The Winners of The 6th Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest

800,000 pageviews later, the 6th Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest is over and the prizes are ready to be won.

Highs and lows of this year's contest

Behind the scenes, this was a surprisingly intriguing contest. More on that in a second.

There were many highs this year.

• Over 400,000 people visited JobMob during the contest, generating over 800,000 pageviews
• 25 articles were submitted from entrants across the USA, Canada, UK, Israel, and the Philippines
• It was the first time an entrant used an openly-recognized pseudonym (that would be Recruiting Animal)
• It was the first time that a sponsor also participated as entrant (that would also be Recruiting Animal)
• The first grand prize winner broke our single-contest traffic record, breaking 2000 unique visitors for the first time

Unfortunately, there were too many lows this year. That's what happens when prize values get so high, I suppose.

• Two entrants definitely cheated, and a 3rd entrant may have too. Not accidentally either- these were concerted efforts to skew the results using freelancers and/or paid traffic services. Since it's difficult to prove if the entrants themselves were the actual cheaters, for one of the entrants we just didn't count the paid traffic in their final results. However, there were multiple kinds of evidence against one of the other entrants which led to…
• For the first time, an entrant was disqualified. Not only did the entrant have paid traffic streaming to their article, but the article itself was spun (in this case, some might say ‘plagiarized') from the blog of a well-known author. The article has since been removed from the JobMob archives. I sincerely apologize to that author and anyone that read the article. We screen all entries for plagiarism and have caught many attempts in the past (I rejected one such entrant for this year's contest) but this was expertly done and the entrant almost got away with it. Almost, but they didn't.

But enough about the lows! Let's enjoy the winners' achievements and thank the great sponsors who made it all possible.

Thank you to our terrific sponsors

Thank you to our Gold Sponsor: WebHostingBuzz

WebHostingBuzz is a reliable web hosting company based in MA, USA.

WebHostingBuzz serves over 30,000 clients from around the world. With a reputation for reliable, fast server technology backed by excellent customer support, WebHostingBuzz is an ideal choice for any internet project regardless of the budget available.

WebHostingBuzz offers a 45-day money back guarantee for its hosting services and also has a generous affiliate program.

Thank you to our Silver Sponsor: Kiesha Easley and WeBlogBetter.com

Kiesha Easley is the owner of WeBlogBetter.com, a blog devoted to offering blogging tips. She is a writer, copy-editor, and mass communications instructor. She’s just released, 10 Week GamePlan for a Top 100k Blog, a book that teaches new or struggling bloggers how to take a blog from setup to Top 100k Alexa ranking blog in 10 weeks or less. During this time, they'll learn to get more traffic and create an irresistible blog. Connect with her on Twitter @weblogbetter.

Thank you to our Silver Sponsor: Web SEO Analytics

Web SEO Analytics is one of the most complete & innovative online marketing platforms providing pioneering SEO tools and SEM Software.

Thank you to our Silver Sponsor: Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg

Thank you to our Silver Sponsor: MyBlogGuest.com

MyBlogGuest is the free platform which bloggers join to easier find each other and exchange guest posts. The most popular feature inside is the Articles Gallery where you can upload an article for blog owners to come to review it and make their offers. Here's a quick video intro made by one of our members.

Thank you to our Silver Sponsor: Jason Alba and JibberJobber

JibberJobber is a career management tool designed to help job seekers organize and manage their job search. More than a job search organizer, it is a personal relationship manager you can use between job searches. It is your personal relationship management tool to use during the rest of your career.

Thank you to our Chrome Sponsor: Recruiting Animal

Animal is the host of a rowdy online call-in show about recruiting and careers. In April 2006, he founded the Recruiting Animal blog, then, in March 2007, he started The Recruiting Animal Show, the only online call-in show about recruiting in world history. But can you handle it? Read the letter to guests to find out.

And now, the winners!

The Winners

All entrants won:

• A copy of Kiesha Eisley’s ebook 10 Week GamePlan for a Top 100k Blog. Sponsored by Kiesha Easley and WeBlogBetter.com.

Winner of the early-bird prize: Lavie Margolin

Lavie won:

• US$50. Sponsored by Ann Smarty and MyBlogGuest.com

Winner of the Judges’ Choice prize: Joshua Waldman

Winner of the Most Retweeted Article: Dan Keller

Dan won:

• US$50. Sponsored by Ann Smarty and MyBlogGuest.com.

Winner of the Most Liked Article: Bless Vaidian

Bless won:

• US$50. Sponsored by Ann Smarty and MyBlogGuest.com.

Winner of the Most +1′d Article: Peggy McKee

Peggy won:

• US$50. Sponsored by Ann Smarty and MyBlogGuest.com.

Winner of the Most Emailed Article: Chris Perry

Chris won:

• US$50. Sponsored by Ann Smarty and MyBlogGuest.com.

And now…

The moment you've all been waiting for… (always wanted to say that)

The Grand… Prize… Winners!!!

With 1,556 visitors to her article 3 Things You Must Do on Your Job Search…

The 3rd grand prize winner is: Bless Vaidian

Bless has won almost US$800 in prizes:

• US$100. Sponsored by WebHostingBuzz.
• 1 year PRO subscription to Web SEO Analytics, a US$300 value
• 1 hour of blogging/marketing/job search consulting (you choose the topic) by Jacob Share and JobMob, a US$250 value
• 1 year of JibberJobber Premium. Sponsored by Jason Alba and JibberJobber.com, a US$99 value
• Access to the LinkedIn for Job Seekers Streaming video. Sponsored by Jason Alba and JibberJobber.com, a US$50 value

Next, with 1,845 visitors to her article Why You Should Reject LinkedIn Connection Requests…

The 2nd grand prize winner is: Mildred Talabi

Virtual drum roll please…

Wait for it…

The Grand Prize Winner is: Chris Perry!

Chris has won over $2600 in prizes with his article, How To Keep Your LinkedIn Job Search Undetected While Currently Employed:

• US$300. Sponsored by WebHostingBuzz.
• Premium blog setup and design services. Sponsored by Kiesha Easley and WeBlogBetter.com, a US$600 value
• Unlimited access to all JibberJobber job search videos. Sponsored by Jason Alba and JibberJobber.com, a US$450 value
• 1 year PRO subscription to Web SEO Analytics, a US$300 value
• 2 years of JibberJobber Premium. Sponsored by Jason Alba and JibberJobber.com, a US$190 value
• 45 minutes of business consulting. Sponsored by Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg, a US$300 value
• 1 hour of blogging/marketing/job search consulting (your choice). Sponsored by Jacob Share and JobMob, a US$250 value
• 1 month ad exposure at the top of a new JobMob article. Sponsored by Jacob Share and JobMob, a US$250 value
• Interviewed on The Recruiting Animal Show. Sponsored by Recruiting Animal.

That's it! Another successful guest blogging contest done, bigger than ever.

To all the winners: congratulations, and I'll be in touch with you next week on Tuesday, October 8th about how to claim your prizes.

Thank you to Chris, Mildred, Bless, Peggy, Dan, Joshua, Lavie, Hannah, Donna, Lynn, Yehoshua, Elliot, Danielle, Marshall, Tammy, Chrissy, Tahl, Roderick, Joey, Dean, David, Rosa and of course, the Recruiting Animal.

Thanks again to our terrific sponsors.

And thank you too for following along, enjoying the entries and sharing your favorites for the winners.

Regularly-scheduled blogging returns here on JobMob next week.

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