So, it’s time to announce some winners of some contests:

First of all, there’s the 2008 credits that needs to go to a random person who dropped their card on my site. I have over 300 drops over the period of the contest. I’ve decided to involve my daughter in this, so she picked a number for me and the number is: 273.

My 273rd card dropped on my site was…. CyberStreet Report! So, I’ll be sending those 2008 credits to him in just a moment. This is kind of fitting considering how many credits he’s given away in his own contests. It was about time he felt some credit love of his own. Congratulations!

Now, the next contest I need to settle is the “Top Spot” contest I run every month. She’s already been informed, but Evil Woobie sent me the most traffic in December and therefore OWNS the top spot on my site. She’ll be giving me details on what she wants there later today. She’s also won 200 Entrecard credits. And finally a review of her site, which is included in this post further down.

Stay tuned to the site if you didn’t win. I love giving out stuff, and remember, the Top Spot contest is for every month. So you can still try to “Decrown” Evil Woobie from her position. It’s kind of like playing “King of the Hill” except, for this month, it’s “Queen of the Hill.” There’s also that $250 contest I’m running. It goes until 2/27/2008, so you’ve got plenty of time to enter.

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Evil Woobie

From wishing everyone a Happy New Year, or in her own words, a “sparkly” New Year, to giving us an example of how she comes up with her blog posts, Woobie is comical and full of wit. Following are my comments on the content, design, and ad use of her site.

Content

Evil Woobie writes in such a manner that it’s easy to get pulled in to her words. It’s kind of like staring at that girl with the perfect jewel blue eyes, you just get sucked in and forget you’re staring until she calls the cops because you’re stalking her. That’s the way her words are. Seriously. You try reading them and looking away, it just won’t work. She touches on subjects that just about any of her readers can relate to. In a world where every blog is about making money with blogs, hers stands out in the crowd.

Design

She recently changed her design slightly, but still, it has the same elegance as it had before. It has just as many widgets as some of the other blogs out there, but it’s done in such a manner that the important information is found “above the fold.” Heck, if you’re a member of Entrecard, you’d get a prime spot on her site. I know because not only did she send me the most traffic (with just one post, and it was a meme post to boot) with her blog entry, but she’s also the best traffic source for me for ads placed on Entrecard. Just one time advertising on her site got me 24 clicks. Wow!

Use of Ads

Bloggers should get paid for their time if they’re providing a valuable or entertaining service. So I have no problem with ads, it’s just sometimes they overwhelm the content so much that you can’t find the content and only find the ads. That may make the ads get clicked more often, but it also turns off the readers.

However, Evil Woobie, does have ads. The funny thing, is this review is the first time I’ve actually noticed them. They’re hiding on the sidebar in such a way that I notice the content first and the ads, well, not until now. That’s the way ads should be. Content and regular readers is much more important ot the beginning of a blog than the monetizing aspect. At least if you want to keep your blog around for a long time. The “in-and-out” blogs use different techniques, which although they work, just aren’t for me. I like Evil Woobie’s way of monetizing her site. It’s very “behind the scenes” and makes me happy to visit her site.

Conclusion

Visit her site. Stumble it. Digg it. Do whatever you can, but make sure that most of all, you READ it. That’s the important part. And she’s got great content to absorb.

Related Posts:

• I’ve Been Inspired!
• A Traffic Explosion from Entrecard
• 2048 Entrecard Credits (Contest is Over)
• Win $250 and 1000 Entrecard Credits! (Contest is Over)
• 2008 Entrecard Credits in the Shortest Contest Post Ever