You might be wondering what these three things have in common: free domains, free web hosting packages, and free premium WordPress theme club memberships. Well, these are all prizes up for grabs in the first Theme Lab contest! Honestly, I’ve never been big on contests, but when Nick Roach of Elegant Themes contacted me a few days ago offering to sponsor a contest/giveaway, I was more than happy to oblige.

But, a WordPress theme really isn’t much use if you don’t have web hosting to use it on. Your own domain name wouldn’t hurt either. This is why I contacted Jack of Fused Hosting and Bill of Available Domain Names to donate to the contest as well.

If you want to know what exactly is up for grabs, more information on the sponsors, and how to enter, read on…

The Prizes

Okay, here are the prizes. Each winner will get a package of each of the following:

Elegant Themes Membership –
Duration: 1 year
Value: $19.95
Descripton: With a membership, you get access to all of the themes featured in the theme gallery. Also, please review the FAQ, as it should answer pretty much any questions you might have about what you can and can’t do with the themes.

Fused Hosting Package -
Duration: 1 year
Value: $32
Description: This is Fused Hosting’s shared hosting plan. You will be allotted 1 GB of disk space and 25 GB of bandwidth/month. It’s normally priced at $2.95 per month, although keep in mind this is a yearly plan. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the terms of service.

GoDaddy.com Domain Registration –
Duration: 1 year
Value: $9.99
Description: GoDaddy.com is one of the world’s most popular registrars. Keep in mind, this is for a .com, .net, or .org registration only. This means, no “exotic” TLDs, and the domain must be available for registration. Also be aware that there will be no adult, obscene, trademark, or otherwise inappropriate domains allowed.

The Sponsors

And now some more information on our sponsors.

Elegant Themes Logo
Elegant Themes – I wrote about Elegant Themes last September, and what I said back then still holds true today. Nick does a great job of releasing new quality themes on a regular basis, as well as keeping previous themes up-to-date. It’s probably the best value WordPress theme club out there today, priced at only $19.95 per year.

Fused Hosting Logo
Fused Hosting – You probably haven’t heard of these guys, since they’re a relatively small company. However, being a smaller company, they can offer much more personalized and hands-on support. Most of you probably don’t remember this, but back when I was having downtime issues with an old host, more than a year ago, Joe from Fused really helped me out in a bind and actually allowed me to host Theme Lab there for a couple days until I could get things settled with my new host.

Available Domain Names Logo
Available Domain Names – Bill Eisenmann, aka NameClerk, has been providing free available domain name lists through his newsletter and blog for several years now. If you’re the least bit interested in domaining, I would highly recommend you sign up for his newsletter and subscribe to his blog. It’s completely free, so you don’t really have anything to lose. I’ve been a subscriber myself since 2006 and have registered many quality available domain names through his lists.

The Rules

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for. Here’s how you enter:

  1. Pick a number between 1 and 1000
  2. Make sure noone else has picked your number
  3. If so, post it in the comments below
  4. Make sure you have a valid e-mail address in your comment
  5. You can enter only once
  6. Contest closes next Monday, April 13th, 2009 at midnight EST

After the contest closes, I will use this random number generator (hat tip to Pavel from WPZOOM for the link) a pick a single number between 1 and 1000. The four people closest to the number will win.

I also made the following video to give an overview of the contest, in case you would prefer a video over reading all this text. Click it to watch it.

So post your number below, or let me know if you have any questions or need clarification. Good luck!

P.S. This is the surprise I referred to at the bottom of my last post.