I love Love LOVE that ARDELL is winning…
…the greatest real estate agent in the world contest!
By the way, if you love that she is winning this contest against a bunch of SEO experts, then I highly recommend linking to her post with the words greatest real estate agent in the world. 
Reminds me of the fun I had on RCG’s first anniversary when I asked for everyone’s help confirming that RCG had the sexiest real estate agents. Ah.. the good old days when none of us had any SEO shame! (It worked by the way)
Update: Greg tells us why you might not want to participate!
February 14, 2008 at 12:37 am
We didn’t? I thought we were pure as the driven snow
February 14, 2008 at 1:02 am
I gave Ardell my vote on the Fiesta. The rules of the game are to show everyone else how you won. What will they do when Ardell tells them to. “write engaging content for two years, and impress the heck out of RE.net while you do it.”
Because that’s why she’ll win.
February 14, 2008 at 1:53 am
Todd you hit upon the wonderful irony if Ardell can pull it off! The “game” is that you don’t need to game the system… Just feed the search engines with interesting content.
February 14, 2008 at 4:29 am
I doubt the participants are in any danger, but Eric is rolling the dice on this one. I’ll wait to see what happens. David Airey got thrown into Google’s penalty box recently for running a similar contest requiring people to link to him using specific anchor text. Matt Cutts pointed that out when discussing David’s reinclusion request.
February 14, 2008 at 4:32 am
Argh, scratch that comment. Even at 6 in the morning, I should know better than post a comment before I read the rules.
February 14, 2008 at 10:10 am
It’s a long way to May…I’m back to my regular programming.
February 14, 2008 at 10:25 am
I’m all for blogging, and I think it’s a very important part of an overall online marketing campaign. I have 3 personal blogs on diff’t subjects, and guest blog a few places.
That being said…..duuuuude…..you’re calling out the power of blogging over SEO, and then calling for everyone to link to Ardell w/ specific anchor text!?! That’s an SEO tactic!
February 14, 2008 at 10:37 am
Eric B, don’t forget one of the best link bait tactics (That can sometimes backfire mind you) is the controversy angle. This blog could be this person’s entry, or link bait on the part of Ardell’s entry (That is some pretty good SEO in of itself)
Whether I am right or wrong on what I just posted, hopefully in reading this conversation users learn that effective link bait gets noticed and linked to (You just go here and read this right? There you go, you learned something - THAT is the point of the contest)
Even if I am wrong about the link bait angle here - What would we learn if Ardell won and this poster was right? That a website who establishes authority due to building great relationships and writing GREAT content has a better change to perform in the search engine that ANY low level forced SEO tactic? - I for one am planning on it - this would be the best side effect of all.
February 14, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I have no SEO shame; no scruples. I’m not here for my looks.
February 14, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Eric: The irony is palatable!
February 14, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Morgan: I do own Rain City Guide, so there is more than a little bit of self-interest in this post! Although Ardell definitely deserves full credit for writing something that is interesting enough to post about! (and not for the first time!)
February 15, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Hey Dustin,
How come if I put “The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World”, I come up as #1, but when I drop the “the” I come up as #2?
There’s no “the” in my blog post title.
February 15, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Ardell, both Dustin and I linked to that post with “the” right before the anchor text. Maybe Google sees that text, and it gives you just enough umph to become first.
It’s a pure guess on my part.
February 16, 2008 at 8:38 pm
We’re #1 again. I found a “the” in my own link in the post and separated it out of the link. There. I learned something from the contest, so now I fit “the rules”
February 16, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Todd you said “The rules of the game are to show everyone else how you won. What will they do when Ardell tells them to. “write engaging content for two years, and impress the heck out of RE.net while you do it.””
So what you are saying is that Ardell has a two year head start on many of the newbie web based Realtors in this competition.
I think the whole thing would have been significantly more fair if everyone had to start with a new domain name and new hosting.
February 16, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Mike,
To be “fair” no one should try to game the search engines. Just write.
February 17, 2008 at 1:11 am
And Mike, even if we all started with empty URLs… some of us own domains that are loaded with google juice so it would still be unfair.
February 17, 2008 at 7:11 pm
[...] gets you much further in the blogiverse than being a jerk- because of her kind nature, people like Dustin Luther have linked to her in regards to Ardell DellaLoggia being the greatest real estate agent in the [...]