Ideablob's Debut Newsletter:
November's Winner Shares Secrets to $10,000 Greetings Blobbers!
Thank you for participating in the ideablob.comSM community, the place where small business owners and entrepreneurs are sharing, growing and voting on business ideas. Whether you submitted an idea, voted, gave advice or just browsed, we're glad you blobbed! So many talented entrepreneurs and business people are sharing ideas in an open forum, and just as we hoped, blobbers are freely providing valuable advice and support. Ideablob is an idea, too, and thanks to your participation, we're learning and growing. Recently we announced another $10,000 prizewinner. We just launched ideablob University (ideablob.com/university ), a collaborative project with academic entrepreneurial programs across the country. And we added new features to make the site better and easier to use.   | December's winner dances with ideablob.com This week, ideablob spent some time in New York and watched a great performance of the Misnomer Dance Theater. Then again, the organization's artistic director and choreographer, Chris Elam, is the winner of ideablob.com's prize for December. With the $10,000, he wants to build an online platform for performing artists. Some of the features will include real-time video streaming of rehearsals, instant messaging with performers, and tools to help raise money (such as through online advertising). "One of my dancers found out about ideablob and forwarded it to me," said Elam. "She thought it would be a great way to build awareness about our efforts within the dance company while gaining financial support." Elam was also quite effective in promoting his idea on his own blog, with creative uses of YouTube videos. Check it out at http://www.misnomer.org/blog/. |  | November's Winner In early December, Marci Bossow Schankweiler of North Wales, PA was named November's ideablob.com monthly contest winner for the best business idea, as voted on by you, the ideablob community. Marci is the first Advanta BusinessCard customer to win the monthly contest, and as a result, she is eligible to receive 1,000,000 rewards points on her Advanta BusinessCard (or the cash equivalent) in addition to the $10,000 monthly contest prize. Marci is President and founder of Crossing the Finish Line, a Blue Bell, PA-based non-profit organization that provides excursions for young adult cancer patients and their families. She founded CFL after her first husband passed away from cancer at the age of 30, and plans to use the prize money to help fund a home for cancer patients near Orlando, FL. | Marci's secrets for getting $10k How did Marci Schankweiler snag November's grand prize? True, she had a great idea. But she also had a strong marketing plan, backed with some teamwork. Here's how she pulled it off: - - She encouraged some of her tech savvy friends to create groups on Facebook. There were also personal email campaigns on MySpace.com®.
- - Marci's organization, Crossing the Finish Line, has its own e-mail newsletter. So yes, she had a get-out-the-vote email blast.
- - On the final day of the contest, Marci rallied her organization's staff, volunteers and board members to send out emails as well as make phone calls. As Marci stated, "E-mail is great but I believe in the need to connect with people on a more personal and direct level. A phone call is more likely to rally a person than a mass e-mail is. There's nothing like a good conversation to get people engaged!"
 | ideablob UniversitySM: On January 9th, at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference, we launched ideablob University, a collaborative effort between ideablob.com and several university entrepreneurial programs across the country. Ideablob University serves as an experiential learning tool that will allow professors and students to view the ideablob.com activity of their classmates via a private classroom. Ideas, comments and feedback will live in the ideablob.com universe and eligible students may compete for the $10,000 prize. | Site Enhancements: Ideablob.com is a work in progress. Here are some of the enhancements we've made or are planning to make very soon. Advice We think making it easier to give and receive advice is crucial for the success of the community.
So, our plans to improve the Advice section include the following: - - Make a better, more clear distinction between advice and comments.
- - Identify and recognize those community members who stand out as top advisors.
Submitting ideas When submitting ideas on the home page, you can now categorize them as being for an existing business, a startup, a nonprofit organization or an invention. Feedback We've added a more prominent feedback button on the homepage to gather user feedback and recommendations. We're constantly fixing bugs and always invite you to let us know if you find problems. We're also making the site more secure to better protect the fairness of the contest. Timer We added a timer that counts down to the end of the contest to help build a little excitement and a greater sense of urgency. Many thanks for your continued interest and support. Happy blobbing! Sincerely,
The ideablob team NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
Contest began on 9/24/07 at 12:00:00 am CT and ends on 3/31/08 at 11:59:59 pm CT. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and D.C. who are of the legal age of majority in their state of residence at the time of entry. Void where prohibited. To be eligible for the rewards points portion of the prize, you must have an Advanta BusinessCard Account in good standing. All awarded points are subject to the Advanta Business Rewards Program Rules. Residents of AZ, MD, NJ, ND, TN and VT are not eligible for rewards points portion of the prize. Click here for complete Official Rules. Sponsor: Advanta Bank Corp, PO Box 30715, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0715. EMAIL INFORMATION
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