RaffleClicks!

These are events in the past few years that have led up to the idea for this site:

My name is Gregory Mueller. I began college at North Carolina State University in August 2003. By my third year, I was deeply depressed. My grades slipped as a result. Before I dropped out of NC State, I completed 2 very successful internships at Northrup Grumman. After I returned to school after the second internship, I was to the point where I just stopped doing anything. I stayed in my room all day and all night. I only ate and slept. Finally one day in October 2006 I believe it was, I decided to go home and tell my parents what had happened. I started seeing a therapist and taking medication. My dad made me get a full time job, so I went from being a Pharmacy Tech at Kerr Drug to being a full time Key Holder. I still hold that position to this day. But after getting that full time job I started my education back up in January 2007 with classes at a community college. By August 2007, I transferred to North Carolina A&T State University to continue my Computer Engineering Degree. Since then it has been a bumpy road working full time and being a full time student. In the summer of 2008, I was again offered an internship with Northrup Grumman. I had yet another successful summer. But, the real story started just before that.

In March 2008, I met a young woman on Craigslist by the name of Kierra Woods. Little did I know how much she would change my life. She sent me a strong first email stating she was pregnant and sent me pictures. I was very cautious about this, but I figured anyone deserves a friend. She was not due until July 2008. Our friendship grew very strong, very fast. Then came the bigger surprise. After 2 weeks of knowing each other, she goes into preterm labor. I remember that night like it was yesterday, I thought she just wanted attention because me and my friend had just left her house. She called at around 12:30am and said she wanted me to take her to the hospital. That was when we discovered she was in labor. They immediately admitted her and started her on medication to stop the process. She was laying with her head at the lowest point for days as they tried to keep her pregnant. During this time they gave her shots to help develop the baby's lungs. Sure enough on April 9, 2008, our son Kenyatta Nathanial Woods was born. I really don't know what point we started referring to each other as boyfriend/girlfriend but it was in that hospital stay. Kenyatta was 1 lb 12 oz and had to be kept in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He was doing very well until about 4 weeks later when he developed a deadly intestinal infection. He was air lifted to UNC Chapel Hill's Children's Hospital. We got there as fast as we could. The doctor sat us down and told us to prepare for our baby's death. We prayed and kept our faith strong. We woke up the next morning to the news that he was getting better after they put drains in his stomach (they put drains in because he was too sick for surgery). In the coming weeks his body healed itself and it was all about gaining the weight to come home. That summer I had to do my internship, but I came back as often as I could. Finally in late July, Keny came home. At that time Kierra was staying with a friend as she had no income because of all the hospital stays. Everything was going in the right direction until scar tissue from the infection twisted Keny's bowels and he had to be rushed to Chapel Hill again. We were told again that he wouldn't make it. We prayed. He had surgery and was left with 2 ends of his bowels hanging out of his stomach for weeks. Kierra stayed at the hospital with him the whole time to care for him. Finally, toward the end of October 2008 he was able to come home and has been home ever since. He does require extra care and therapy to catch up to his age, but he is a wonderful active boy. Kierra and I actually had decided to move in together on October 1, 2008. So, Keny came home to his new apartment.

Kenyatta, December 2008

Kierra started back to school in January 2009 and I was still continuing as well. We then decided in April 2009 that we wanted to get married. Next thing you know at the end of May we discover she is pregnant. Now comes another challenge as she now has to be prepared to make sure she doesn't have another premature baby. She had a stitch put in her cervix to help prevent another preemie. She also began getting shots every week for the same reason. This is all while we are both still in school and I am working full time to support the family.

Family, December 2009

On January 12, 2010 our second son, Gerrin Malachi Mueller, was born. He was 8lbs 9oz. The birth actually turned into an emergency situation. My wife was actually induced starting at about 11pm on Monday January 11. She was in labor for hours and decided finally to get an epidural at 6:15am. After that, we all fell asleep. We woke up at about 9:50am with the doctor and nurse coming in to check her. They had a hard time getting the baby's heart beat, but when they finally got it they discovered his heart rate was 80 (should have been 120-130+). The doctor said there was no time for surgery and told my wife to start pushing. Nurses rushed in and the doctor used a vacuum, by 10:05am Gerrin was born and started crying shortly after. After a check up, everything turned out to be fine. My wife suffered a 3rd degree tear and the doctor spent about 30 minutes stitching her up. The tear has been the hardest thing for her to deal with as she is in pain. But, 48 hours later they come home and he has been gaining weight. Having two young children is very hard at this point, but we are doing what we have to do.

Gerrin, January 2010

Now comes the reason for the site. Being the only person in the house that works, things are still difficult, but we are just trying to get by until we both can graduate. My goal is to be done in December 2010. But working and being a husband and being a father and going to school are all taking their toll. I actually started up a test server for Rising Force Online in August 2009 and we have been growing great since about November. My business partner and I have be trying to come up with new ideas. And I really want to be able to get off to a good start in my family life. Part of that would be eliminating all of the school debt we have built up. Ideally I wanted to find something that would support us through the rest of our schooling so that I could spend the 40 hours that I spend at work, more on my school work and family.

Thus, RaffleClicks is born.

The idea of the site is to provide some great traffic for our advertisers (whoever they may be in the future). Also, we want to give out prizes to our visitors absolutely for free. The visitors to this site do not have to pay a single penny to be eligible to win our prizes.

We are starting off simple with an iPod Touch as our first month's prize. The size will depend on the success of getting advertisers.

Here is the concept:

Each advertiser can purchase a single block of space, or multiple blocks. They can keep their blocks together or separate them. The advertiser can pick the picture and come up with a small phrase to be displayed when the user passes over their link.

How the raffle works:
Every 24 hours a person can click on each link (1 or all).
A new window will pop up with the page that the AD links to.
At the top of the page will be a picture verification and a spot to enter an email address. The button to submit this will not be available until 10 seconds later.
Now here is where the interesting part comes in and why everyone will want to try to click on each advertiser.
At the end of the month (time period may get smaller depending on success) I will first randomly pick an advertiser. This is the winning category. Then I will pick the actual winner from the people that clicked on that company's advertisements.

So, ideally in 1 month, each person will want to have clicked on every advertisement.

The idea for the advertiser is that your link goes to something flashy and catchy that will catch the attention of the user. So not only do they get an entry into the raffle, they may want something from your site.