I’ve finally decided to hold a Entrecard contest. And for a good cause too. I recently signed up with GradeFund, an alternative approach to student college financing. I’m in need of sponsors for my spring semester (For those that aren’t familiar with my personal educational trek, I recently wrote an essay for Beans for Books.)

Here is the contest.

1. Write a blog post about this contest including The Blog Novice seeking sponsorships for my college education.
2. Email me at theblognovice at yahoo dot com with the link to your post
3. Fill out the sponsorship form to GradeFund when you receive via email 
4. Post a comment in this post to let me know you’ve posted.

For just entering the contest, I will offer 25 Entre credits immediately.

The contest will run until my school semester begins (January 19th, 2009) I will announce the winners that day.

1st Prize – 2000 Entercard Credits

2nd Prize – 1000 Entercard Credits

3rd Prize – 500  Entercard Credits

Hello Blog Novice Readers

I am hoping you will sponsor me in my quest for extraordinary achievement in my education. This journey is like that of a marathoner motivated by sponsors who pledge support: I am raising funds to help offset the enormous cost of my education while ensuring that I only receive these funds if I get to the finish line by getting good grades. That is why I am writing you today, and why I have signed up for an exciting program called The GradeFund.

The GradeFund lets you pledge as little as $5 for any grade levels you want to sponsor (A, A-, B+, etc.). You can pledge whatever you think is appropriate by following the link below. The funds are used to pay my tuition directly or sent to me if you prefer.

Sponsorship link: SEND EMAIL ADDRESS TO theblognovice@yahoo.com for LINK.

The Grade Fund only releases funds after successful academic achievement. It is easy to enroll. If you don’t have an account the GradeFund will ask you to create one. This should only take 30 seconds and you can use this account with other students, too. If you have any questions please email me theblognovice@yahoo.com or the GradeFund support@gradefund.com.

I hope you will sponsor me and motivate me to extraordinary achievement with my education. My education will alter my entire life. High achievement more so.

Thank you in advance. I look forward to updating you on my educational accomplishments. I will enjoy your being part of my educational journey.

Sincerely, Eric

FYI: The GradeFund also lets you set up your own educational causes for as little as $1 per grade to support areas of study at schools that are important to you.

Sponsorship link: http://gradefund.com/invites/2321/sponsor_sponsorships/new?invitation_code=a74c4c3b3b41be6c7236aad272c4a8fb14c45117

While three days have actually gone by since day 1, I’m actually calling this day 2. Why? Because Sunday I didn’t really work on earning any income, and Monday was an amalgam of personal blogging, and a continuation of research.

Money Making Blogs

After clicking and reviewing over 100 blogs on Entrecard and Digital Product Reporter’s “Make Money Online Top 100 Blogs” in search for some type of guidance on how to make money online, it was clear that a large majority of the money making blogs didn’t really have anything to offer in terms of direction or step-by-step instructions. Most of them offered only news or personal opinions about a new product, untested ideas about how to promote your blog, or a brazen attempt to redirect me to another website. There was little information about how to actually make money online.

I did manage to find a site that offered a bit more than content on how to make money.  5 Star Affiliate Blogs posted an interview with affiliate marketer Rae Hoffman, A.K.A. SugarRae. Rae offered in this interview, honest, no hidden agenda advice on how to make money in affiliate marketing. She is a rare gem for doing so. From the sites that I visited most people would charge for this kind of information (or promote an affiliate product for you to buy.)

To conclude here, researching to find a mentor or resource site to model and learn from took up most of day 2.