Whether you’re a blogger or not, you’ll be interested in this giveaway! Darren over at ProBlogger is holding a giant - and I mean GIANT - giveaway with over $54,000 worth of prizes. The pace seems to be set at three prizes a day, with varying ways to enter (leaving a comment on the post, blogging about the contest, or simply visiting a link).

Want to know what’s there to win? Check out the extremely impressive prize list! If anything on that list peaks your fancy (which, I don’t see why it wouldn’t - some of it is just cold hard cash!), you might want to subscribe to ProBlogger’s RSS feed, as it seems like every entry will be time sensitive. You don’t want to miss the day they give away the prize you really want!

A quick note - it looks like for most prizes, if you win something, you won’t be able to win anything else for the rest of the bash. So remember only to enter the contests for things you actually want!

I wish I could run a giveaway like this - if any of the ProBlogger Birthday Bash sponsors wanted to donate something for me to give away here on Poorer Than You… well, let’s just say I’d be a pretty happy camper.

WOWIO’s free iPod Shuffle offer is now over. We had a good four month run, and I’m always on the lookout for similar giveaways that are easy and reliable. Feel free to subscribe to this site, so you don’t miss any future offers!

Well, I’ve been wondering when it would finally happen, and it seems that day is coming - tomorrow! The iPod Shuffle promotion at WOWIO.com is ending tomorrow, June 22, at 5 PM CT.

This also seems to coincide with my own iPod Shuffle breaking, strangely enough. No, not the one I got through WOWIO (I sold that one), but the first generation Shuffle I got for Christmas in 2005. The headphone jack is starting to become “funky,” and the sound cuts out in one of the headphones when it moves (I tested several sets of headphones and it is, indeed, the iPod that’s doing it).

So if anyone wants to help me replace my dying iPod, go over to WOWIO.com and sign up.

My friend has generously offered to give his free Shuffle to me - but that only works if we can find him four more referrals before the timer runs out tomorrow! Update, Friday, 4:30PM: Got the four referrals! The address above now is my best friend, who only needs two more referrals. Can you guys help her get them before the timer runs out in an hour and a half?

FAQ about WOWIO and the Free iPod Shuffle Offer:

What’s WOWIO?
WOWIO is a website that offers free ebook and comic book downloads (up to five a day). They make money by putting magazine-style advertisements in the ebooks (although lately I’ve also seen some video ads in there, which are embedded in the PDF of the book, and optional to watch). I’ve found the ads very non-intrusive, and it’s a great way to get free ebooks. I’ve downloaded over 100 ebooks since I signed up in September of 2006.

Why give out free iPod Shuffles?
The iPod Shuffle promotion is a way of attracting more users to their site. Since you have to get 10 other people to sign up for the site to get a Shuffle, that means WOWIO gets 10+ new users for each Shuffle they give out. The more users they have on their site, the more advertisers they can attract.

Why is it asking for a “non-anonymous email address,” a credit card number, or a scan of ID?
WOWIO goes to great lengths to make sure the users on its site are real people, not bots downloading and redistributing their books. A non-anonymous email (usually a university or work email address) is the easiest way to go. There are also “friend and family codes” that a current user can send you to confirm your identity. If you go the credit card route, it will not be charged at all, it will just be used to confirm you are a real person.

Will this site send me a lot of spam?
I have only ever gotten two emails from WOWIO. The first one was letting me know about this iPod promotion. The other was a response to a customer service email I sent them.

And you’re sure this iPod thing isn’t a scam?
Absolutely. Not only did I receive one after I got ten referrals (pictures here), but four other people that I referred received their iPods as well! If I can manage these last few referrals, we can bump that number up to five!

JD over at Get Rich Slowly has posted a very special edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance for the carnival’s second anniversary: Greatest Hits Edition. Instead of the best articles from the last two weeks, JD asked everyone to submit their best article from the last two years.

The result is more amazing articles than I can count! I tried to go through and pick out my favorites, but there were simply too many. You’re really going to have to check it out for yourself. (My three-parter offering money advice to college students was included, and picked as a favorite by JD!).

Speaking of interesting happenings in the blogosphere, John Chow is doing another insane give-away. This time he’s giving away a rather drool-worthy 24″ widescreen LCD monitor. Yeah, that would definitely beat my current 15″ LCD out of the water! To enter, you’ve just got to mention the contest on your blog (like this!). This contest is by the man that helps you make money is also sponsored by BlueFur, hosting Canada (and everywhere else).

Don’t have a blog? Or want another chance at winning a sexy (yet just slightly smaller) monitor? BlueFur is also giving away a 22″ widescreen LCD monitor on their blog! All you’ve got to do is vote for them as “best blogging host” at the Blogger’s Choice Awards. You can also get 3 additional entries into the contest by blogging about it.

Congratulations to commenter Jeannine, who won my ING Giveaway this week! I sent her an email with instructions on how to open her account. Not only did she win $25, but now she’ll have a nice savings account that actually beats inflation!

I’m hoping to do another, more exciting giveaway soon, so stay tuned (or should I say, stay connected?)!

The giveaway outlined on this page is now over. However, you can still get a $25 bonus for opening a savings account with ING! All you have to do is use a referral link to sign up for an account, and make an opening deposit of $250 or more. That’s it! Easy-peasy - and you get $25 free! For posterity’s sake, I’ve left the description of the original giveaway below:

I have to say, I adore ING as a company. With slogans like “Nothing beats money in the bank, except for more money in the bank,” and “Savers have all the funds,” they have my heart, even if their Orange Savings Account isn’t winning the rate race (at 4.5%, they’re lagging behind Emigrant, Etrade, HSBC and a host of others).

You’ve probably seen their promotion around, where you can get a $25 bonus if you sign up using someone’s referral link, and deposit $250 in your account to start. But I have something special - it came in my mailbox the other day. A promotion from ING, offering a $25 bonus for opening an account… with any opening deposit you wish!

Of course, I first thought to jump on it myself, but then I realized that I’m stretching my meager balances between two high yield savings accounts as it is. I’m simply not ready to open an ING account yet. And once I am, I’ll be doing it with $250 and a referral link.

But my sweet offer from ING should not go unused! So I’d like to give it away to someone who could use it. How about you? Would you like it? If so, just leave a comment on this entry, and include a valid email address. After one week (11:59 EST May 20th, 2007) I’ll pick a random commenter and email them the activation code (alternately, you can choose to have the paper offer mailed to you).

Fellow bloggers, want to let your readers know about my little giveaway? Doing so will earn you an extra entry in the contest, if you’d like! Just make sure you email me (use my contact form) the URL of where you linked this entry!

Disclaimer type stuff:
ING links in this entry are affiliate links.
This contest is open to US residents only. Poorer Than You is sponsoring this giveaway, not ING, so any and all questions should be directed to me. Winner will be chosen at random from commenters and blog linkers. All decisions are final and up to me: I am your judge, jury and executioner.
The $25 bonus is only available to new ING accounts with a new customer as the primary owner.

Uh oh! Better hurry up there, sparky! But, if you haven’t done your taxes yet, there is a silver lining. My New Choice is holding a Reward for Tax Procrastinators giveaway, where one lucky winner will get a free copy of TaxCut Premium + State + Efile ($64.95 value).

All you need to do is head over to the contest page and leave a comment. You can get an additional entry in the contest by adding My New Choice to your Technorati favorites, and if you have a website, you can get another additional entry by posting a review of My New Choice on your site!

Hurry up, though - contest ends tomorrow, April 6th at 11:59PM (CST)!

I’d enter, but I already did my taxes!

Update: All of the contests in this entry have now expired! But I’m always on the lookout for blog-based giveaways (which have better odds than large-scale giveaways), so you might want to subscribe to this site to keep an eye out for future contests!

The Air’s $25 Amazon Gift Certificate contest ends on Friday, March 30th. To enter, you just need to add The Air to your Technorati favorites or join the MyBlogLog community. If you do both, you get two entries in the contest! As of right now, there are 18 entries, making your odds of winning close to 1:19. The contest is done, and I won it! See, you guys should have entered and given me more competition!

John Chow’s Evil Blog Contest to win a Nintendo Wii is slated to end at the end of the month. You’ll need to write a blog post to his particular specifications, and then email in the link to enter. Check out my Nintendo Wii post for an example. I counted 97 entries (by counting the pingbacks in his blog post), so your odds of winning are close to 1 in 100 - very, very good odds for a the prize! Contest over, the winner has not yet been announced. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

UNEASYsilence is also doing a Wii Giveaway! Find a way to promote the contest on the web (blog post, adding it to your del.icio.us, whatever you can think of), then leave a comment on the contest page with the link to where you made the mention of the contest. Easy-peasy! Over 200 entries so far, so odds are 1:200 currently. Ends 3AM (-5 GMT) on April 6th.

WOWIO is still doing it’s free iPod Shuffle giveaway to those who can convince 10 friends to sign up. The contest has no end date, simply a “while supplies last,” so you might want to hurry up before they decide to cut it off. Remember to put in

vanpattenjames@gmail.com

when it asks you who referred you, as doing so will help a friend of mine get his iPod, and thus give you good iPod karma! =D Odds of winning: 1:1, provided you have 10 friends that would be interested in free ebooks (or their own shot at a free iPod shuffle). I managed to get 10 friends to sign up in just two days!

Huzzah! I signed up for Blingo almost two months ago, and finally, I won something! Actually, I didn’t win… but I did. Cause with Blingo, if anyone you referred wins a prize, you win that prize as well. And one of my referrals won a Fandango ticket today, so I won one too! He immediately IMed me, and as soon as we get them in the mail, the two of us are going to the movies. At the nice theater. FOR FREE.

I <3 Blingo!

Man, I want a Nintendo Wii. I mean, really. Lots of things tempt my wallet: 100 Grand Bars, Super-Special-Ultimate-Edition DVD sets, Buffy action figures… you get the idea. But few things really pull at me the way the Wii does. I mean, it’s so white and shiny - like a giant iPod, but better because it hooks to an actual screen instead of a dinky screen smaller than a Post-It (or in the case of my iPod shuffle, no screen at all!), and better also because it has games instead of just Steve Miller Band MP3s.

I think I got a little sidetracked there. This happens when I think about the Wii, and how cute it would look in my living room. And how all of my friends would actually visit me if I had a Wii. What was I talking about again?

Oh yes, that’s right. John Chow, he that is the root of all evil, is doing a Nintendo Wii Giveaway. Ooo, a Nintendo Wii, and I don’t have to put out any cash for it? I bet you want to win instead of me, don’t you? Hmph! Well, if you really want to give me competition, you can enter by writing your own blog post about it. The whole contest-thing is sponsored by 1234Pens.com - they make, not surprisingly, promotional pens.

Yep, I’m a sucker for a giveaway… especially for something I want as badly as a Wii.

There’s a contest over at The Air to get yourself a $25 Amazon gift certificate. It’s super easy to enter: either add yourself to The Air’s MyBlogLog community, or add The Air to your Techonorati favorites. Since I already have accounts on both sites, I added both - giving me two chances to win. I already know what I would buy, if I happened to become the lucky winner…

So get on over there and give me some competition, will ya?