The Busby SEO Challenge is already on its last leg. I and Leona have really no idea where our webpage will be at the end of the long, fierce competition. Will it be at the number one spot? Will it, at least, be included in the first top ten? Or will it just disappear from the sea of web pages that joined the challenge? I don’t know. The only thing I’m sure about is the lessons I’ve gained, the skills I developed and the stronger friendship I have now with Leona. Winning the SEO Busby Challenge is still my ultimate goal, but after seeing what I’ve gained, I realized that competing alone is already a prize - A prize that cannot be ranked by any search engine.

With the seemingly endless increase of its price, fuel ignites more than just my car engine nowadays. It actually does a better job of heaping coal over my head. There is nothing more enraging than seeing the price of fuel going up faster than a fire rocket on the Fourth of July. When will it stop? I dare ask. Just recently, when I thought my day was going well, the price of fuel flashing in bright yellow lights in a gasoline station ruined it entirely. I should not have looked. I’m sure Leona also has some interesting stories to tell on how she is confronting our current world problem.

Thankfully, amidst the unceasing increase of fuel price and of everything else that depends on it, there remains something constant in my life. My desire to win the SEO Busby Challenge has not changed. Right now, our webpage is probably the one thing I’ll be happy to see go up.

How many (quality) backlinks can one do in a day?

There should be a survey or forum for that once this contest is over. Of course, we can just find that out by ourselves, but it seems fun for the participants to actually converse about all the supposed funny/horror adventures in this busby seo challenge.

On our part, we’re doing all that we can to collect links from good sites. I’m sure all players are doing the same, so it all goes down to which team combines the most faultless technique of quality and quantity linkbuilding.

So, back to quality-linking like crazy.

Today is a great day.

Just so you know, we’ve been sliding down Google for a couple of weeks now. The culprit — we had this emergency situation at work that took up most of our days (and nights), but I know, that’s a lame excuse, right? Anyway, we know we really had to make up for all the days that we’ve lost. For starters, this meant a whole weekend of strategizing, mouse-clicking, and chips-snacking in front of the computer.

So, today I checked our ranking. And what do you know, we’re back on our feet again! We’re on the 7^th page now, from an all-time low in the 14^th page.

It feels like a printscreen moment again… here it goes, PRINTSCREEEEEN!

Just to make a full accounting of our busby seo challenge adventure, I’ll also take some printscreens if ever we plummet down the google pages again (sniff). Here’s to hoping that’ll never happen again…:)

My officemates just told me that there was a brief earthquake minutes ago. I didn’t feel a thing. Everyone in my department broke out in laughter when I told them my friend sent me a message about the short earth-moving phenomenon. Was I too busy to experience the occurrence? Or am I just frigid, like what many of my friends constantly tell me? To be honest, I don’t know. All I know is my world, as well as Leona’€™s world, is being vigorously shaken right now with…you guessed it -€“ the Busby SEO Challenge. The force of the challenge is so strong it makes us numb to almost everything around us. Not that we don’€™t take time to smell the flowers or give to the needy. It€™s just that we have our minds so intensely focused on the challenge it made everything seem like a blur.

So I’d like to appeal to my co-workers for understanding and patience. Just ignore me if I cannot seem to stop staring at the wall. Please, however, hit me in the head with a keyboard if the ground is starting to devour our building. I’d appreciate it.

Just a little Busby history while I’m surfing and linkbuilding our site to the top…

Do you know that the Busby SEO Challenge started in Guadeloupe in the early 1990s? Now, if you’re wondering where the heck that place is located, it’s actually an island group belonging in the sovereign of France and located in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. They mostly kept the competition among themselves for a number of years. Not fair, right?

Do you also know that it was only in 1912 when the first world Busby SEO challenge championship occurred? While it was labeled as a world series, the contest was actually just limited to French-speaking people from Canada, Luxembourg, and Belgium. It was known as the “French SEO Kidnapping.” Still not fair, cool name though.

Fastforward to present times, and the Busby SEO Challenge has gone global. Yey! Any country can join now, leading to more competitors, which then ultimately results to a highly comprehensive measure of our SEO competencies. We’re fighting in a global arena, now isn’t that exciting?

That’s all the bits of trivia I can provide for now. Hope it gave you a clearer picture of this competition.

*Back to SEO Duties*

My eye balls are blood-shot red and their veins are protruding for staring at my computer screen for far too long; a little more than six hours to be exact. But I’m not complaining, because a quarter of that time was spent gazing at our website’€™s rank in Google. I am simply mesmerized by how our URL appears on the 115th position that I often lose track of time. I know the road to the top spot is still a long way to go, but what we’ve accomplished is something worth celebrating. Leona and I have been juggling work, personal issues, writing and optimizing for the last few days that we feel this small victory is worth a few swigs of tequila.

My periodic visits to the Busby SEO Challenge give me a short, much needed break from my mounting work. It inspires me whenever I feel a little dejected or out of focus. This challenge is a fuel for both I and my partner. We will not give up even it will require us to set camp in front of the computer and if it will cause blood to gush out of our eye sockets.

Yes, we have finally landed on Google! It never fails to excite me when a site I’m working on first appears in the search engine. It’s almost the same feeling as when a beloved pet learns how to fetch or roll over. There’s affection there, a great deal of pride, and that sudden rush of blood to do more things. Now, before you guys assume that we’re already included in the leading slots, let me just clear it up now that we’re still far off. Haha. To be precise, we’re placed in the 11th page, ranking #109. See my printscreen here:

This is really something to be proud of because Chiqui and I have only been doing the basics so far (getting a little breezy here…). Wait till we go to the actual strategies (the wind’s picking up! heh). This busby seo challenge is getting to be a real fun pet project for me. Hope all goes well. Good luck to us and to all our competitors!

Bummer! The weekend passed by so quickly I hardly even noticed it. The two days went by like a roaring, out of control locomotive that hit me head-on at the end of the rail. Whaaam! The force was so strong it left me unconscious for two days. When I awoke it’s Monday already. Was I able to finish my household chores? Did I get the extra sleep I needed? Did I even do something fruitful, like finishing the book that has been forever sitting on my bedside table? All these questions linger in my head every start of the week, and I desperately fight them off as they have the propensity to affect my work. This week, however, is different. Why? Well, let’s just say that there is something to look forward to that not even weekend activities can equal. Aside from the new challenge at work - which I will not discuss as it will surely bore many - this week will also set the Busby Challenge in full throttle. So I say forget weekends, and say hurray for weekdays!

How can you enter a contest without the proper regard to its rules? Here are the regulations for the Busby SEO Challenge, and my hopeless comments in between parentheses.

1. Start date is 1st June 2008, 12:00midday, Perth, Western Australia at which point the phrase will be posted on the Busby website. (chiqui and I are really starting a bit late here, but with enough tactics and hardwork, we’re really hoping to push through)

2. End date of 31st August 2008, 12:00 midday, Perth, Western Australia. (2 more months, more than enough time for us)

3. Only ethical SEO techniques may be engaged and the judges reserve the right to review the techniques engaged by the winner to ensure they comply. (is this a strictly white hat seo contest, or can we use a little pink hat techniques of our own there? Heh)

4. No pornography, no discrimination and no illegal behavior permitted.

5. The competition is only open to domain and sub domain names that do not include the key phrase in any form (check!)

6. Only registered entrants are eligible to compete and win the prize. Busby will maintain a list of entrants which can be view on the Entrants List page. (check!)

7. Registration is free, open to anyone of any age, gender, race and domicile and can only be made through Registration Process. (check, we’re registered)

8. All entrants pages must have a visible link back to www.busbywebsolutions.com with the following text (including the hyperlink) in black Arial 10 font: Participant in the Busby Web Solutions Search Engine Optimisation Challenge (check!)

9. Only one prize per person. (whaaa–?)

10. Employees, franchisees and licensees of Busby (and each of their family members) are eligible to enter but are not eligible to win any prizes.

So there, I think our team has covered (almost) everything about the Busby SEO Challenge Rules. And since we’re not employees, franchisees, and licensees of Busby, we’re more than qualified to win the prize. Cheers!