Just thought I'd share this interesting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest created by v7n.com that is creating some buzz on the blogosphere. Essentially, this contest is similar to the famous “Nigritude Ultramarine” SEO contest of 2003 to get it to a #1 Google ranking. And of course there's the famous "miserable failure" Google-gaming which points to President Bush's biography on whitehouse.gov as the #1 Google search result followed right behind by Michael Moore in the #2 spot.

This time there's even an anti-SEO contest to break the rules of the original contest with its own grand prize offering which resulted in supporters of the original contest to up the ante and add more money and an iPod to the prizes. May the luck of the Irish be with you if you participate in the Google SEO gaming contest!

A Google search engine optimization contest organized by respected SEO industry commentator John Scott has created a storm within Internet marketing circles that has competing search engine optimization professionals in a rush to jump aboard the bandwagon.

John Scott, editor and administrator of v7n.com, announced the contest on December 20th, with a $1,000 grand prize. Soon afterwards Greg Boser, a web page optimizer, announced a $1,000 reward for not playing by v7n rules. Two of Greg Boser’s friends – Mike Grehan and Todd Friesen - then contributed to the reward pot, bringing the anti-contest grand prize to $3,000.

Many in the SEO community were outraged by what they saw as an attack on the popular v7n community, and John Scott in particular. The blogging community rallied and added $3,000 plus an iPod to the v7n contest, putting the total at $7,000 and an iPod for the grand prize winner, with smaller cash amounts to those who place 2nd through 5th.

Among those contributing to the pot are Bruce Stone of www.wowdirectory.com and blogger Jeremy Schoemaker (www.shoemoney.com), President of ShoeMoney Media.

Already the contest has become the hottest topic in the web community and with possibly hundreds of bloggers gearing up to take part it could be the biggest community event seen since the "Nigritude Ultramarine" contest of 2003.

Here are the contest rules from the v7n forums.

Goal: To win, you must place 1st in Google (organic SERPs) for the keywords

Start Date: Jan 15, 2006

Finish Date: May 15, 2006

First Prize: $4,000 ($1,000 from v7n, $1,000 from Skaffe and Wow Directory, and $2,000 from ShoeMoney = Total $4,000)

Second Prize: $500

Third ~ Fifth Places: $100 Each

Now I may be a nice, generous person, but I'm not giving away money for free. In order to qualify, the page must have a link back to the v7n home page. Participants who don't maintain a link to the v7n home page will be disqualified. (We are not specifying the type of link - that's entirely at your discretion.)

The target keywords will be two words a la nigritude ultramarine. The target keywords will be announced on Jan 15, 2006, 12 noon, Pacific time.

About v7n
V7N is a leading web development community with over 8,000 registered users and thousands of unique visitors daily. The V7N site offers webmasters a job board, a scripts directory and one of the most active forum communities on the Internet.

The V7N SEO forum is widely regarded as the most reliable source of news and information on search engine optimization and Internet marketing.

For more information see:
http://www.v7n.com/about-us.php
http://www.v7n.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22836
http://frogengine.com/blog/?p=39
http://seo-contest.blogspot.com/