DollarShower SEO Challenge ‘09: Participate and Win over $1500 in Prizes!
Ajith | Jan 2009 | SEO Challenge
The wait is over! As I announced ten days ago we are kicking off the mother-of-all blog competitions namely the ‘Dollar$hower SEO Challenge ‘09‘. You, as a blogger, have the chance to win prizes worth $1500 (could be more as well) in an exciting competition spanning over six weeks!
Who can Participate?
Any blog that has Google Analytics based tracking as of Dec 01, 2008 can participate in this competition. For more details read the Rules section below:
Sponsors to the event
This competition prizes are co-sponsored by SEO Hosting, Host Gator, Online Profits (Launching shortly), Bidvertiser and Sponsored Reviews. The banners and graphics are sponsored by TechZoomIn. Please take a moment to visit our sponsors.
Rules & How to Participate?
The following are the rules of the competition:
1. The competition will be open for subscription from Jan 02nd to Jan 11th 2009 and you can participate using the contact form on this blog. Please do not forget to select SEO Challenge ‘09 as the subject, provide your full name (First, Last), email address and blog URL. In addition your Google Analytics a/c need to be shared in View Only mode to the email address seoc09@dollarshower.com.
2. The actual event starts on Jan 12th (considered Week 1 in the score card) and will run for the next five weeks (ends on Feb 15th which is Week 6). The winners will be announced on Feb 16, 2009.
3. The aim of the competition is to increase the search visits to your blog as much as possible and those two who increase their search visits by the maximum percentage will get the first and second prizes. There are a consolation prizes for the next three runner-ups.
4. The base for current search traffic is the average search visits per day for the month of December 2008 (Dec 01st to Dec 31st 2008 – value 1). The increase is
calculated based on the average number of daily search visits from Jan01st to Feb 15th (value 2). Basically ((value 2 – value 1) / value 1) * 100% is the formula to decide the winners). There will be weekly updates provided from Week 1 through Week 6 and the values for these weeks will be again last six weeks daily average visits. (Due to the continuity sake, the subscription period of Jan 02 through Jan 11 is also considered for the final weightage. This is because, most SEO activities you do today reap benefits only after a few weeks)
5. The competitors’ Google Analytics data will be kept strictly confidential except for the average number of daily visits needed for the calculation (Only this number will be published in the scorecard). Take a look at the sample scorecard here
6. Weekly updates will be provided during the competition. The competitors can also discuss the various SEO strategies on this page as well as. You may also mail in the strategies and clarifications as and when requested and selected strategies will be featured in the weekly updates.
7. Only those who already have their GA code installed as of Dec 01st can participate in this event. The competitors cannot change the position of the GA script during the competition.
8. Those who have very little or no search visits till now can also participate. In that case, however, the base (average daily search visits for December ‘08) will be set to 5 (or another value as deems fair by the judges) to curb explosive growth numbers.
9. Other DON’TS: Black hat SEO techniques, paid hits etc will not be allowed and those who indulge in the same will be removed from the competition.
10. Judges’ verdict will be final. Myself and Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips will be the judges for this competition.
Time lines
Jan 11, 2009 – Last day to enroll
Jan 12, 2009 – Week 1 report updated in the scoreboard
Jan 19, 2009 – Week 2 report
Jan 26, 2009 – Week 3 report
Feb 02, 2009 – Week 4 report
Feb 09, 2009 – Week 5 report
Feb 16, 2009 – Week 6 & Final report on the winners!
Prizes
First Prize
1 Year Class ‘C’ IP SEO Hosting by SEO Hosting ($420)
PPC Advertiser Campaign by Bidvertiser ($100)
PayPal Cash Prize by Sponsored Reviews ($100)
Second Prize
6 Months Subscription to Online Profits ($288)
1 Year Business Plan Hosting by Host Gator ($180)
Consolation Prizes
Three runner-up prizes of 1 Year shared hosting by Host Gator ($120 each)
Further Resources
All updated information regarding the competition will be available on the SEO Challenge ‘09 page.
Hurry! You have exactly ten days to sign up and participate. In the mean time, please bookmark this page, tweet about it, or even write a little post on your blog about the event (Resources such as banners are available at the SEO Challenge ‘09 page.
If you have any questions or clarifications, please discuss the same here so that others are benefited as well (better than 1 to 1 emails).
I would like to thank the Daniel for his guidance & consulting help.
Good luck to all!
hmm, so if blogs like shoemoney or gizmodo participate, they will be clear winner as they receive a lot of traffic… is that what this competition means ?
ProBlogineer’s last blog post… Email Marketing Software From Interspire
Very interesting, but i can’t join this. Right now i’m concentrating on my new online shop, and still need to learn how to make it to the top of the search result without advertising it. (Well,.. at least at page 2). And i don’t have much time. Very-very sorry about this
Phoenix’s last blog post… ShareASale
@Luis, ok man… thanks anyway for dropping by
@Arun, You can share the analytics a/c in View only mode by visiting the analytics home page and then the User Manager feature
@Rajaie, thanks buddy for the participation
@ProBlogineer, that is not true… This contest is fair for all… I am not talking about number of visits but % difference betwen average daily search visits of a particular base period (december) and that during a future period. So if you have 20 average daily visits today and 30 on a future date you have 50% increase. If shoemoney has 100000 today and if he has 120000 on another day his increase is 20% and you win in this example.
@Phoenix, cool… good luck for your online shop work!
Participated. Great idea and wish you lots of success with it.
Another cool & friendly competition!
Looking forward to it!
Vanae
vanae’s last blog post… To be single or not to be single
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Hi I am in
– Small problem… its today that I have register my blog for analytic. I have already submit my participation. Can i if i have just added to analytic this morning? :S
Kurt Avish’s last blog post… Introducing Microtalks The New Mauritian Lounge
Here my blog post about your contest:
http://allblogcontest.blogspot.com/2009/01/win-over-1500-in-prizes-at-dollarshower.html
Hope, I can support you contest. Tell me if you need help.
suwari’s last blog post… Win over $1500 in Prizes at DollarShower SEO Challenge
@Rajiv, @Vanae, thanks a lot for your participation…
@Kurt, that’s a bummer
Without having the GA installed as of Dec 01, I cannot measure the increase from the base period… Sorry man. Do you have another blog which had Google Analytics as of Dec 1st?
@suwari, thanks a lot for the shout out. This can really be of help
I’m enrolling, looking forward to it even though I’m a total newbie at SEO etc.
Nope
Ok no problem. I’ll be a watcher of the competition then 
I’ll recommend some friends to the competition… But I hope they used GA. Got to check this with them. I’ll make a small refering to the contest in my next post.
Kurt Avish’s last blog post… Quatre Bornes Police Win The F*cking Chicken Award!
I never thought I would be regretting this much of not having google analytics in any of my blogs. I really like the concept of this contest as it can give a chance for neophyte bloggers to compete with pros. Very smart idea.
I’ll be spreading the word and I hope there will be a part 2 of this. Thanks for the invitation.
this idea is excellent and looks fun.
unfornately, i have big project to focus on so i can’t join.
Confirmation for the participation, just checking out how to share the view only report with you.
Life is Colourful’s last blog post… Dowlonad Free McAfee Antivirus Software – Subscription Valid for 12 Months
@MK, @Kurt, @Frenchy, sorry to have you missed out as GA script was not installed
@Jamp, ah okay… May be next time…
@Abhijit, hope you figured out how to do that….
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Good to see lots of ppl enrolling in the contest. It will be sure a great contest and will also motivate bloggers to write good posts and also will enhance thier SEO Skills!
Nihar’s last blog post… Open your websites faster using Keyboard Hotkeys – “SiteLauncher” (a Firefox Add-on)
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Secret Tip to contest participants:
focus on MSN traffic try getting anchored links to pages that are ranking in the second page of MSN as they have no link aging mechanism like Google. You will get the best results later Google will probably rank you for those words.
Archie Pennies’s last blog post… Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting
Just sent you an email a few hours ago saying that I had entered – hope I can win
Simon’s last blog post… This Blog As You Know It Is Closed
Cool contest and a completely different one.
Looking forward for this contest. Sent a mail..
Count me in for the prizes..
PC’s last blog post… Convert Hard Drive Partition from FAT to NTFS for more Benefits
@Luis, great tip buddy… I should try it myself though I cannot take part in my own competition. These kind of tips are what we expect here in this discussion
@Simon, @PC, thanks for joining… Please give me sometime before the data is added to the scoreboard. Got several entries to be verified and added.
Hi Ajith,
I would luv to participate in this contest. Could you please let me know how do I share my Analytics A/C in read only mode?
Read 2 Know’s last blog post… Microsoft issues Emergency Fix for Browser Flaw
@Read2KNow,
Go to your Google Analytics home, use User Manager to add seoc09@dollarshower.com to share your selected blog. Make sure that it’s moved from left box to right and click save.
That’s all…
Finally I decided to give a try
Count me in Ajith!
will be sharing my GA in view-only mode with you.
Raju’s last blog post… [How to] Rename Folders in Google Reader
Ajith,
I added your email seoc09@dollarshower.com as a read-only use to my Google Analytics page. But, it’s expecting only a Google Account to be added. And the above email is not a Google Account I guess!
Is this OK?
[...] of my favourite blog Dollar Shower is organising a contest for you all bloggers. You have till this Sunday 11th January to apply and [...]
@Read2KNow, it’s a Google a/c and everyone else has shared using it. Please make sure that the blog is moved from the left list to the right (Selected Website Profiles) using Add.
Google a/c doesn’t mean that it has to be a gmail a/c
[...] For the complete contest rules, prizes, and instructions on how to win, go over to the official Dollar Shower Contest page. [...]
I signed up to the contest!
Niche Titans’s last blog post… Top 5 SEO Plugins for Wordpress
@Niche Titans,
I can’t see your Google Analytics a/c shared… Please do the same.
Sadly I do not use GA so could not enter but good luck to the rest of you.
[...] This is my motivation this time while I participate in dollarshower.com’s SEO contest [...]
Hmmm. I just granted you access. You mention that people can enter from the 2nd to the 11th… It appears that it is 1:45am on the 12th where you are…. But here in America, Central Time it is 2:15 pm on the 11th….
What’s the official cutoff time timezone? Am I in?
Shirley’s last blog post… WordPress Image Captions Using FCKEditor Plugin
Great contest — especially since it’s based on percentage increase, not raw visit numbers! One question on the live scoreboard. Why does my blog show -70% for the first week when our average went from 2.32 to 2.93? (see line 31 on the list). Thanks.
SBA’s last blog post… Interview with Successful Blogger: techniquealtechie
Nice contest. I am too late to participate ,Plus I might not be eligible to participate. I restarted my blogging in 5th of Jan 2009. I will wait for you next contest.
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[...] I mentioned in the competiton rules the winner is picked based on the % search traffic gain obtained during this year (Jan 01 – Feb [...]
This is great and I really feel sorry that at the time of competition I was not a part of your blog..
Will look forward for more such competition.
Will look forward for more such competition it nice to be here.