So… a couple weeks back I was talking with Dillsmack, who has been at every elite retreat so far, brain storming about more things we can add to the event. These brain storming sessions is generally me throwing things out there and him telling me how stupid they are… So anyway I brought up the fact that there is always kind of a let down when people leave. You just spent the last 48 hours cramming a lot into your head and putting a lot on paper. You want to put it into action right now but its downtime time. You have to get a plane home and then the weekend before most can even really get after it on Monday. So I wanted to find a way to keep those juices going.
I thought it would be cool to buy everyone every book I always learned from… but then they have to lug them around… what a pain in the ass. So then I thought wow what if we bought everyone a new iPod Nano filled with those books… like specifically Seth Godin’s books, Malcom Gladwell, my radio shows, Neils radio shows… etc etc.. That would be cool… plus the new iPod Nanos are pretty cool by themselves. So I talked to Tigh about it (newest employee and manager or projects (mainly Elite Retreat right now) and by coincedence he was just contacted by another company who wanted to sponsor the event.
So long story short we ordered 30 iPod Nanos all engraved with “Elite Retreat 2008 San Fran” on the back courtesy of clickbooth. It was like 5k for 30 or so… we purchased the Malcom Gladwell books but I was able to contact Seth Godin and we made a deal where I would donate a dollar amount to charity instead of paying him for the audio books. How awesome is Seth Godin!
But I have been traveling for the last 2 weeks and haven’t been keeping tabs… I did think it was weird I did not receive a receipt from Apple or anything. So today I went into my Amex account and… sure enough I had not been charged for them. Then I went into my Apple account and… the order is not there. WELL POOP.
So I placed an order today for another 30 and as soon as I got off the phone Fedex came with the 30 iPods we originally ordered. I tried to cancel my order but it said engraving has begun and cant be canceled. DOH!
So now I have 30 iPod Nanos I have no use for…. what to do with them hrmm
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Sounds like a great Shoemoney.com giveaway to me. Another RSS contest perhaps?
Haha I think you give them out in a contest on your blog. Im sure it would increase traffic – if people knew you were giving out 30 ipods!
Share them – but make the recipient do something useful for you in exchange. Only fair…hand up vs hand out and combat the “lazy American” thing.
The Story lady
Rebrand it as a ShoePod or MoneyPod and sell it with a premium…
Donate them to a children’s hospital ward. I can’t think of anyone who could use them more.
In fact, why not start a Children’s Hospital (or Ward) iPod Nano Drive. For every iPod you (shoemoney) donate, I’ll donate $1. Now imagine if every one of the above 161 commenter’s also donated one dollar per iPod? That could be one extra iPod for every one you donate. Now that’s networking.
In fact, contact me and I’ll send you a check for $60 towards buying more iPods for the kids.
Maybe Click Booth can give those extra thirty to all of the webmasters they defrauded…. oh wait ..they would need a lot more than 30 ipods!
Shoe I feel you are hurting your reputation by associating yourself with such a shady company.
Why is commenting for the fortigate post disabled?
You could give us one to push on our company’s site and blog, with full credit to you of course; which we would then load up with our IT Certification Training Videos (Microsoft, Cisco, CCNA, etc).
sell them at half price, at least you’d get something back
Joe Tech has a really good idea, of course donating them would work well also. If you were going to sell them on eBay, I would load them with the content that you are putting on the ones for ER. You’d probably get a premium for them that way. Your title could be “IPOD Nano loaded w/ Shoemoney’s favorite ebooks”.
Make that an AIR too. Thanks
I think he wants this to be the most commented on post…
People want everything for free, although some said give them away.
Cheap asses…
Oh yeah, I’ll take one please.
You have 147 comments, this makes it 148, what are you going to do with them?
I think you should let some of us (my hand us up in the air) give them away on our blogs for you, but have it also be part of a mass contest on your own site. Entering is easy.. .You just have to be subscribed to ShoeMoney.com via email and a sponsoring blog (like JoeTech.com, for example) by the end of the month. Then, on April 2 (because you’re sneaky on April 1), you draw one winner from the email subscribers of each of the 30 sponsoring blogs. As long as that winner is also in your own subscriber list, they win. To sponsor, a blog ponies up, say, $20. That $600 could recoop your costs or go to charity or go to one big winner or whatever. The best part is you get 30 blogs linking back to you as part of the contest. Just let me be Sponsor #1. I’d love to do this on top of my current $100 contest.
If you don’t like my first idea about running them over with the H2, here’s another one.
Have people all over the country hide them for you in weather-proof baggies and get the exact coordinates with a GPS. Then, once a day/week/whatever, just make a post that has the coordinates in it and whoever finds it gets it.
Here’s another idea: If you use anyone’s idea about what to do with them, give that person one. Unless it’s me, then give that person one and a shitload of money.
the amount of comments show you why those free ipod and shit sites still work and make money.
//g
Holy crap, everyone wants an ipod! Imagine that. I’m going to take a nap…
Sounds to me like you have a lot prizes for blog contests
I would donate to charity what the cost of a ipod would be, with the information downloaded on it. Or even with out the info on it. Let me know I like the idea of just straight donating but I would love to get my hands on that information i am sure just like everyone.
I think it was LookSmart: does anybody have a pointer to the ad? (”are you fishing where the fish are?”)
Dude send those extras my way. hahaha…. this sounds great. I could do a lot with those extra nanos.
LOL that’s an awesome idea. How do you get audio versions of books though…?
Donate the extra one’s to St.Jude – i am sure the kids would love to have access to an ipod to take their mind off their treatments.
You probably have enough suggestions on here to do a different one for each of those thirty nanos! That might be fun
Also, you’re inspiring me here. Writing about how you are doing stuff to make this service/event better, exciting people and drawing in readers in the process – I need to be doing this with my own sites!
With 139 comments so far it could be that somebody else gave you this tip (I haven’t read through all the comments) but here is my suggestion: Use a Tell a Friend script like TAFPRO (Tell A Friend Pro) and have your readers refer friends to your website and enter a chance to win one of the Nanos. Every body happy, you have more traffic, the referred friend has a good blog to read, and the referrer has a new iPod…
My $300 iUbi broke few weeks back, maybe you could donate me one nano? I pay you shipping costs to belgium
Sorry for the off-topic, but I have a question and can’t imagine a more inform audience as the one shoe has…
There used to be a cool ad (image, pic) that was running for example at the 2006 San Jose SES.
It said somethink like: “Are you fishing where the fish is?” I do not remember which compaby was running the ad (maybe Hitwise?)
I would bery much appreciate if anybody here can send me a pointer for a place where I can find the image for this ad.
Thanks!
Put together a nice curriculum of grade school books.. load the nano’s up and then adopt an inner city class – the kids will learn to love the classic books you provide them and it might give them a head start. So bottom line – load them up and give them away to the least of your brothers.. you have plenty of time to make money or boost traffic, this would be a nice way to give back.
just my 2 cents
free ipod nano giveaway! mahahahaha, or give them to some less-off children.
I’d probably sell them on eBay,,,
Yeah, i would love to receive an Ipod Nano… Good looking out Shoe
It is interesting that this post is one of the most commented on! Free Stuff+ Traffic…good lesson
RSS Contest pt II with John Chow!
ill give you a game of paper rock scissors for one.
First 10 – Give to your top 10 commenter’s because they are the most loyal.
Second 10 – I would create a squeeze page that asks for the users name and email and give them away, one per month.
Last 10 – Give the last 10 to people that helped you or are you mentors,Seth Godin perhaps…
I think this way you’d be getting the most out of them. You give back to your readers, get some emails which can turn into $$ down the road and give back to people you appreciate.
Marko
Send one to Brett Favre, he has nothing to do now:)
I don’t know about all of the rest here but my tiny little bit of the internet could use all the help we can get. And when I mean help, I mean free help…lol “Hint Hint”
I think the readers option avove is a great idea! The one’s that start with J and end with abarch!
Perhaps give them to your readers?
give 2 to Elite Retreat attendees
I have four iPods already; I’d be more interested in all the content you populated them with.
I think you should video the Elite Retreat session and then sell or auction them. I’d certainly buy one.
i prefer the sandisk players…not as trendy but solid engineering and excellent sound
I like Mike’s idea to make a video of running over 29 of them, but if that doesn’t turn out to be the winning idea you should send them to the first thirty commenters from NJ, which might be the second most cruel thing you could do besides letting everybody watch them get run over.
nanos r 2 small 4 me…i guess when u r my age u need bulkier hardware
That’s pretty much what I’ve already said. But the main thing about the nano’s isn’t the idea of the nano itself. The big deal of it all is all the books, podcasts, radio shows and more that will already be downloaded on it! That’s some seriously useful information, because if it wasn’t, why would you put it on there in the first place. Right? Well, nonetheless whatever you end up doing with the extra “luggage” you should definitely at least write another post about it to get the readers going again.
Good luck with them Jeremy.
Like Bensto had said. Get a contest going. Since everyone likes to blog, have them blog on why they feel they should get the nano. Have them do a little research on a charity and blog about why people should donate to that particular charity. Have the blog post to be 300 words long or so.
make a contest, or give to most and the best coment on this blog.
Giving them out for free seems too easy…I would make them work for it… >:)
Or you could give them to charity
hrmm….maybe put Lost episodes on them and have a contest
I’d say…
Offer them to a school for Blind People.
How about the person who comes up with the most creative thing to do with 30 iPods gets to do it?
Ok, that first comment by John Cow isn’t really John Cow.
sigh…
so many fkn scabs.
how bout an ER in sydney, Oz?
Make a video of you running over 29 of them with the H2. Then, give the last one to whoever can cry the loudest about how you didn’t just mail everyone a free one instead of doing that.
Hold a contest, give them away to the people who can pull the weirdest face.
The obvious solution – record the entire event on video, compress it and put on the nanos, then sell 20 and give away the other 10 in contests
Yeah, he’s right. Listen to him! Did you hear me? Listen to him!
As I see you have a problem, so let us help you with that
I wouldn’t mind getting one…^_^
I’ll take one too
Maybe start a contest on DP about something and give them away to 30 people
Well, give away for the last 30 commenters
I’ll take on. Oh, wait: pretty, pretty, pretty please of course (with a cherry on top).
Do I hear a SHOEMONEY Contest coming soon?
-Mike
Or number each comment to this post and pull up thirty numbers on a random number generator and give those users with the corresponding comment, an iPod.
You can send me one, I won’t mind
If another Elite Retreat goes down, how about making it east coast?!
I have the solution… Fill the Nano’s with the same stuff that going on the ER’s version, then at ER film one of the interesting sessions and stick that on the nano, (They have video) now you have a nano with all this great stuff on so you sell it at a slight premium.
It is also a way to give people a feel of the ER experience, maybe throw in a couple of clips of the limo ride etc. Could be some extra marketing as well.
Oh and did I mention that as the winner of the best idea I get one sent to me for free
Why not auction them off, and give the $ to charity along with the money donated from Seth’s books?
If you’re going to give them away free, you might as well just sell them. I am in the market for one anyway and would love to buy one! Plus the engraving would be sweet
A contest for your readers of course!
That’s easy, have a super of a giveaway for your readers!! Sure there’s pretty of us readers that would love to win one!
I wonder why this post has the most comments.
I think it’s great that Seth and you came to an agreement to donate to charity. Giving back to the community is something more people need to do.
The idea of giving out ipods with the books on them was brilliant. The people that you give them to are going to be pleased.
~Terry
donate one to the win on the web competition. sell the rest on ebay with 2 different sales landing pages; one using everything you’ve ever learnt about making landing pages on ebay. and the other using a plain ordinary page.. use it as a blog case study to prove how good you are and how much proper landing pages helps. send one to me for this awesome idea.
Looks like many like the contest idea.
First off, anyone NOT following you on twitter should even be considered.
http://twitter.com/shoemoney
Good idea that they also be subscribed to your RSS feed.
Don’t give anything out just yet. Wait till the nanos arrive, take some photos, show them online, make us salivate a bit.
Then, like an Easter egg hunt, post a message to twitter only, with a hint as to where and how on your blog a nano can be claimed. Do the same for the RSS feed. Repeat until all are gone. Give away 5-10 at a time, less work for you.
Ebay?? Just auction them off here on the blog!
Go back to your original idea. Create an Audible.com version that includes all the books that you said you learned from in audio format. I’m sure a chunk of them are online with them. Who knows, they might give you a deal figuring the new owners might become subscribers.
How about a contest where the top 3 commentators each month for the next several months get an Ipod?
I think a great idea would be holding a contest where the person on this post who comments under the name “big money” should win an ipod!!
OR, just randomly run around and shoot people with a paint ball gun, and casually walk up to them and apologize and give them an ipod for the trouble.
Agreed there
I am in the top commentators. How can I be forgotten…haha
Even I want 1. I have 0
May as well run some sort of contest to increase the RSS count of shoemoney. I mean I realize you already have 15,000 so what good would another 500 do? Being the mastermind you are, I don’t think you even need that question to be answered by me.
You can always donate one to http://www.Melbel.com to help get our blog project off the ground. Or to http://mmmTalk.com to get their forums more traffic!
List them all on Ebay, and donate the proceeds to the same Charity Seth Godin had you pay to.
I think you should run an auction with a reserve price to cover your costs. No reason for you to be out of pocket. Take off the cost of shipping to the winners and then donate any surplus to a charity of your choice. Maybe even include charity selections as part of the auction process
My opening bid is $50 and, since I’m English, my charity choice is the British Heart Foundation. They saved my Dads life a few years back so I’m happy to double the bid to include a contribution. Besides I must be the only person on the planet without an iPod!
Yea, that sounds like a great idea. A contest like that would certainly generate some buzz and it would be real cool if of course I won one.
A contest seems to be the popular choice.
I’ll take one, and offer Unix work in return.
I think John should buy 30 more for ShoeMoney readers
You should do a contest like the one Dill did for the PS3.
I like that idea, but I think the contest would be even better.
Definitely create a contest. You should make us work for these quality mp3 players.
My local Red Cross is having a fundraising and awareness campaign. We’re nominating local heroes for the work they do making other people’s lives better. I think the devices would be great gifts for the people nominated as local heroes. If you are interested, just e-mail. We’d love to have them!
I don’t want one, and Brent’s got the right idea.
Since this information has positively influenced you so much, give ‘em to the kids man. Chances are slim today’s student will ever come across that kind of information unless they have a mentor, or are into the whole personal/financial development gig.
Could give them directly to the worst performing middle/high schools throughout the US, or even better — get your readers to become a travelling mentor for schools in their area. Hook ‘em up with an iPod and send ‘em to spread the wealth of knowledge that could change countless lives and such.
or, y’know.
You could give ‘em to the first 30 posters like that Cow schmuck suggested.
just kidding, you know I love ya John
Whatever you choose do with your gifts to the world shoe, I’m constantly impressed with how much good you do by just being you. Been a long time reader, finally had some constructive input for ya. Keep on keepin’ on.
Well you could always go for the tried and true method of eBayin’…
That’s how you got started online, right?
How about you give em away? I sure could use one
My little brother would love one. He wants to be just like me and I have an ipod and I think it would be cool to give him one. Give it to the low income families and put music already in it. If they don’t have a computer than that would be great.
Give ‘em to poor kids, personally. That’s 30 people that will never forget you and that may have otherwise never known you. If one of them is successful one day, who knows what may come back your way.
A contest promoting the Elite Retreat seems like an obvious option.
Most definately love to grab one, assuming you’re hinting at the freebies?! Would even be willing to pay for carridge and your time!
Why not just give them as christmas presents to poor kids? ( If they have any power plug at home… of course.) Or sell them and then donate it to charity?
One of these days I’ve got to make it to an Elite Retreat….maybe when I start making money off of MouthyGirl.com I can….maybe….
You could have perpetual contests…and give an affiliate link to an Ipod skin / Ipod case company so that people can buy a skin for their new free Ipod Nano, you make money off the affiliate link and they pick out a skin to personalize their new free Ipod Nano!
Win-Win?
Sounds like you have a major problem on your hands … LOL
Darin
Looks like you’ve already got your Christmas shopping done.
I agree! Ive got one of those 1st gen 1GB nanos that the japanese are all worried about since that one exploded.
Well you could give me one of them
http://www.seantheblogger.com
Yeah give em away eh?
Jeremy I just sent you an email with a very special plugin that can help you with your excess iPod inventory.
I could use one.
Okay Jeremy, Here’s the ad:
“Does your Boss or S/O think you were at EliteRetreat SanFran….But, you were’nt? Is the pressure rising since you almost slipped?
We’ve got the Perfect souvener for you to hand! They’ll love you, and never cast suspicious eye towards you again! In fact they’ll make you go the next E/R!
‘Gift Wrapping and Fedex for just an additional $47!
Good luck man!
Dude, remember that time I….well I….you know that time yeah it was fun wasn’t it!
Ha ha, the good ‘ol days. Can I have an iPod Nano puhleaze!
You got my attention, i’ll take one as well.
OK…I am the capitalist here I guess…Like I said about the DVDs do the same thing and sell them! …then give me one for the awesome Idea
I’d like one!
you should send me one and i’ll write about elite retreat on my blog
hahaha … a business gift .. saves you some on taxes too
Give ME and 29 other people free entry into the Elite Retreat, so you don’t have to waste your Nanos.
I like the idea of giving them to the first 30 posters. What do you gain out of that though except for a fawn-fest of drooling readers.
I like the contest idea too. The reader gets something and you get….well…more readers due to the promotion you’ll be getting from the contest.
Then I thought, what about a contest where the winners receive the nano and then you turn the nano into the winners “ticket” to some other retreat/program/conference. This way you get the fawn-fest of readers, tons of publicity due to the contest, and then you put it on HGH by making the nano’s “tickets” to another event.
Just a thought.
By the way, do you guys have tshirts for the Elite Retreat? If so, send me a pic of one so I can stick it on my site.
(note to self-check if I’m in the top 30)
DANG! That stinks!
You should sell them on here. ^_^
You could, as everyone else has already said, give them to the people who post a comment for this post. Or you could have a different IPod for each day of the month. You’d be assured of always having one that is charged.
I’d be way more interested in the info that you are planning on putting on the nano then the nano itself. If they were put up on ebay with the info on it, I’d be bidding in a heartbeat.
Oh please sir, can I have one? pretty please
Desperately in need of a quality music player?
Just a suggestion, donate them to the veterans hospital. They could use the pick me up and you could use the tax break!
Contest!!! or if you give them to commenters of this post…me me me me!!!! please.
Well, you could hold a contest on your blog, or any of your sites that you own for the readers to have a chance at some. Of course, it cost you money, so you might as well give us a challenge to do for them if it were to work like that.
Or you can use them for other promotional things. I know you know for a fact having things on handy for promotions is always a good thing.
I guess all ER attendees would like to have the iPod’s given away there and all people that are not attending ER would like a give-away or something like a contest…
it should be either
)
1) another event
2) sell them and proceeds to charity (nothing liek a good PR stunt
3)first 30 commentors is justa side thought
I agree with giving it to the first 30 people who post a comments. Well I guess I am number 30 myself.
Give the ER attendees two IPOD nanos.. maybe they can use one as a giveaway on their sites….
I thought ER wasn’t going to have sponsors 
Make Contest help get your blogs pr up and everyone who leaves a comment & helps out gets entered and picked by random ~AdtollForums~
Great idea for a post Shoe.
You ‘re where guarenteed to get at least 30 comments
You could give them to the first 30 commentators or your top commentators. You could also have some sort of contest.
Have a “link bait” competition!
Obviously that’s what he should do.
Just hang onto them and give them out this xmas.
The first 30 commentators sounds like a good idea.
Ha ha ha….I think that was the intention.
OK fine, you can send me one too. I am just over the border in Iowa so I can pick it up just as easy if need be.
First 30 eh, I guess I am in if you go with all the suggestion of the first 30 commentators
I agree with this one =]
I’m thinking it’s time for a random sweepstakes contest. Or you could send them back… the latter of my two ideas is really terrible. don’t pick it. go with what feels great – giving away ipod nano’s to happy readers.
Send one to your favorite dog crap selling person!
all attendees get two. 1 for them and 1 for someone they mentor
Sell them at half price.
haha nice! Thats actually a good idea
That’s a problem I’d like to have someday… what to do with 30 extra ipod nanos…
Seriously, what can’t you do with 30 ipod nanos?
An iPod Nano for the first 30 comments in this post, sound fair to me
or do something like ask everyone to write a comment/story about a book/ebook/podcast related to SEO they like and then take the best 30.
Hmmm, first 30 people to leave a comment on this post?
- #11
tough dilemma you have.
btw, whatever happened with the writer applications that were sent in for fighters.com?
Hey Shoemoney, give them to me and I will give them away on my blog. I can’t think of a better thing to do with them…
Auction them off for those who want 1 but cant get 1
2 Ipod Nano’s per elite retreat attendee… or just auction them off on ebay and donate the proceeds to a worthy cause.
“I thought it would be cool to buy everyone every book I always learned from”
I’d be interested in what’s on your booklist.
I smell a contest! Or actually (taking off my self centered OOH I want to win one! hat) Graeme has a good idea there.
I would give them away to the first 30 commentators on this post, but that’s just me
You can give me two: one for me and one for my dog. Ha!
Well, why don’t you hold a contest or something on your blog?
What’s better than getting 1 Ipod nano- You got it, getting 2.
If you can afford it give them both to the attendees. 1 will be full of the marketing goodness to keep them pumped and the other is for them to find there own stuff to load on it. That way they don’t have to delete any of the other content.
As you said, go big or go home.
Well, if you are in need of funds, you can always auction them off on ebay. To get a price above what you paid for, maybe include a 15 min consulting session from Shoemoney himself. That could net another $+100.
Or…send them to Walter Reed Medical center for injured troops coming from overseas. It will make you feel really good knowing you did something for those who have given so much. Maybe send half to Walter Reed for the Army folks and the other half to Bethesda Naval Hospital for injured sailors and Marines…
As a veteran, I can probably help finding the phone numbers of the correct people if you want to go with option #2. Just use my email I included in this comment.
Hook me up, yo! I only need one, but I can take all 30 off your hands.
I’d like and engraved one just to show off that I have enough dough to go to the elite retreat…which of course is not the case
I’ll take one.
Give it to the first 30 commenters of this post? Just a thought,
oh ok, i’ll send you my address since your pressuring me. LOL
Do another Elite Retreat in San Francisco later this year
Perhaps you could share them with your readers?