Congrats to the winners of the Zappos mandals contest. Each winner gets $100 each to spend at Zappos.com. Last week we took votes and the winners were chosen and below is the video showcasing the winners.

Remember, you’re the best! And don’t forget to join the Zappos affiliate program. Please contact me with your information so I can send it over to Zappos so they can comp you.

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Here are all the entries just in case you are curios.

Update, the contest is over. Voting can continue, but I took a screen grab of the votes when it expired and will be posting it in another blog post soon. You can still vote if you wish, it just won’t count.

Ok, it’s time to vote. Watch the video and look at the entries, and vote in the poll below for your favorite picture. The winners, who will be the top 5 vote getters, will each get a $100 Zappos.com certificate to buy anything they want on Zappos, even more mandals!

Yes, you can vote for yourself and you can encourage your friends to vote for you. I would!

Remember to follow @zappos on Twitter and join the Zappos affiliate program.

Click To Play

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Do NOT miss this podcast. Andy Sernovitz (THE mast of word of mouth) from Gaspedal.com gives some unbelievable advice about how anyone can get started with word of mouth marketing.

Buy Andy’s Book at Amazon.

We talk about what WOM is and how anyone can do it, with examples of how real companies are doing it every day, and get this… with no real money spent! Andy gives two major things that you need to know about WOM. Huge tips that will make you start thinking right away.

Consider this: “Never let anyone walk out the door without something to share”. Think about that for a second. Are you letting the WOM get away from you?

Oh yeah, be on the watch here on this blog for some free copies of Andy’s book!

Here are the show notes:

What is word of mouth marketing?
How to get started?
Who’s gonna talk about my stuff? How do I make it easier for them to share it?
Identify the talkers.
Offline wom principles, never let anyone walk out the door without something to share.
(examples: bloomingdales big brown bag)
Send everyone back to office with 6 extra desserts, they’ll talk about it.
Email is a huge part of wom.
Emotional reasons wom works. Does it make me feel good? Does it make me look smart?
Makes me feel important (give away discount code).
Fun gets forwarded.
Potbelly restaurant sent coupon for 10 free sandwiches to old customer to giveaway.
Freshbook invoices, hosted dinners for travelers in every city.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2007 is…

1. w00t (interjection)
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

w00t! I won the contest!
Submitted by: Kat from Massachusetts on Nov. 30, 2005 23:18

We’ve been lobbying for “funner” to be a new word. So much so we made a website to help it along. Visit www.makefunneraword.com to cast your vote and support.

Read/Write Web thinks it should have been “facebook”.

I also agree with ParisLemon. Do you know anyone who has ever used the word Facebook in a sentence? No you don’t, c’mon.

Visit www.awesomemillion.com to make yourself awesome!

Want to know more about it? Here’s a few videos Dave and I did last year promoting it.

The short intro version…

The long version…

A stretch? Maybe. The odd part is, I play the trombone too (well, I use to in high school).

While at the Affiliate Summit, someone, I can’t remember who, came up with the phrase “Don’t piss off the blogger”. So I grabbed the domain and vowed to make a t-shirt out of it.

So here you go bloggers. Visit Dontpissofftheblogger.com and get your very own t-shirt.

And honestly, it’s never a good idea to piss off the blogger. Seriously.

I used Spreadshirt to create this design. If anyone else wants to design some more, feel free.

You thought I was done helping others make money online when I sold BlogKits eh? Not quite. Starting today, I’m accepting only 100 beta testing applications for my latest project called Scratchback.com.

The press release goes out later this week, but loyal JimKukral.com blog readers get the scoop early of course, and can apply for one of the spots early as well. I’m thinking they’re going to go fast though, so sign up now if you’ll want to have an invitation to the private beta in August.

So what is Scratchback.com?

I’m not revealing the juicy details as of yet. Beta users will get a sneak peek though. All I will say for now is that it is an online advertising solution similar to things like Chitika, Blogads, AuctionAds or TextLinkAds and Adbrite. Similar in that it’s a publishing solution, but totally different and unique in how it works.

It’s mostly unique because it’s fun. In fact, the entire model is based around fun, not “making money online”.

I’ve been building this project in my head for 3-years now, and it’s almost done. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you and having some fun!