Microsoft Zune Arrives Safely… Now What?
May 13th, 2007 by msdanielle
Hey everyone! The Microsoft Zune that I won from John Chow just came in this weekend. Woohoo! I’ll try to come up with an easy contest for people to enter since I promised to give it away if I won. 
Anyhow, I removed the Zune briefly from its packaging to see what it looks like — I’ve never actually held one. I didn’t turn it on, so I don’t know how it performs (right now, I’m going by Michael’s Kwan’s review), but it was really bulky and kind of heavy, sort of like the first generation iPods. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but the doo-doo brown color just isn’t very impressive or clean. I think a nice olive green would’ve been a better-suited urban color choice.
I emailed John to let him know it arrived safely, and that I’d be contesting it away as well. His response: “Good to hear you have it. Now let me win it back!” LOL Let’s see if it really will get recycled back to his blog. If so, you’ll most likely have one more chance to win it. I told you the MS Zune is the new white elephant!
If you had to contest it away, what rules would you require? I’d love to hear what you all would do with it! I’ll announce my contest in the coming weeks once I figure it out…
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Hi Ms Danielle
I like contest w/o rules (KISS), simply by the draw of the luck.
How about running the Zune contest that ask readers to comment on the post, and draw out a lucky winner from the commentators?
Just my 2 cents suggestion.
You could always just give it to me!
I mean I’ll review it on my other site and give you full credit as the ’sponsor’ of the review!! oh well.. figured I’d give it a shot anyway… hehe
I too like the idea of having people post a comment and then randomly select from the batch of names.
John did it and Rod won a video card. I’ll do it and perhaps I’ll win a Zune!
so none of you would do a link-for-entry contest? what if this were your contest and your blog?
I would do it both ways. Have them right a small post about the contest using a particular phrase you wish to have reference your site… and then randomly select a winner from those
But for me because I don’t run wordpress I dont have a way of automatically notifying the other blog that I posted to them, nor do I have a way of blogs to automatically notify me that they linked back to me.
yea i was thinking of doing something like this, but wanted to put some kind of original spin into but. but keeping it fun too…
Danielle! What an opportunity you have here! If John won it back, what do you think he’d do with it? He’d put it up for grabs again, right? So why not let him? His readers would have to link to both his blog and yours with your chosen anchor text. Leverage his huge base of readers for your own gain (and his)! Isn’t this what 1234pens.com did with the Nintendo Wii?
that’s a pretty ingenious idea
hahaha… however, i’d like to give my readers a fair chance at winning it from me. giving it back to john chow – even though i’d get a mountain of back links – would be breaking my promise. interesting idea, though 
it’s actually something to keep in mind for future reference!
Ms Danielle
Can you BAN mr J.C from this upcoming contest?
why?
hey, i think you shud try to get backlinks for this contest. So, if it was my blog, then you will have this contest, write a review about my site, 20 entries accepted, the best one selected by votes from readers and me, wins the Zune. You have to anchor this page and my home page…..that way you get loads of backlinks and the chances of someone winning is also cool…unlike Johns contest where your winning ratio is about 1 is to 10k……and tell me whn you r doing this….since I want that ZUNE, my 256mb chinese player is on its deathbed ……
I would give it to the eighth person who replied to your question in your comments section hehe….
Think getting backlinks is a no brainer really, best review would be ok but I wouldn’t limit to 20 reviews….
TBH best review may put some people off as opposed to a random draw… are you that bothered about how good the reivews are, or do you just want the links…. I would just want as many links as I could get…
You could open it up a bit by allowing a review or a backlink… I think some people are tired of writing reviews (well, at least one person…. me….), you could give a choice of say 5 anchor links and say to enter you can either use one of these 5 anchors, or write a review… but a review gets you 5 entries in the hat… a link only gets you one…. that way you may get links from people that cant be bothered to write a full blown review. That could also allow some people may write a review and include you in a speed link….
I would put no limits on the number of links per blog, but would say no more than one link per page….
Hopefully JC will help you publicise your comp, have you asked him??
Spuds idea may help persuade him, i.e. offer to include his link in the competition…. I think that would work really well….
Hmm, thats true Jez…but if you r looking for competitions..then maybe there r not much choices…until you put your thinkin caps on and think real hard….maybe you shud trade it for something more interesting…hmm….err….WHAT? not for the highest comments anyways..please. it only increases stupid meaningless comments…maybe for backlinks…..or something you want really for your blog
I was not suggesting she give it away for comments!!!
There is not much that it could be traded for other than links… the trick is getting a zunes worth of linkbacks… msDanielle is a small blog, she does not want to end up giving away her zune for handful of links….. definitely think she needs to get JC to help promote her comp, whatever it turns out go be….. the fact she won it from him in the first place may make it worth more than your average Zune in this respect….
Danielle, I dont think you should be talking about “bulky first gen Ipod doo doo brown”… it is a state of the art MP3 player that life will not be complete without
hahaha i see your point jez but i guess i can’t help but be honest! LOL everyone knows what the zune is by now i hope so my use of doo-doo brown shouldn’t matter too much.
and you’re right that it might have a little more sentimental value since it came from jc’s blog.
i like your discussion with anand – maybe i’ll do one entry for a back link or two entries for a review. 5 is kind of a lot, and i’m hoping to keep it somewhat simple. but thanks for all of your feedback! i like how you think
Maybe you shud try something similar to what Matt608 is trying to do with his prize pen from JC, he is passing it around the world!!! And guess who is the next person to get it?
http://matt608.blogspot.com/2007/03/john-chow-fans-pass-pen-game.html
I would go for a fan sign contest, a simple picture of the person holding a fan sign with your URL on it. Then both you and them could post it and both of you get a link. Just make sure you have some decency rules like no nakedness
If you’re going to join in on the “link-back to win” type of contests, then I suggest changing it up and making it more difficult than writing a small paragraph with a quick linkback to the contest or homepage. Perhaps a 300 word minimum on what they would do with the Zune if they won it, or perhaps the first songs they would copy onto it.
Too much like hard work, I would be after quantity not quality (but Im cheap
)
i have to agree with Jez. that sounds like a lot of work… i don’t mind getting a quick write-up as long as the anchor text is correct and the content is relevant! less difficulty = more back links
jason’s fan sign picture idea is pretty funny though!
[...] the lucky winner of the Microsoft Zune from John Chow, now has the Zune in her hands… but what will she do with it? She could always give it to me! [...]
Heya MsDanielle, congrats on your new Zune.
Have a contest that involves persons video recording their personalised Zune ads and posting on YouTube, and then we have a vote off and the winner gets the Zune
lol that would be hilarious! maybe that could be worth like 5 entries into the hat
Cool… And congratulations! I think they (not just Microsoft but electronic device companies in general) are trying to make brown the new black/white… I read it somewhere… I forget where.. but yeah.. true enough I’ve seen a lot of new brown Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones too…
[...] open to just anyone with a blog who is willing to link to her site a couple times. Ms. Dannielle won this Zune in a contest and decided to put it back up for grabs. I like this ideas and I promise to do the [...]
Rules – hmm – You should ask entrants to give a link to your blog in every blog post they make for a year – especially John Chow. You should also tell them to enter my wonderful contest too- no backlinks required.
Hi, rather than giveaway a product, isn’t cash the best thing? Here’s another contest along the same lines as John Chow and thepiggybanker. It’s a $200 link contest at http://www.face.com. Ends Dec 31, 2008. Also, there’s 2 contests: an hourly giveaway just for posting a picture of your face, as well as the contest for $200 for a link contest.