“It’s A Very Ted Leonsis Christmas” SEO Contest
It’s been a week or so since the SEO world stopped laughing about Ted Leonsis and his dose of SEO religion. Slowly, but surely, Ted’s coveted search engine results are being polluted by SEO’s and bloggers who aren’t drinking his Kool Aid. At an academic level, it is a case study in combative reputation management.
Do I think Ted is a tool? Nope. At a minimum he understands the brand value of his name and he’s clued in enough to understand the need to control as much of it as he can. He also seems like a nice enough guy and generally has a sense of humor about his newfound search engine skillset.
I guess the circling of the wagons in the SEO Community stems from his complete and utter lack of respect for competitive SEO’s and search marketers, in general. So, that’s why I’m going to up the ante with this and sponsor a little bit of charitable Holiday Season fun.
I’m going to give $500 to whomever has the highest ranking Google SERP for [ted leonsis] at midnight Central Time on Christmas Eve (on whatever datacenter Google is serving me results from at that time). I call this SEO Contest, “It’s a Very Ted Leonsis Christmas” and I encourage Ted to join in the fracas.
I guess there are only two rules in play here. The first is that if either myself or Graywolf wins, we will donate the money to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Anyone else can take the cash if they win. The second rule is you must link back to this page so I know who is eligible to win the loot.
URL: http://www.scoreboard-media.com/ted-leonsis-seo-contest/
The tease on this is that if the entire front page is owned by participants in this challenge, I’ll donate an additional $500 to St. Jude’s. That amount may get bigger as some friends have expressed an interest in donating to the cause.
Help the St. Jude’s kids or help yourself…but mostly, let’s help Ted Leonsis. Happy Holidays, y’all, and good luck!

[...] The blogosphere (or at least the SEO part of it) continues its mysterious obsessions, with the fury over Ted Leonsis building rather than abating. Among the latest developments: someone has created a Ted Leonsis fansite at Live Spaces, and at Scoreboard Media Group a Ted Leonsis Christmas SEOContest has been established, which will give $500 to the person who ranks highest in Google SERPS for the term Ted Leonsis on Christmas Eve. [...]
[...] Its A Very Ted Leonsis Christmas SEO Contest Looks like someone stepped up to the plate and took my advice. Ted Leonsis now has his very own SEO contest named Its A Very Ted Leonsis Christmas SEO Contest <– Read full contest info there. The prize you ask? Up to $1,000. In case you aren’t familiar with Ted’s story, check these out. Ted Leonsis at Scoreboard Ted Leonsis at Threadwatch Ted Leonsis at Threadwatch #2 Ted Leonsis at Johnon From scoreboard who is sponsoring the contest Quote: [...]
Why do all of the sudden I feel like a kid in a candy store?
And of course those donations to St. Jude will be in Ted Leonsis’ name? Seems fitting.
[...] Is all that hard work Ted Leonsis did blogging about to be put to the test? It is if the Ted Leonsis SEO Contest gets any traction. [...]
WOW, yet another seo contest.
Hm.. maybe I shuold join it.
Søkemotoroptimalisering!
[...] I love this idea. [...]
[...] I love this idea. [...]
Correct, John. It only seems right to donate anything in Ted’s name.
Yes and I think by the end of the contest the winner will also donate the amount for carity.
I am in!
[...] Following this, Gray Wolf made a Ted Leonsis page which started to rank in a Google query for ‘Ted Leonsis‘. This was noticed by Threadwatch, and after some ‘back room chatter’, the Ted Leonsis Contest was born. [...]
[...] The Ted Leonsis SEO Contest announcement at Scoreboard Media [...]
[...] Brian thought a contest for Ted Leonsis would be a good idea - and of course Michael’s always up for a bit of SEO experimenting. I think this “contest” offers a good opportunity to demonstrate the importance of rep management in a positive way. I created a Ted Leonsis page as well - so if that page manages to win - I’ll gladly donate Brian’s money to charity (Leukemia research). My plea to those that compete is that you keep it clean - focus on Ted’s accomplishments, and help teach people about the positive things he’s done instead of just being a wanker and tryin’ to get something to rank. I’ll gladly put up a bio or redirect after the first of the year, if Ted bothers to comment on the contest at all. [...]
[...] In fact… Ted Leonsis looks nothing like this picture. Ted Leonsis is actually a very handsome man. (Not Pictured Above) [...]
[...] Not sure how I let this link slip. [...]
[...] Ytterligare en sökmotoroptimeringstävling ser dagen ljus, Brian Provost på ScoreboardMediaGroup utlyser en tävling med första pris på $500. I’m going to give $500 to whomever has the highest ranking Google SERP for [ted leonsis] at midnight Central Time on Christmas Eve (on whatever datacenter Google is serving me results from at that time). I call this SEO Contest, “It’s a Very Ted Leonsis Christmas” and I encourage Ted to join in the fracas. [...]
It looks like this is a challenge that I came in late to, but how hard can it be to get ranked for ted leonsis anyways. This will be interesting at the very least.
[...] First there was the unfortunate Kimberly Williams — a case more of scraping than SEO per se, but the response came from the SEOs when she tried to prevent her content from being scraped. Next came Ted Leonsis, whose mild comments about being his own SEO made him the object of an SEO contest with a $500 cash prize. Now Jason Calacanis is the latest to have offended the SEOS. [...]
[...] Ted Leonsis [...]