Register to Win

This blog started about four and a half years ago so I am thinking about my fifth birthday party coming up in January next year. I hope it will be something memorable.

One thing I will be doing is having some giveaways as part of my birthday celebrations, and you’ve got to be in to win. I want to show some support to those of you who have been with me for a while, so a lot of the giveaways are not going to be open to the general public who just happen across my blog whilst the giveaway is on. I want you to win the giveaway, not some random shopper who finds my blog via Google search 10 minutes before the giveaway closes. So, how to exclude the 'general public'? Well, you need to register now for the giveaways I’ll be holding in early 2011. I can't stop unregistered entrants on the giveaways, but I can ignore their entry.

So, how do you "register"? The answer is really easy, and many of you are already registered.

• If you are, or become, a public Follower of this blog (using Google Friend Connect, see the sidebar gadget) then you are registered.
• If you have a sign in that identifies you when you leave comments on this blog, and you have previously left a comment on this blog, then you are already registered! You don't have to do anything. If you want to double check, then use the Lijit search box in the sidebar. Just search on your comment display name and check it brings you up. If it does, you are registered. (Example, search on ‘adair’ to bring up their comments) Only one trap - if your first comment ever was in the last few weeks then it may not yet have been indexed by Google/Lijit search, but give it a little time and it will be.
• If you have a sign in but have never left a comment, then leave one here on this post now and you are registered.
• If you do not have a sign in then you could get one by creating one here at OpenID. These ID’s are effectively anonymous. You can create them without any real world ID so you don’t have to get worried about privacy. Anyone who uses Yahoo, AOL, Blogger, Wordpress, MySpace, Live Journal to name a few already has an OpenID. Then leave a comment here on this post using your nice new OpenID and you are registered.
• If you do not have a sign in and do not want to get one, then you can email me at the address in my Profile (see About Me in the sidebar) and register. In your email you can just say something like “I’ll be the Anonymous commenter who calls themselves JD-84”.
• If you are one of that small number of people who have computer trouble commenting on this blog then you can also email me and register. We can work on resolving the problem you have, but if we can’t fix it, then when the giveaways are on, I will enter you into the draw myself.

The point of this "registering" is that I want you to be in to win. I want to ensure the winners (and there are going to be a lot more than one) are people who have been reading my blog for a reasonable length of time.

The giveaways are open to every reader no matter where in the world you are – I will post your winnings to you no matter where you are. So, this is a special reminder to you readers in Asia, who didn’t seem to enter the recent Rapid Pro giveaway. Hmmm, well maybe you all have Rapid Pro's anyway?

People "registered" before the end of August will be eligible for the giveaways.