Macho SEO Pissing Competitions

I really can't stand SEO competitions. You know the ones, where somebody picks a search query and SEOs compete to have their site rank the highest within a certain time frame. They're nothing but look at me! macho pissing competitions, in my opinion. Participants might as well just unzip their pants, compare sizes and get it over with.

I said as much to the instigator of the latest comp who sent me an email this week hyping up the latest competition and telling me I'd been "selected" as a potential participant due to my status as a "skilled SEO provider". The latest silly competition is promoting (laughably) the title of World's Best SEO for the winner.

Oh come ON! I can assure you that any SEO worth his or her salt will be waaaaay too busy with real clients to take part in such juvenile, time-wasting antics. And no, I'm not going to post the URL.

Ok, bitchfest over.


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Marketing Pilgrim's 2007 SEM Scholarship Winner

Andy Beal has announced the winner of Marketing Pilgrim's SEM Scholarship for 2007. The winner is Jeff Horsager who won votes from four of the competition judges with his article Increase Conversion Rates with the Google Website Optimizer.

A big back slap goes to Jeff and my commiserations go to Daniel Tynski, whose article The 7 Deadly Sins that Hurt You as an SEO won my vote and attracted over 10,000 visitors - more than all the other entrants combined! Oh well. There's always next year.

As the ultimate winner, Jeff wins enrollment in our Certified Search Engine Marketer Pathway course. I'll look forward to handing over the keys to Jeff shortly.

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New Marketing Pilgrim SEM Scholarship Announced

Andy Beal has officially launched Marketing Pilgrim's Search Engine Marketing Scholarship for 2007.

We were delighted that Andy asked Search Engine College to be involved again this year and we've donated a Certified Search Engine Marketing Pathway course valued at $1,195, to the prize pool.

This year the scholarship consists of a fantastic $10,000 prize package, including the following items:

• A full conference pass to the Search Engine Strategies conference held in San Jose, this August.
• The winner’s article will be published in the industry print magazine, Search Marketing Standard.
• Enrollment in a Certified Search Engine Marketer Pathway course at SearchEngineCollege.com.
• One month of industry coaching and training from search marketing expert Andy Beal.
• One year of AdWatcher.com service (ad tracking and click fraud monitoring) and one year of AdScientist.com service (bid management).
• One year subscription to WebmasterWorld.com.
• One year premium membership to SEOmoz.org.
• A free web analytics account from CrazyEgg.com.
• A one year Bizwatch account from BizResearch.com.
• A one year subscription to the SEO project management site, SoloSEO.com.
• A copy of Aaron Wall’s “SEO Book.”
• A copy of Jennifer Laycock’s book, “Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing.”
• A copy of Andrew Goodman’s book, “Winning Results with Google AdWords.”
• A copy of Kim Krause Berg’s books “Please Ring Bell for Service” and “How to Quench Your Web Site Visitors’ Thirst.”
• A cash prize ($100) courtesy of Cre8asiteforums.com.
• Link-ninja sword (wooden), throwing stars (rubber), clock, t-shirt and $100 cash courtesy of WeBuildPages.com.
• More prizes to be announced.

Scholarship contestants simply need to submit an article on any subject related to search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC) or social media optimization (SMO) before April 6 2007. Click here for more entry details. The five finalists will have their article reviewed by a panel of judges and the winner will be announced on May 21.

Andy has asked me to be a judge this year and I'm really looking forward to reading all the entries. Good luck to all contestants!

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And the winner is...

A hearty congratulations goes out to Ben Wills, winner of Marketing Pilgrim's SEM Scholarship with his article entry The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing.

As part of his prize, Ben receives both Starter and Advanced courses in Pay Per Click Advertising from us here at Search Engine College. Happy studying Ben!