Marketing Pilgrim Announces Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest

October 3, 2006; 03:51 AM

MarketingPilgrim.com, the internet marketing consultancy and blog, founded by Andy Beal, announced a new contest to find the search marketing industry’s next top expert and award a search engine marketing scholarship to the winner.

The contest will run throughout October and entrants will be asked to submit an article on the subject of search engine optimization, paid search advertising or social media optimization. The winner will receive a scholarship valued in excess of $5,000 which includes:

* A full conference pass to the Search Engine Strategies conference held in Chicago this December.
* A 2-day pass to an upcoming Search Engine Workshop with the choice of “Beginner” or “Advanced” training levels.
* A one-year subscription to KeywordDiscovery.com, the popular keyword research tool.
* A copy of Aaron Wall’s “SEO Book”.
* A copy of “Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day” by authors Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.
* One-on-one consulting and training with search engine marketing consultant Andy Beal.
* More prizes to be announced.

Article entries will be published on four consecutive Monday’s in October, starting on October 9th. The author of the most popular article each week will win a copy of the book “Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day” and qualify as one of four finalists for the scholarship prize. The final winner will be selected by a panel of industry-expert judges that include:

Rand Fishkin – SEOMoz.org
Jennifer Grappon & Gradiva Couzin – YourSEOPlan.com
Mike Grehan - Search-Engine-Book.co.uk
Kim Krause Berg - UsabilityEffect.com
Lee Odden – TopRankBlog.com
Robin Nobles – SearchEngineWorkshops.com
Barry Schwartz – RustyBrick.com
Aaron Wall – SEOBook.com
David Warmuz – Trellian.com

“I’m excited to be able to put together a scholarship that will help someone enter the exciting and fast-growing profession of search engine marketing,” said the contest organizer and internet marketing consultant, Andy Beal. “I wanted to find a way to help identify the industry’s next new talent and provide them with a fast-track entry to the search marketing field. I am particularly grateful to the companies that donated prizes and to the judges who have agreed to help find the next top talent in the industry.”

The contest is open to everyone. For more details on the prizes, the judges, contest rules and how to enter, visit Andy Beal, one of the world’s most respected internet marketing experts, Marketing Pilgrim also offers various consulting services. hhtp://www.MarketingPilgrim.com.