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While being the head of viral marketing over at Datepad, I like to provide creative ways to build up the community and get the viral aspect in motion. I have had a few very successful contests on this blog, and I thought starting Datepad off with one would be a great way to launch the new corporate blog. If by offering a completely free online dating service social network with a community aspect and a $5000 DreamDate vacation wasn’t enough, we are now offering bloggers a chance to win a free 16GB iPod Touch just for mentioning the contest in a blog post.
The rules are really simple and should cater to every blogger out there. They are: Make a blog post and mention Datepad and what they do, link to the blog contest page, and have it be at least 150 words (EASY).
If you want to enter for a chance at winning a free $399 iPod Touch, then join the fun and start blogging about the contest!
In what is most likely the largest blog contest of all time, Gyutae of WinningTheWeb.com currently has $14,575 in sponsored prizes, including a $40 paid review from my blog.
The best part is, it is actual useful products and not just garbage ebooks that are sold expensively. There is even $2100 in straight up cash just for using Gyutae’s referral link to register to the different sites. In a very smart marketing move, Gyutae will not only gain a huge promotion from the blog contest, but most of the prizes are sponsored and he will gain hundreds of referrals. He will get a lot of new readers, new backlinks, and new affiliates which will earn him money all the while he is keeping his costs down.
After the blog contest was originally launched, it spread like wildfire around the web. Gyutae took advantage of the hundreds of new visitors to his site to offer “additional entries” to his contest by basically gaming Stumbleupon and Sphinn, sending another flood of traffic. He is a very smart blogger, and has milked this puppy all month.
By writing this post, I am gaining additional entries to win some of the great prizes he is giving away, and if you want to do the same you better hurry as the winner will be chosen April 2nd.
There are far too many prizes to list here, so if you are interested in joining the contest I recommend you read his post in full.
I have just finished upgrading to Wordpress 2.5, and it has a LOT of changes. I normally wait for an extra update before I take the time to get the newest version, but 2.5 is like four updates in one.
It completely changes the look and feel to the administrator panel, and it while it will take about 20 minutes to get use to, it will save a lot of time reading, writing, and moderating posts. Everything is nearly the same as it was before, but now it is a LOT easier to get to the pages you want to, and update what needs to be updated. The new look and feel is very web2.0, and I would dare say even a little cartoon like.
I like it a lot, and so I recommend you install the latest version after you read about all the features it has over at the development blog.
Before I begin, I just want to say a few things. This post is not meant to be counter-hostile in any way, but I just feel the need to express my opinion on the matter and want to get my reader’s thoughts as well. I also wanted to thank Collin for allowing me to write my first rant post. I also wrote this “rant post” on the fly (at 12:58AM), so I apologize if there is any typos.
Here is the embedded video so you may hear his entire opinion on the matter:
Collin (the other one) made a video expressing that offering the location of the PR7 blog I found should have been a free post, much like the other 20+ link building posts in the link building cookbook. This would be a very bad idea because unlike most of those sites, a blog that manually approves comments will know something is amiss when 450+ RSS readers start posting comments with backlinks in them. The idea of selling the blog location is, A: to earn money, and B: to limit the amount of interested parties.
Firstly, as you know by now, I offer far more free link building material for my readers to use for self-promotional purposes than anyone else in the link building niche. The 20+ free tutorials that are on there now would normally cost hundreds of dollars in some junky ebook on the Digitalpoint.com forums, but I give them away at no cost to my readers.
Secondly, in response to your comment, “you don’t need to get suckered into a bogus claim that there is a PR7 site out there that is giving out a whole bunch of free links… …this site was more or less probably purchased off of Hostgator or Godaddy as an expired domain name…” — The blog is a very powerful blog and not an expired domain. The company that owns the blog has a massive business plan and the blog is updated every few days with new posts. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme about buying an expired domain, selling links, and then the site drops. This is an actual high ranking authority blog that updates often and has been around for a very long time. The links are not anchor text, and the whole point of selling the location is so that companies can build there pagerank as well as search engine’s trust so that in the long run all of their pages will rank higher in the search engines.
With most of my free link building posts, the sites are so general that they can support thousands of webmasters replicating the process, but this is a blog that moderates comments daily. If I gave the URL out freely, the blog would have 450+ RSS readers making 1-3 comments in a period of 24 hours. The site would be hammered with comments, and the chances of every single dofollow link being changed to nofollow would increase substantially.
The 20 person limit is SUPPOSED to keep the majority of the readers away, as this post was not dedicated to new blogs who are still working their way up, unless they were investing long term. This method is for large sites (or companies) who are interested in doing a massive long-term promotion campaign without running the risk of buying links and getting penalized by Google.
As for your comment that “most people that claim that they are SEO experts are full of crap,” I will give you the benefit of the doubt in assuming you were referring to other bloggers, and not me personally. In the last few months, I have given my readers so many opportunities to build links to get more search engine traffic and ultimately more money online. However, if your comment was directed at me personally, I would like to know why you (and many others) are reading my blog if you believe I am full of crap, in opposition of the many comments I receive thanking me for helping them promote their blogs. I have never sold my SEO/viral marketing services publicly, all of my clients have come through networking and word of mouth. I am a strong believer in long term credibility and authority instead of short term sales pitches, and I hope over time you will see that is true. If you (or anyone else) would like to make a guest post on the topic, feel free to email me through the contact page at the top.
In conclusion, out of the 12 customers that have purchased the location, I have seen many of their comments approved already, and I have not had a single complaint or refund from any of them. I have, however, had four people thank me after their links were approved. If you do not think that $25 is worth it for you, then that is perfectly acceptable as that is your opinion, but to accuse me of scamming readers is pretty offensive. I believe you came to a lot of wrongful conclusions far to fast, and more research needed to be done.
I do realize if I did not make this post, the video would only have been seen by 25 people and I wouldn’t need to worry about it, but I really want to put this in the spotlight and get more opinions on it. If you would make a comment stating what you think about this post, that would be greatly appreciated. If you wish to remain private, you can also send me your opinion via email.
