News and Announcements

**TimSchroeder** · 03-16-2006, 12:52 PM

Update:

If you would like provide keyword input, please do so in the new WT SEO Contest thread I created...

I am going to try and find a couple more sponsors.

I am thinking the contest start date will be Monday April 3rd.

**Dustin07** · 03-16-2006, 02:15 PM

Quote:

So it means the positive influence of the domain name age can easily been overpassed.

well... yes... it CAN be overpassed, but I wouldn't say easily. in the carcasherdotcom contest older domains made some incredible gains at the last moment in late Feb with very little effort.

taking the keywords out of the domain should be interesting too

**Serious** · 03-16-2006, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustin07

it CAN be overpassed, but I wouldn't say easily. in the carcasherdotcom contest older domains made some incredible gains at the last moment in late Feb with very little effort.

To be more precise, the domain age doesn't count that much. However, the PR does. So pages with PR have a nice advantage. But this advantage won't last because it is often difficult to twist that page for matching the contest. Did you already see an old page winning a SEO contest?

**vangogh** · 03-16-2006, 04:34 PM

The beauty of this contest is that it takes the age of the domain and the url itself out of the eqaution. That should help to put everyone on a more equal footing when the contest starts. I'll mark April 3rd on my calendar Tim.

**smallfry** · 03-16-2006, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TimSchroeder

Prizes would be for Google only. MSN is to easy.

I made up the purple hat

Now it makes sense for simplicity reasons to choose only one search engine for the contest. However would it not be an even playing field? I mean its competition among seo experts how would msn be easier? If you chose MSN to be the search engine it just means that you would optimize differently. Granted I rank higher on msn then other search engines but I figure that was just because they were smaller. So ranking against current competition might be easier on MSN but a new seo contest should not be any easier on any Search engine when the goal is to be number one. Just my two cents.

**Harvey** · 05:29 PM

An SEO contest on MSN would be useless, and I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before... an MSN contest would probably involve each contestant trying to place the keyword on the page as many times as possible in bold...

Google will be really interesting - it's really advanced and it'll be interesting to use brand new domains.

**Serious** · 03-16-2006, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smallfry

how would msn be easier? So ranking against current competition might be easier on MSN but a new seo contest should not be any easier on any Search engine when the goal is to be number one.

I agree. MSN is not easier, it is just simpler (only accumulating backlinks?). BTW this is the kind of stuff I want to study. But so far, MSN and Google give the same 3 first results (in a different order) -- no link, it would be snipped. We will see in two months how different the results are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harvey

An SEO contest on MSN would be useless

Such a contest would be as usefull as visitors coming from MSN are valuable. Now, if you think people using MSN to find your website have little value...

**sixty6** · 03-16-2006, 09:37 PM

YEA!! I can't wait til it starts!

**Dustin07** · 03-17-2006, 05:54 PM

Quote:

To be more precise, the domain age doesn't count that much. However, the PR does. So pages with PR have a nice advantage. But this advantage won't last because it is often difficult to twist that page for matching the contest. Did you already see an old page winning a SEO contest?

right

and yes to everything you said

now this dude will be a contender:

Quote:

sixty6 vbmenu_register

Novice Talker

Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 6
Talkupation:

Helpful post? Add to my Talkupation

YEA!! I can't wait til it starts!

**Nintendo** · 03-17-2006, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustin07

now this dude will be a contender:

I don't know about that!!!

Right now he's #4 for Redscowl Bluesingsky. If he ever knocks my two sites out of 1 and 3rd place, then we can call him a contender.

er, too bad the contest ended two weeks ago!!!!

**Dustin07** · 03-17-2006, 07:14 PM

still not that bad IMO

**WebcyteDesign** · 03-25-2006, 01:53 AM

This is going to be interesting. I think I'm going to stop posting my suggestions on this site till it's over 8), just kidding, but I might give false info 8), just kidding again. I've never been involved in one of these so it should be interesting. And if I can get any simpathy, I don't have an iPod so I need to get first, so let me win (I know I thought I'd try).

**TimSchroeder** · 03-27-2006, 11:34 AM

The contest start date is approaching.

I am considering dropping the "None of the contest keywords can not be used in the domain (subpages with the keyword is fine)." requirement. Looking at one of the SEO contests underway being held by another site (V7N), only 3 of the top ten sites have the keyword in the root domain. For those of you that think having the keyword in the domain might give a small advantage, throughout the duration of the contest I think the advantage will be very minimal if at all.

Anyway, this is just something I am considering. Please let me know if you ave any input on that possible change.

The other conditions and terms would still apply.

Quote:

You must use a brand new domain name. The registration date of the domain used must be on or after the announcement date of the keyword phrase used for the contest.
No remotely hosted blog domains allowed (i.e. keyword.blogspot.com)
No Subdomains Allowed

**Nintendo** · 03-27-2006, 07:06 PM

I vote yes for leting us have the keywords in the domain, and maybe allowing sub-domains as long as there on the domains registered on or after the announcement date of the keyword.

Do you have a certian time of day that you'll be announcing the keywords? So we know when to be watching?

4:00 AM EST would be good, since there would be less of a challenge for being the first for geting the domains, if the keywords are allowed in the domain.

**Dactyl** · 03-28-2006, 04:15 PM

I am more than glad to join this contest, looking fwd. for the keyword or key term, and please give us an update regarding having the keyword in the domain.

Regards

**phileplanet** · 03-28-2006, 05:51 PM

I don't think you should let keywords be in the domains for this part of the contest; it would take away from the whole no keywords in URL thing. Perhaps you should save it for the next one.

Do domains like http://ma.gnolia.com/ count as sub-domains?

**jeter4982** · 03-28-2006, 06:11 PM

I'm definitely in on this contest. As for the keywords in the domain, I think not allowing them in the domain would be better because even if the person is not gaining direct SEO affects from keywordkeyword.com, people are going to remember that domain a lot easier, and that would increase the traffic, which would then increase the backlinks to them, etc. Just my opinion,

Tom

**wjspcn** · 03-28-2006, 11:15 PM

Great!I will have a try! <url removed>

**TimSchroeder** · 03-30-2006, 09:54 AM

I have done some thinking about this and I've decided to stick to the original condition of not allowing any of the contest keywords in the domain name (to become eligible for the prizes) for this first SEO Contest. As mentioned the using it in subpage names is still fine.

The whole person of this first contest of ours is to make it different than the others, for everyone to start on an even playing field and to structure it in a way where we can best learn something.

I plan to hold a couple of these contests each year so we can try other ideas for the next one...

**TimSchroeder** · 03-30-2006, 10:21 AM

The contest "Theme" and and a new condition has been added.

I urge everyone who is participating to read over the initial contest post at the start of this thread.

Thanks