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Last Post Nov 11, 2009 7:54 AM by: wildennis
Replies: 13
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wizard_mithrandir
Posts: 2,936

Free Website Give Away

Nov 1, 2009 12:40 PM
Lora and I earn our entire living online. The Internet community is our workplace and our marketplace. As often as possible we try to do things that give back to that community. We offer free help, free resources, free utilities, free information sites, and a variety of other things to return value to others. We've decided that we are going to give away a free website. It's not a gimmick. It's a full multi-page website complete with installation and hosting. It will be completely FREE. We want to do something different in order to give it away. We have some ideas but we'd also like to hear yours.

This website will have a base installation price of about $250.00 and a hosting/maintenance value of about $15.00 per month. We'll cover all those costs. We are even going to provide a sub-domain for the hosting. The recipient will have a fully installed, ready to use, website without any on-going costs. It may be used for personal or commercial purposes.

We've seen a lot of great ideas and advice on a variety of things in this forum and it's one of the places where we would like to ask about this idea. How should we go about giving this website away? How should we choose to whom it should be given? A contest? A drawing?

Your ideas and suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.


FREE WEBSITE
Treasure Hunt
See my me page!
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nmj_ventures
Posts: 460
(1 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 1, 2009 2:22 PM
Sounds like fun!
Use it to generate traffic to your sites.

Drawings are just the luck of the draw and someone may win that won't even use it.

I think a contest would be best. This way those that are really interested will do what they can to earn the prize.

What kind of pool of people did you have in mind,
This board? All of eBay? Worldwide?
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faeries_finest
Posts: 10,838
(2 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 1, 2009 2:30 PM
I think it should be some sort of contest where they have to submit at least a basic business plan. You are always really clear in your posts that selling online is work and you have to be willing to work it. Give your website to someone that shows they understand that and are prepared for it. That way it is a better chance of being win/win for both of you.
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the-silver-lotus
Posts: 2,377
(3 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 2, 2009 10:15 AM
Love the idea of a someone having to submit a plan. A contest with you guys judging is the way to go - as another poster said, someone who just wins a lucky draw may not really have a plan or use it. If you guys are going to all the trouble, at least the winner should have a good shot at making a go of it. You certainly have enough experience to know if someone's idea for a site has a chance.

We are even going to provide a sub-domain for the hosting.
So just to be clear, the domain would not be owned by the winner? Would the url be something like this:
www.stevewiz.com/salliesdomain

or would it work like msmosites (which I think is great steve - nice work!) where the folks you host have their own domains?

By the way, I'm not sure what the policy is for the discussion boards, but my recollection is that we're not allowed to have contests and such in our listings or our ebay stores. Double check before promoting in this neck of the woods.

Maybe amazon or the ebay partner network or some other affiliate-related program would be interested in this?

Again, great!

cheers,
Sallie
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wizard_mithrandir
Posts: 2,936
(4 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 2, 2009 10:56 AM
Thanks for some great ideas here. We are leaning towards a "treasure hunt" concept but will take in other ideas (for this or future give aways).

We really like the "business plan" idea and may use it for something else. Wow. You guys are great.

Sallie, the website will be installed on our server with perpetual free hosting included. The sub-domain would be something like:

Link

(a true sub-domain, not just a sub-folder) and would not be transferable. We are simply not including payment for a full domain, ie:

Link

in the package as the gift is open ended and could run for years. The winner is, however, welcome to provide their own domain if they would prefer that. That domain would, of course, remain theirs.

Once we work this all out and announce the actual give away we probably won't be able to provide a link to the details in the forum post here but I expect most people will be able to figure out a way to get the information if they really want it. We'll consider it the first clue in the treasure hunt! :o)


FREE WEBSITE
Treasure Hunt
See my me page!
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nmj_ventures
Posts: 460
(5 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 2, 2009 12:24 PM
Treasure hunt / scavenger hunt Great idea!

No need to make more work by judging biz plans!
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jhgirl
Posts: 101
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Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 2, 2009 12:55 PM
Treasure hunt sounds good to me. Count me in. This is an exciting opportunity. Thank you for offering! :)
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wizard_mithrandir
Posts: 2,936
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Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 2, 2009 10:41 PM
Effective midnight last night the Treasure Hunt is underway!


FREE WEBSITE
Treasure Hunt
See my me page!
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the-silver-lotus
Posts: 2,377
(8 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 3, 2009 5:44 AM
the treasure hunt is a fun idea Steve!
happy hunting!!!

Sallie
B-)
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nmj_ventures
Posts: 460
(9 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 3, 2009 6:46 AM
Trips jhgirl out of the gate!
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wizard_mithrandir
Posts: 2,936
(10 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 3, 2009 8:41 AM
The question was missing on the first site and the whole 10th. site wasn't linked... fixed now! Sorry, I shouldn't do this stuff at midnight when I'm tired!


FREE WEBSITE
Treasure Hunt
See my me page!
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johntbaxter
Posts: 12
(11 of 13)

Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 4, 2009 7:12 AM
If you have a blog that you want to drive traffic to (Simillar to this one www.TheBestProductsToSellOnEbay.com), an idea is to give away a prize to the 100th person who leaves a comment on your blog.
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nmj_ventures
Posts: 460
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Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 6, 2009 7:16 AM
what a great offer! *bump*
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wildennis
Posts: 1
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Re: Free Website Give Away

Nov 11, 2009 7:54 AM
Hi, My name is Dennis Wilfred , live in Thomasville Ga .
Im new to the internet and i tried free website building and got no where.Im 58 years old, And unemployed I would love to have a website to work at home. i would very much appreciate a website that you want to give
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