Free Pens For Top Commentators
I received a big box of pens from 1234Pens.com. I was discussing prizes for the blog with the owner of 1234 Pens and he told me he would send me a bunch of promotional pens to give away. When I opened the box, I thought they were all 1234Pens.com promotional pens, but upon digging inside the box, I saw that 1234 Pens has made me some custom John Chow dot Com pens as well!
Customized pens make great promotional and branding items. Everyone needs a pen and when it has your name on it, you keep your company in front of your customers (or blog in front of readers). Promotional pens are also surprisingly cheap to make. The yellow 1234 Pen can be made for as little as 83 cents each. The pens that 1234Pens.com made for me cost a lot more because it’s made of metal - pricing starts at $5.22 each.
Now that I have these pens, I need to come up with some creative ways to give them all away. I’ve decided to start by giving a set of pens to all the top 10 commentators. If your name is on the top commentators list at the end of this month, you’ll be getting a John Chow dot Com and 1234Pens.com pen.
A set of pens will also be sent to the winner of this Friday’s MyBlogLog contest.
Good luck everyone!
BTW - if you want to order up some promotional pens from 1234Pens.com, tell them John Chow sent you and they’ll give you 10% off the order and free ground shipping.
- Posted in Ramblings
- 93 comments what's your take?
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Awesome, cool writing utensils! *looks into getting my own pens made*
http://www.shawn-knight.net
Reply to this commentShawn,
Let me know which pens you like & ill hook you up.
Reply to this commentNow that is impressive. I’ve never seen ROI turnaround that quickly
Reply to this commentThanks goodness, we got the old design back.
Reply to this commentYeah, thats awesome!
But the new design was ment to look a lot better. If they fix it so it look like it was ment to be I would rather have that one.
Reply to this commentYet another great marketing tool you seem to utilize on a regular basis… giving people free stuff!
I might have to try this.
Reply to this commentGood stuff, the JohnChow.com pens look really nice!!!
Reply to this commentYeah they really do!
Reply to this commentAmazing. I love the look of those pens and I will be commenting like crazy from now on.
Also if anyone else wants to enter another competion im giving away a free proxy site from my blog http://www.mubinahmed.com.
Proxies are easy to run and great money makers so if your interested check out the blog.
Reply to this commentGet them made in Taiwan or China, much cheaper!!!
Reply to this commentAlso in quality, I’m sure.
Reply to this commentthose are the most amazing pens i have ever seen
Reply to this commenti’m in love
I want some of my own custom pens. Those are sweet.
Reply to this commentWell of course they have to send you the expensive ones … but they look nice!
As if there wasn’t enough incentive to be in the top already.
Reply to this commentCool, the company I work for has a bunch of the pens just like the John Chow pens.
Reply to this commentI would love to have that pen John - but it is unlikely that i’d be eligible.
Reply to this commentSure you are Calvin. If you start commenting today, you have about 2 weeks to keep up the commenting and be in the top 10…not sure if you’ll get the top commentator spot though…I think who ever is there will pull away from the pack close to the end of the month.
Reply to this commentYeah, might be some hard competition close to the end. But that remains to be seen.
Reply to this commentI suspect that this month will be different than last given the sudden interest in the pens. Only time will tell.
Page views must be going nuts. I think I might need to pick up a box of pens with John Chow’s URL on it.
Reply to this commentYou just have a fantastic idea and marketing tool and excellent creativity…I hope I can be as succesful as you…
Reply to this commentI sure do have a long way to go.
Reply to this commentWould be nice to get a pen and a pencil pairing. These mechanical pencils are SO expensive you know.
Reply to this commentHey John - That is some awesome branding. Your evil mind never fails to impress me. I’ve been so inspired that I’ve started a contest of my own at http://www.dailymoolah.com . I’m giving away a Brand New copy of Age of Empires III to one lucky winner for the first 50 users to subscribe to my RSS feed. Get all the details at my blog!
Reply to this commentHey, that’s a really great deal you’re offering there. I only fear that you might get random posts by people. I know I won’t win because the only way I could win was if I did spam. Oh well…
Reply to this commentI’m going to look into some of those promo pens. Thanks for the info, it’s nice to save 10% while at it too
Reply to this commentNice pens John, for how long will your promotional oode work? Looks like a nice way of promotion for sure.
Reply to this commentGreat idea yet again ….john
Also if anyone else wants to enter contest where you could win an all inclusive vacation to the caribbean. just visit http://www.dominica-weekly.com
I believe its an easy opportunity to win a Caribbean vacation.
Reply to this commentThat is one more great idea to market your blog, besides the “Review my blog” and “Join MyBlogLog community”.
A smart move
Hope I can get one of this free pen
I will Exercise for Comments!
Reply to this commentSunflower
Dude, you totally just fed the comment whores. It’s only a third of the way into the freakin’ month and most already have 60+ comments.
How is that even possible!?
Reply to this commentDo I taste some jealousy in your post?
Anyway, with the current rate of comments being posted it’s not too hard to do so actually, there just keep things coming up to respond to.
Reply to this commentthat was a very nice way of promoting your blog… a good idea.
Reply to this commentI am normally very picky when it comes to pens. Those ones look very cool, but how well do they write?
Reply to this commentThey write very good. Especially my pen.
Reply to this commentI love those pens
Im up for one !!
Reply to this commentYes, they look very cool
Reply to this commentThey do
Reply to this commentI dont stand a chance as far as being in the top commentators is concerned.
Reply to this commentWell, honestly it isn’t that hard. It will take you maximum one hour to reach the top
Reply to this commentI waiting in an anticipation for the “Darren Rowse Loves John Chow’s Pens” ads to appear!!!
Kumiko
Reply to this commentxo
Thanks for the competition. Do you ship the pens all around the world as you do with the LEGO flashdrives?
Reply to this commentYeah, I wonder how much would shipping would end up costing, but since you’ve got the money. Thanks! =)
Allen.H
Reply to this commentWhat can I say John. You are the marketing expert.
Reply to this commentEvil monster of the n-th order!
you have traded the pens for a promotional post on their service… havent you?
Reply to this commentThe root of all evil according to some.
Reply to this commentI desperately need some new pens, considering I don’t work for a large company that I can steal them from.
Am I right in saying you’ve had a massive increase in rss subscribers?
Reply to this commentGr8 Post John
And Nice Marketing Tip
RAJ
Reply to this commenthttp://www.digitalworld4u.blogspot.com
Those yellow pens are too slick.
And congrats on 2400 readers!!!
First you crossed 2k and your upto 2400 already! Amazing!
Reply to this commentWell, it was 1800 yesterday. It goes up and down all the time. If I have got it right that number is how many different persons that have downloaded the feed the last 24h.
Reply to this commentYeah, Chow wrote about it a while back. RSS feeds are counted by how many feeds clicked to your site the day before. So current numbers are from yesterday’s feeds…right John?
Reply to this commentRight. That number is the number of people who access this blog with RSS yesterday.
Reply to this commentThe name John Chow oozes viral marketing.
Reply to this commentI’ve been thinking of getting some promotional pens for my site, this might push me over the edge.
Reply to this commentHow come I don’t see any ads up on the site?
Reply to this commentNice way to promote comments John, not to mention giving love to promoters.
Reply to this commentAgree with that. This will make the commenting and activity boom at this site
Reply to this commentEspecially if each person leaves at least 9 comments…the effect is naturally a…BOOM!!! :p
Reply to this commentI might comment more if you offered me this pen, the most expensive pen ever created! only $730,000. a piece, why dont you give away a few.
Reply to this commentThe gender is different, but otherwise I can safely call John Chow to be Oprah Winfrey of the blogosphere
Reply to this commentI don’t comment much
so no pen for me 
Reply to this commentFree pens? What’s next? Free vacations?
Reply to this commentYes please! I’ll take a couple of those
Reply to this commentAnyone know the reason behind the massive increase in RSS subscribers?
Allen.H
Reply to this commentSure, that’s easy! It’s because John chow is the man!!!
hehe
Reply to this commentDon’t know really. Might be the newscoverage, but that was some days ago.
Reply to this commentThe 10 Blogging Mistakes To Avoid got posted on the Wordpress Dashboard. It’s still there right now. Check your Wordpress control panel.
Reply to this commentI saw that yesterday. Though that was pretty awesome. What kind of dividends did that kind of publicity pay John?
Reply to this commentWhat’s interesting is that I’ve received, as far as I can tell, a better prize for being in the top commentators list already. I’ve been in contact with Tejpal of 1234Pens for some freelance writing work
Reply to this commentNow that’s a heck of a prize
Congrats Michael.
Reply to this commentThanks Marc. It’s one of those strange networking things that worked out.
Reply to this commentJohn,
Will you be angry if I spam comment your blog? I need some more pens (mine keep disappearing). I promise I’ll only do it this once…unless you’re giving away a mousepad, which also keep disappearing for some reason.
Reply to this commentI think so long as your comments add something to the discussion and are reasonably on-topic, I think John’s all for it.
Reply to this commentI agree with you. It should be ok as long as you write on-topic. But I noticed that John has closed the comments on old posts, don’t know really from which date, so it might be hard for new people to get into the list now.
Reply to this commentThat’s his new plugin. He wrote about it a while ago. He had it set to 20 days in the screenshot he took. Don’t know if that’s where the final set point ended up though.
Reply to this commentIt is set to 180 total days or 30 days without a reply, whichever comes first.
Reply to this commentGreat idea, giving out promotional pens for commenting, but aren’t you concerned you’ll get a deluge of random and frivolous comments, just for the sake of trying to win a pen? I’m noticing that there are 60 comments on this already (oh, 61 with mine, am I another frivolous commenter? It’s OK, you don’t have to send me a pen!)
Reply to this commentHow do you quantify frivolous? There are a lot of forums out there full of far less intelligible things than are written here. John’s just working the machine to his advantage. Brilliant from my perspective
Reply to this commentCool gifts John. I’m sure the JohnChow.com pens will become collectibles - you might even find them on eBay in a few years
But you better get ready for A LOT of comments
- aren’t you afraid that people will start to “spam” your blog with nonsense, single-word comments?
Reply to this commentAnd that’s where the spam filter (and John’s own browsing) will come into the picture, deleting those frivolous comments.
Reply to this commentWhy not just give them away for free?
The possibilities are:
1. You offer pens for top commenters. 50% of people will start spamming offtopic and the other 50% will think “A PEN? Does Chow think i’m a broke ass student and he’s a king? WTF, I’ve got 20 of them at home and can buy another 20 anytime”.
2. You’ll give them for free to anyone who wants, no spamming, 100% of people targeted, nobody offended.
Reply to this commentWell, alternative two wouldn’t work since he has got so many visitors. And it wouldn’t give him many new visitors either.
He can prevent spamming by blocking names from the list, so if a person is spammy just block him and he won’t get the prize. But to be honest I havn’t seen much spam yet, just more comments
Kalle
Reply to this commentno spamming = no increase in page views and less content on his website and (add other advantages here)…
Reply to this commentFree Shwag rules!!! And this is of course a cheap attempt to get on the top comment list!!!
Reply to this commentWow and this post already has 63 comments.. hahaha
Reply to this commentI love freebies!
Reply to this commentI’m amazed at the huge uptake in posts over a couple of free pens! The free backlink isn’t enough? If I’m lucky enough to get a couple, I’ll trade them up with anyone who’ll give me a decent backlink.
Reply to this commentDear John,
It is nice that you are such a giving person.
I read your blog from Mumbai , India .
I always recommend your blog to my friends also.
Keep up the good work.
Your blog is like a thriller movie.
Keep the camera rolling.
Reply to this commentThe one with your website on it is pretty sharp.
Reply to this commentHelluva way to attract comments!
Hey! Free lunch on my blog! Bits & Bytes. A little crow. Also, my idea for fortuneless cookies!
All intelligent people love a good pen, especially one that writes like butter.
Reply to this commentHm, I thought it’d be a nice give-away for my website as well, but I must say they don’t quite aim for the small users, most of the orders only start at 200-500 pens, which is still a lot of money if you buy that many pens, I’m hoping they’ll also allow smaller orders later…
Reply to this comment