As promised, our "Boost Your Juice" finalists have been picked. I have to admit it was harder than we originally thought, there were so many great submissions! I have no idea how our judging panel is going to make that final decision. Who are your favorites? Weigh in with your comments and let us know! The judges will actually be voting, but your comments below (in the case of a tie) could cast the deciding vote!
Essay Entries:
1. The Student Athlete Supporter
Hello Boost-Your-Juice Judges, I provide a 100% free service to aspiring college athletes. As a means to gain a broad exposure in the very competitive collegiate athletic scholarship award process, student athletes can visit my site and post their general, academic and most importantly, athletic profiles and pictures for viewing by college level coaches and recruiters. In today’s economy, students, and parents of students need all the help they can get when it comes to funding their ever increasing college expenses. As a parent of a collegiate student athlete myself, I have first hand knowledge of the financial burden a college education creates. However, I contend that the lack of a college education creates an even greater burden to the individual and society at large. Winning your services could help hundreds, maybe thousands, of student athletes realize their dreams and complete their education. Thanks for considering my entry.
2. The White Hat Evangelist
Judges, if you represent the "be good" google industry for white hat link building strategies. Then help us to fight against these aggressive competitors that are playing that fine seo grey hat space by buying massive amounts of text links. We are owned by a public billion dollar a year business that is trusted in are industry. We have solid customer service and maintain a 95% customer retention rate. So we have a clean, quality service that you could feel comfortable to ask for links on are behalf. But like other large companies, we have a tech & legal hurdle to approving content on the website, which sometimes limits some of are natural link building & seo efforts. But we would take your recommendations seriously to make these improvements needed. We have a global service that targets over 200 ethnic expat communities online. So there is plenty of places to source for links. We have a pretty strong conversion rate but can’t justify paying up to $6.00 a click for are keyword to make an average $15 new customer sale. So we need a natural ranking lift for are top terms that are stuck on page 2 & 3. We have two dedicated link builders that could use your advice to help with daily tasks to assign to them. Please help and pick us to save the day to provide $5k in quality link building support!
3. The Humanitarian
I am a humanitarian doctor; I went to naturopathic medical school, and the experience opened my heart to wanting to serve both my local and global community. It is difficult to be a doctor who works largely for free, or for very discounted fees but I do not know how to be anything else! Nor do I want to be. I am working on building community clinics, starting in Arizona, and creating volunteer outreach programs with abused woman and children, or anyone who has experienced trauma. My heart goes out to those suffering, and to those in other countries who do not have the opportunities we do here in the United States. I wish to spread naturopathic medicine around the world. I have several domestic violence programs that I am working diligently to fund, (in Nepal, Phoenix, Flagstaff and with the Navajo) and training a few physicians how to work with trauma. I have been seeking and praying for support, knowing the need our patients have but not certain where to go to find that help. Thank you
4. The Button Pusher
Ahh – Free Link Building. I can see it now the big RED EASY BUTTON is on my desk. But I sit here and cry because I am powerless. I can’t press the EASY BUTTON and shoot my website through the rankings. You possess this power and I am just a pawn in your media game.
You, the contest holder, have indeed realized a simple way to find quality leads. By holding the contest you are connecting with small companies that need your service and are at the same time building your list. I only hope you push the RED EASY BUTTON for me and build my links and list in the same manner.
If you do the trumpets will blow and the flags will be raised in spectacular glory. With the new earned revenue you give to me I will be indebted to you for all eternity. My three-year-old company will then have the Internet presence it deserves. We will sit among the leaders in our industry helping everyday people through these tough economic times.
5. The Programmer
We have developed a software application that is becoming popular in the financial sector. We feel we have a superior product but lack the budget and marketing skills to go after bigger clients. We are a small shop and devote most of our time to customer service and product enhancements rather than marketing. Our software is priced very low compared to our competitors. As a result of our customer service and low price point our current customers LOVE us. And by love I mean they are fanatical. We know we could charge more but we enjoy the ravenous feeding frenzy and buzz our prices create when somebody finds us. It creates great word of mouth which is really what drives a lot of our sales. We are confident that we could compete with some of the larger players in this space but we need help getting our name out there. Our site is four years old but has a PR of 2 and I think it’s because we are woefully lacking in links. We don’t have a lot of budget but are hard working and would be very appreciative of any help.
6. The Catalyst
My company is a unique provider of incremental behavioral modification rewards targeted exclusively at the business to business market. Like so many businesses, mine has seen a reduction in activity and new business in light of the recession. Now look back one more time and see what service we provide, “incremental behavior modification rewards.” In simpler terms, we provide a business rewards platform to increase business. The very essence of what is required by any business to IMPROVE THEIR SITUATION.
But like all things that are considered an expense, it’s easier to say “We’ll wait on that,” “Cut that back,” or “Isn’t this part of marketing?” Sound familiar? It’s the SEO/SEM situation for the last few years. Every company needs it, every company should be investing in it, yet it is way too often one of the first things to be cut back in hopes it delays a potential reduction in force, etc. The investment, timed correctly and implemented carefully would have prevented the RIF in the first place!
My organization deserves to win the VM assistance because we are the catalyst, effectively identical to VM’s programs, which can turn the economy back into battle ready mode and move this nation forward. We can change behaviors and focus participants on doing the right things, and with VM’s help, that’s the beginning of the end of a recession.
7. The Gossip
With a little JUICE to get my website ‘engine’ running, my site can be self sustaining, making money, and generating unique content to be valued highly by search engines. My website is geared towards the #1 topic searched (that isn’t ‘adult’) on the internet today – Celebrities! Love them or hate them people are interested in them, and searching for them CONSTANTLY. Only JUICE knows how to get me to the top of these searches – all while keeping it organic.
Celebrities evolve constantly – they come and go, and my website collects a lot of data that can help identify ‘up and coming’ celebrities. Putting JUICE to work writing articles with some of this inside knowledge gives me more bang for the JUICE!
My website is viral and spreads via word of mouth (electronically of course) by its nature. Once people are at my website, they WANT to share what they do with their friends via today’s social sites. While many people will be referred from their friends, others will only find me if JUICE is used to position social media marketing in my favor.
Only by applying JUICE to my website will my engine get kick-started. Show me the JUICE!
Video Entries:
Kaila is a Sr. Account Manager at Vertical Measures. She works directly with clients to evaluate and analyze their overall Internet Marketing needs, creates sales proposals and recommendations. In addition she regularly reports on client rankings, gives SEO advice to brands in a variety of industries and manages client expectations.
Kaila has a background in social media marketing, link building, SEO and content marketing. She’s an active blogger on SearchEngineWatch.com, and an avid social media user (@cliquekaila on Twitter). She brings her experience to the table with new clients and enjoys writing about her experiences as well here on the VM blog and throughout the web.
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Firstly, we’d like to thank everyone who entered our "Boost Your Juice" contest. We feel it was a great success, and are excited to work with the winners. Thank goodness for our judges, all of us here at Vertical Measures were having a hard time deciding who we wanted as our top 10 let alone a winner! Drum roll please….and the winners are: 
Our "Boost Your Juice" Contest is officially over, and with many entries we are well on our way to picking the top 10 (they’ll be posted on Friday, stay tuned)! We had some highs, we had some lows, but overall we feel our contest was a great success. Why? 
