ button.
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
Awesome contest. Love the idea, so in!
I’ll def. be participating, sounds awesome and the prizes are great for just having to promote posts
.-= Inside the Webb´s last blog ..Interview with Jacob Gube of Six Revisions Design Blog =-.
Great contest, and yes this a great idea for getting traffic from twitter and I hope blogussion gets the required attention
I really need this.
What a crazy contest. You have a lot of great prizes to offer. I’m impressed. This should really help some lucky person out. Good luck ! Have fun!
It’s like getting lucky for the first time – almost same sensation. I wanna make sure this is not a delayed April fool’s prank or something…LOL
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
I’ve put way too much effort into this for it to be an April Fool, this is the real deal.
I know man, you are the real deal. Haha! Love ya for this <3
PS: Reply to mails soon?
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..The Third Jesus – A Book Review =-.
Awesome!!! This is one of the most well-thought out contests I’ve ever seen, Alex! Nicely done. I’m sure it will be a hit! See you around
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.-= Nick Tart´s last blog ..Interview: Alex Maroko, 5-Month Sprint to 6-Figure Internet Success =-.
Thanks man, I hope you’re right.
Instead of just saying this contest is awesome, I’d say this is also a great news for us as a regular reader – Blogussioners. The new and fresh theme will sure to surprise us. I’m looking forward to see the new look. Keep it up Alex!
I made a mistake in my first tweet attempt lol. I deleted the tweet and re-tweeted anyway to avoid duplicate tweets.
Thank god for easter? Sweet giveaway!
.-= Tony´s last blog ..The Apple iPad: First Impressions =-.
Hi Alex, long time no speak! Damn, this contest sounds awesome, you’ve sure done yourself proud… great prizes and a very nice format.
I know I’ll certainly be competing! There are some great prizes, and they’d sure come in handy for my new project… It’d be unreal to get another theme designed by you after the last one got such an amazing response!
Yo Simon! Nice to see you with new brand and face… er… get a Gravatar?
Thanks man.
That would be crazy for you to win this and work with me again. But we’ll see my man.
King, yeah it’s nice to have a new identity. I’m gonna get a gravatar, just need the logo designer to hurry up first!
And Alex, yeah we’ll see. It’ll be a joy to retweet your stuff anyway as it’s such good advice. I haven’t really been visiting blogs in general but coming back and seeing all the different ones I used to read reminds me of how much ahead of the pack you are… keep up the good work
.-= Simon | ThemeCave´s last blog ..Hello world! =-.
What a great contest! I doubt I will win but I’m going for it anyways, as I usually retweet your stuff. Good luck to everyone though, this is definitely a darn good contest.
Anyways, I know I won’t win but I’m going to enjoy the content anyways, I could use some tips on that lol.
.-= Christopher´s last blog ..What T.A.P.S. Can Teach Us About Business =-.
Aww, have a little more faith than that. You have an equal chance at winning as everyone else, and a better chance than those who do not tweet every article.
ha ha thanks Alex.
.-= Christopher´s last blog ..What T.A.P.S. Can Teach Us About Business =-.
This come just in time. I just registered the new domain name of my next blog. I would be nice to get some professional design help, not to mention a free copy of Thesis.
What a great contest! I just hope I am lucky enough to win… Lets go for it..
.-= Rohit Sane´s last blog ..Tech-Freak Stuff is now PageRank 3 =-.
I prefer the second prize, and how I will win it surely?
.-= Reza Winandar´s last blog ..This is blog is now Do Follow =-.
There’s no guarantee you will win, but there is a chance IF you tweet the articles as the week progresses.
Hey nice contest..I retweeted coz you sent the info in retweet group
http://twitter.com/denharsh/status/11640269023
.-= Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..Webhosting: Hostgator April 2010 Discount Coupon =-.
Hi,
This is really a great contest! count me in. I wish I win a prize
Thanks.
.-= Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..You have to read this =-.
Very cool contest Alex, extremely well thought out as someone above mentioned and tweetaways looks really cool!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Comment Contest and Bonus Winners – March! =-.
Nice… I am in it
.-= Kharim´s last blog ..How To Increase Your Page Rank =-.
Hey Alex!
Wicked contest. I would love the opportunity to work with you again. I have three projects sitting in the wings. This would be perfect!
Good luck everyone. If you haven’t worked with Alex on a site before, you are in for a treat.
.-= Jennifer Wilson – Agent Solutions´s last blog ..StudioPress Launching New Genesis Theme Framework =-.
Great Contest Alex. i think the prizes are pretty sleek… Good luck to everyone.
.-= Melvin´s last blog ..Getting Subscribed to Email Poll Result & Announcements =-.
Wonderful contest. Nice to have contest like this.
.-= Jaydip Parikh´s last blog ..Be Rock Star : Join Ahmedabad Blogger Contest : Web Analytics Wednesday Ahmedabad =-.
Thanks so much for all your work! It’s very useful thing and made so much help
I’m In.
http://twitter.com/teentechguru/status/11759618708
I am jumping. Awesome contest. I want to win this.
I have a doubt, we should put only blogussionvs or #blogussionvs. I was using the blogussionvs only.
.-= Agent Deepak´s last blog ..The Secrets of Success – Desire =-.
Either or, as long as blogussionvs (# or not) is in your tweet, it counts.
Great prize! I will take part in this contest to get one of Blogussion license! I love this theme!
.-= Peter´s last blog ..Androsa FileProtector – protect your valuable data =-.
Hey Alex its a great contest. Count me in
.-= Simran´s last blog ..80+ Websites To Submit And Promote Your Articles =-.
DOne all steps I hope for d BEST
.-= Mad Geek @beingPC´s last blog ..Lock your programs using AppLocker =-.
Hi Alexa, great contest and here is my tweeted link:
http://twitter.com/blogviet/status/11884177481
Also followed you on Twitter
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..My Blog Joins 45k Alexa with Pagerank 3 =-.
Quick question. I tweeted a couple of your posts but forgot about the hashtag, so I went back and retweeted using your link above the posts (hope that’s okay) which are supposed to have the hashatag. But I noticed in the tweet the hashtag didn’t actually have the # in front of it. Is that allright?
.-= Christopher´s last blog ..Over Selling and Keeping in Touch =-.
Too bad I missed out the easy twitter based contest…Alex when will you hold another contest again?
Awaiting for it. Also, I love your customized thesis theme, looks professional though.
Regards,
Lee
.-= Lee Ka Hoong´s last blog ..5 Ways To Reduce Your Wordpress Blog Bounce Rate =-.
Congratulations on the new release Alex! Its sounds awesome, and I know it will be high quality coming from you. It takes a lot to explain all that to those who are new to the whole concept of blogging, so now I know where to refer those who have questions about it! Thanks for the great resource.
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