Let me start off by saying I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and all that good stuff that comes with the holidays at this time of the year!  So, we finally have a lucky winner picked at random for the 8GB iPod Nano! But before I get to who the winner is, I’m going to bore you guys with a few things…

People Didn’t Really Participate But Said They Did?

Let’s start off by saying that there were a handful of people who commented saying they subscribed via e-mail but in actuality, they didn’t. If you didn’t subscribe with an e-mail I could actually check, didn’t verify or simply just lied saying you subscribed, well, your entry was not included. Of course, a few people unsubscribed right before the contest too so I don’t know what happened… maybe they didn’t want to participate anymore?

It was definitely interesting because those people who said they subscribed and didn’t, I really don’t know what they were thinking. I actually take the time out to check to see if people subscribed, blogged (and included the links) and checked the proofs of the donation to the charities.

Late Entries Were Accepted

And based on my last post, I mentioned that late entries weren’t going to be accepted. I ended up including those who were late as well. At least for those who did it by the date’s deadline but happened to miss the time portion. If you’re from another timezone, you probably don’t keep track of other timezones’ time, right? Well, at least I don’t.

Plus, I included the late entries because I figured it was Christmas and this was a contest for that very reason so it would seem pretty scrooge-ish of me to not include them, huh?

Stats of the Contest

The contest definitely wasn’t as big as I wanted it to be. But given the short time I had for the contest, the non-promotion and the fact that people said they participated when in actuality they didn’t, made the entries a little longer than what I thought it was going to be.

The number of contestants that actually qualified to enter was 62 people totaling 213 entry points. Of course, those numbers would have been slightly higher if people actually subscribed when they said they did.

It was a little disappointing because I figured at least 100 people would participate and we didn’t even come close to hitting the 200 contestants mark for an additional iPod Nano giveaway.

I believe only three people ended up getting the maximum amount of entries because they donated to a charity and sent proof, subscribed via e-mail as well as blogged about the contest.

How I Randomly Picked and The Winner Is…

I basically made an excel spreadsheet and entered each contestants names as I received them. And for each entry, I would just type their name that many times.

For instance, if you subscribed via e-mail, blogged about the contest and donated to a charity then you would have ended up with 11 total entry points, so I would have typed your name 11 times for 11 possible chances to win.

Well, I’ll give you guys a clue on who won… it was actually one of the three who received maximum amount of entries! That rarely happens but I’m glad someone who donated to a charity won!

Based on a random pick from random.org, number 16 won… (check the screenshot below):

And according to my spreadsheet number 16 is Angie…

So, congratulations to Angie! You won the 8GB iPod Nano… please e-mail me by the end of the month to claim your prize!

Conclusion

Contests are fun but it’s definitely not fun when people try to get entries to win without actually entering. Of course, before you guys instantly unsubscribe, I would suggest sticking around because I’m going to have another contest shortly after New Years! Plus, if Angie doesn’t claim this prize, I will also randomly pick a new winner!

Thank you to all those who participated in this contest and an extra big thank you to those who were generous enough to donate to a charity in 2009!