FarmVille: Shaklee Home item available as part of new cross-promotion

Zynga has launched a new cross-promotional item in the FarmVille marketplace this evening. The building is called the Shaklee Home, and it comes from the folks at the company of the same name - Shaklee, which produces environmentally friendly household products, among many other items. It's fitting, then, that the home looks "Green," in terms of its environmental impact.

This long and very large building costs 75,000 coins in the game's store, and comes fully equipped with solar panels on the roof, and large windows to let in the (virtual) light. There's a roof deck for sunbathing or catching up on a good book, or you can simply look at the ivy climbing up the sides of the walls. While the building is lovely, it looks very similar to the Outdoor Spa released during the Mother's Day theme - so similar in fact that it made me do a double take. While I'm not saying this diminishes the quality of the Shaklee Home, I have a feeling some farmers might avoid purchasing one due to its similarity.

Either way, this new building will be available in the game's store for less than one week (around six days, to be exact), so you won't have very much time to make up your mind as to whether or not to purchase it.

Will you? We'd love to know what you think of this new cross-promotional building. Do you think its too similar to other buildings released previously, or do you simply like collecting these limited edition items?

Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash in Intuit Business promotion

It's been a few weeks since we've seen a rush of free FarmVille farm cash promotions being launched by Zynga, but it has finally come through for us this morning with an activity with Intuit. This Intuit Business promotion can be found under the bottom right of your gameplay area, but it may just be labeled as "complete this brand activity," rather than anything specific to Intuit. Trust me, this sponsored link window works the same as all of the others, it just comes labeled differently.

Once you start the promotion, you'll be asked to share your love for a small, local business in your community. This requires some thought on your part, as I found it to be incredibly difficult to enter something that the fields could actually recognize. That is, you're asked for the name of the business, along with your city and state location, and it will then search for any addresses matching that business description. Once you find one (perhaps you'll just be luckier than me and score a hit on your first try), you'll have to fill in a form asking for your name, email address and why you like this business the most. If I were you, or are just in this for the free Farm Cash, feel free to give them an out-of-use email address as, let's face it, that's an instant sign-up for Intuit's newsletter right there.

Either way, once you jump through these hoops, you'll finally be given your two free Farm Cash. Remember, these Farm Cash should automatically update into your account, but if they don't, refresh the page and see if that sets things right. As always, we'll make sure to bring you more news about free Farm Cash offers in the future, just as soon as they pop into the game. Keep checking back for more!

What will you do with your two free Farm Cash? Do you participate in activities such as this, that require some real information about yourself, rather than just answering surveys?

Cafe World Farmers Insurance promotion comes with Professor Burke Statue

If anything, the folks at Zynga definitely know how to setup a good cross-promotion. After Capital One recently set up shop in a slew of Zynga's games (and practically took over FarmVille), we now see a new promotion launching in Cafe World with another company: Farmers Insurance (remember, we were told that Farmers would be making an appearance in the game back in June). If you watch a lot of TV, you might recognize this promotion's mascot of sorts - Professor Burke - from recent Farmers Insurance commercials.

Now, Professor Burke has come to your cafe as a character and as a statue, plated in gold. This "Professor Burke Statue" has a limited time of effectiveness, but will "insure" your cafe, granting you spoil protection on all of the dishes you cook from now until October 2. Luckily, the statue is free, and it doesn't require any "building" to gain its effect. You can either simply place the statue from the in-game pop-up that appears, or you can head into the game's build menu manually to drag your free statue out and into your cafe.

If there's one thing to remember about this, it isn't that the statue itself comes with a time limit that can be turned on and off depending on when you place it in your cafe; rather, it's a case where you'll want to place it in your cafe as soon as possible as the overall countdown timer ticks down until October 2. If the Farmers Insurance promotion grows in Cafe World, we'll make sure to let you know.

Would you have liked the Professor Burke Statue to have another effect, rather than wither protection? Or, will you take advantage of this opportunity to cook some quickly cooking dishes while you're busy doing other things since they won't spoil? Sound off in the comments.