January 31, 2008 Comments (10)
SEO contests are nothing new. Every few months someone pops up with some randomly generated phrase and a pile of prizes so aspiring search engine optimizers can go head to head in a race for top rankings. But when Donna Fontenot (DazzlinDonna) approached me about her latest idea for an SEO contest, I couldn't resist. This time around, Donna has recruited about a dozen search marketers to go head to head in a two-month, live blogged weight loss competition a la' "The Biggest Loser." The cool part? It's all about raising money for charities.
Dubbed SEOs Fight Fat, the contest pits Donna Fontenot, Debra Mastaler, me, Nathania Johnson and Scottie Claiborne against each other on the women's side and Aaron Wall, Jim Boykin, Simon Heseltine, David Wallace, Ben Cook and Jeff Quipp against each other on the men's side.
The goal is to lose the highest percentage of body weight by the end of the two months. Whichever man and woman come out on top will go head to head in a vote. The ultimate winner gets the entire "pot" of pledged donations for the charity of their choice. Long time Search Engine Guide readers won't be surprised to hear I'm playing for the HMBANA milk banks, an organization I got involved with when my daughter Elnora was a baby. I donated 27 gallons of milk to my local bank that first year and have used my hobby site The Lactivist to spread awareness and raise several thousand dollars for the bank here in Ohio.
You can follow along at the site, or subscribe to direct feeds for any of the players. If you'd like to get involved with a pledge, you can do that as well. If you're feeling really generous, you can become a sponsor of the entire site for $2000 or a sponsor of an individual player for $500. These sponsors will have a 125x125 ad displayed either across the site, or on all posts made by their sponsored player. Search Engine Guide reader Mike Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic has generously come on board to sponsor my area of the blog as has Robert for the upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference. The more the merrier on this one folks, so stop by the site and get involved!
Let the trash talk begin! Game on! At the same time ... good luck to all, but I'm so gonna win this :)
LOL, you underestimate my competitive spirit Jeff. :)
Now we're talking! Doooh ... this is superbowl weekend huh. Okay ... I'm gonna have to behave then.
Bwahahahahaha.
I couldn't care less about the Superbowl and eating junk food that day. :)
That's offside! Superbowl is to men, what Christmas is to kids.
Ok then ... gonna have to dig real deep. Do I sense a side bet brewing? :)
LOL...yes, well I'm spending a full week in Italy and four days in England during this contest. I'd say that handicaps me pretty heavily. Much more heavily than your paltry little Superbowl dilemma. :P
I need to go see what you weigh and do the math. I can't see anyway to drop more than 5% of my bodyweight. I only need to lose about 30 pounds and figure it's only realistic to lose 15-20. If you're like 300 pounds as your starting weight, there's no way I can top you. :)
bwaaaaa aaaaa! Actually, I'm 206 pounds, 5'7". I want to lose 35 pounds, though realistically my goal is 15 pounds over the next 2 months.
I'm not spending anytime in Italy or England ... but will be at SMX West at the end of March. Of course, not much drinking or eating there :)
Sooooooooo ... I'll make a side bet with you for $50 (proceeds to charity of course). Just if you want of course. :)
Ahh, well an SMX event does sort of balance out Italy. Not quite, but close. Especially if you are a drinker (which I'm not, bwahahaha.)
Ok, so $50 side bet, with proceeds going straight to the charity of choice for whichever of us two comes out ahead? I think I can hack that. :)
Deal! I need all the motivation I can get! Good luck Jennifer!
Great idea. So how's the weight loss coming?
$100 in Free TLA's!
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