WOW!
Thanks for all the interest in the 1ShoppingCart Beta Program for our upcoming ShoppingCart Evolution release.
We received WAY more submissions than we can possibly accept into our Beta Program for this project, so I want to apologize to everyone who will not be hearing back from us (sorry, we can only contact those people who make the cut)
Here’s the good news, this project was so popular with our readers, we have setup a permanent Beta information and application page.
You can find 1ShoppingCart’s Beta Program Page, Here.
If you’ve already filled out the form to join the Beta Program, you won’t need to submit it again, we’ll keep your information on file for future Beta projects (you can change your mind at any time of course! Every email we send contains an unsubscribe link at the very bottom!).
As you may or may not know, 1ShoppingCart runs a Beta Testing Program that provides opportunities to test out new functionality, features and services in a live environment before they’re released to the general public.
At this time we’re looking for existing Merchants who would like to Beta Test our Next Generation Shopping Cart Software.
We only have two requirements for acceptance into our Beta Program for this project:
- You must have an existing & active account on 1ShoppingCart.com
- You must be using Authorize.net as your payment processor (merchant account / gateway)
If this sounds like you, we may have a spot for you in our Beta Program where your feedback can help us identify any remaining bugs AND fine-tune functionality in order to better meet the ecommerce needs of all our merchants!
What can a Beta Tester expect?
Beta Testing isn’t for everyone. While all software is thoroughly tested by both our developers AND our QA department…
Beta features are not quite ready for release to the general public
There may still be bugs within the software and enrolling in our Beta Testing Program means accepting the risk of potential unforeseen issues.
Of course, this is why we need your help, to find any small bugs we have missed and our dedicated Developing staff is standing by to jump on issues as they arise!
Why Sign Up for Our Beta Program?
Well, you get to see the future of eCommerce before anyone else and take an active hand in helping us shape that future through your feedback… And then there’s a little thing we call incentivized participation!
First, your account is completely FREE during the Beta period (and with two months scheduled for this Beta Test, you do the math for your account!)
Second, if you’re an active participant of our Beta Program, you could receive other top-secret incentives and rewards!
Where Do I Sign Up?
If this all sounds really exciting, you’re exactly who we’re looking for! Simply fill out the small form below to let us know you’re interested!
<< ** Edited January 17 ** Form Removed. Please Click Here for more information on the 1ShoppingCart Beta Program.>>
Please note: We’re really busy getting the new features ready for the Beta Test and will only be able to contact those Merchants who are accepted into the Beta Program. If you submit your information and we do not contact you, we will still keep your information on file for future Beta Projects.
*** Update ***
This SEO Contest ended on October 20, 2006. Our entry finished in 5th position out of 118 international competitors.
Thank you to everyone who supported our efforts by offering links on your websites during the Contest!
*** End Update ***
1ShoppingCart.com employee Michael Valiant, with design help from Matt Bloom, has entered the 2006 SEO World Championship!
Because we receive so many SEO related questions, we decided that, while Michael is flexing his SEO muscles in an international competition, we would pass on as much of his skill, and knowledge to you as possible.
So please join us in cheering for the home team in this SEO contest, and pick up some valuable SEO tips and tricks to help with your own website!
You will be able to follow their progress from here at our ShopTalk Weekly blog, or from the contest site itself at http://www.ambatchdotcom-seocontest.ca.
If you would like to support Michael and Matt in the SEO Competition, the best possible help would be to offer a link from your websites to their contest page with the keyword in the linking text. We have provided the necessary code here to make it easy…
Simply copy the contents in the box below and paste them into your websites wherever you would like the link to appear. Thank You for your Support.
Text Link:
More about the contest:
What:
The 2006 World Seo Championship SEOcontest
Who:
Michael Valiant & Matt Bloom; supported by 1ShoppingCart.com
When:
July 14 – October 20
What’s an SEO Contest?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the act of optimizing your webpage so it ranks as highly as possible in the Search Engines. The better your site ranks, the more people will see it when searching for relevant keywords.
An SEO Contest is a competition to achieve the number 1 rank in a search engine (Google in this case) within a certain time frame (3 months in this case).
How does an SEO Contest work?
The SEO Contest host chooses a keyword that has zero traffic in the chosen search engine. This prevents anyone from getting an early advantage in the contest if they already have a site optimized for that keyword.
Other than that, there are very few rules. Any type of SEO is acceptable, white hat, black hat (link to our glossary page) or otherwise.
What keyword did the World SEO Championship choose?
The selected keyword is Ambatchdotcom SEOContest.
There were no results for this keyword in Google on July 14th.
There were just under 250 results when we officially joined on the 16th and over 55,000 when our site was ready to go live on the 19th.
Today (8/15/2006) there are almost 800,000 results if you type Ambatchdotcom SEOContest into Google.
How are you doing in the competition?
We joined on the 19th of July, 5 days after the competition started. Within four days we were in position 24 and by the end of the first week we were in the top 10.
While we ran into some server problems that dropped us back down to position 20 or so for half a week, we have overcome these issues and fought our way back to position 4. Over the past month and a half, we fluctuated between position 3 and 5, so far unable to break the top two (but don’t count us out yet!)
Our ‘high-water’ mark so far is position 3.
What is your Game Plan?
While the rules of the contest allow for an ‘anything goes’ type of competition, we have decided to take the high road. 
While it is common (and many of our competitors are doing this) to try and win SEO contests with blogs full of keyword spam that don’t make any sense to the casual viewer or web surfer, we truly believe that SEO is useless if you can’t boost a functional website to the top of the search engines.
We will not use anything that could be considered Black Hat, although, in the spirit of the contest we have and will use some techniques that many may consider borderline.
What is Your Goal?
Besides the obvious goal of taking one of the top three spots in the competition, our over-riding goal is to optimizing our website to rank well in Google for the keyword Ambatchdotcom SEOContest’, while still providing a useful service for people who may come across it. As I have already mentioned, we don’t believe a garbage, keyword stuffed webpage serves any purpose outside the obvious short term benefits you may see in a contest like this.
Instead, we are in the process of developing ambatchdotcom-seocontest.ca into a content rich, resource heavy, useful, SERP-climbing machine that should be equally functional to our visitors as it will for us! Features that we are working on include:
Wordpress Blog Plugins
Wordpress theme download
SEO Tools
SEO Tips & Tricks
Contest Updates
And more!
Why are you doing this?
Fame, Honour, Glory…
Oh, and there are prizes!
But really we just thought it would be fun. This contest has provided us with an opportunity to stretch our wings and test our knowledge and know-how at an International venue.
You Mentioned Prizes?
There will be small monthly prizes offered to the webmasters & SEOs who take the top 3 positions in Google for the keyword Ambatchdotcom SEOContest, and larger cash prizes on October 20 for the final top 3!
Final Prizes:
1st Prize (The Highest Ranking) – US $ 4,000 & a Crystal Trophy
2nd Prize (Second Highest Ranking) – US $ 2,000
3rd Prize (Third Highest ranking) – US $ 500
All three positions earn bragging rights!
Apparently there are some added incentives for 1st place, like an interview, and possibly an ebook deal or some-such with profit sharing yadda yadda…
For more information, visit the 2006 World SEO Championship homesite ()
Monthly Prizes:
31 July 2006 (mid night EST)
1st Ranking - $200
2nd Ranking - $100
3rd Ranking - $50
31 August 2006 (mid night EST)
1st Ranking - $200
2nd Ranking - $100
3rd Ranking - $50
30 September 2006 (mid night EST)
1st Ranking - $200
2nd Ranking - $100
3rd Ranking - $50
Value to You, Our Merchants, as We Pass Along Our Findings:
Priceless!
Wish us luck!
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