The contest terms were announced today at noon PST. If you're unfamiliar with this contest I'll give a bit of background:
- John Scott (of V7N, Bluefind Directory & Sevenseek) announced the creation of a contest back in December. The first prize would be $1,000, and the requirements included a link (of non-specified format) to V7N.
_ - Greg Boser announced his own prize structure for the contest, offering $2,000 if the winner DID NOT link to V7N, but instead, linked to the non-canonical version of Matt Cutts' blog (mattcutts.com rather than www.mattcutts.com).
_ - Many different arguments ensued.
_ - The contest is now up to $4K from V7N folks and $3K from Greg, Mike & Todd.
Thankfully, all that's over now. So, what's SEOmoz's part in all this? Well, we're going to be monitoring all the links that get used by the top rankings sites to see who's using what tactics. I'll see if I can get a programmer to write something that will scan the top 10 ranking pages at Google and see who's linking to them.
I suspect Google (and the other engines) will also be watching the rankings and the links. Let me highly recommend to anyone participating in this contest not to use any questionable linking methods - it's just not worth giving up your best tricks to win a measly $4K.
I've entered a v7ndotcom elursrebmem page and have a v7ndotcom elursrebmem contestants directory but I'm mystified by the people who say they can see Google results, maybe it's the data centre Google feeds through but I'm seeing nothing.
This whole thing is going crazy, there is a bunch of results in the SERPs yet! I also got my site! lol, I'll give recipes about v7ndotcom elursrebmem on a daily basis! enjoy!
Just FYI, folks, all outbounds in comments at SEOmoz are automagically "nofollowed" :D
I'm not surprised to hear this. Google actually encourages this practice in blogs and forums if I'm not mistaken...
I realy appreciate your efforts for v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest. i am also particpating in the contest with https://www.howseoworks.com/v7ndotcom-elursrebmem. it would be a great fun.!
Apparently you cannot read. I'll make sure to put howseoworks.com on my sh--list.
It would be interesting to take a poll at v7n and see approximately how many people plan on participating in the contest. It appears as if it is pretty popular. I'm not surprised with such a large sum of money at stake.
This seems like a really good opportunity for somebody to get a lot of money, as well as advertising once the contest is all over with.
G shows 7 results for me
Hi Rand!
Awesome idea to monitor the links! I'm trying my hand at the contest, but definitely lack the experience and resources (and time!) that others have. Nevertheless, it will be a great learning experience and maybe slow and steady will win the race!
Anyway, this is my first post, but I have been using your website and reading your blog almost everyday since I discovered it about 2-3 months ago. I've learned a lot from the information you provide and appreciate all of your resources!
Cant wait to see your assessment of the results, Rand.
Randfish, will you be displaying these results as you find them?
ShandyKing - That's certainly the goal... Note still no results for the phrase - v7ndotcom elursrebmem.
kid disco - thanks for the compliments, look forward to seeing you here more often!
It makes me think of the Nigritude Ultramarine Dream Team, maybe I should send a e-mail over to Relaxzoolander?