People and Technology

February 5, 2007

Free Drinks at the Irish Blog Awards

Filed under: Dublin, Events, Ireland, IrishBlogAwards, People, SEO, Xml, awards, blog, blogging, bloglines, blogs, feedburner, rss — Paul Browne @ 12:10 pm

Final Results for Round 2 of this challenge are now here.

In a recent challenge , Ken McGuire crushed all opposition by reaching 100 subscribers on Feedburner before anybody else could roll out a shameless self publicity campaign.

So , to give everybody a chance, we’re going for another round. You can join in at any point (leave a comment below to get included).

The rules are simple : The person who gets the biggest % increase in FeedBurner subscribers (that’s the number on the top right of the blog) between now and the Irish Blog Awards wins. Prize is a pint. And yes, all is fair in Love, War and trying to up your Blog numbers.

To subscribe to this blog (we really can’t afford to lose twice in a row, the price of drink in Dublin being so high), click on the Orange XML icon on the top right of this page. If you’re not automatically asked to subscribe , you may want to sign up to a service such as Bloglines. Subscribing means that you’ll automatically be updated on who is in the lead.

Due to popular demand (and the fact Damien will have 17 Squintillion subscribers before next Tuesday) we’ll probably have a round 3 after this one. If you want in , leave a comment. Remember, it’s all about the percent increase, so it’s an advantage to start small.

And the Contenders are …


 Blog Start Current
Ken McGuire Creative Imaginations 103 Ken Feedburner Stat
Conor O’Neill- Louder Voice
 44 Conor Louder voice stats
Aidan Finn AidanF.net 84 AidenF
  James Corbett - Eirepreneur 480 James Corbett Feed
Robin Blandford - ByteSurgery 42 Robin Blandford Feed
Tom Raftery - IT views 751 Tom Raftery Feed
Paul Browne - Technology in Plain English 96
  Richard Hearne - Red Cardinal 85 Richard Hearne Blog
Thomas Holmes - YClickIt 113 Thomas Feedburner
Eoghan McCage - Naive by Design 35 Feedburner
  Damien Mulley - Blog AwardsHonorary Lifetime Member -
1200% increase in first 24 hours		 6
  Damian O’Broin- Ask Direct 23

Older News1):The most Recent entrant is Richard Hearne of Red Cardinal. With the SEO Ninja tricks this man has up his sleeve, he’s going to be a fairly strong contender.2): Mon Dieu! Thomas Holmes has entered. Almost certain to use a 2 language blogging strategy to take the title, how will the other competitors react?3): Eoghan is in. Damien and Damian may be in. Are there going to be any other last minute entries?

4) In a shock last minute move:

Damien Mulley forgoes his 400+ base and opts to start again with the Irish Blog Awards feed (6 readers). Rumour has it that we may as well buy the man a pint now, while the rest of us scrap it out for second place (prize - diet coke with ice). We did say almost anything was fair game … :-)

5) In another shock first day wipeout: Damien Mulley has increased his total by 1200% using a little known site called the Irish Blog Awards. I’ll check the small change down the back of the sofa , buy Damien the pint, and the rest of us mere mortals can continue on to see who gets pint number 3.

73 Comments »

  1. [...] « Masters / Msc in Web 2? Free Drinks at the Irish Blog Awards » 02 Feb [...]

    Pingback by Race you to 100 Subscribers on Feedburner? - Technology in plain English - Dublin Ireland — February 5, 2007 @ 12:57 pm

  2. Hey Paul, can you use my LouderVoice one for the competition? It’s a bigger challenge!

    Comment by Conor O'Neill — February 5, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

  3. Gonna have to roll up my SEO tricks so, have a serious sit down with the blog and plan out a few things. I’ve already got a pint for the right hand, just need one for the left hand now :)

    Comment by Ken McGuire — February 5, 2007 @ 1:19 pm

  4. I meant to say sleeves there… how does one roll up a trick? Might launch an affiliate campaign - mouthfulls of beer on offer or something…

    Comment by Ken McGuire — February 5, 2007 @ 1:24 pm

  5. Conor - Blog changed to Louder Voice. Nice trick , starting from a low base to get a bigger % increase.

    Ken - I wouldn’t be too sure about getting a 2nd beer out of me. I see you’re back down to 88 today :-(

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

  6. Ah its that ole weekend slump, easing back into the week. Give it time Obi Wan!

    Comment by Ken McGuire — February 5, 2007 @ 1:50 pm

  7. I only need to know one thing - the exact day and time that the subscription count will be taken. And as long as this contest is only based on the start and end figures (nothing in between) I’m going to have some fun :)

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 5, 2007 @ 2:06 pm

  8. Richard,

    I will probably take Tuesday’s figures for you (to avoid getting a false low after the weekend).

    Do you have a photo that I can use in the table above?

    Ken,
    I think you’re toying with us , making us think we have a chance of catching you!

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 2:25 pm

  9. Not sure yet how best to do the end figure - any ideas?

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 2:27 pm

  10. How about we all provide our ticker code to you, you put them on this page, take a screen shot tomorrow and then work against this when you take the final tally.

    But I still need a set time to prepare my strategy… :D

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 5, 2007 @ 2:41 pm

  11. Richard,

    If we can do the ‘auto updates’ (using the same piece of code that gives the ‘number of subs’ on your blog , that would be sweet!

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 2:54 pm

  12. If that works then I cant see why everyone cant just place their feed details next to their name on this page. Just take a screenshot tomorrow as the reference.

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 5, 2007 @ 3:00 pm

  13. Right I pasted in my code but it didn’t make it. Trying now by wrapping in element:

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 5, 2007 @ 3:01 pm

  14. Richard,

    If you stick the FeedBurner icon somewhere on your site, I should be able to pick it up like I did for everybody else.

    Doing a ‘reset’ from the figures tomorrow is probably fairest (esp to Aidan who got a surge at the wrong time).

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 3:37 pm

  15. [...] If anyone else wants to take part, post your interest over at Paul Browne’s blog. Share and Enjoy: [...]

    Pingback by The Great Big Extraordinary Feed Contest (with that most typical of Irish prizes) | Search Engine Optimisation Ireland .:. Red Cardinal — February 5, 2007 @ 4:07 pm

  16. hey Paul,

    I’m in!

    We just hit 100 subscribers on Friday! Pretty chuffed about that!

    I don’t have the feedburner graphic on the site at the moment but I can probably email it to you!

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — February 5, 2007 @ 5:12 pm

  17. Thomas,

    Will add you over the next couple of minutes.

    Feedburner have a little wizard that generates the icon / code to include on your web page. Probably best to put it somewhere on your blog (either a post , or the main template), I can then pick it up from there.

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 5, 2007 @ 9:30 pm

  18. Thats pretty cool, nice addition on the feedburner chicklets. Have a nice little trick up my sleeve already :)

    Comment by Ken McGuire — February 5, 2007 @ 9:55 pm

  19. OK, let’s go! I want in. My puny start should give me an advantage. I’ve put the counter in the footer of my blog. I’m unsubscribing from all you losers! ;-)

    Comment by Eoghan McCabe — February 5, 2007 @ 11:53 pm

  20. Eoghan,

    I’ll add you sometime during the day.

    Richard,

    Your numbers are down. I sense some Ninja SEO tricks are going on :-)

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 6, 2007 @ 8:11 am

  21. Nothing doing I’m afraid. It’s just normal after you get a spate of social network visitors. I had 1.7k visitors over Saturday and Sunday.

    TBH it would be very low to artificially deflate your start numbers. Easy to do, but very low.

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 6, 2007 @ 8:30 am

  22. Richard,

    No worries - I’ve the opposite problem - numbers are high today due to a premature ’surge’ in feed readers (social networks again).

    Still , 96 is as high as we’ve ever been.

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 6, 2007 @ 9:22 am

  23. [...] I’m in on Paul’s race to get the largest percentage RSS subscribers increase before the Irish Blog Awards. [...]

    Pingback by ByteSurgery » Race to 100: Read Me! - Digital Media Engineering [ Robin Blandford ] — February 6, 2007 @ 10:20 am

  24. Stick me down for the blog awards. Currently at 6 subscribers.

    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/IrishBlogAwards?bg=99CCFF&fg=444444&anim=0

    Comment by Damien Mulley — February 6, 2007 @ 3:38 pm

  25. The competition just ‘hotted up’. I’d be surprised if the largest % increase wasn’t seen by awards.ie. Expect lots of natural traffic, most especially when voting starts.

    Perhaps Damien will will an award on the night :D

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 6, 2007 @ 3:59 pm

  26. I had never considered that. *shifty eyes*

    Comment by Damien Mulley — February 6, 2007 @ 4:04 pm

  27. OK then, sign me up! How do I join?

    Although my 23 subscribers (my highest ever, btw) looks terribly puny next to all you giants of blogland

    Comment by Damian O'Broin — February 6, 2007 @ 5:28 pm

  28. Folks,

    Table updated with Today’s feedburner numbers (Thomas I can’t see yours , maybe I’m just missing it).

    If Damien happens to win (say, because he may be planning a massive event in early March that none of us know about yet) I’ll find a way to keep it interesting.

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 6, 2007 @ 9:38 pm

  29. Starting from 103 eh? Nuts, thats putting it up to me anyway! The gloves are off in this one I tell thee…

    Comment by Ken McGuire — February 6, 2007 @ 10:26 pm

  30. It’s on! I seem to be off to a dodgy start though: my name links to Thomas!

    Comment by Eoghan McCabe — February 6, 2007 @ 11:00 pm

  31. Oh, just buy Damien the drink would you. He’s gone from 6 to 76 in under 24 hours.

    It’s going to take something really sneaky to beat the awards feed… *goes to digg out spell book*

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 7, 2007 @ 8:57 am

  32. @ Eoghan ; Link Fixed.
    @ Damien - what are you having?
    @ Richard - looks like I’ll have to stump up for pint number 3!

    Comment by admin — February 7, 2007 @ 9:20 am

  33. wahoo - 50% increase overnight :-)

    Comment by Robin Blandford — February 7, 2007 @ 9:34 am

  34. @Robin - how did you manage that one?

    Comment by admin — February 7, 2007 @ 9:40 am

  35. no idea Paul. I’m presuming it’ll be back down tomorrow!!

    Comment by Robin Blandford — February 7, 2007 @ 9:46 am

  36. Paul,

    Mine is at:

    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/yclickit?bg=66FF33&fg=444444&anim=0

    As for the dual language strategy - yep i’m betting on my bilingual blog!

    Grrr, should have submitted at the weekend - now up to 113! On the other hand, cool!

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — February 7, 2007 @ 10:43 am

  37. @Thomas - feed icon updated
    @Robin - I’d expect you to say that. You just don’t want to share trade secrets with the rest of us :-)

    Comment by admin — February 7, 2007 @ 11:58 am

  38. woo hoo! I’ve smashed my previous record with 27! Watch out boys, I closing fast ;-)

    Comment by Damian O'Broin — February 7, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

  39. [...] This has nothing to do with a little race that’s kicking-off about now. Nothing at all. Posted on 7 February, 2007 at 9:05 pm and tagged with eoghan mccabe, design, web, ireland. [...]

    Pingback by Naive by Design | Subscribe to This Blog, Win €2,000 Worth of Design Work — February 7, 2007 @ 9:06 pm

  40. Holy crap. Eoghan really wants that pint. I was actually thinking of doing something similar.

    But I was thinking of putting a golden ticket into a unique feed. Cant figure a way to do this with technorati though.

    This seems to be getting a bit more serious methinks :mrgreen:

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 7, 2007 @ 10:07 pm

  41. [...] Some of the bloggers turning up to the Irish Blog Awards have started a little competition to see who can have the greatest percentage increase in their blog feed subscribers from now until the blog awards on March 3rd. Things are really hotting up now with Eoghan McCabe offering €2000 worth of his design work to a randomly selected subscriber to his feed. Who’ll be next to up the ante? [...]

    Pingback by Irish Blog Awards » Blog Archive » A little light-hearted distraction- Feed competition — February 7, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

  42. @Eoghan for Eur2000 of Web design I’ll gladly hack your ‘number of subscribers’ image above to whatever number you want :-)

    Comment by admin — February 7, 2007 @ 10:19 pm

  43. This could get dirty you know.

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 7, 2007 @ 10:24 pm

  44. [...] Well what started out as a a friendly bit of banter over who would buy the pints at the Irish Blog Awards has suddenly escalated into serious contest that could even eclipse the Blog Awards themselves. [...]

    Pingback by How Would You Like a €2,000 Web Design? It’s Just One Click Away | Search Engine Optimisation Ireland .:. Red Cardinal — February 7, 2007 @ 11:15 pm

  45. @Richard - Hopefully

    Comment by Damien Mulley — February 7, 2007 @ 11:18 pm

  46. [...] For the last few days a lot of Irish bloggers seem to have been competing to see who has the most subscribers to their feeds. *yawn* [...]

    Pingback by Feedburner Silliness — February 8, 2007 @ 1:34 am

  47. One question!

    What are the rules? ;-)

    Comment by Gavin — February 8, 2007 @ 1:48 am

  48. Gavin,

    Rules are: No biting , no eye-gouging , no photo-shopping, no double-subscribing but otherwise anything goes.

    You in for the next round?

    Paul

    Comment by admin — February 8, 2007 @ 7:05 am

  49. I think the ‘rules’ went out the window a while ago. Sure, I don’t even know how we decide the winner.

    But one thing I do know, if we make a couple more comments here the central div might actually extend beyond Paul’s side bar :mrgreen:

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 8, 2007 @ 7:17 am

  50. [...] Why you should subscribe to this blog [...]

    Pingback by 2000 Euro worth of Design work , just to get Free Beer at the Irish Blog Awards. - Technology in plain English - Dublin Ireland — February 8, 2007 @ 7:29 am

  51. [...] Paul Browne is running a competition with a few of the guys that are going to the Irish Blog awards, to see who can get the highest percentage increase in subscribers.  They are all using feedburner as the official subscriber count.  I wish I entered the race, at the moment I only have 16 subscribers so should have an advantage over some of the bloggers like Tom Rafferty who have over 700.   [...]

    Pingback by Who can get the most subscribers… | Stephen’s Thoughts — February 8, 2007 @ 10:49 am

  52. Sign me up, mate! With a measly six or seven subscribers (on a good day) I expect that by simply pointing a gun at the head of my extended family, I should be able to romp home here!

    Comment by JC Skinner — February 8, 2007 @ 3:06 pm

  53. I’m sure that pint is mines although Richard will need to be dealt with accordingly.

    Once I get my feed burner fully functional I’ll submit my site with zero subscribers, yes I am confident.

    Comment by Gavin — February 8, 2007 @ 3:24 pm

  54. Yeah, this whole percentage increase thing really isn’t the greatest measure…

    For Tom to increase his subscribers at the same rate as Damien has done in the last two days he would need 9400 subscribers.

    Not that it isn’t possible! :-)

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — February 8, 2007 @ 3:36 pm

  55. JC , Gavin : I’ll include you in the next round. Easiest thing is to stick the feedburner icon on your blog and I’ll pick it up from there.

    Thomas: Yes %age increase is a bit dodgy. I’m open to suggestions on how to measure round (pint) 3.

    Comment by admin — February 8, 2007 @ 4:17 pm

  56. Well I missed why you aren’t using just the raw increase in subscribers.

    You could use raw subscribers and factor in %increase in some way.

    i.e. starting out with a larger subscriber base makes it easier to increase raw subscribers through your existing subscriber network. So factor this in, in some way that balances out the chances of winning for the blogs with lower subscriber figures.

    jeez my maths hat is pretty dusty these days… :-)

    Comment by Thomas Holmes — February 8, 2007 @ 4:25 pm

  57. Richard: “Holy crap. Eoghan really wants that pint.”

    Not really, I’m just over-competitive. It’s a little problem I have. But if I do win the pint, I’ll enjoy knowing it cost me 2 grand!

    Comment by Eoghan McCabe — February 8, 2007 @ 7:12 pm

  58. [...] Cue Round Two “The person who gets the biggest % increase in FeedBurner subscribers between now and the Irish Blog Awards wins” [...]

    Pingback by iced coffee words » burn feeds — February 8, 2007 @ 8:50 pm

  59. Been out of the ring lately but this looks interesting. Lots of luck

    Comment by theresa daly — February 8, 2007 @ 11:43 pm

  60. This sounds like fun - count me in :)

    Comment by Phil — February 9, 2007 @ 1:06 am

  61. Glad to see almost everybody’s numbers are up. I have a plan for this. After all, we’re not really in this for the pint (shock ! horror!).

    @Thomas - I’m trying to keep the number really simple, yet fair. Maybe next time we can do ‘bigest spike in google visitors’ , although we’ll have to trust each other on that one.

    @Phil - I’ll include you in the next round.

    Comment by admin — February 9, 2007 @ 1:37 pm

  62. [...] RSS Subscriber Competition I imagine most of you have seen this already: Free Drinks at the Irish Blog Awards - Technology in plain English - Dublin Ireland __________________ Armchair.ie | work|Blog Tips|Seo tips|EU Domain ScandalTechie Toys| Gadgets Do you want your vbulletin site to be search engine friendly? Click here for info [...]

    Pingback by RSS Subscriber Competition - Irish SEO, Marketing & Webmaster Discussion — February 9, 2007 @ 10:07 pm

  63. [...] Wow. Richard Hearne from Red Cardinal is offering a free consultation for all nominees. It’s about 15 minutes of his time but it can still be a good deal. There are lots of terms and conditions but none too sneaky. He is of course looking for you to subscribe to his blog feed too and link to his blog from your blog. This is known as linkbaiting but since both sides benefit, it might not be classed as spam. I’m reminded of something else … [...]

    Pingback by Irish Blog Awards » Blog Archive » Free SEO Consulting for all Blog Award Nominees — February 11, 2007 @ 1:09 pm

  64. Hmmm. 50% increase on Friday and now a 30% drop. This is going to be interesting…

    Comment by Damian O'Broin — February 11, 2007 @ 10:00 pm

  65. 6 Days gone … and most people’s feeds are *down* on last week. Ok, it’s Monday so things will pick up. We’ll wrap up this round tomorrow (as Damien pretty much has it in the bag)

    There is an alternative to Beer on offer for Round 3. Any suggestions on how to award the (to be revealed) prize to be fair to everyone? Thomas has suggested %age *and* absolute increase. I’m thinking of ‘craziest offer to increase stats ‘(e.g. Richard and Eoghan). What do people think?

    Will probably kick round 3 off towards the end of the week.

    Comment by admin — February 12, 2007 @ 1:58 pm

  66. [...] It must be the season for competitions and give-aways because as many in the blogo-sphere will know the second leg of Blog feeds subscriber race is soon to come to an end. (Oh, and Free Drinks are up for grabs) [...]

    Pingback by David Doran’s Media Blog » Blog Archive » Learning Takes Time — February 12, 2007 @ 7:38 pm

  67. [...] In a shock turn to the Irish Blog awards, Damien Mulley has been revealed (allegedly) to be in receipt of a pint for his efforts in the ‘increase your subscribers on feedburner‘ award. Anonymous sources detailled his use of the Irish Blog Award feed (which increased it’s readers 32 times) to win this prestigious award, which is the premier alcohol based award in the Irish Blogosphere. [...]

    Pingback by Irish Blog Award Bribery Shocker - Technology in plain English - Dublin Ireland — February 13, 2007 @ 2:06 pm

  68. Everyone can expect a fairly big jump in their numbers over the weekend. Google will now provide feeder numbers for both Google Reader and Google Homepage subscribers.

    Previously this only showed up as a single aggregate reader. You will now see the total figure :)

    Comment by Richard Hearne — February 16, 2007 @ 5:12 pm

  69. [...] Why you should subscribe to this blog Subscribe by Email [...]

    Pingback by Free Feedburner Gear to give away on YOUR blog - Technology in plain English - Dublin Ireland — February 21, 2007 @ 1:12 pm

  70. [...] The stunt ends today and one of my subscribers will get €2,000 worth of web design work. If you’d like it, all you have to do is leave your name in the comments some time in the next 24 hours and I’ll put you in the draw. I’ll announce the winner with an update to this post. Good luck! While I didn’t win the race, I did gain an extra 60 subscribers. But I’m not under any illusions; there’s nothing more appealing than free! While I’ve got you, I’d like to invite you to stick around because there’s lots to come in the next few months: [...]

    Pingback by Naive by Design | Who Wants €2,000 of Free Web Design Work? — March 5, 2007 @ 10:30 am

  71. [...] …Paul Browne of FirstPartners.net! Using a sequence of numbers from Dublin-based Random.org, I put all the names in a spreadsheet and sorted by descending order. It’s funny that Paul ended-up on top as he’s the guy ultimately responsible for this whole thing. So well done Paul; you walk away with €2,000 of web design work and one of the ugly trophies pictured above. [...]

    Pingback by Naive by Design | And the Winner of €2,000 of Web Design Work Is… — March 8, 2007 @ 3:13 pm

  72. [...] [...]

    Pingback by People and Technology - Damien Mulley is the number one threat to Irish Productivity — November 1, 2007 @ 9:47 am

  73. [...] Cue Round Two “The person who gets the biggest % increase in FeedBurner subscribers between now and the Irish Blog Awards wins” [...]

    Pingback by icedcoffee | words » burn feeds — March 22, 2009 @ 2:57 pm

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