Durrig's Secret Stash Giveaway

Looking for the contest?  Check out this page and sign in with the Sites with Benefits widget on the left to get started!

It's time for another giveaway!  Project Murdock, the system I made to give stuff away, has leveled up and received a new name:  Sites with Benefits.  Along with the new name, I've added a bunch of new features, but more on that later.  You can find all the contest details here.  This time I am giving away:

Ornate Chest.  Probably the most prized item in Wrath of Heroes as it contains an Elite Tactic.  I have one code to giveaway, so we will be doing it lottery style.  Buy as many tickets as you want.  A winner will be drawn on October 22nd.

XP Boosts.  I have more 7-Day 100% XP Boosts to give away from Wrath of Heroes too.  These just cost points, so get yours while supplies last!


What's New?

New Widget.  On your left, you should see the new Sites with Benefits widget.  It's not great yet, but I think it is an improvement from the first version.

Themed.  As you can see with the name and the campaign page, I am trying to make the contests less dry and more themed to what I am giving away.

Create a Video.  This is a new Mission which I spent a good chunk of the weekend working on.  The goal here is two fold. First, encourage players to create videos of the game and submit the URL for big points.  Secondly, a Share Videos mission is also automatically created which will feature submitted videos and sharing links.  Users can then earn points by sharing videos made for the contest.

I wanted to try something to better promote the game I am featuring, so this is one attempt at doing that.  Making a video is not a trivial task, so we'll see if it works.

Facebook.  I have integrated Facebook with Sites with Benefits.  You can now login using FB, or do missions involving FB.

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Civilization 5 Giveaway

Thanks to XCOM Enemy Unknown, I now am in possession of an extra copy of Civilization 5.  That means it is time for another giveaway!  Civ 5 is an excellent game and I highly recommend it, especially when it is free.  So, how can you get your hand on it?

We'll be using Sites with Benefits (formerly known as Project Murdock), which is a project of mine.  Since I have only a single game to giveaway, it is a perfect chance to test out the lottery functionality.  As usual, you can earn points a few ways.  Then you can spend those points on buying lottery tickets.  You can buy as many as you want.

Reward.  Free copy of Civilization 5 for Steam.  The lottery will end on Saturday, October 6th at 12pm EST.  Each ticket costs 15 points and you can buy as many as you want.  Or, you can do the missions and save the points for another giveaway.

If you sign in using twitter, you may want to stop by http://www.siteswithbenefits.com/ and enter an email address so you can be notified if you won the lottery.  Otherwise, it will show up in the Rewards Earned tab after the lottery ends.

Missions


Sign In.  Using the widget on the left side of the screen, sign in and get a cool 20 points.  You can use existing logins ( Google, Twitter and more), so no need to create a new account.

Daily Visit.  You'll also receive 5 points just for stopping by.  (Daily mission)

Trivia.  Answering a question about Civilization can get you 10 points.  You only have one chance to answer, so choose wisely.

Tweet.  Sent a tweet about this giveaway and receive 15 points.  Just use the link on the Mission window to send it out.

Comment.  Which civilization is your favorite?  Leave it in a comment and get 5 points!  (Daily mission)

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Please let me know of any problems, as Sites with Benefits is still in its beta phase.  Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

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UFO Online Beta Keys

This morning I found some Beta keys for the upcoming game UFO Online in my mailbox.  I don't know too much about the game, but it involves UFO's and tactical play, so why not pass it along?  Their next beta test starts this weekend and they will be giving out prizes.

To obtain a key, we'll be using Project Murdock! :)  It's the widget on the left hand side of the screen.  Has the initials SwB at the bottom (to be discussed later).  Just signing in will give you enough points to get a beta key, so give it a shot.  Feel free to do any of the other missions as well, there will be new giveaways happening soon that you can spend points on!

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Test Results

Last week, I introduced Project Murdock with a code giveaway.  Basically, PM is a reader engagement system which allows you to reward your readers.  It does this through Missions, which are things like visiting a link and leaving a comment.  All of these are tracked and your readers are given points which they can redeem for good stuff.

What went well

1)  It worked!  I received very little in the way of reported problems.  Readers were able to cplete their missions, redeem the points and obtain a code.  On the backend, things went very smoothly too, so I am quite happy.

2)  It drove traffic.  One of my main goals for PM is to be able to better drive visitors to other places in the community.  In this case I picked Tarelther's videos and 6v6v6.com.  I hope I gave them some increased exposure, although 6v6v6.com probably gave me more than I gave it :)

What didn't go so well

1)  The first batch of codes had expired.  This is totally my fault as I had them for a while and never considered that they would expire.  Thankfully, the Mythic team was quick to bail me out and provided a batch a new and better codes.

2) The missions were limited.  There were only a few missions available, and only a single reward.  In the future I'd like to offer more mission and reward choices.  For the test though, it was fine since it confirmed the pieces of the system worked.

3)  The widget is just plain ugly.  It needs to be brought into the 21st century pronto.  I've already started work on that and you should see the results soon.

What's Next?

I'm currently preparing for the next test.  It will feature more missions (Twitter), more reward choices and a better widget.  Beyond that, I have a 3rd test being planned which will have some really cool rewards and also open the system up for people to use on their sites.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped test the system.  Thanks also go out to BioWare Mythic for the codes and the Facebook post!

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