Just a quick note on spreading the word...

Hello again to all of you creepoholic constituents out there. I thought I'd take a second to address some of the shocking options for those of you who would like to spread the good word about the Countdown to Halloween. Again, the idea behind this site is to simply act as a resource for the growing number of blogs participating in the seasonal fun of writing about all the frightening facets of this wicked holiday.

If you'd like to feature a button/badge on your site...

Banner #1 (200 pixels wide)



Copy and paste the following html onto your site:

<br /><a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2543/3915647547_7a27ffac5f.jpg" /></a><br />

Banner #2 (200 pixels wide)



Copy and paste the following html onto your site:

<br /><a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2580/3915647623_9ffcf89083.jpg" /></a><br />

Pierre Fournier of the wonderful Frankensteinia also created a third, more Halloween-centric banner on a black background for anyone who'd like to use it.

Banner #3 (200 pixels wide)



Copy and paste the following html onto your site:

<br /><a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2670/3922726624_bff7472fb6.jpg" /></a><br />

Or if you'd like a slightly smaller version for three column template blogs: Banner #3 (170 pixels wide)



Copy and paste the following html onto your site:

<br /><a href="http://www.countdowntohalloween.com/"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3922726568_2fc6b73888.jpg" /></a><br />

Also you can follow the Countdown to Halloween on Twitter via the halloween_blogs account.

As John mentioned in the last post, the list is being compiled and will appear here on October 1st. I can't wait for the festivities to begin!

Reminder to Participants

There are now less than 20 days left before this year's Halloween Countdown begins. If you are planning to participate, and have not contacted me, please do so. I'm compiling a list of links to the participating blogs and websites and want to make sure no one is overlooked. You can always be added to the list, even as the countdown is in progress, but why wait? It's no fun creating well thought out posts if no one knows to go look at them.

The list of participant links will be posted here at midnight, October 1st.

About the Countdown to Halloween...

Alright kids, no fooling around. There are four solid weeks left to work on 2009's Countdown to Halloween. That's 28 days of hard work and research to slough through until the party really begins.

A quick note on the intention of Countdown to Halloween. Basically, over the last three years I've noticed an amazing trend in some spooktactular holiday spirit when it comes to the celebration of all things Halloween. There have certainly been those (like Matt at x-entertainment.com) that have been spreading the good word for awhile, and there are a plethora of wonderful sites out there dedicated to making every day of the year a little bit more orange and black, but in the last few years there has been a surge in fiendish fun around the month of October that really gets this dried up and dusty ticker of my beating again. In particular, in the past two years there has appeared a list, usually cobbled together by a couple of swell guys John Rozum and Jon Knutson, that gets passed around from site to site and really makes the whole experience fun and exciting. For one, it provides a virtual vault of horror, a crypt of terror, a, um (well geez, I guess EC Comics should have come up with another great title for me to lift from), oh wait I know, a tomb of dread, a virtual cornucopia of amazing stories, photos, comics, reviews, crafts, toys, songs, radio plays, jokes, and general commentary on a holiday that a lot of us hold dear. This list also serves as a centerpiece for a spur of the moment community, a virtual meeting place, and the type of communal experience where the internet is the perfect forum.

Countdown to Halloween is a home for this list. Note, it's not the home. Part of what makes this season of creepy blog-a-thons so special is that there is no expectation, no rules or guidelines, but all the same I think it would also be beneficial to have a place to point to, a hub. This isn't a union, it's intended as a resource.

So if you're planning on another year of terror inducing blogging during the Halloween season, or if this is your first time trick-or-treating alone, feel free to let your intentions known. You can either comment here at this site, you can add your voice to the comments on Mr. Rozum's blog, or you can @ or follow Halloween_Blogs, on twitter.