SMB Online Marketing Contest: Announcing the Winners!

The Friday before a holiday weekend. Brilliant time to make an announcement! ;)

So maybe we weren’t thinking so sharp in terms of maximum exposure, but what the heck! We want to give some cool prizes away and the people who’ve won them have waited long enough!

That’s right. The votes have been tallied. The time to announce the winners of the Small Biz Discovery Contest has arrived!

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We’d like to thank everyone who entered the contest, sharing their knowledge and experience with the small business community and Bruce Clay, Inc. If you haven’t read the six entries to the contest focusing on SEO and social media marketing recommendations for small businesses online, what are you waiting for? Those who read the articles will agree with me when I guess how difficult it must have been to vote. (Seriously, I’m glad I wasn’t in your position. I just have the fun task of handing out prizes!)

The first award goes to finalist Jennifer Van Iderstyne for her article Get Over Your SEO Commitment-phobia and Take the Plunge. As a finalist, Jennifer, @Vanetcetera, will receive a copy of the hot and heavy (no really, this thing is like five pounds) Search Engine Optimization All-In-One for Dummies. Congratulations, Jennifer!

Next up, we have the category winners who have won a seat in our SEOToolSet Training Course, set here in Simi Valley, CA or Long Island, NY. The winner of the SEO category is Dvir Weininger, @CmsBuffet, for his article Thinking Outside the Bot. The winner of the social media category is Jeff Toler, @fleetliner, for his article Social Media Marketing Essentials for the Small Business Web Presence. Looking forward to meeting you at SEO training, guys!

Along the way, it occurred to us that because the grand prize winner was the top vote-getter in the SEO category (oops! Spoiler alert?), it technically meant that both the SEO category winner and runner-up would be receiving big prizes. We decided it would only be fair if the top-of-category and runner-up of the SMM entries got the same deal, so we’re also awarding a seat in SEOToolSet Training to the social media category runner-up, Chris Harmon, for his article Social Media for Small Business. Great stuff, Chris!

And now, without further ado, please help me in congratulating the grand prize winner of the Small Biz Discovery Contest: Brent Rangen!

Brent’s article, SEO for Small Business: Get an SEO Primer was selected by the voting public as the best answer to the question “What one recommendation would you give to small business owners to improve their online presence?” As the winner of the top prize, Brent will be getting a Platinum Pass to SES San Francisco 2010 and a seat in the 1-day SEO training class taught by Bruce in conjunction with the conference.

Not only did Brent’s SEO article get the most votes among the finalists, but he was also proactive in promoting the contest on Twitter and on his blog and joining discussions with other contestants in the article comments. Thank you and congrats again! You’re gonna love SES, Brent!

Congratulations to all the contestants in the Small Biz Discovery Contest! Just to celebrate, I’ll set off some fireworks for you on Sunday! ;)

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.