Donna Fontenot of SEO Scoop has come up with a great idea for a select group of search marketers to shed some of those unwanted pounds and raise money for their favorite charity in the process. The project is called “SEOs Fight Fat For Charity” and has 11 search marketers committed to a “biggest loser” type of contest that runs from today till the end of March. The general idea is that whoever wins the contest, all the monies donated will go to his or her favorite charity.
Donna asked me if I’d like to be on board to which I originally replied, “Who you calling fat?” But in all seriousness, I do need to shed some pounds, especially seeing that SMX West is fast approaching, so I have jumped on board to compete with the others.
So how does it work?
Each SEO/SEM has chosen his/her favorite charity that they are playing for. During the two month period between February 1, 2008 and March 31, 2008, each individual will attempt to lose weight using whatever methods he or she thinks is best.
On March 31st, the woman who has lost the most weight (based on a percentage of weight loss) and the man who has lost the most weight (again based on percentage) will be in a finalist face-off. On April 1st, the voting will be open in which voters will choose the winner of the challenge from those two finalists. The final winner’s charity will receive all of the sponsorship pledge funds.
Sponsors can either pledge with a site-wide ad, or pledge just for an ad on a chosen SEOs page, with pledge amounts adjusted accordingly. Regardless of where the ads are shown, all funds pledged will be combined together and be designated to the final winner’s chosen charity.
Here is a list of the participants. First, the women:
- Scottie Claiborne of Successful Sites is playing for Sistercare Battered Women’s Shelter.
- Donna Fontenot of SEO Scoop is playing for Hospice Foundation of America.
- Nathania Johnson of Bold Interactive is playing for Thyroid Cancer Survivor’s Association.
- Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide is playing for HMBANA Milk Banks.
- Debra Mastaler of Alliance Link is playing for Dream Catchers Therapeutic Riding Center.
And now the men:
- Jim Boykin of We Build Pages is playing for Unity House of Troy NY.
- Ben Cook of BloggingExperiment.com is playing for Ronald McDonald Mobile Program.
- Simon Heseltine of Serengeti Communications is playing for Kids Wish Network.
- Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People is playing for Tuberous Sclerosis Canada.
- Aaron Wall of SEO Book is playing for Amnesty USA.
- David Wallace (yours truly) is playing for The Phoenix Rescue Mission.
So there you have it. Now I am of to check my initial weight to see where I currently fare. I will post the results on my blog at SEOsFightFat.com. There I will discuss my techniques and log progress. Wish me luck!
David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of SearchRank, is a recognized expert in the industry of search and social media marketing. Since 1997, David has been involved in developing successful search engine and social media marketing campaigns for large and small businesses.
