For the past few weeks Gillette has been challenging guys across North America to take the Gillette Fusion ProGlide Challenge.  Now that we’ve got some guys out there trying the razor, Gillette is upping the ante with the Gillette Fusion ProGlide “Ultimate Summer Job” contest.

Gillette is offering two guys – or girls – the chance for the Ultimate Summer Job.  The chosen pair will earn $50,000 road tripping across North America this summer in a custom van, attending the most exciting sports and entertainment events, while blogging and sharing their experiences along the way.  Their mission: Convince guys to take the Fusion ProGlide Challenge.

Here’s the deal for those who want to enter – go to www.ProGlideSummerJob.com and upload a one-minute video that includes both team members by May 31, 2010, 11:59 pm EDT.  Up to four teams will be selected to travel to NYC for a finalist event June 15, 2010, where a panel of celebrity judges will help select the grand prize winners.

That is why getting a new logo created for ProfessionalGFX was one of the first things I wanted to do. Now, ProfessionalGFX is a web development business also offering many graphic related services. But, I did not create my own logo. Mainly because I was tapped for ideas and wanted a fresh set of eyes (or in this case many sets) on the business and concept. So, I looked to outside sources.

My first thought was to hire a logo designer but I didn’t want to be strapped to using just one person and a limited number of revisions. So, the next obvious option in outsourcing design work is to hold a contest, which is one of my favorite things to do. Outsourcing design work when possible is such a time savor that you can not deny giving it a shot.

Yet, there are a lot of design competition websites out there. You’ve got 99designs, CrowdSpring, and many more smaller ones. 99designs is definitely the most popular one out there, but can be a bit expensive depending on the value of your competition. Through Twitter I found CrowdSpring and decided to give them a shot.

I laid out what I was looking for in a logo, what it was going to be used for (business cards, letterhead, etc) and also laid out some of my specifications. With that, it was up to the designs to come up with ideas and I provided the critique. There were over 70 entries in the contest which included unique designs and revisions.

In the end I decided on the logo below.

New ProfessionalGFX Logo

I wanted to keep the swoosh type look that was in my previous logo but wanted to switch the color up and wound up with a nice green (reminds me of money!). I also like the incorporation of the swoosh in the GFX lettering.

Up next in this series about rebranding a web development business, I’ll quickly discuss some business card design tips and reasons for having a business card.

First and foremost, the prizes!!

First place will receive 250 custom printed Postcards from the great folks at UPrinting.com. ON TOP OF THAT…you will also get a $20 online gift card to Amazon!

Second place will also receive 250 custom printed Postcards, however, no Amazon gift card. Sorry guys, only one to go around this time!

So, now you know what is at stake, heres how to enter:

• Post a comment on THIS post to tell me that you are in. This will be your main entry, and the only required.
• Blog about the contest in its own entry (meaning you can’t blog about it along with other news or updates or other contests, no mashup posts will be counted towards your entry). If you blog about it, you will get an additional 5 entries.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for Dorm Room Biz and send me an email with the secret phrase at the end of the post within the feed. I’ll probably change it once or twice during the contest. Already subscribed? Great! Just email me and tell me what the phrase or word is! This will get you an additional 5 entries.

The contest will end on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 12 Midnight EST. This only gives you two weeks!

Thank You UPrinting.com!

I want to say thank you to the great people over at UPrinting.com for offering to sponsor the contest! I’ve had a chance to talk with different people within the company as well as search their website. The prices are extremely competitive with the competition and their product quality looks great. This is an awesome prize for the small business or young entrepreneur out there looking to bootstrap their business. The prizes are incredible beneficial, so be sure to enter and you will be on the way to marketing your business much much better with these postcards!

I also need to note that the postcards are only completely free to U.S. residents. If you live outside of the United States, you are still more than welcome to join the contest, however, you will have to pay the shipping price for the post cards.

Thursday, November 27th I will add up all the entries and use a random number generator to pick the two winners.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment here.

Here is a great opportunity for you student/college bloggers. SPENDonLIFE.com is sponsoring a $2,000 college scholarship for a student blogger. For the full details, check out the website they set up for the contest.

The quick and dirty jist of the rules is that you need to be a student blogger and write a blog post about the importance of credit or the dangers of identity theft. The other requirements is that the entry be LESS THAN 400 words and that you link back to the details about the scholarship. Sounds pretty easy ‘eh? 400 words on a topic that you are most likely familiar with anyway? You better get to work doing some research and come up with a creative post – there are no restraints on how you discuss either topic!!

All entries should be posted and submitted by December 1st. You can find out how to submit your scholarship blogging entry on the SPENDonLIFE website.

So, you interested in lowering your student loans or having to work a few less hours at your part time job? Then enter this contest! If you need help with blogging or are a beginner blogger, than they even point you to ProBlogger.net’s Blogging Tips for Beginners.

Now, here are a few quick ideas I had on how you could spin your blog posts:

• Write about how credit as a college student is the worse thing ever because you spend too much money on booze and at the bar when you should be saving and doing your school work
• Write about how credit is great because it allows you to have the time of your life with your friends and you do not care if you come out of college with $500+ in credit card debt from your last semester
• Blog about problems with identity theft on a college campus – or are there not any? Do some research and find out!
• Tell a personal story about your credit history, when you got a credit card, and how you manage your credit effectively
• Know someone who has had their identity stolen? See if they will let you blog about them. Maybe even interview them!

The topics that could evolve around credit and identity theft are endless. What are you waiting for? Get writing and submit your post!

**Please note that Dorm Room Biz is not actually sponsoring this contest nor do we have any part in it. Please direct all questions about entering and qualifying for the contest to SPENDonLIFE.

With the new entries came a few new offers for sponsorships. These two addition books are now up for grabs:

• Great Failures of the Extremely Successful – Mistakes, Adversity, Failure and Other Steppingstones to Success by Steve Young
• Ten Minutes to the Job Interview – Your last-minute guide and checklist for securing a position, a promotion, a paycheck by Rachel Ingegneri

Digg It! If you haven’t already, please give the contest a Digg. Although we won’t make the front page or anything, every bit of exposure helps to grow the site and get more people involved!

Also from the new entries, I have been getting some great emails from new readers that love the site and want to help it grow, so thank you to everyone for your support! With this, I will be conducting some new interviews and other having some new posts to work on.

If you have already entered by leaving a comment on the original post, then your next step should be to blog about it and send a track back to the page about it. Without sending a trackback or leaving a comment with the blog post URL, I won’t know about it…so be sure you get me the address of the post!

If you are a new reader and visitor to the site – welcome! If you like what you see and the target audience for the site, I am always looking for guest bloggers. So if you have a post in mind you’d like to write, get in touch with me.

I am sure you guys know all about promotional items that you get from companies when they are trying to sell something to you or when you attend a conference, well Bic Promo Pens is no different offering promotional pens and similar items. I am a fan of promotional items, because many of them I use. I used to get a package once a month from a promotional products company that did printing for me a couple times on different items. Each month they would send me some different sample products, and always included pens. Besides the markers, sticky notes, coffee mugs, and cups that they sent I usually enjoyed the promo pens the best; simply because I could use them daily and it saved me from needing a stock of pens incase I left one on campus somewhere or lost one.

If you’ve got a blog, make a comment on John’s blog and write a post about the contes for a chance to win!

After a great interview with Mike and the folks at SmartyPig, they were kind enough to send me a $50 gift card for SmartyPig. As a user of SmartyPig, that would be a great little bonus into my own account and to be put towards my savings goal. However, I thought it would be more fun to give it away to someone who sets up an account at SmartyPig. Now, before you get too excited about winning a free $50, this gift card can only be used at SmartyPig.com to be added into your account and go towards one of your goals.

So, here is how things will work. First, you are going to need an account with SmartyPig. So, head over to www.smartypig.com and sign up for an account and set up a savings goal. Then leave a comment with your email address that you used with your SmartyPig account. This will let me check to see that you set up an account and see what people are saving for. By signing up for an account and leaving a comment here on this post, you will be entered into the contest.

Here are a couple other ways to get more chances to win:

• Subscribed to the Email Feed for Dorm Room Biz
• Write about the contest on your blog providing a trackback to this post or leave a comment with a link to your post.

It is as easy as that! The winner be chosen randomly and will be annouced on July 15, 2008. After the contest ends, I’ll contact the winner to get their address and send the gift card off to them!

I look forward to some participation in this contest, and more contests will be coming soon!

So, who wants $50 to save towards their goal?

If you are interested in signing up for Market Leverage, I’d love for you to sign up through my affiliate link but of course it’s not required. If you want to participate in the contests being run by Tyler and Ian, you will need to register for Market Leverage through their referral – a sneaky way for them to make extra money as you compete to make as much money as you can in a time period.

However, if you do want a shot at a Nike duffel bag full of Market Leverage stuff, then check out the contest that John Chow is running.

All you need to do is blog about the contest and send a trackback – its that easy. Then, you just hope that you get picked as a winner of one of the great prizes. See any of the many contests happening around the net to see what is being given away!

Contests are also happening at Balkhis and CashTactics.