It is a well known fact in the blogosphere that creating a contest and giving away prizes to your readers is a great way to give something back, while getting a bit of extra popularity as well. When I came across John Chow’s review for free link backs program and noticed how many reviews he received from it, I decided that we also needed a contest or promotion of the sort. Unfortunately, I can not give you an insane amount of traffic, or a link back from a huge blog, because, well… Gearfire isn’t that big (yet). Being focused on student productivity, I think I found the perfect thing to giveaway to my readers. Yesterday, I found the perfect thing to give away.

Anyone who writes a review of Gearfire on their blog will receive a 2-month Premium subscription plan to student organization tool Gradefix Premium. Gradefix Premium includes all the goodness of the free plan, and removes the limit of 10 items at once. This means you can plan your entire semester in advance, bringing you to a whole new level of organization and good grades. I have talked about Gradefix before, but since then, they have had some major improvements. Most notably is the new RSS feature, iCal integration, and the ability to change preferred study blocks.

Gradefix has always been an incredibly valuable tool to me. Personally, the way I use it does not require the $5/month upgrade, but if I did need it, it would upgrade in a second. The academic improvements that can result in using this tool are worth every penny of the small monthly fee. Luckily though, you get to try premium out for 2 months with no risk. Once your time expires, it simply reverts to the free version.

So here is how the contest works:

• Each review will receive a 2-month subscription to gradefix, and the grand prize winner will receive a 4-month subscription
• The grand prize will be chosen next Sunday, but we will continue the 2-month offer until the end of March.
• You must create a blog post about Gearfire. The post should be written sincerely. Tell us what you really think about the site, even mention things you would like improved. The tone does not need to be positive, and constructive criticism is appreciated.
• Include a link to our site
• We will judge reviews by content and sincerity, so try to write the best content possible!
• If you do not have a blog, you are not out of luck! You can still participate by posting a review on a forum. Please don’t spam though, only boards with related topics.
• When finished, post a comment below with the URL to your review.
• Make sure to include your email address in your post, or have it available on your blog, so we can email you the subscription.

Extra Tips to Consider

• Include some of your favourite posts
• Link to this promotion, encourage your readers to participate
• Include constructive criticism
• Tell us what you like and don’t like about it. We really appreciate any suggestions or criticism you can provide.