Who Gets?

Bloggers often host contests on their blogs to increase readership. They give away things like Joost invites, books, even links. If you have a creative idea to market your website, just go for it and see if it works. You'll never know unless you try.

There are lots of creative ways to develop online communities, but whogets.com is revolutionary. I've never seen this type of web 2.0 online community before.

Here's how it works: Members sign up and select prizes they'd like to win. They vote for each other to win the prizes in two rounds. The discussions are about who should win the prize and why. And the prizes vary dramatically from necklaces to giftcards to electronics.

The first round narrows the pool to seven contestants. Then...

"Each of these seven contestants will have the opportunity to make a statement, up to 100 words long, explaining why they want or need the displayed product or whatever they feel like writing or they can leave it blank. The final round will usually last for another 7 to 14 days. During that period, WhoGets.com members vote for their favorite contestant. The contestant who receives the highest number of votes wins."

The sponsors include a wide variety from PetCo, the AppleStore, to eToys. The list is long and I bet it will get longer.

I took a look at some of the discussions and it turns out this community could really develop into something when people list their interesting reasons for wanting a certain prize. For example, one guy wrote he wants an ipod shuffle because:

"I have been trying to get this for my wife for a long time and i am just not able to afford it. By voting for me you will be making a mother of 2's job much easier"

And another poster wants the shuffle for his daughter:

"There is no way I can buy this for my daughter, as I cant afford it. Would appreciate if you would vote for me."

I just have to wonder how long it takes to actually get a prize. There are the two rounds of voting and then there's the shipping. I bet some of these prizes take FOREVER to get. But it seems like a good idea if it actually works.

This post was sponsored by whogets.com.