The Web Challenge

We’re happy to officially welcome our first sponsor. oDesk enables startups to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. With over 100,000 registered providers and no startup fees, oDesk is the #1 online destination for hiring contractors to work on all aspects of your business, including programming, design, writing, and more.

oDesk has agreed to provide the winner of The Web Challenge Season 2 with $1000 of oDesk credit to add some additional programming or design muscle to your site. Think in terms of 40-50 hours of programming help to build that extra feature, create that database, design and send that mail campaign, or create a whole new site altogether. Thanks oDesk.

To register for Season 2 of TheWebChallenge, click here to submit your idea.

In a web-world the term press release sounds pretty old-school. Or at least I thought so. Up to a few weeks ago I was a press release skeptic, to say the least. It’s easy to spend upwards of $1000 on a nationally distributed press release via PR Newswire and the results are never guaranteed. So when faced with the decision to do a targeted ad-buy or sponsorship vs. a press release, I used to almost always err on the side of the ad-buy.

A few months ago, thanks to Dan Green joining us at MediaSilo, we started to look into press releases in more detail and found a surprising number of services that offer free press release distribution. After just a few releases we saw a huge spike in traffic and much better visibility of our service in search engines. After sending our second free press release with prmac.com we even got invited to a podcast. Site conversions went up, although that was not the primary goal. We are now sending about two releases a month and have sustained traffic increase of about 50%. Not too shabby considering how inexpensive it is. (more…)

It’s week three of The Web Challenge, Season 1, and things got off to a slightly slow start. We had to figure out a few more guidelines and make sure everyone has the proper tracking codes installed. All sites are tagged with Google Analytics code so everyone can see current standings. We are also using DynDns to lock client computers to a subdomain, so that we are not tracking out own clicks.

Eric had a last-minute change of heart and pulled MockupReview.com from the challenge. (BTW - killer domain name, Eric). He is now working on BusRyda.com, which he describes as: “a Boston based mobile service to help you find an MBTA bus route faster than the transit authority’s current mobile web site can offer. Simple and to the point, BusRyda looks exceptional on an iPhone but can be used on any mobile device that supports Javascript.” Eric has some pretty neat ideas on how to market the service while sticking to our zero-budget guidelines. We’ll have him on our podcast to talk about his guerilla tactics (and now, it does not involve graffiti on buses).

Jon and Matt have clearly taken the lead in traffic. Matt’s “DailySup.com” is leading the pack with 391 total unique visits and 1586 page views, closely followed by Jon with 262 visits, 3689 page views.

I have always been a fan of “how-to” screencasts, but not everything lends itself to being shown - especially when it’s related to promoting websites. While talking to Matt about some screencast work he was doing for his dayjob, we started to kick around ideas on how to collect tips and tricks for promoting websites. Podcasting seems to be the perfect format to get to know the contestants, share tips and tricks, review online tools and services, and build a forum around TWC. So stay tuned for the first ever Web Challenge podcast, coming this week.

Project:  dailysup.com will be a shared blogging platform for those with voices who want to be heard.  We aim to focus on several topics, (sex, dating, sports, music, business, etc) all of which you’ll be able to read using as many platforms as our developers can handle (a facebook and iphone app are in the works).

Contestant: Matt is a talented usability designer with expertise in developing standards-based web designs.

The Project:

The credit crunch has long started to affect areas other than the housing market. College families are scouring for loans as credit and low interest rates have dried up, leaving tens of thousands of families in a struggle to find funding. EducationFinanceGuide.com is a resource to help inform parents and students on ways to fund a college education in tough economic times.

Contestant:

Kai has been developing web applications for over 10 years and tries to keep a good balance between tech and business. As co-founder of College Publisher, Kai helped created the nation’s largest network of college news sites, now owned by Viacom. He later went on to start Productorials, Inc., a marketing services firm with a focus on online video. Most recently, Kai founded MediaSilo, a software start-up that provides online tools for digital producers working with video.

You’ve been there - you had the next big idea that would change the world but then you shelved it. The Web Challenge is all about bringing those ideas back and competing with others to create the most successful website in just 60 days. All you need is a little effort, some smarts, and a good idea.

The Web Challenge is all about putting your web savvy to work by creating a successful site. Contestants have to build, market, and manage their sites to win in one of the three categories:  most unique visitors, most registered users, and most total profit earned. Each contestant pays a $100 entry fee and places Google analytics code on their page. 

Throughout the competition, contestants will be asked to share best practices, comment on how successful a given strategy has been and what they think makes their site stand out. 

Rules:

• You have a $0 budget with the exception of up to $15 to buy a domain name if you need one
• Domain cannot have pre-existing traffic
• No adult content
• All sites will be monitored on a central Google Analytics account
• Any topic goes and any kind of site goes
• Multiple site submissions are allowed as long as you pay the fee for each site
• Multiple sites are considered unique and traffic and revenue is not cumulative accross domains
• Any open source CMS is allowed, such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.
• No Scams!
• E Commerce is ok, sell what you want as long as it’s legal
• Don’t use your own fame - you can’t use your own name to promote sites or use your existing friends and family
• No Teams - your site should be your own sweat and tears

Budget:

• There is no budget! Any money earned from your site may be invested towards marketing, i.e. using Google Adwords. Costs associated with hosting of your website are your responsibility and are not considered to be part of the $0 budget (although in a future season we may level the playing field and partner with a hosting provider).

Check this site for daily updates on how the competing sites are doing and who is ahead. Want to join yourself? Submit your idea for Season 2.

Project:

Basecamp charges between $24 and $150 per month to their 1,000,000+ members in order to use their project collaboration website. The fact of the matter is project collaboration is not rocket science. In just 2 or 3 days I was able to code up a reasonable alternative, and its free. Use my JonDesk to collaborate with your team members on your next project for free.

Contestant:

Jon Block is an accomplished web developer with over 10 years experience creating cool apps. Jon spear-headed the development of College Publisher, the nations’ largest content management and network of college newspaper websites, no owned by Viacom.

Look’s like we are ready to get this started. Our first season is comprised of web veterans and include one programmer, two front-end developers, a designer, and a deseloper. Submitted projects range from content site to Basecamp competitor.

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Great post in the New York Times this morning about flipping websites instead of houses. This is kind of what TheWebChallenge is all about - building a valuable website quickly using a good idea, some smarts, and tools freely available and then selling it. I personally have a whole heap of domain name that I thought would be worth millions some day - perhaps now they stand an actual chance to make money when bundled with a website and some traffic.