Our First Giveaway!

How do you like our new digs? We’re pretty excited about it ourselves! 😀

If you like it, too, the theme was created by Chris J. – The Web Guy; he does wonderful work and I recommend him highly. The artwork was drawn by Stephen Nauman, and we love it, love it, love it. These two guys make a wonderful team!

To celebrate the launch of our new website, we’re sponsoring a giveaway with two prizes and many ways to enter. Woohoo!

If this is the first you’ve heard of Black Chicken Host, let us introduce ourselves briefly:

“We know “living simply” is far from “easy living;” committing to a sustainable lifestyle requires a lot more hard work than buying everything from big-box stores. You have many important things to do everyday, and taking care of your website probably isn’t at the top of the list. Whether you have cows or goats to milk, firewood to split, gardens to tend, quilts to make or fencing to repair, you don’t want to worry about your online presence.

That’s why we’re here!

Black Chicken Host shares your values: We are committed to sustainability, responsibility and accountability. A percentage of our profits are donated to leading conservation charities! Additionally, we buy carbon offsets from Terrapass to cover 100% of our emissions as part of our commitment to ensuring a healthy global environment.”

Ok, ok – you want us to get to the good stuff, right? Right on:

Prize One: 1 gallon of Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions (a $65 value)

“Tropical Traditions Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil is a high quality refined coconut oil. This oil is processed the “old” way by what is called “physical refining.” The modern way of processing coconut oil is by chemical extraction, using solvent extracts, which produces higher yields and is quicker and less expensive. Tropical Traditions Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil DOES NOT use solvent extracts. It is made the “old” way by expeller-pressed mechanical extraction. This oil is also NOT hydrogenated, and contains NO trans fatty acids. It is a very good quality food-grade coconut oil.”

Prize Two: 1 free domain registration (up to a $49.95 value)

Eligible domains are: .com .net .org .me .us .info .mobi .biz .name .tv .pro 

How can you win? It’s easy! Just log into the Rafflecopter widget below and start entering. Thanks to the handy widget, there is no need to leave multiple comments for each entry – you’ll only need to leave a comment for the items which request a comment.

There is a metric honkload of ways to win – completing them all takes less than 10 minutes.

 GIVEAWAY HAS EXPIRED – STAY TUNED FOR WINNERS!

In addition to this giveaway, we’ll be doing monthly customer-only giveaways, as well as periodic public ones, too – signing up for our Feedburner or following us on Twitter are great ways to keep abreast of these goings-on. We also have a Facebook page and a Google Plus page. We really want to hear your ideas about homesteading, sustainability and how we can serve you.

There are two other giveaways going on today, as well! Be sure to check these out, too:

The fine print:

  1. One person may not win both prizes – the winner of the first prize will have his or her name removed from the drawing for the second prize.
  2. Some entries may be repeated once per day for additional points. These include: Posting about the giveaway on Google+ and Facebook, tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter, commenting on The Prairie Homestead and Real Food for Less Money, and signing up for a Black Chicken Host product or service.
  3. 10% off hosting promotional code applies to all shared hosting accounts, available domain registrations and the following types of SSL certificates: RapidSSL, QuickSSL, Comodo Essential Wildcard SSL. Purchase of other services or products yields the same 25 entries, but without the 10% discount.
  4. Entries will be validated.
  5. The coconut oil can only be shipped within the United States, but the domain registration can be won by anyone, anywhere.
Thanks, and good luck everyone!



56 thoughts on “Our First Giveaway!”

    • Thanks, Christine – we’ll keep that in mind! One of our customers, Real Food for Less Money (http://realfoodforlessmoney.com) does a wonderful job providing healthy recipes and meal plans for nutrient-dense meals on a budget. You might be interested in her site. Thanks for commenting!

    • Hi Tami – I completely agree! Once we get the new website all tweaked and settled, we’re going to focus a great deal on providing not only web-hosting-related tutorials with plenty of photos and graphics, but also homesteading and crafty tutorials, as well. Thanks very much for the feedback!

    • Hi Brenda – You are very welcome! Millie at Real Food for Less Money has a vast experience with lacto-fermentation, so her site should be a jackpot for you. Thanks for the feedback!

  • I’m not too Blogger savy and I only heard of you guys today but I love tips and tutorials about things we can do at home to make things better and more sustainable.

    • Hi Christina, and thanks for the feedback! We will definitely be providing tips, personal experiences, tutorials and more as we grow. Upcoming articles will include information on solar leasing programs, using basic automation around the home to help save money and energy, and old-fashioned methods of providing foods and products for your family. Stay tuned!

    • Hi Carolyn, and thanks for commenting! I bet you really could make a bunch of soap with a gallon of oil – good luck in the contest!

    • Hi Kerry – Coconut oil is such a wonderful, healthy oil; I’m so happy it’s becoming more popular in this part of the world. Good luck in the giveaway!

  • The Illinois Conservation Foundation is dear to my heart since that’s where I live. And even more local, the Grand Prairie Friends Of Illinois are a group I’ve volunteered with before.

    • Hi Jenna! Thank you so much for sending along some of your favored conservation groups – that’s exactly what we’re looking for! I’m going to add that to our list of choices for future giving.

    • Hi again, Jenna – After a review, we have added the Illinois Conservation Foundation to our list of future donation recipients; thanks very much! The Grand Prairie Friends are currently under review.

  • Concerning services you can offer- I always enjoy website that teach about sustainable living whether it be beekeeping, soap making, living on less, turning trash to treasure, etc.

    • Hi Abbi – Thank you for the great feedback! We will definitely be featuring blog posts, tutorials and so forth in the future – we have so many topics we want to cover, it’s almost hard to pick a place to start. Thanks for commenting, and I hope you’ll check back in the future!

    • I’ve been thinking the same thing myself! I’d never thought of tinned cheese or butter before, but what a great ideas for preparedness.

    • Hi Becky – Thanks very much for the feedback; we appreciate it! We’ll have home and farm content galore in our future blog posts – I hope you’ll check back with us. 🙂

    • Hi Barry – Thanks very much for the kind words. We have high hopes. 🙂 Thanks also for your comment on Homestead Geek; we wish you all possible stress relief and relaxation in Hawaii!

    • Hi Tribalmama – Thanks for commenting and thinking of us in the future! Good luck with the coconut oil giveaway!

  • I love this giveaway and I LOVE the idea of a central hub to help locate sustainable resources. There are way too many sustainability and conservation non-profits that are important to me to list, but I’ll list a few locals. Here in California I love the Wind wolves Preserve, the State’s Tule Elk Natural Preserve sure needs some help, they do not have guaranteed water and it’s gotten so bad that the females are reabsorbing fetuses. They either need a bail out or to be taken over, the State is neglecting and abusing these animals. I also support Sierra Club water shed protection projects, and local water protection agencies. I support alternative energy. I live near the Panamint Project, a huge new wind energy project. Wind is viable, we need to spend money to improve power conversion and storage too. Conservation = a future for our kids and grandkids.

    • Hello, Heidi! Thank you very much for your thoughts and your charitable giving suggestions. We have added The Wildlands Conservancy to our list of future donation recipients (they manage the Wind Wolves Preserve.) We’ll have to review the Tule Elk Natural Preserve, as it is a state-government-funded organization, which is subject to different rules.

  • Congratulations on your company and wishing you good luck.
    I would be thrilled to win the coconut oil. I’ve yet to incorporate it into my diet although I’ve read that it is very healthy and can be used in so many ways. Thank you for the opportunity to let me try it, as I am on a tight budget. Thanks! P.S. Love what your doing for sustainability.

    • Hi Janet! Thank you very much for your comments, and I hope you are soon able to try coconut oil in your diet. It’s so healthy and very versatile – I use it for everything from cooking to deodorant! The biggest shift for me was remembering to reach for the coconut oil instead of the olive oil. Good luck in the giveaway!

  • I love this coconut oil. This is probably the best out there. Thanks for the giveaway. 🙂
    Any kinds of conserving food ideas would be interesting to me.

    • Hi Doina – Thanks very much for the feedback! We agree – TT coconut oil is fantastic, and we’re so happy to have this as our first giveaway. We’ll have food conserving tips in the very near future, and in the meanwhile, you may wish to check out Real Food for Less Money (http://realfoodforlessmoney.com) – Millie does an absolutely fantastic job on that very topic – and she was our very first customer. 🙂 Thanks again!

    • Hi ReNee! We’re so glad to hear you’re a coconut oil fan, and I bet you *do* go through it quickly with 8 children. Best of luck in the contest!

  • Love the giveaway! This is a great way to get your positive message out to the world. Both prizes sound fantastic to me.

    • Hi Billy! Thanks so much for the feedback – we’re really excited to provide a good home for our homesteading/sustainability customers, and felt the gallon of coconut oil was a terrific way to kick things off. 🙂 Best of luck in the giveaway, and thanks for visiting!

    • Hi Lace – You betcha! Erin is working on a coconut oil recipe as we speak, in fact. 🙂 We’ll be featuring fermented foods in the future, too, but for now I have two great resources for you:

      http://realfoodforlessmoney.com
      http://gnowfglins.com

      Both Millie and Wardeh do a spectacular job of taking the mystery out of fermenting foods. Enjoy, and good luck with the contest!

  • Wow! I have been hearing so many good things about coconut oil. What a great giveaway.

    What’s your favorite use for coconut oil? My friends swear by it for body care, but I’ve heard you can cook with it, too….

    • Hi Mike – That’s a great question, and thanks very much for asking! Currently, we buy carbon offsets for 100% of our servers, home office electricity and other carbon footprint items (our staff telecommutes, so there is no transportation emissions for which to account.) We recycle obsessively, donate to a variety of conservation- and sustainability-oriented non-profit groups, we volunteer, and we are looking into switching to solar power in the future. We’re committed to homesteading and sustainability as a way of life, and recognize that the information technology industry as a whole is not environmentally friendly. As we grow and expand, so will our conservation programs; we’ll do more than our share, because most other web hosts do little or nothing in this area. Thanks again for a good question, and good luck in the giveaway!

    • Hi Amanda! Thanks for the feedback! Your request is right in our wheelhouse, for sure. We’re working on a post about utilizing automation to help save power and money, and have a bunch of other topics in the pipe, as well. Thanks again!

Leave a Reply to Tami Lewis Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.