So, give your current cards a check-up!! Do they represent your current business offerings? What about the contact information? Name, email, phone, web address? What about social media profile? Whether you need to start from scratch or just update a current design, now is your chance to do it for free!

What Will Two Lucky Readers Win?

• 500 Business Cards
• Choose size: 2×3.5”, 2×3”, 2×2″;
• Choose paper: 14pt cardstock (matte or gloss coating) & 13 pt cardstock uncoated
• Choose Color: (4/4) Color both sides; (4/1) Color 1 side , B/W backside; (4/0) Color 1 side, black backside
• Shipping must be paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY.

How Do You Enter?

• Leave a comment on this post telling us how some shiny, new business cards will help you grow your business this fall or how you might use them. For example, I will be launching a new off-shoot of my Keystrokes Design & Marketing business this fall and need a separate set of business cards just for that purpose. I am thinking of going with one of UPrinting’s unique die cut business cards (however, this giveaway is just for their standard business cards).
• Get a second entry for being social – use any of the buttons at the bottom of this post to spread the word about the giveaway. Leave a separate comment telling me whether you tweeted, stumbled, or otherwise shared this post using one of the social buttons. Or you can post about the giveaway on your own blog.

Contest Rules

• You may enter by leaving your comment(s) below until midnight on Friday, September 11, 2009.
• You must use your real name and email address in the comment form below. If you don’t we can’t contact in the event that you win.
• We will be using Random.org to select two (2) winners.
• Remember, the cards and printing are free if you win, but you will have to pay for shipping only.

Need some inspiration? Take a look at some of these very slick business card design round ups:

• 36 Cool Business Card Designs
• 45 More Creative Business Card Designs
• 18 Smokin’ Hot Business Card Designs
• Business Card Design: Better than a Plain Ol’ Business Card

No time to waste! Get your business on the fast track this fall and start by entering to win some slick new business cards.

UPDATED: The giveaway is now closed. The winners are Heather and Jane.

Last week I announced the Blogger Appreciation Awards sponsored by CellPhones.org and come to find out, I was nominated and now have the chance to win $1000 of my cell phone bill for the year to be paid.

But I need your help – I need you to visit the Finalist page and scroll down to the bottom and click on my name (Char Polanosky).  Its easy – you don’t have to register, just click!

Who is eligible?

Anyone who is an active blogger (at least the last two months) and blogs on any topic. Your blog can be hosted anywhere. No Spam or Automated Blogs. If you win, you need to let Cell Phones . org post your name and a link to your blog.

Its easy to enter:

• You or someone you know needs to submit your blog via our submission form on the bottom of the contest entry page at Cell Phones . org.

Prizes:

1. 1st Prize: 1 year of your cell phone bill on us (Cell Phones . Org) – up to $1000
2. 2nd Prize: Free cell phone of your choosing (does not include plan, just the phone).
3. 3rd Prize: $100 off your your next purchase at Cell Phones .org - this is transferable and never expires.

Dates:

• Submissions Accepted until February 28th 2009.
• Voting until March 17 2009
• Final Results March 19 2009

Randa Clay, one of the most talented blog designers and bloggers I know (and creator of these cute Twitter graphics), is currently celebrating a blogging anniversary at her site and has been giving away great prizes at her site. It’s not too late to get in on the party and win some awesome prizes like:

• Amazon Gift Certificates
• Free Advertising
• Free Stuff
• Blog Blazers books (read my review of Blog Blazers)
• and there are more prizes yet to be announced

Stop over, enter to win, and check out her archives for some really helpful information!

• Prize #1 - 6 months free subscription to 37 Signals Highrise – the contact management system with a kick – valued at $300 goes to Katie Baird.
• Prize #2 – 1 full year of Freshbooks (Shuttle Bus package) to streamline your invoicing process – valued at $168 goes to David Airey.
• Prizes #3-8 - 5 one-year Pro subscriptions to pMetrics – the ultimate blogger’s stats package – valued at $59.99 each will go to:
  • Kris
  • Samar
  • Tammy
  • Phil G.
  • Michelle
  • Jimson
• Prizes #9-13 – Wiley Publishing has offered 5 copies of Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s new book, Problogger: Secrets to Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income and the winners are:
  • Mitch
  • May
  • Mandy
  • Wendy
  • Tracey
• The winner of the bonus prize – consulting with Chris Garrett, is Tracee Sioux.

I will be getting in touch with everyone via email to coordinate getting your prize to you. Have a great weekend!!

During this site’s first year, I spent much of my time building essential relationships through commenting, guest posting, and hosting my Essential Tools series. The second year has been more about educating through tutorials and my lucky number 13 posts, being social, and learning how to run my sites like their own businesses.

My list of essential tools for online success have changed dramatically too. When I first started I thought Awstats would give me all the info I needed to know about how my sites were doing – but now I rely on pMetrics to give me up to the moment information about who is on my site, how they got there and how they navigiate the site.

Then I kept all of my contacts, project notes and such in a combination of spreadsheets, notebooks and scrap pieces of paper! Now, I am uber-organized and have all the information I need about a project at my fingertips whether I am in the office or on the road thanks to 37 Signals Highrise.

As a freelancer, invoicing is my least favorite thing to do each month – I wish I could just work for Karma. For 11 years I have done things the same way – using Excel and Word – to invoice clients each month. It was time consuming, tedious, and I just dreaded it. Dawud introduced me to the very slick, easy to use Freshbooks and moments after I used my trial account I was HOOKED. It was easy, clients can view their invoice online, pay online or via check, I always know how much is still outstanding, can see when clients view their bill, and can even track different tasks for a single client quickly.

A birthday isn’t a birthday without gifts – and since I have everything I need (except a few spare hours in each day), YOU get the presents! I am giving away (thanks to my awesome sponsors), the tools I have come to rely on:

• Prize #1 - 6 months free subscription to 37 Signals Highrise – the contact management system with a kick – valued at $300.
• Prize #2 – 1 full year of Freshbooks (Shuttle Bus package) to streamline your invoicing process – valued at $168.
• Prizes #3-8 - 5 one-year Pro subscriptions to pMetrics – the ultimate blogger’s stats package – valued at $59.99 each.
• Prizes #9-13 – Wiley Publishing has offered 5 copies of Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s new book, Problogger: Secrets to Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. It is the absolute must read book this year!

How do you enter?  I am so grateful to have “met” so many wonderful people through blogging and appreciate every comment left, I am going to make this one easy! All you have to do to enter to win one of these 13 fabulous prizes (did you figure out 13 is my favorite number) is leave a comment (use your first name please) on this post telling me what your favorite online tool(s) is, how things have changed since you first started blogging or let me know what kind of content you want me to feature in upcoming posts.

You must leave your comment no later than midnight on July 13, 2008 (my birthday – not my blog’s) and winners will be announced later that week.

Bonus prize!!!! Spread the word about my blogging birthday bash on your own site, via Twitter, Plurk or other social means and you are eligible to win a blog analysis/critique from Chris Garrett (this one is priceless!). Make sure you leave me a comment letting me know the URL of your post or when you made the social announcement so I can get you entered.

To enter, submit a creative video of why YOU need marketing help – it’s that easy. The list of prizes is amazing! Prizes include:

• Marketing consultation from Egg Marketing & Public Relations to help you pinpoint your target audience ($150 value)
• A copy of Eating Cereal with a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession ($25 value)
• A profile on The Marketing Eggspert Blog ($50 value)
• Small Business Advertising on Sparkplugging, a site for the new work from home generation; 3 month banner or text ad* (no MLM or business opportunity) ($300 value)
• Learn how to use affiliate marketing to grow your business from Affiliate Marketing Sweetie System ($37.95 value)
• Learn how to use new media to reach your market from leading social media expert Chris Brogan (Consultation is $200 value)
• $100 in Miva Pay-Per-Click Advertising to help gain internet exposure for your brand
• Enhance your corporate identity with printing services from Print Pelican (business cards, letterhead and envelopes) ($500 value)
• Publicity reports that show you how to get the most PR for your business from The Publicity Hound ($30 value)
• Become a small business expert and be interviewed on Small Business Trends Radio ($200 value)
• Learn how to turbocharge your revenue and get more customer referrals in your business consultation with Liz Strauss, “the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” ($300 value)
• Create a new corporate identity with logo design, business card, letterhead and envelope design from Infinite Ideas & Designs ($600 value)
• Advertise on Etienne Teo’s Blog, which teaches you how to make money online, ($159.95 value)

“We wanted to get creative and help people find a way to market their products, despite the economy,” said Susan Payton, owner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. “Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, and we have some great sponsors that will help the winners learn techniques they can do themselves,” she stated.

Susan recently wrote the ebook, Eating Cereal with a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession, which helps business owners get the most out of their marketing without overspending. By implementing her seven marketing techniques, businesses will actually save money on marketing while increasing sales.

Entries will be accepted until May 30, and winners will be announced June 6. For more information, visit www.eatingcerealwithafork.com/contest.

Nitro PDF Professional goes above and beyond the basic PDF creation capabilities of many of the services I listed. Just a few things you can do with Nitro PDF Professional include:

• Create a PDF from any file on your computer
• Create a PDF from the items in your clipboard or from your scanner
• Combine files from different sources and file types into a single PDF
• Extract PDF parts for use in other files
• Edit text and images in your PDF file
• Highlight and add comments to the PDF
• Add headers, footers, and watermarks
• Convert your PDF to MS Word
• Different security options to control how your document is accessed

I really like the program and will now use it for my daily PDF needs (I am always working with PDFs) and you can, too! The Nitro PDF team has offered to giveaway 3 full licenses for Nitro PDF Professional to my readers. Entering to win one is easy. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you’d like to win. You can blog about it to get a second entry. But act quick! This giveaway will close midnight Sunday, April 6, 2008. I will be drawing the winners at random on Monday, April 7.

Can’t wait to get your full license? You can try out Nitro PDF Professional free for 14 days!

UPDATE: Congratulations to lucky numbers 8 (Lori), 12 (Lindsey) and 23 (OrgJunkie) – I will be in touch with your prize info! Thanks to all who entered! Nitro PDF contacted me last night and loved all of your comments – they have decided to give full licenses to ALL of you who left a comment on this post and entered the giveaway. I will be forwarding your contact info to Nitro and you can expect to get your site license via email shortly. Thanks Nitro PDF!!

The following are the posts that were submitted to the project:

Vivien at Inspiration Bit posts about Connecting People

Jacob at Just Creative Design wants to know what is the best social media marketing website

Lucy at Corporate Eye submitted Probably the Best IR Site in the World

Wash the Bowl included audio in the Good Till the Last Drop entry

Damien Riley analyzed the Taco Bell campaigns in Aye Chihuahua

Becca knows What it is to be Alive and not Just to Survive

John at Business Opportunities and Ideas knows that sometimes you have to Just Do It!

Katherine says she is new at this but submitted her entry anyhow (yeah) called Enjolie – The ad that inspired a young woman

The Fit Shack takes a healthier approach to a popular slogan in Tastes Great More Filling

And how about a fun poem inspired by Where’s the Beef from The Fork of Ambiguity

And my winner is…. John and his Just Do It post!! Congrats John. Now if you want to find out who the other winner is, you have to stop in at Randa’s.

Thanks to all the participants! It was fun and the entries were all very creative.

Here’s the deal: you write a blog post inspired by a great ad slogan and then send the permalink either to Randa or me (cpolanosky [at] gmail [dot] com). The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 12th. To sweeten the deal, Randa and I will each choose an entry that strikes us as the most creative or best application of the slogan and reward the author with their choice of either a $20 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate. (yes, that means there will be two winners)

Here are a few great ad slogans to get you started:

1. A diamond is forever (De Beers, 1950)
2. Just do it (Nike, 1988)
3. The pause that refreshes (Coca-Cola, 1929)
4. Tastes great, less filling (Miller Lite)
5. We try harder (Avis, 1962)
6. Good to the last drop (Maxwell House, 1915)
7. Breakfast of champions (Wheaties)
8. Does she … or doesn’t she? (Clairol, 1964)
9. When it rains it pours (Morton Salt, 1911)
10. Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s, 1984)

If none of those strike you, feel free to use one of your own favorites or pick one from a larger list at Wikiquote.

We will reveal the winners, compile the full list of entries, and post them on our sites for everyone to enjoy after March 12!