Gimme some candy
From zefrank
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Gimme Some Candy
gimmesomecandy.com was created by Ze Frank to allow viewers to sponsor the show. First appearing on the 10/17/2006 episode of the show, he referred viewers to the sidebar and asked them to click a link to his sponsorship site. The term "Gimme some candy" gave reference to the upcoming Hollowe'en.
The site allows users to select from various levels of sponsorship ranging from $5 USD and up. They can provide a short message up to 50 characters that appears the following day on web site.
The initial pitch
In the 10/17/2006 episode, Ze pitched, "Oh yeah, if you want to sponsor the show, you can give me some candy. Check the link in the sidebar and get yourself a jewel, little duckie, or big duckie. Your personal message will show up on the following day's show. Tricka treat, now give me some candy."
The next day, there were 39 jewels, 58 small duckies, and 28 large duckies.
Ze's reaction to the first day
In the 10/18/2006 episode, Ze was excited to see such a great turn out. He says, "Your day beat mine? I doubt it. *looks down* Look at all the duckies and jewels! Microducky sponsorship will forever change the face of advertising. Imagine if Howard Dean had had duckies! Thanks for being a part of the inaugural kick-off day. Your messages will be enshrined forever. Now, go find them! Remember (giggles) remember, if you give me some candy, it'll show up underneath the next posted show."
Google Checkout Checks Out
In the 10/20/2006 episode, Ze breaks the news that Google Checkout isn't a fan of donation-based video blogs. Ze switches to PayPal and is back in business by the 24th.
The bling duckie
With the switch to PayPal, Ze also introduces a $250 USD golden duckie. cambrianhouse.com is first to sponsor Ze with the bling duckie. Ze says, "Check it out! A bling ducky." The following days, several other web sites sponsor Ze with bling duckie.
Web links retired
At some point in December 2006, Ze found it necessary to discourage sponsors from providing urls in the message.
The final day of candy
On March 8, 2007, Ze announced that it was the last chance to sponsor the show through gimme some candy. The next day, March 9, there was an enormous response. On the front page, there were 39 jewels, 170 little duckies, 63 big duckies, and 4 bling duckies, for a total donation of $6,045 by viewers of The Show.
How to sponsor the show
Access the site
Visit gimmesomecandy.com.
Select a donation level
For the smaller donations ($5 USD/$10 USD), you can select a colored jewel or microduckie. Once selected, the next step would be to select a specific color for the Jewel or microduckie.
If you select a larger donation level, you are taken immediately to the "message" area.
Witticism at its finest
The next step is to enter a well thought out commentary up to 50 characters and enter it in the provided text area. Once you've "speel cheked" your message, click "Preview and Pay".
Test out your sponsorship
You will be shown an example of what your sponsorship looks like. Once you find and click your icon, you are presented with a PayPal Checkout button. Click the button to proceed. 
PayPal
At this point, Ze gracefully holds your newly unwrapped toy behind the sneeze guard and forwards you to PayPal. If you already have an account with PayPal, you can login. If not, you have to enter your information and signup for a PayPal Account.
Once logged in, you confirm that you'd like to sponsor Ze for a certain predetermined amount.
All's well that ends well
If everything goes as planned, you should see a "thank you" message that states "thank you! your sponsorship will appear with the next posted show."
How the show transcripts show sponsors
Immortalizing sponsors on the show transcripts
The sponsors are added by editing a transcript wiki page and appending information. It's considered "faux pas" to add sponsors the same day they appear on the show. Please wait a day or so before commemorating them on the wiki.
Go Go Google Gadget
A quick Google Gadget was created that reads Ze's sponsor data for a specific day and outputs it in a wiki-templated format. The gadget can be added to your personalized Google homepage by going to this page. To use the gadget, you enter the show date and then click the "parse" button. The gadget retrieves the sponsors, organizes them and creates a template. Copy and paste the output at the bottom of the transcript.
Wiki Template
The data that is pasted at the bottom of each transcript takes advantage of two wiki templates. The Template:theshow-transcript-sponsors displays a container for the sponsors, and within it should be a collection of Template:theshow-transcript-sponsor entries which displays an icon and the sponsor's comment.