OK, after a good night’s sleep an hour or two working through the list to weed out a couple of little problems I’ve just selected a winner for the Top 5 Group Writing Project. Before I announce them – here are a few administrative notes:
- Full List – For those wanting to see the full list in the one place I’ve just put together a compilation page of all 893 entries at Top 5 Group Writing Project Final Submission List. Please keep surfing it, linking up (I think some top 5 favorites would be appropriate) and making friends of those bloggers you find.
- Duplicate Entries – A few people misread (or didn’t read) the rules properly and there were a few who submitted multiple entries. I’ve left them in the list but have only allowed their first entry to be eligible for the prize.
- Late Entries – There have been a few of these – but unfortunately I can’t keep adding new entries to the list. You’re welcome to keep writing Top 5 posts – but they won’t be listed any more – sorry.
Before I announce the Winner – I want to complete my own little Top 5 project – the top five reasons why I think Chitika Rocks.
#5 – On Day 1 I told you that they were interactive ads and very clickable
#4 – On Day 2 I told you about their RPU (related product units) and why they’re cool.
#3 – On Day 3 I told you about their free BlogBash ebook which is filled with great blogging tips
#2 – On Day 4 I told you about eMiniMalls
#1 Reason Why Chitika Rocks
The reason why Chitika Rocks the most can perhaps be summarized best with a little screen shot of the log in page of my Chitika account where they very kindly remind me each time I log in how much money I’ve earned by using them. Here’s what it looks like:
That amount doesn’t include April’s earnings (and goes back to when I started to use them in September 2005) – but when they do update it that figure will go past quarter of a million dollars. What else can I really say? I think Chitika Rocks (and who wouldn’t)!
Thanks again to Chitika for putting up the prize for this project.
The Winner of the Project
Before I announce the winner – let me say that there are many deserving winners this week – I hope that participants have been ‘rewarded’ with a little extra traffic (and for those of you who were featured on Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon with your entries a lot of extra traffic).
However there is only one winner and that winner relies completely upon luck as this is a random prize draw.
And that Winner is……
Nancy R. Callahan for her entry Baby names from Video Games.
Congratulations Nancy – I’ll be in touch with you shortly to arrange for $1001 cash to be sent to you from Chitika. Thanks for your entry.
And thanks to everyone for participating! I’ll hoping we can do one of these projects per month from now on in. Feel free to nominate topics below.
About Darren Rowse
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like 
Congratulations, Nancy! =D
A quarter million? In that case, Chitika really rocks. Wow. Should seriously consider reapplying for it now.
Nancy’s lucky. I wish I was the one who won. ~
A quarter million – fantastic, over what time period?
Congrats Nancy! Nancy is a fellow writer and member of AbsoluteWrite so it’s nice to see the prize go to someone I know.
Wow that is really some great earnings on Chitika!
Congratulations to Nancy!
I applied to Chiquita with my reality TV blog so I guess that will be more income for you Darren if the blog is accepted! It’s only a month old but it has 10,000+ page views so hopefully they will accept it. If not I’ll reapply later.
$250,000? Are you kidding me? **sigh** and I’m stuck with a measly $620/month for my blog :(
Congratulations to Nancy Calahan for winning the prize! ^_^ I’ve also won a consolation prize as well, that is the traffic and the new friends that I have made. Thanks for the project! I’ll be sure to join next time ^_^
Congratulations to Nancy.
$250k – yeah that rocks! Well done :)
Congrats.
Congratulation to you all, I’ve learn many things in few days
thanks
Congratulations Nancy!
To everyone, give yourself a pat on the back. We did a great job, and I’m sure it will take me at least another week to read the rest of the entries.
Congratulations to Nancy for her cool post regarding the video game names. I like Carmen the best..
And thank you Darren for setting up such a hugely successful writing project!
Remember, kids, everybody’s a winner. =P Really, though, like Karlo said, we all got the consolation prize of some links, comments, and new friends! Congrats to Nancy and everyone, and to Darren, thanks for running this great project!
This was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Nancy Callahan for winning!!! All great posts!! Thanks again Darren for the links and the top five idea. :)
Onya Nancy! (as we would say in .au)
I’ve enjoyed my consolation prizes – discovering many great blogs I wouldn’t have found otherwise, many hours (too many!) of enjoyable reading and learning, and a renewed motivation for blogging. A little extra traffic too, but only a little – my humble $10 per month from Google ads won’t be mushrooming to problogger levels anytime soon!
congrats to nancy and better luck next time to the rest of us.
I’ve noticed a bit of traffic, but one of the things that surprised me the most was that quite a few bloggers out there copied and reposted the *entire* list of top 5 links! Sure, it’s more backlinks for all of us, but it’s kind of sh!tty to steal the content like that…
I noticed it since I suddenly saw a bunch of blog search hits (bloglines) for my last name.
Lol Ryan. It’s good for us tho. Haha.
The Top 5 Group Writing Project was awesome fun! I’m glad that I joined in the posting. I’ve really enjoyed discovering so many great blogs. I’ve got some new favorites! Thanks, Darren, for the opportunity to be a part of this.
Congratulations, Nancy! Great post!
Congrats Nancy and thanks again Darren
FYI: entries 222 and 223 are duplicates, as are 502 and 510.
Lots of entries, lots of buzz in the blogosphere…needless to say, the project was a hit. And yes, making this a monthly thing would definitely encourage more people to participate in network-building efforts such as this one. There could only be one winner at a time, sure, but I think everyone gets even a little something out of all of this. Thanks, Darren, for coming up with the Top 5 and cheers to Nancy for winning the big prize.
In response to the last post, where you asked why this topic was so popular:
I don’t know. For me, the experience of a top 5 was something that seemed simple, but turned out to be pretty hard. Did I want to be funny? How did I want 5 things to relate in a way that I covered all aspects of a topic? Did I want to be informative? Did I want to cater to opinion and affirm to others that yes, their tastes are shared? Was I supposed to be unique?
I’m still not sure about those questions, because making “top 5″ lists doesn’t come naturally to me. I mean, I think all of us have top music lists and top movie lists. But those are a different entity altogether. The numeration means less than the circumstances we’ll bring the movie/music up. There is no definitive “this must be seen or heard under any and all circumstances,” even when we say that.
So I guess I’m saying this: the top 5 thing was good exercise. It forced me to think differently than I normally do, for I had to find a way to say something in a style I wouldn’t use typically. Thank you, everyone’s been super kind and linking back to me, and I hope I can say hi and help them all out.
P.S. Search engine traffic for my site is a third to half what it was this last week, and I’m frustrated.
Congratulations Nancy!
Thanks for putting this project together Darren, it’s been an awesome week!
Congratulations, Nancy! Enjoy your winnings! :-)
Yay, for the once a month plan!!! I thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks Darren!
Angela Betts
Congrats Nancy! Darren, you can rest a bit now, right? :)
Congratulation Nancy & Darren from Why Must Visit Malaysia? truly creative and inspirational !
Congrats to Nancy, waiting for the next group writing project now :)
This was my first one and was really great…
Congratulation!! Well, because I also love game, I like the list! That’s unusual list and really cool!
Definately a profitable Group Writing Project. In fact, it’s going to be difficult to beat in next weeks project ;-)
Congrats Nancy! Make a post telling us what you are going to do with the money!
Congrats Nancy!
Darren, those are some serious earnings with Chitika, I guess they do rock. I’m already signed up with, time to push their ads further.
Woohoo! Congratulations, Nancy! And thanks to Darren for a fun and rewarding GWP. :)
Congratulations to:
* Nancy for winning
* Darren for the amazing number of entries and the great job creating and managing this project
* All participants, for taking part in what was probably the largest group writing project ever undertaken in a week.
Any chance that Gary’s plug-in, that was so instrumental in making this happen, will be available? I’m hosting the Carnival of Cities this Sunday, and although not nearly on the scale of this writing project, it would be great if I could use his plug-in to manage it.
I received my first Google Adsense check today, thank-you for all your inspirational articles Darren!
Congratulations to Nancy, that’s a crazy top five. :) And I must say, I had great fun participating in this project. Perhaps sometime in the future I may join another one of these projects. Have a nice weekend Darren.
This project has been delightful, sort of like a field trip across the blogoshere! Pure fun.:-)
Oh, and thank you to whoever submitted my post “Top 5 Hottest Blogger Fantasies” post to StumbleUpon. Getting a steady stream of traffic from there!
Congrats to Nancy–enjoyed your post!
Congratz, Nancy! Hope you’ll not forget us. Thanks, Darren for this great opportunity. I’m sure everybody had enjoyed your project!
Nancy, congrats! Your blog is timing out atm, I hope the traffic isn’t causing you problems.
Congratulations, Nancy!
This is a fun project, Darren. Looking forward to the next one and hope I can be a winner :) .
Congratulations, Nancy! And thanks again to Darren — great stuff as always.
Congratulations, Nancy!
And to the rest of you, I’m *STILL* reading through all of the great entries. Talk about a great read.
Oh…and Nancy…I loved you in Sin City. :-)
JD
Thank you so much for this writing project. I tried putting the lessons I learned here for futher experiment by creating a small writing project on identifying new blogs. I hope you can check it out. Thank you again!
Whoa, sorry about the typo – I mean Chitika.
(See? Too excited to type properly… :)
i guess i should really look into this chitika thing then huh….oh and congrats nancy! Also…thanks for organizing a great group writing project …look foward to the next one !!
(How funny – I wrote 2 comments, but only the second posted.)
What I’d basically said was:
Thanks so much, Darren, for holding another group writing project. I love participating. And thanks for the information on Chitika — I’ve just signed up. :)
PS – Jonathan, thanks! Isn’t it sad how Jessica Alba is trying to get credit for all the work I did in the film? :)
$244k? Damn, the Top 5 prize should have been larger or featured more winners… ;)
Cha Ching! Well done with your Chitika earnings!
Thanks Darren, these group projects have always been lots of fun.
Thanks for hosting the writing comp! It was a really great experience since this was my first time getting involved. I came across some really great posts.
Congrats Nancy!!! Well deserved!
congrats to nancy … also thanx to darren for the great competition topic …
i think the responses were so overwhelming that to expect good traffic to your site is a letdown … would you be surprise if i were to tell you the new traffic i’m getting is very very negligible – less than 50 unique users? yes, that’s the fact and i think it’s because there’re simply too many participants …
anyway, i’m glad i enter the competition because i believe i’ve written the best post so far for my own readers … i never thought of “top 5″ title could inspire me to write a beneficial post for my blog … so i guess there’s always something to be gained from such competition …
cheers everyone – looking forward to another competition …