Congratulations to Donna S!  She has won the $100 Sears Giftcard from Sears and Izea.  You will be contacted by Crystal at Izea with letting you know what you need to do next, shortly.

For those of you who weren’t aware of the contest, Sears gave me a $100 giftcard to spend on anything I wanted.  All I had to do was write about my shopping experience.

But it didn’t end there, they also gave me another gift card to giveaway to one lucky reader.

If you want to find out more about my shopping experience, read the article here.

If you’re interested in winning a future contest here at Steven-Sanders dot com, please subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss out.

Are you interested in sponsoring a contest on my blog?  Let me know.

If you missed my latest post, click here to learn how I make $40-$50 per month with my SMS Blog Feed and only 3 subscribers.

Thank you everyone for entering to win the Affiliate Summit silver pass.  I’ll not be there this year because of my 8-5 job, but I hope to see you all in 2010, or at one of the other conferences coming up.

Affiliate Summit is a great conference and if you haven’t heard of it, you can find out all about it here.

The Winner & More

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for.  Congratulations to the winner of the Affiliate Summit silver pass contest,  jtGraphic.  I will be emailing you with your registration code for the Silver Pass shortly.

Besides announcing the winner, I also have a special surprise for all of you.  My friend Brian Clark from Copyblogger is offering a Free Affiliate Summit Pass to everyone who wants it.

Simply visit Copyblogger, get the free code, and enter it online whenever you register.

What kinds of contests would you like to see here in the future?

The Sears in my home town is attached to a Mall, and I walk in on occasion, but only to pass through to the inner sanctum of the mall.  The last time I actually took the time to look at the items in Sears, was when I was a little kid.  Most of what I remember wasn’t anything I was ever interested in.

But when Sears sponsored a $100 gift card through IZEA for their “Don’t Just Give a Gift, Grant a Wish” program, I got the chance to revisit the store of my childhood memories.

The Revelation

Sears, I found out, is no longer the store of my parents generation.  They have changed with the times just as any other store has.  It’s weird how biased many younger consumers are towards stores like Sears because of how they remember it as a child.

I’m glad I had this opportunity, because it has opened my eyes.  Not only to the newer, and better Sears, but to the possibilities that other stores I haven’t visited since childhood could be and probably are a lot different than I may think.

Heroes At Home

The absolute best thing I saw during my shopping spree at Sears was that they have a program that supports our troops on the home front.

This strikes home for me.  I am in the military myself, and I know the hard times service men and women can face when returning from deployment.  I have had friends and family return home, that walk a little slower or are a little edgier.  Who find it harder to cope knowing what they now know, and having seen some of the most horrible things anyone could ever experience.

The Sears Heroes at Home program is great, and it shows me that there are still people who support our troops each and every day.  If you’d like to donate to the Heroes at Home program, please click here.

The Sears Offerings

If there is one thing I’ve noticed about Sears since my shopping experience, it’s that you have to be very creative to buy more than a couple of things at Sears when shopping with a $100 budget.

Sears is pricier than many of the other stores where I live, but they do offer some really great items.

Sears had almost everything you could imagine a big store having.  Clothes, Electronics, Home Furnishings, Appliances, Shoes.  But the one thing I noticed that Sears didn’t have, was Toys.  I was a bit stunned.  So I went to their website after returning home, and was relieved to see they do carry toys.  Just not in this store in our hometown.

The electronics sections was a little on the skimpy side, but out of the things they did offer, there were some nice items.  Here’s a small selection from what stood out most in my mind.

• iPods
• Flip Videos
• Giant Flat Screen HDTVs
• The Wii & Other Game systems
• Movies

Sears also had seat messagers set up to try out and relax after a long day of shopping.  My pregnant wife really enjoyed those.

My Purchases

As I walked through the store, I was so mesmerized with the number of things I wanted to get.  But $100 wasn’t going to buy them all.

I’ve gained about 40 pounds since my wife got pregnant with our first child and while she lost it all, I find that I haven’t, so I’m beginning to work out and do some running, maybe eat a little healthier.  So the first item I picked up was an armband iPod holder.  I’ve got the iPod but have never had a way to carry it while running.  I’m hoping this purchase will be a motivator to actually start running.

All of my family Christmas get-togethers involve a little game called the “Chinese Auction”.  I’ve noticed others call it Dirty Santa.  In fact it’s probably better known for that name.  So my next couple of purchases were a Retro Style Hot Dog Cooker and a couple of other items that can’t be mentioned until after Christmas (I’ll leave them in the comments after our Christmas game is over).

The Results

I was overall please with my 4-5 hours of time spent in Sears, as well as with the number and quality of items that were offered.  I still think toys would have been a big seller, especially for the holiday season, and maybe a bigger selection of electronics, but other than that, it was a great experience.

Now It’s Your Turn

Sears wasn’t only interested in sponsoring my gift card, but they’re interested in granting your wish as well.  So they’ve partnered with IZEA (who is the contest sponsor) to offer you $100 as well.  For your chance to win a $100 gift card to spend on anything you’d like at Sears, simply do one of the following:

• Blog Comment - Leave a comment on this blog post with the items you would buy with the $100 gift card.  Make sure you also include the item number of each item.  You can go to Sears.com to research the item numbers.
• Twitter Tweet - Simply tweet the following message on Twitter:  “RT @steven_sanders please grant my wish to win a $100 #Sears gift card - tweet to make your own wish http://urlbrief.com/8b5d48“
• Blog Post - Write a blog post about the contest and link back to this post.  Make sure you leave a comment letting me know, so I don’t miss you.

Each tweet, comment, or post counts as one registration.  You can register up to three times by doing all three.  The winner will be chosen at random by IZEA based on all entries.  The contest ends at Midnight EST on December 23.  So make sure you get your entries in by then.  For more on the contest rules, go here.

Other Ways To Win

All of the Izea Insiders did the same thing I did, so visit all of them below to enter their contests as well:

http://www.benspark.com/benspark-grants-a-wish.html

http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2008/12/16/granting-wishes-at-sears/

http://corrinrenee.com/dont-just-give-a-gift-grant-a-wish/

http://table4five.net/2008/12/16/win-a-100-sears-gift-card-and-grant-a-wish/

http://laviedelaurie.com/2008/12/16/dont-just-give-a-gift-grant-a-wish/

http://something-about-harry.com/grant-card-grant-a-wish/

http://www.toughgirl101.com/2008/12/sears-holiday-shopping-for-toys-for.html

http://boatinginbeautifulbritishcolumbia.com/2008/12/16/dont-just-give-a-gift-grant-a-wish/

In our little world of blogging, conferences are the holy grails of networking.  And Affiliate Summit West is no different.

According to the website:

Affiliate Summit West is the largest Affiliate Summit, the premier affiliate marketing conference, of the year. This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

The best of the best in blogging will be at this conference, which creates a wealth of opportunity for networking and learning.

Many of you are already attending, but many of you that would like to attend probably can’t because it costs too much.

Affiliate Summit West is very expensive, which is why Izea has given me a Silver Pass to give to one of you.

About The Goods

The Affiliate Summit West Silver Pass gives you admission to the Affiliate Meet Market, Exhibit Hall, and the Affiliate Summit Social Network.  The normal cost of the Silver Pass is $349 when ordered online, or $449 onsite.

Affiliate Summit West 2009 is taking place January 11-13, 2009 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and you have to be 21 to attend.

How To Win The Pass

The pass isn’t really a physical piece of paper, it’s a code that you’ll use to register for Affiliate Summit West online.

There are three ways you can enter to win the Silver Pass:

1. Subscribe to my blog via RSS, or by email.
2. Write a post about the contest and link back to this post.
3. Tweet the following on Twitter. “RT @steven_sanders is giving away a FREE Pass to Affiliate Summit West http://tinyurl.com/5rlzau“

You only get one entry for each method.  Which means you can have up to 3 entries in the contest to win the Free Pass.  The contest ends Friday, December 19th at 11:59pm.  Make sure you get your entries end by that time.

A Chance At Other Passes

Some of the other Izea Insider Crew Leaders are giving away free passes as well, so click the following links to enter their contest as well for an even better chance at winning: (I’ll add them as their posts go live, so check back often.)

http://boatinginbeautifulbritishcolumbia.com/2008/12/12/affiliate-summit-west-silver-pass-anyone/

http://corrinrenee.com/win-affiliate-summit-silver-pass/

http://www.juliesjournal.com/2008/12/12/affiliate-summit-west-silver-pass-twitter-contest/

http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2008/12/12/affiliate-summit-west-silver-pass-giveaway/

http://something-about-harry.com/win-a-free-affiliate-summit-silver-pass-worth-349/

http://www.benspark.com/affiliate-summit-west.html

Your Chance To Win Future Contests

As an Izea Insider, contests like this will happen all the time, so make sure you keep checking back, and when I get more information on my Izea Crew (Izea Mafia), make sure you join, so you don’t miss out on your chance to win.