Whoa! This has been quite a hectic week! While we are finishing the integration of Green Panda to our online business, we are already starting to work on some new stuff. For example, we are working on a new design for Green Panda that should come live within the next 2 months…

When buying a blog, there is a lot of analysis and strategy development to do. You want to clearly understand where the blog is and why it is there. Then, you want to select the right direction and start working on how you will make the blog grow. While I am already quite busy with The Financial Blogger and Gather Little By Little, adding another blog is quite a challenge! Anyway, I think things will smoother a little bit in the future and we will be able to move to a 4 to 5 posts a week schedule shortly. I’m pretty excited about this new project!

So the winner of the iPod Touch is….

You were a lot to comment and I really appreciate your feedback. This will also help me creating a great list of article ideas for the future. But before I announce the winner (yup, you’ll have to read till the end ot know if you will have a new iPod shipped at your house!), here is some link love for the week:

Buy or rent @ 20 something finance

6 money saving tips when life gets hectic @ Money under 30

Money can’t buy love @ Poorer than you

Should I open a bank account online? @ Studenomics

10 jobs I’d like to try someday @ Budgets are sexy

How to get your first credit card @ The Digerati Life

3 lessons I’ve learned in 3 years of marriage @ Man vs Debt

How to apologize for an error? Martyr yourself! @ Financial Samurai

How to learn investing without a formal education @ Bible money matters

Tips on selling on Craigslist @ Debt Free Adventure

Stick with stocks or pay off your mortgage? @ Frugal dad

All right… and now the winner is….

Congratulation to Jake Sherbert! (commented on March 12^th)

I’ll be emailing you shortly!

Enjoy your weekend!

As I previously mentioned last Monday, I have recently bought Green Panda Treehouse. While I do not intend to change the reason why Green Panda was created (it will still be dedicated to people in their 20’s), I would like to hear more about what you think and what you would like to read about.

Tell me what you want to read on this blog and win an iPod Touch!

This contest is pretty easy, in order to entry the giveaway, you can:

#1 write a comment on this thread and tell me which topic you want to read about.

#2 start your journey to investing and register to this free webinar on trading terminology

#3 Follow me on Twitter!

All participants must be based in USA or Canada.

1 entry per action (so you can get up to 3 chances in the hat!).

Comments and subscriptions are accepted until Thursday, March 18^th.

The winner will be announced on Friday, March 19^th.

In the meantime, here are some great reads around the web this week:

Using and Understanding a Net Worth Statement @ Cash Money Life

How to start an online business @ Four Pillars

Is it smart to co-sign for your child? @ Million Dollar Journey

20 income generating ideas @ Bibble Money Matters

Why Parents shouldn’t pay for their kids’ college education @ Studenomics

How to remove spyware, malware or any computer virus @ The Digerati Life

Who Does Your Car Service? @ Prime Time Money

How To Become A Successful Financial Advisor @ Good Financial Cents

Do You Really Need A Mortgage In Your Twenties? @ Gen X Finance

Dividend Investing Supplements Passive Income @ Frugal Dad

Are your Less Frugal than you were a year ago? @ Being Frugal

Learn Effective Budgeting @ Mrs Micah

How to set up a monthly budget video @ No Debt Plan

Top 6 mindless money wasters @ Budget are Sexy

How Much our Debt Cost @ Debt Free Adventure

A Little Success Post @ Money Ning

10 Things Employers Love to See in Employees @ The Wisdom Journal

Sometimes, saving money is about principle @ Financial Samurai

In celebration of the new school semester starting, I’m excited to continue the trend with College Money Network’s new giveaway. Part of the shuffle for the giveaway is that we’ll be posting on each other’s blogs this week. I think this a great opportunity, if you haven’t already, to see some great posts from our members.

New Member in the College Money Network

I’m really excited to have another hard working blogger in the College Money Network. Studenomics is a fantastic personal finance blog  for college students. Studenomics has been focused on having practical and insightful content since October 2008. Subscribe to Studenomics to automatically have great posts sent directly to you.

Back-to-School Shuffle Giveaway Prizes

Now what you’ve been waiting for:

Enter with each site and earn 36 entries to win an iPod Shuffle!

• 4GB iPod shuffle
• Copy of The Total Money Makeover
• One-year magazine subscription to Kiplinger’s or Money Magazine
• $20 Starbucks gift certificate

These prizes will be distributed through the College Money Network, so  if you enter with each site, you can earn 36 entries to win an iPod Shuffle and other prizes!

How to Enter

Each member has their own rules for the Back-to-School Shuffle Giveaway. You’ll have a chance to increase your chance of winning by visiting all the sites.  I want to keep it easy for you so here are three ways you can enter the contest on my site.

• Follow me on Twitter (2 entries)
• Become a fan of Green Panda Treehouse on Facebook (2 entries)
• Subscribe to the site (2 entries)

Please leave a comment on this post when you enter, so I can keep track of your entry.

All valid entries will be assigned a unique number. We will use a random number generator to select the winning numbers. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

All entries must be received by September 6, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST.

Winners will be notified the following week. After all the prizes have been claimed, we will release an official announcement listing the winners.

Rules and Restrictions

• All winners must be 18 years of age or older and live in the United States.
• No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
• We will choose the winners from the qualified participants. We are the sole judges of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spams, and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.
• To award the prizes, we must be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment, or make sure we can contact you through your web site. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else.
• For certain prizes, winners will be required to submit a physical address to ship the prize. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
• Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at our discretion.
• Winners must reply within 1 week from the time we notify them to claim their prize. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

Good morning!  I wanted to announce the winner of the  HP Better Together Bundle Winner. Tweetaways site was down, so I used random.org to select the winner from the contest instead.

Here’s the prize package again in case you missed it.

The HP Bundle:

• HP dv6
• anHP Mini 110
• Syncables software that will connect your computers and share your school projects, academic papers, and personal stuff like photos and videos
• a customized Green Panda Treehouse Timbuk2 bag (each site has it own bag)

Thanks to HP, Microsoft,and Timbuk2 for the prizes!

The winner is #221… Graywolfpack5

Graywolfpack5 has 48 hours to contact me from this post’s published date before I pick another winner. Don’t forget there are other sites involved with the HP Better Together giveaway that still have their contests open.

If you didn’t win, there are still several sites running the contest, including my buddy studenomics.

The official fine print:
• This contest open to anyone in the world, but if the winner is outside of the U.S., he/she may be awarded a credit to HP’s online store to avoid shipping and customs restrictions.
• Individuals who have won at another website participating in the HP Back to School Giveaway are ineligible to win a second time.
• All entries must be received byAugust 28, at 11:59 PM (NY Time).
• The odds of winning depends on the number of entires received by the deadline stated above.
• No complaining allowed…seriously. We appreciate everyone’s entries and try to keep things fun around here. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to win as we only have one bundle to give away. If you don’t win this bundle, please enter to win bundles from the 24 other great sites that are participating in this promotion.

Personal Finance Carnivals

• Carnival of Personal Finance #219
• Carnival of Debt Reduction
• Money Hacks Carnival
• Festival of Frugality
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights

Top Personal Finance Post This Week

Being busy with the contest, I decided to just pick 1 post this week.

Million Dollar Journey talks about Lifestyle Inflation. It can very tempting to ‘upgrade’ your living when you get a bonus or raise. MDJ shows you how to be more balanced with your money.

Today is THE DAY! Starting today, you can enter HP “Better Together” Back to School Bundle here at Green Panda Treehouse. This promotion is supported by 25 websites – and each of these has a prize bundle to giveaway.

The Green Panda Treehouse contest runs from today through August 28, at 11:59 PM (NY Time). The winner will be announced Saturday August 29, 2009 at 8:30am (NY Time).

How to Win the HP Bundle:

I’m making this an easy and fun contest. I want as many people to have a chance to win the HP bundle package. What’s included?I’m glad you asked.

• HP dv6
• anHP Mini 110
• Syncables software that will connect your computers and share your school projects, academic papers, and personal stuff like photos and videos
• a customized Green Panda Treehouse Timbuk2 bag (each site has it own bag)

Thanks to HP, Microsoft,and Timbuk2 for the prizes!

Contest Rules

Here’s all you have to do to get a chance to win:

1) Subscribe to Green Panda Treehouse

2) Follow me on Twitter

3) Tweet to all your Twitter followers about the contest by tweeting the following: “I want to win an HP netbook , HP dv6, & timbuk2 bag from @Green Panda http://bit.ly/wxmnK #HPBTS #gpthp”  ==> Please include hashtags so I can count your entry

In order to  qualify to win, you have to follow all 3 steps. I’ll be drawing the winner using tweetaways on Friday, August 28, 2009 at 11:59pm(NY Time). I’ll direct message the winner on Twitter and I’ll announce the winner Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:30am (NY Time) on my blog.  The winner has 48 hours from Saturday’s blog post to contact me so we can have their prizes sent to them.

Prize Pack Reviews

In case you want to get more information on the fantastic prizes, here are some personal reviews from people like you about the bundle:

• Review of the HP Mini 110 Netbook on ClintonFitch.com (ClintonFitch.com)
• HP Better Together, initial thoughts (OSNN.net)
• HP Pavilion dv6 First Impression Review (Green Panda Treehouse)
• Computer Review: HP Pavilion Dv6 (Debt-free Scholar)
• Review: Timbuk2 Hemlock backpack (GeeksRoom, in Spanish)
• HP Mini 110-1036NR Review (Daddy Forever)
• Timbuk2 Hemlock Backpack (Daddy Forever)
• Review: HP Pavilion dv6 (Poorer than You)
• SB reviews: HP dv6t & Mini (Student Bloggers)
• Computer Review: HP Mini 110 (Debt-free Scholar)
• HP Pavilion dv6-1299lx laptop (Daddy Forever)
• Review: HP Mini 110 10-Inch Netbook (Poorer than You)
• Review: HP Pavilion dv6t Notebook and Mini (Kill Jill Goes to College)
• HP DV6 Laptop: A Review (Zen College Life)
• HP Mini: A Review (Zen College Life)
• HP Pavilion dv6 – A More In-Depth Review (OSNN.Net)
• Review of the HP Pavilion DV6T Entertainment PC on ClintonFitch.com (ClintonFitch.com)
• Tech Review: The HP Pavilion dv6 laptop (Building Camelot)
• Syncables for Synchronizing Files on Multiple Computers (Daddy Forever)

The official fine print:
• This contest open to anyone in the world, but if the winner is outside of the U.S., he/she may be awarded a credit to HP’s online store to avoid shipping and customs restrictions.
• Individuals who have won at another website participating in the HP Back to School Giveaway are ineligible to win a second time.
• All entries must be received byAugust 28, at 11:59 PM (NY Time).
• The odds of winning depends on the number of entires received by the deadline stated above.
• No complaining allowed…seriously. We appreciate everyone’s entries and try to keep things fun around here. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to win as we only have one bundle to give away. If you don’t win this bundle, please enter to win bundles from the 24 other great sites that are participating in this promo.

HP Back to School: Better Together Giveaway

As I just mentioned on my HP dv6 review, HP is having the Back to School: Better Together Giveaway.

This is a massive event with 25 blogs and sites each giving one winner a wonderful bundle, including:

• a brand new HP dv6
• an HP Mini 110
• Syncables software that will connect your computers and share your school projects, academic papers, and personal stuff like photos and videos
• a customized Green Panda Treehouse Timbuk2 bag (each site has it own bag)

The contest dates of each site participating in the contest are different, so use the list below so you will know when and which site to enter for this fantastic  giveaway.

If you’re interesting in increasing your chances of winning this fantastic bundle, here’s the complete list of sites participating:

Here is a list of the sites involved with the promotion (via OSNN):

Entering for all contests means you have 25 chances to win a free laptop!

I’ll announce the requirements for my specific blog’s giveaway a bit later. If you want to make sure you’re in the loop, please subscribe to Green Panda Treehouse to have the latest posts sent your inbox automatically. If you want to get tweets on the contest, then please feel free to follow me.