I may have mentioned this a while back to a few of you all, but a few years back, when the show was in it's prime, I was a contestant on the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" show.  (Yes, Regis was the host back then, not Meredith).

It was a long, process to actually get flown to New York, but I'll attribute it to a little bit of skill, and a lot of luck.  Basically, you had to phone in every day (only allowed one call a day), and answer 3 computer generated trivia questions.  If you miss one, the phone call ends.  If you correctly answer all three, then they ask for your SSN, phone number and a possible film date you would be available for.  Then comes the luck part.  A computer randomly selects 40 phone numbers that answered the 3 correctly.  Later on, I found out that approximately 180,000 people called the line a day, with approximately 20,000 answering all 3 questions correctly.  So the odds of getting randomly selected the next day are anout 2/10 of oone percent.

I made it part of my routine ever day affter work/school to call in, and it finally paid off.  I received a phone call back after answering the 3 questions correctly.  I then had to call a private 1-800 number 2 days later and answer 5 more trivia questions.  All 40 people randomly selected had to call that number within a 15 minute time frame.  All 5 questions were identical, so the contestants that got all 5 questions right (provided there was 10 of them) got a free trip to New York to get on the show.  Luckily, I passed that round as well.

I was also fortunate enough to get the final fastest finger question correct on the episode I was on, so luckily I got to meet Regis personally, and get in the hot seat!!  Otherwise I would have been rather upset, getting all the way to the show ... in the episode and choke in my attempt to get into the hot seat.  I would have never forgiven myself.

On a more personal side note, my guest that I brought was my mother, Linda.  I am so happy that I chose her, because 2 years later, she was tragically taken from us in a car accident.  This trip to New York, was the last one on one trip I had with her.  And we had some wonderful moments I will never forget, just the two of us.  It's still a little rough for me watching the video of her, but when I do, it brings back all the great memories we shared.

Back to the episode ... thanks to some help from Travis with the editing, here are the excerpts from the show.  It shows all the questions I answered ... including the final one.  I am going to ask you all to at least pause the final answer.  And see what you would have answered.  Please post what you would have answered, or if you answered it correctly, but PLEASE do not post the answer on the comments board, as I want to get an analysis of which answer everyone picked.  The question was, "What is the object that has holes or spikes in it, that you put in a vase to support a floral arrangement?  A.) Rabbit  B.)  Frog  C.) Porcupine D.) Ladybug.  Remember, post YOUR answer ... but do not reveal the answer shown on the video.  Let me know if you all were right.   Enjoy!!!

Posted by David Bates at 11:51 AM in Advertisers , Media , PayPerPost , PPP Team , Television | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

We told you SocialSpark was going to be awesome! And, here's an example.

IZEA is now accepting video clips for consideration in the soon to be launched Community Section of SocialSpark. This interactive page will serve up user videos and provide viewers with a deeper understanding of the people fueling the growth of the blogosphere. That's you!

Think of it as a commercial for you and your blog. Explain who reads your blog, and what type of content you focus on. Show potential advertisers how they'd benefit from working with you. You know, put on your marketing hat and have fun with hit... make it stand out. Who knows, you might just turn out to be a SocialSpark rock star!

IZEA is utilizing Brightcove Studio to manage the submission and distribution of content in the Community Section video player. As a result, you'll need to create an account as part of uploading your videos. It's simple and easy. So upload your video now! Ideally videos should be no longer than 60 seconds and no larger than 100MB. Click here for technical specs.

Upload your video now! You will be notified by email when your video is approved for inclusion. We look forward to reviewing your submission.

Posted by Shaun Pope at 01:48 PM in Company Events , Featured , Media , Networking , Opportunities , Social Media , Television , Town Hall | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)