Xmas - Dec 31st I believe. As mentioned earlier, xmas is a busy time for any kind of toy sales + usually makes much of any company's profit. So the timing of this competition is even worse. i doubt there are many more online backgammon players at xmas than the rest of the year however. A competition in january+ would have been a little 'kinder' perhaps.. Nevermind, Julia (who read my earlier post, but ran off without responding) has agreed she will dress up as santa and deliver backgammon boards to all those little kids that didnt get one for christmas, because their mummy and daddy couldnt find a supplier online intime. If it was MY search engine, would I allow you to hold my SERPS to ransom ? I very much doubt it. But its not mine, so we'll see. Ok, on a serious note Julia... Here's an olive branch (in case you feel im just arguing with you for the sake of it + being unjust towards you): Are you sure you still think its the right way to run the competition ? You could start over with a cleverly developed strategy, win over the big boys and we could all watch a really good competition. For example, off the top of my head... Forwardgammon - a 1 word term with 1 result in google. Noone has a domain already, noone is making their living from it and noone has an advantage. You can still have your backlinks saying "online backgammon' and your banners and the rest of it. You could also involve msn and yahoo too. So...... your client's site will rise, you will look good, you will have won over the seo community, gained loads of new clients, affiliates, backgammon players, not upset google's results, made it fair, made it a challenge, generated goodwill, listened to everyone, increased brand recognition, be popular, sleep better at night, etc etc .. All in all, it could be a MUCH better contest with as many benefits as the current 'incarnation'.
The thought of the contestants stumbling on this thread really entertains me. It should rank in the top 10 for Backgammon, , Backgammon Rules and the other keywords within the next month (the power of Digital Point ). Given the duration of the competition I'm considering spreading some of my weight to the other unsuspecting sites that are going to be ambushed. With TOPS and 1234244 backing DA my weight is probably not needed Any thoughts on this? I'd hate to see someone's business ruined because of a poorly thought out marketing campaign. I can empthsize with the other sites given the battles I've fought to generate traffic and revenue. -jay
Just be careful who you choose there are lots of the sites with Backgammon rules, online backgammon etc who are already linking to the competition that are after the money I guess - which is completely fair according to the rules. PS. Julia come back.......not posting here wont mean this thread dies.. something about dp.. I guess. BTW if you are noticing any change in rankings. I have not done any promotion yet.. Oh I did add the site to a links page that one of your sites is on, just to keep you company though I wonder if this thread will rank for Backgammon SEO ? Or maybe it will be one of your contest sites.
Doesnt seem their cheap stunt is even working seeing how there is only 6 people! http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=link:http://affiliates.tcads.net/+intitle:BGSC&FORM=QBRE
Dont be fooled. http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=+online+backgammon&FORM=QBRE number 7 is their own site + Some of the top sites are linking to them. I would expect not expect to win (1) its not a fair contest (2) Im not entering. However, come Jan 01 then maybe people will make some new quality backgammon sites..So by march, that 'whole' attempt the stich up all the backgammon visitors to go to their site might well be wasted. (BTW I have nothing against play65 - with 100,000 players it probably is a good version of the game). It probably would have been much cheaper for them to have spent the money on the top 3 or 4 trafffic sites + terms. Still wondering if this thread will get in the way too for all those backgammon terms
Having read through the entire thread I'd share some of my weight, but i've only got about 140 and need to try and get my Spanish site out of the 8 month sandbox. Julie I think you entered into this thread because you are running scared, you are worried that your marketing may backfire, your site may get banned and play65 may loose a lot more and then see you in court! Ian
I am not entering this contest .. but I feel I need to make a comment. Firstly I feel sorry for the poor people who will be pushed down ... however its a dog eat dog world out there ... and hopefully 6 months worth of lost revenue will ensure they do better seo in future like "casino" website owners ... if it wasn't play65 ... it would have been someone else sooner or later. The message I want to pass to everyone is that .... LET THIS BE A LESSON, JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE REACHED NUMBER 1, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOUR JOB IS DONE!!!! http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=24427
It isnt dog eat dog, Its more like pack of wolves eat baby chiuaua. The reason I even got involved to offer a small counter balance. I would rather target "play65" and TCAds or Claire Allen (PR Director) & Julia Wild (Affiliate Relations Coordinator). Infact Julia stop letting Claire hide behind you. Claire sign up and say your piece From the tel. you are based in cyprus. if true I have some very good cyprus terms sites too..
It's kind of funny, because this website is going to make out huge because they duped a bunch of marketing people that are supposed to be smart enough to see through something like this... idiots! Why would they pick backgammon of all categories? Why not let you use a page on your own site with a special name so that they know you just created it? There's so many different ways that they could have done it, that I think would make it much more fair and less questionable...
Well it seems they have managed to implode msn's results entirely. http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?FORM=MSNH&srch_type=0&q=backgammon+rules and MSN UK is on the way out. http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?q=backgammon+rules&FORM=QBHP
No, SE... that's not true. You're still one of the better forum members. Don't let the nay-sayers get to you....
Sometimes I forget the smilies... The part about SE being one of the better forum members is definitely true. The implication that his prior post was self-denigrating was humor (arr-arr).
Well well.. Its just gone above TCads for backgammon seo http://www.google.com/search?q=back...ient=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official and for the typo too http://www.google.com/search?q=back...ient=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
We are looking to put together a real contest that will be legit and hopefully fun. We want people to join for fun - be excited about it AND earn some affiliate commissions to boot. We want it to be simple yet far reaching. We are thinking about choosing 10 real terms with medium search volumes and competitive results. Not BS like "backgammon" which is probably hand edited and will need massive work to rank high for! We are looking for 10 terms to assign a point ranking for placing in to top 10 (higher is better) across the major engines weighted for reach (G/Y/M/A). We have a nice scoring little algo sorted out and a simple way to present the results. Prizes are awarded for aggregate points earned over time (weekly checks leading up to a daily check the final week) Multiple prizes so that even if you join the contest late you can win the main prize but also rewards early birds. Needs to have a reasonable amount of time but not be too far away (we are thinking a week or two before Christmas for a contest end). This is for our well known eCommerce site, Perfume.com, that is already doing extremely well and placing well in the engines. We have the best conversion rates in our niche so as well as the highest affiliate payouts. No BS Casino or Pills crap. A real site with a real affiliate program, run by an affiliate manager that wants to create trusted long term relationships with players in this space. We are a publicly traded company with a strong base and growing fast. This won't be a fly by night carrot dangling promo. We want it to be a real opportunity to strut your stuff as a SEO champ. No restriction on having to put a specific link, but rather just clearly show that you are working to direct traffic to Perfume.com. We want to have a third party arbitrator to decide the winner and settle any disputes - definatly a SEO 'celebrity' well recognized in the SEO space. Maybe Sergey Brin himself... We will also do a lot to get some good participation, send out some press relaeases, advertise on the big affiliate boards, and use our contacts to get as much press as possible. What sorts of things are you guys looking for in an appealling SEO contest? (besides HUGE prizes?) Thanks for your input - we want this to be something that everyones enjoys and respects. What are you looking for?