Well, I would be a liar if I said that the past month during this contest has been as "run of the mill" as I first thought it would be!
Although I knew there would be a lot of work going into the running of a social networking website – especially during its first month – I had no idea how incredibly busy all of the members were going to keep me with some incredible conversation!
The community at Personal Development Partners has certainly grown drastically in size, but even more noticeable than that is the fact that it has grown as a community.
It is not some standard Internet message board where anything goes, and there is no real value – quite to the contrary! Every member who has been participating regularly at PDP is not only learning a lot, but giving and receiving at the same time due to the thought-provoking and inspiring conversations.
I have this desire to swell with pride over how wonderful it has all become, but to do so would be to indicate that it was all about me, and that is far from the case!
Personal Development Partners has become great because of the members, and if I am proud of anyone, I am proud of them!
Okay, I could gush all day about how great it all is, but let's get to the meat of this post: who won the goods, and what is the next contest going to be about???
1st Place
In nothing less than a gargantuan effort on her behalf, my extreme gratitude goes out to Senior Thought Leader Thea Westra of Forward Steps whose efforts to build the PDP community surprised even me – and that is saying something!
Thea has been building a network of blogs based on concepts such self improvement, personal growth, and coaching, and she also has an extremely popular Ezine called Triggers that is probably the best electronic newsletter that I've ever seen.
Using the massive reach of her network of sites and the Triggers newsletter, Thea racked up more than 700 points in the Personal Development Push contest by promoting PDP with text links, graphical advertisements, and fully-fledged testimonials about the power of the site.
Thank you so much for your support, Thea!! You are now the proud owner of a brand new 4GB iPod Nana w/Video, preloaded with all of the audio from Mike Dooley's incredible Infinite Possibilities program, along with the CD's themselves!
2nd Place
No one who has spent any time around the PDP site – or the personal development circles for that matter – has not seen Priscilla Palmer's hand in the building of a community atmosphere when it comes to people who are interested in personal growth and development.
Priscilla's contributions at PDP have been not only consistently positive and community-oriented, but unless I missed a day or two, Priscilla has been on that site every single day, even if it was just to welcome a new member to the PDP family. She has truly been fulfilling her role as one of PDP's Senior Thought Leaders.
Priscilla, your efforts at helping to create and maintain the Personal Development Partners community have been noticed every step of the way, and you built up over 550 points with your links, referrals, and massive action on the PDP forums. You have my sincere thanks for everything that you have done, and for what I'm sure you will continue to do moving forward.
You are now the owner of a brand new 1GB iPod Shuffle preloaded with the awesome Million Dollar Mindset program from James Arthur Ray. You iPod will come preloaded with the material, and you will also receive all of the CD's from the program, as well as the comprehensive Million Dollar Mindset workbook.
3rd Place
Our third place winner is someone that I have known in the blogosphere for many months, and regular Today is that Day readers will quickly recognize the name Karen Lynch, of Live the Power.
Karen is also a Senior Thought Leader at PDP, and her wisdom and "you are in charge of your life!" attitude have been helping to empower people long before the Personal Development Partners community was built. I have no doubt that Karen's writing will continue to be a bright spot in the lives of many people for a long time to come.
Karen, I am so thankful to you for your contributions to the conversations at PDP and your efforts to let other people know about the community that we are all building there. I look forward to your continued writing both at PDP, as well as at your wonderful blog.
Your efforts accumulated over 350 points in the contest and I know you love to read, so it is perhaps the Universe's way of handing you the type of abundance that you desire, because you now have a $75 gift certificate from Amazon.com to spend on whatever you'd like. Thanks again, Karen!
To all of the contest winners, I will be in contact with you shortly to discuss getting your prizes into your hands. To everyone else, keep reading because the next opportunity is even better than this contest was!
Okay, what's next?
Now that the "model" for Personal Development Partners has proven to be a successful idea (not that I ever had any doubt!), it is time to really start cranking up the membership levels at the site. With 4 separate memberships ranging from free to dirt cheap, there is no reason for everyone not to climb on board!
However, that being said, I know that people tend to need a little bit of incentive sometimes, so I have created the Personal Development Partners Affiliate Program, and between now and January 1st, 2008, the affiliate program is actually going to pay out more than the 50% daily payments that are already part of the program!
Want more details? Check back here on Tuesday, October 23rd for a blog post th
at will spell it all out. Don't miss it!
That is absolutely awesome Aaron! Thank you so much. I believe in the value you have provide through PDP and will continue supporting it! You yourself need to pat yourself on the back for providing value to the personal development community. Your vision has brought us all closer together.
Congratulations to Thea and Karen as well! They both are truly awesome women. 🙂
Thanks Aaron! An Amazon certificate sounds like absolute heaven to me!
And just for sharing something that is absolutely awesome anyway!
PDP is becoming a great resource for anyone who wants to take advantage of it and I will happily keep on recommending it!
I’m looking forward to an amazing and fun shopping trip!
Thank you!
Priscilla, Karen and myself…wow, what a great team. Congratulations all, and “Woohoo, yahoo!” I am absolutely thrilled!
Thank you for the opportunity Aaron, and there’s no way I would have spread the word so far and wide if your Personal Development Partners were not such an amazing place to meet and share with each other.
Aaron may say that I produce Triggers, probably the best electronic newsletter that he’s ever seen. In turn, I can easily say that Personal Development Partners is one of the best managed personal growth and self improvement communities of which I’ve had the pleasure to be a part (I’ve seen and explored many).
Thank you Aaron and everyone else who help to make this a valuable community. I’m sure we’re going to have a lot more fun together, before this year is over. 🙂
Namaste, Thea
Priscilla, Karen, & Thea,
Thank you all so much for the public endorsements of PDP, and it is true, from the heart gratitude, because I know that each of you are being just as honest with your words about the site.
Anyone who goes to Personal Development Partners will quickly see that each of you have been participating in the site and helping to make it the great resource that it has become. Although I must sound like a broken record by now, I want to emphasize and show gratitude once again for the fact that it is the PDP members who make the site what it is!
Thank you so much to all 3 of you for being the true leaders that you have been and continue to be at the site, and look for an email from me later about your prizes! 🙂
Congratulations to all three of you! I’m not surprised one bit – you all really deserve to be up there. 🙂
Congratulations, girls!!!!
It’s great that you have won such fantastic prizes!
And it’s awesome that you have helped so much to increase the number of members at PDP. Thank you for that.
The more people to share wisdom, the wiser we will all be.
Cheers!!!
Despite having a banner in my sidebar, and mentioned it in posts, I don’t seem to have referred anyone to PDP – well done for your efforts.
David,
Thank you so much for your support, and if I could give a word of advice about website visitors, it is that personal recommendations work much better than just advertisements.
If you go back through some of the posts on this site, you’ll see that when I found a product or a service that I thought my readers could benefit from, I did a full-on review so they could make an informed decision.
Putting up ads will always pull in visitors eventually, but if your readers trust you, and you give them an honest review of something, that helps to build interest and excitement.
Thanks for your efforts thus far, David, and for helping to make PDP such a great site! 🙂