Comments on: Update : Blogging Prize Now Over $10,000 in Search Marketing Services

By: ogs

ogs — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:25:03 +0000

Traffic should NOT be a consideration – only quality.

By: charles sarjeant

charles sarjeant — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:50:06 +0000

Dear frend, do you or anyone you know
have cancer, or HIV/AIDS?

If your answer is yes, then you should click on the link and start reading up on this fantastic new product.

It will change your life forever.

By: Hans

Hans — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:46:44 +0000

Do we need to submit the article in a particular format? Simple text? Doc? HTML?

Thanks!

By: Loren Baker, Editor

Loren Baker, Editor — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:24:51 +0000

I’ll look into this and add a human touch to the overall judging.

By: Gyutae Park

Gyutae Park — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:41:01 +0000

Perhaps a panel of judges to complement the voting would be a good idea?

By: Gyutae Park

Gyutae Park — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:40:15 +0000

I agree with the first commenter in that the system is likely to be gamed. I recently ran a pretty big contest at WinningtheWeb.com with over $14,000 in prizes and I discovered that people will go to great lengths when real incentives are involved.

I’m not saying that this contest will be a major flop – in fact, I will probably enter myself. However, there is a big risk that the voting system will be gamed, a winner will be selected “unfairly”, and a big uproar stirred up here on SEJ. Not an impossible situation since the rules are a bit ambiguous.

Nevertheless, great idea. Good luck!

By: Search Engine Optimization Journal

Search Engine Optimization Journal — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:06:05 +0000

Sounds like a decent contest – love the prize ideas but the last commenter DOES have some good points. It may just be one big popularity contest in the end.

By: SearcH◆ EngineS WEB

SearcH◆ EngineS WEB — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:14:37 +0000

/// 4. Judging of the articles will be a multi-tier process looking at social media voting, reader voting, traffic of the individual posts and links to the posts. The voting will be measured 2 weeks after the initial publishing date.
SEJ user voting at post level + Stumbles + Comments + Sphinns + Diggs + Unique Users + Page Views (Google Analytics) + Mixx Votes + Incoming Links (as measured by Yahoo) = Final Tally

This is the absolute WORST thing you could have done

Just saying you do not ‘encourage’ people to game the system, will have absolutely NO effect (duh)

Traffic should NOT be a consideration – only quality.

People WILL game the system because of the publicity they will receive from being a winner and well as the backlinks!

They may buy votes using those new services designed to promote a submission on social networks….

They may even solicit top members to advocate for them…

They will buy backlinks and use other gray hat tactics….

What started off as a good idea with tons of potential, will now be ruined due to ambition