200,000 is a big number - and big numbers beg for contests!

As the month of July draws to a close, my blog is rapidly approaching the 200,000 visiting mark.  In fact, if I get as many visitors in August as I did in July, I will hit the 200,000 magical number sometime around the third week of August!

With the milestone rapidly approaching, I figure I ought to thank each and every visitor to my humble little blog.  I will admit, however, that I have no idea why that many people come here to read my drivel.  I've never been an overly interesting writer...and I'm fairly certain you could count the number of quality posts that I've written on one hand (which is sad considering I've written 2,977 different posts to date)!

Some people like to hold contests when they hit a big number on their blog (either in visitors or posts) with the most common contest being something to the effect of "name your favorite blog entry on my blog" or something like that.  Well, I can assure you I won't (ever) do something like that, no need to read my crap twice...once is certainly more than enough!

What I thought I'd do instead is offer up a contest that might help out all of us (and will hopefully be a lot of fun in the process):

Here's how it will work:

I would like 16 people to volunteer (if I get 32 volunteers then I can work with that as well).  For now, I'll say the first 16 to respond on this post are in but everyone else can keep expressing interest in case I make it to the 32 person mark.  You must have a blog - and if you don't, here's the perfect excuse to start one!

Using Random.org, I will construct a bracket for the 16 participants (or 32 should we get that many).  It will be a knockout style challenge where only one blogger will remain - and that person will win some kind of prize.

Each round will begin with me posting a single card on my blog.  That card will be the catalyst for the current round - each participant will write a post that somehow ties to the particular card that I chose.  Your creativity, humor, etc. will all get a chance to shine here!  Once the post is written, you put a link on that round's post.  I'll give participants 2-3 days between when I post the image and when I close the round.  After that, there will be a day or two of public voting (all in good fun of course), and then the winners move on to the next round where you'll get a new card to write about.

In this way, I hope to be able to accomplish a few things:
1.  I've wanted to hold a contest for awhile so here you go.
2.  Since I do have a nice group of readers, this contest should provide some traffic to a lot of other blogs - I encourage new bloggers and/or bloggers who don't get a lot of readers to participate as well!
3.  I'm hoping to attract some of the "big" bloggers out there too - depending on the success of the contest, maybe this could become a yearly event!  I'm all ears for new ideas and/or changes to the format.
4.  I want to keep everything in good fun.  There is always a chance for unwanted drama when voting is part of something, but in this case I think it should be a lot more interesting than simply pulling names out of a hat!

As for the prize, I have no idea.  I think I will offer up a base set of 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter (cards 1-300) OR some other prize should the winner already have the set complete (the other prize option is at the sole discretion of the contest host and contains no promises of anything exciting)!

Now, sign up in the comments below - and then look for the contest to begin as soon as I get enough people. Oh, and if you want to pimp this contest on your blog - feel free to (though I would never require you to do stoop to such low levels)!