I’m super excited to announce my new contest this month sponsored by the awesome folks at MarketLeverage.  They were nice enough to sponsor this contest and offer three great prizes up for grabs.  Before I talk about the contest and the prizes involved, I just want to say a couple of words about MarketLeverage.

As many of you know, I’ve been working on learning the whole Affiliate Marketing side of Internet Marketing in the recent months.  Although there is so much to learn, and I still feel like a complete noob compared to some of the great marketers out there, I am definitely starting to get a really good handle on how things work and who the players are in this market.  It’s a totally different playing field compared to Blogging, so there is definitely a lot to learn.

If you’re thinking of getting into affiliate marketing, one of the decisions you’re going to have to make is which affiliate networks you’re going to work with for finding and promoting offers.  When I was first looking into this, I wasn’t sure who to go with and while doing some research I found a couple of Blog posts about some of the care packages that MarketLeverage was sending out to affiliates and to Bloggers.  I’m not going to go into detail about the specifics, but lets just say that after seeing what they sent out to people I was pretty sure I was looking at a company that has a very positive, giving (lightworker) business philosophy.  Without hesitation I signed up for an account with them and have enjoyed working with them ever since.

What’s cool about them is their hands-on approach to customer service and how much they value Bloggers.  I was assigned an account rep who doesn’t hesitate to answer any of my noobie questions on Affiliate Marketing and their Marketing Manager has been awesome to work with for placing ads on my Blog as well as sponsoring this contest.

What may shock you is that I’ve promoted less than $50 worth of goods through their program so far (I’m just getting started), and they treat me like a king.  I definitely give them 10/10 marks for awesome customer service, way ahead of any other affiliate network I’ve signed up for so far.  Maybe the others start to treat you well once you’re making them a few hundred thousands dollars a year, but MarketLeverage has been there for me even when I’m just an infant Affiliate Marketer.

Here’s one final thing I’d like to say for Bloggers and then I’ll get onto the contest details.

If you’re a Blogger, here’s why you should sign up for Market Leverage ( click this link ) right now even if you’re not fully committed to become a professional Affiliate Marketer yet (or ever). MarketLeverage pays out a full 5% commission of everything that anyone you refer to them earns FOR LIFE.  So, even if you’re not too sure about the whole Affiliate Marketing thing yet, get signed up for an account, then as an account holder you’ll be able to promote them on your Blog as an affiliate, and at least put up some of their banner ads on your site promoting them as an affiliate.

Then, if someone that visits your site happens to create an account with them through your link and become the next Super Affiliate, you’ll get paid 5% of their earnings FOR LIFE.  Of course MarketLeverage discloses this point to everyone registering for an account, just as they’ll disclose that I’ll make 5% of anything you earn through them if you choose to sign up for an account with them through my links, but the 5% doesn’t come out of your affiliates commissions so I don’t see why anyone would ever have a problem with it.

So anyways, that’s my mini-review of MarketLeverage.  I really like working with them, and as I get better at this whole Affiliate Marketing game I’m sure I’ll be working with them even closer.

Ok, onto the contest details.  Here’s what’s up for grabs.

Unlike my last contest where I only had one winner, this contest will have three prizes going to three winners, hence the “Three Times the Prizes” title of this post.  Here’s the prize details:

1st Place Winner Will Receive the prize pack pictured on the left which includes a Flip Mino and a 2GB USB Pen.

I’m actually quite jealous of whoever wins the Mino because I’ve been wanting one myself for a while now, but they don’t sell them here in Canada (yet).

I’ve entered some contests on some other Blogs that MarketLeverage sponsored hoping to win, but nothing so far.

Obviously I’m not eligible to win in my own contest otherwise I’d be entering myself since I’m making it really easy to enter.

The Flip Mino makes it really easy to do video on your Blog and everyone who’s got one has good things to say about them.

2nd Place Winner will receive this $50 MarketLeverage Rewards Card, which is basically a pre-loaded American Express gift card that you can use any place that accepts American Express.

Not a bad deal, considering it doesn’t really cost you anything to enter the contest besides a few minutes of your time, and your odds of winning the prize are probably a lot better than winning the same amount on a scratch and win.

3rd Place Winner will receive a 2GB USB pen.  Perfect for keeping your files with you as you travel between your home and office, or for backing up 2GB’s worth of data.

Ok, now lets get into the details of how to enter to win.

For this contest, I’m going to do things a bit different from the last contest.  I’m going to use a ticket system and reward people based on effort.  Basically, there are some things you can do which only take a few seconds and earn you one ticket and if that’s all the time you have to enter then that’s fine and you can still have a chance to win.  However, if you really want to maximize your chances of winning there are additional things you can do to earn extra tickets.  Every ticket you earn gives you an extra chance to win.  The more tickets you have, the higher chances you have of winning.

So, lets get into the details of how to earn tickets.

How to Earn Tickets:

+1 Ticket: You can earn your first ticket by leaving a comment on this Blog post.  It’s one ticket maximum, no matter how many comments you leave however.  Before you leave a comment, take a look at the other ways to earn tickets and let me know how many tickets you’ve earned in your comment.

+5 Tickets: Write a Blog post on your Blog which talks about this contest and link to it.
+5 Tickets: Sign up for a MarketLeverage Account using my link.
(***) +5 Tickets: Take my Membership Site Survey here:Click Here to take the survey
+1 Ticket: Digg this contest.
+1 Ticket: Stumble or Stumble Review this contest.
+1 Ticket: Twitter about this contest & Follow me on Twitter.
+1 Ticket: Favorite this contest on Technorati.

If you participated in my last contest, read the next paragraph.  If you did not, just skip to contest rules.

Everyone who participated in my last contest who didn’t win, will automatically get 6 Tickets towards this contest as outlined in my previous contest rules on top of whatever you earn here.  Please note that after careful consideration I will not be offering the “carry tickets forward” promotion in this or my future contests, so if you participated in my last contest you get your tickets for this one plus 3 more contests, but for everyone else I am no longer doing that.

*** UPDATE: I’m offering 5 more tickets to anyone who fills out the survey for my upcoming membership site I’m building, as well as a chance to win a free membership to the site for the person who provides me with the best feedback.   Click Here to take the survey

(** Keep an eye out, I might add other ways to earn tickets throughout the contest.)

Contest Rules

Contest runs from July 14th to August 14th, 2008.  Winners will be drawn and announced shortly thereafter.

Although I have no intention of doing so, I reserve the right to make changes to the contest at any time.