This is the first in a series of guest posts from Ron Cripps @AffiliateXFiles about the status of a huge SEO contest I first announced here early this year. I asked Ron for an update on how the contest is going for him and any tips he might be willing to share.
Who will be crowned the MakeItYourRing Diamond Engagement Rings Shiree Odiz SEO Idol?
For those who are not aware, there has been an SEO competition running throughout 2011 for an online diamond jewelry business called ShireeOdiz.
ShireeOdiz is an online jewelery store specializing in diamond engagement rings, pendants, earrings and even loose diamonds.
This competition was open to anyone who wished to accept the SEO challenge with the only requirements of the competition being that you had to rank as number one in Google on the 1st of January 2012 for the competition keyword to be declared the winner of the competition.
The keyword you needed to rank for is “MakeItYourRing Diamond Engagement Rings” as well as having one “DoFollow” link back to the ShireeOdiz webite using the keyword “Engagement Rings”. This is what you need to be approved as an entrant into the SEO Idol competition.
MakeItYourRing Diamond Engagement Rings Contest Concept
Many are simply looking at the prize money involved; however, let’s take a closer look at the method behind the madness. When this competition first started many were saying how expensive this competition was going to be for ShireeOdiz, but that could not be further from the truth.
You need to be thinking in terms of SEO costs to a company that wants to get as many one way back-links that are going to be branding their online jewelry business as they can using a keyword that will sell their online diamond engagement rings.
To start the competition ShireeOdiz did initially reach into their own pockets to start the prize money pool at $5000.00 but have only added to the prize pool at 10% when a sale has been made.
ShireeOdiz has created a concept that not only generates
additional sales and builds one way back-links – they are branding
their online jewelry business with the keyword “Engagement Rings”.
How much would this have cost in terms of employing an SEO company to do this? Who knows. Personally I believe that they have built a very strong web presence with 1000’s of sites now giving them “Dofollow” links with their branded keyword “Engagement Rings” from all over the world.
When the SEO Idol competition first started their site was PR3
Now they are a PR5 site with a constant traffic flow of very targeted
traffic every day that is specific to diamond engagement rings.
All this was achieved by simply listing a competition on their site and then getting others to promote their site for 12 months; you need to remember here that currently this competition has not cost ShireeOdiz a dime.
Who Is Going To Have The Number One Listing For “MakeItYourRing Diamond Engagement Rings” on Jan 1, 2012?
Well we would like to say our site will, however the competition is really starting to heat up and the Google listings are moving on a daily basis.
With current prize money for the winner at $12,372.11 and growing each day it would be fantastic to win that is for sure.
This is the first in a series of articles that I look forward to posting on Growmap that will step you through the process I have personally used to get my entry into the competition and hopefully take out first place.
My strategy is not just about winning the competition, but building a long term business where the site has authority and will be able to sell a variety of diamond jewelry online as an affiliate.
I will show you how I have optimized my pages to generating traffic –
which currently is averaging 200 unique visitors a day – to using
some of the social networks to continuously promote the site.
Even though this site is just on one year old I only started the actual process of trying to win this competition at the end of October 2011. All the tactics I have used are white hat and are specifically targeting the main keyword in the SEO Contest “MakeItYourRing Diamond Engagement Rings”.
NOTE FROM GAIL at GROWMAP: If you would like more information on this SEO Contest see the original SEO Idol contest announcement. I am personally asking my friends and collaborators to support Ron’s efforts to prove that focusing on quality content and ETHICAL white hat SEO can work against the black hat methods of the spammers.
Look for retweets on JustRetweet to make sharing on Twitter easy and consider sharing this post and especially his diamond site on your preferred social networks. Incoming links to Ron’s site for the anchor text makeityourring diamond engagement rings will be highly appreciated (and you know us – heavily rewarded because you took the time to care about someone else)!