The Merrill Dubrow Blog

Good morning. I am sure the title got your attention a little bit. This contest will be a little different. You don’t have to answer any questions! In fact it is my strong belief that everyone who enters will thank me because it can help you move your business forward.

A few weeks ago I was the Keynote speaker at the NY/Philadelphia MRA chapter meeting. During my presentation which was entitled 12 Strategies to Move Your Business forward I highlighted staying connected as one of those strategies.

To me there is NO BETTER TOOL than LinkedIn to stay connected to people: Here are 8 reasons that I use LinkedIn:

1. I use customized “Tags” to group my contacts
    
2. Export my contacts for targeted mailings
    
3. View my contacts by industry
    
4. View my contacts by geography
    
5. To see who is attending conferences
    
6. To see what books people are reading
    
7. To view contacts by company
    
8. To participate in discussion groups

Ok here is the contest. We will award the top 2 people $100.00 who get the most connections on LinkedIn for a period of one month.

All you need to do is respond to the blog and say you want to participate and include how many connections you have now. We will track that and at the end see how many you have and will award $100 to the 2 people who have added the most connections. Anyone who participates and gets more connections than me during the contest will get a $10 Starbucks gift certificate. The contest will start as soon as you sign up and end on June 11 at 4:00pm CDT. The sooner you sign up the more chance you have to win. Also feel free to LinkedIn to me and I promise to accept your invitation.

Make sense?

Trust me even if you don’t win you will thank me for getting you involved if you don’t believe me just ask Ed Sugar and Amber Jones.

I look forward to having people sign up.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (89) »

This contest is now closed. Click here to see the winners.
 
Most of the readers love a quick quiz on a Friday.  The Oscars will take place this year on Sunday March 7. As a way to enjoy it a little more, I thought we would have a competition to see who gets the most winners correct. I have all the usual categories and added a few more difficult ones to make it a little more interesting.

Thanks for playing.

P.S. The contest will close Friday, March 5 at 5:00 PM CST.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (32) »

This contest is now closed. Click here to follow the stock contest leader board. Good luck to all participants!
 
First of all, congratulations to Rachel Campbell whose stock pick, Dendreon (DNDN) went from $4.58 to $26.28 — an increase of 473.8%. For winning the contest Rachel will receive $300.00.

2009 was a very interesting year. Only 26 people picked stocks that didn’t go up. Included in the list are some pretty smart and successful people. That list includes: Steve Schlesinger, my dad, Todd Biederman, Ed Case, Greg Horvath and yours truly. Yes I made the list and was MUCH closer to the worst pick than the best – shows what little I know.

To participate in the 2010 contest, here is what you need to do:

Respond to the blog with your stock name and if possible symbol.
 
State the reason why you picked the stock you did. It’s as simple as that.  We’ll do the rest.

A few things to remember:

• You need to respond by 7:00 PM CST January 18, 2009
   
• You can only have one entry
   
• The stock price needs to be at least $1.00 – anything less will not be accepted into the contest.
   
• Only one person can have a particular stock, so the person who responds first gets the pick and we will notify anyone who has a duplicate stock (we had at least 10 duplicates last year and I am sure there will be more this year).
   
• If a stock splits, we will make the necessary calculation and adjustment
   
• If the company you pick gets acquired during the year and their company doesn’t have their own stock price, you won’t be counted in the contest
   
• We will use the stock prices as they were at the time the market closed the last trading day of 2008.
   
• Like last year we will post a leader board.

First prize will be $300.00 for the person whose stock goes up the highest percentage in 2010.

I will get the ball rolling with my choice for the 2010 contest: Omnicom (OMC).  With the challenging economy I believe we are poised for a strong 2010!

Take the stock challenge of 2010!  Get your entries in today! 

Again, the deadline is 7:00 PM CST, January 18th.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (130) »

This contest is now closed. Click here to see the final results and answers to the quiz.

Time For Some Quick Friday Fun — True Or False?

Click here to play.

The contest will close Monday, October 5 at 3:00 PM CDT, and the winners will be announced later that day.  As usual, the quiz will be timed as a tie-breaker.

Good luck to all.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (85) »

This contest is now closed. Click here to see the final results and answers to the quiz.

I grew up watching Lucille Ball in I love Lucy. Once of the funniest scenes ever is when she is working on the chocolate assembly line trying to package the chocolate and gets behind quickly and starts to eat them and hide them.  Very funny!  Another great scene is when she was squashing the grapes to make wine.  Hysterical!

I enjoyed her personality and truly thought that everyone LOVED LUCY!

Well now is your chance to see how much you know about her with a quick quiz. As always the quiz will be timed, rotated and each participant will have different random questions.

Click here to take the “I Love Lucy” Friday Fun Quiz.

There will be a prize for the winner (that will involve something related to Lucille Ball).  The contest will close at 3:00 PM on Monday, June 8th.  Answers will be posted later that day.

Good luck.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (73) »

This contest is now closed. Click here to see the final results and answers to the quiz.

Click here to take the True / False Friday Fun Quiz.

The contest will close Friday, March 27 at 3:00 PM CDT, and the winners will be announced later that day.  As usual, the quiz will be timed as a tie-breaker.

Good luck to all.

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (104) »

This contest is now closed. Click here for the official leader board and quiz results!
 
As you know, I have gone to a lot of sporting events over the years. I enjoy everything about the experience–from the opening kickoff or pitch, to seeing kids laugh and smile during the game, to seeing a massive home run or slam dunk.

During the last four years I have been to Texas Stadium almost fifty times to see "America’s Team" play. During that time I have seen some amazing games. Last month I had the opportunity to watch the last game at Texas Stadium. The game featured the Dallas Cowboys and the Baltimore Ravens. I wish the outcome was different since the Cowboys didn’t win their last game at Texas stadium.
 
As a tribute to the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Stadium and their fans all over the world, today’s post is a quiz about the team and the stadium.

The quiz will be timed in case we have a tie. In addition, the questions will be randomly rotated so not everyone will get the same questions.

And who knows what the winner might get?

To take the quiz, click here.

The contest ends at 5:00 PM on February 10.

Good luck to all!

Posted in Contests | Post Comments (83) »