What I know about you
This contest is the result of my love of information. See, I’ve been collecting information on you for a while. Here’s a few sources I currently use:

• Two separate surveys with a number of varied responses (Survey 1 & Survey 2)
• Hundreds of comments to my blog posts
• Regular emails from people who’ve read this blog
• Tons of conversations via social media tools like Twitter and Facebook
• Numerous face to face conversations
• Growing numbers of IM and Skype conversations
• Reading the blogs of those of you who have them
• Watching other places that people comment who I know visit here
• Making note of referring links that people use to get here in the first place

What can I say, my salary comes from managing data; I seek it out everywhere.

What do I know?
I’d like to say is that I have this whole blogging thing figured out. Let me just tell you how that’s working out.

There are days when I write a post that I think is magnificent. I think it’s going to change the world for everyone who reads it. I hit the “Publish” button and just wait for angels to start singing. Then I’m lucky if I get even one comment from the few hundred people who visit.

And there are also days where I vomit out something that I thought about in passing. I slap it together quickly and do a few pass overs to make sure that it looks grammatically correct. I hit the “Publish” button thinking I’ll be lucky if anyone reads it but I want it out there because it represents something of my personality. And I’ll get a spike of traffic like no other.

I clearly don’t have this thing figured out completely, which is why I’m running a contest in the first place.

I’ve said from the beginning that this is where I would be chronicling my journey. Learning how to blog is part of that. I felt it appropriate to share all this with you.

More data?
Learning how to identify what people want is an even bigger part of my overall journey. I want to provide people with value; that’s why I seek out so many sources of data to learn about you.

I’d like to know more though. I’d like to know why you read blogs in general. I’d like to know why you read THIS blog. Most of all, I really, really want to know what will KEEP you reading this blog.

Now on to the juicy part:

The Heroic Destiny Contest

I need your help learning what people want to read about. In exchange for helping me overcome this learning curve, I’ll be giving out some prizes. Let me tell you what I’m looking for first and then I’ll tell you the prizes.

I need answers to these types of questions:

• What topics would you like to see here?
• What problems do you wish you had solutions to?
• What do you wish you knew how to do?
• What have I already written about that you would have liked to see me go deeper on?
• What would you like me to write less about?
• What topics are you tired of seeing in the blogosphere?
• What information do you wish you could find online that you just have not been able to locate?
• Bonus: If you had a day with a unicorn, what would that day look like? (Random, I know!)

Also, how do you best like to receive information?

• Blog posts
• Video
• Podcasts
• Downloadable content
• Coaching sessions
• Other

Competition Rules
The contest will run starting now until midnight (Central Time) on Sunday June 26, 2010.

The winner will be determined based on the following criteria:

• 50% of the competition will be determined based on how well you answer the questions posed above; you may also create your own questions along the same lines if you feel so led. Your answers have to be submitted by either leaving a comment on this blog post or you can email them to me. Please make sure to include your Twitter account and your blog so that I can match up entries with the second half of the competition. (Full disclosure: My heroic wife and I will be the only official judges on this part of the competition.)
• 50% of the competition will be determined on how well you promote this contest for me. Yes, I said that without sugar coating it. The goal of this whole thing is to help me provide the best content possible for you which means the more answers the better. Here’s how I’m scoring this part:
  • 5 points for EACH link to this post on Twitter with the hashtag #HeroicDestiny (You MUST include a link to this post and the hashtag so I can find it)
  • 10 points each for filling out my previous surveys: Survey 1 & Survey 2 Make sure to leave your email in both of them (leave email in the name section of the first survey).  Total of 20 points if you do them both.
  • 10 points if you appropriately link to this post in someone else’s blog comments (can’t be your own blog or mine). You have to let me know where to find it and it has to be appropriate, not spammy! This means you have to be creative. Also, you can only use this method one time; I don’t want people hating me for their comments getting all jacked up.
  • 20 points if you write about the contest and post a link on your blog. Again, you’ll have to let me know.
  • 40 points if you post a video somewhere about the contest.

PRIZES
So what are the prizes? Money and fame. Yes, really…well, a little bit of each.

First Place

• $20 via PayPal
• Post about you and your blog/product/whatever OR a video interview that I post here and on multiple video sharing sites

Second Place

• $10 via PayPal
• Post about you and your blog/product/whatever OR a video interview that I post here and on multiple video sharing sites

Third Places (Three total third place winners)

• Inclusion in a compilation post done in interview style which will include all third place winners. The interview questions will be to questions that come from this contest. The post will include links to your information (blogs, Twitter, etc).

Honorable Mentions

• The best answers to the “bonus” question will be showcased in a post dedicated entirely to the topic of the “bonus” question.

Please note: By submitting your entries, you give full authorization to post responses as I see fit. This is necessary especially for the Honorable Mentions category.

I’m super excited about this contest and about the results. The best content I can produce is content YOU want to see. I think this is a creative way of helping me overcome my learning curve!

Thank you in advance for everyone who participates.