Performancing is happy to announce that Kiltak from Geeks Are Sexy, won the Performancing Treasure Hunt.

Even we were impressed by the speed with which he solved each clue...even as they got progressively more difficult.

Congrats Kiltak! You win the following prizes!

1. 1 hour free consultation with Chris Garret (value $150)
2. Free custom logo from Randa Clay (value $350)
3. 1-year free Professional MegaEdition subscription to PMetrics (value $99)
4. Professional linkbait service - 1 linkbait plus promotion (value $2,000)
5. Blog Reboot - a step-by-step report on how to improve your blog (value $500)
6. SEO Reboot - free keyword research report + SERPS analysis (value $350)
7. Custom tweak / install of Brian Gardner's Revolution theme (value $500)
8. A free lifetime submission to the EatonWeb Blog Directory (value priceless)

The Performancing Treasure Hunt deadline has been extended to Monday November 26th. Remember, the first person to find the "treasure chest" wins. In this case, the treasure chest is represented by a six-word phrase. The phrase MUST be an exact match.

The winner of the contest gets the following prizes:

1. 1 hour free consultation with Chris Garret (value $150)
2. Free custom logo from Randa Clay (value $350)
3. 1-year free Professional MegaEdition subscription to PMetrics (value $99)
4. Professional linkbait service - 1 linkbait plus promotion (value $2,000)
5. Blog Reboot - a step-by-step report on how to improve your blog (value $500)
6. SEO Reboot - free keyword research report + SERPS analysis (value $350)
7. Custom tweak / install of Brian Gardner's Revolution theme (value $500)

So today we're ready to announce the final clue. But before we do that, let's review the first 5 clues:

Clue #1: "sleazy link-whoring tactics"
Clue #2: "All the SEO girls want Rand Fishkin"
Clue #3: "Is Matt Cutts the link nazi"
Clue #4: "PageRank epicycles are chinks in the Google armor"
Clue #5: "Brian Clark teaches wannabes"

Each of these clues are meant to help you spell a distinct word (one word per clue). So far, there are 5 words represented by 5 clues. Now we just need to finish off our target phrase (the treasure chest) with the last clue:

Clue #6: "John Chow looks great in his bath robe"

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step guide for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message

Better late than never. Performancing has been encountering some terrible server issues over the last 3 days...catastrophic issues that we simply could not prepare for in advance. That's our excuse. Take it or leave it. But please do send us your sympathies for 72 hours worth of massive "what the hell" headaches.

Back to the treasure hunt. We're now four clues into the Performancing Treasure Hunt where you can win up to seven great prizes. For the last four days you've been searching around for Clue 4. Hope everyone has found it by now;-)

Before introducing Clue Number 5, let me just put in a huge plug for Brian Clark's Teaching Sells program. I've heard so many good things about Brian's program in the last month or so, that I've stopped counting. Suffice it to say...if you want to learn how to build a membership based site, look no further than Brian's guide.

Now you all know that I love Brian...right? So let's get on with the clue:

Clue #5: "Brian Clark teaches wannabes"

What? "I thought you just got done saying that Brian's program was top notch...now you're insulting him?" Nah...I'm a Brian Clark wannabe. I personally think that Brian has had the single most positive and lasting influence on the blogosphere through his site Copyblogger....period. I think everyone should want to be a Brian Clark wannabe.

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

So we're now three clues into the Performancing Treasure Hunt where you can win up to seven great prizes. On Saturday, we let you search around the Internet for Clue 3. With each clue, we see more and more people playing, which is awesome. Keep hunting and keep spreading the word!

So let's get straight to Clue Number 4:

Clue #4: "PageRank epicycles are chinks in the Google armor"

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

So we're now two clues into the Performancing Treasure Hunt where you can win up to seven great prizes. Yesterday we let you search around the webernets for Clue 2. If the search log evidence is any indicator, lots of people are playing....and that's fun;-)

So now it's time to unveil Clue Number 3:

Clue #3: "Is Matt Cutts the link nazi"

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

Note: This article does NOT contain one of the letters for the Performancing Treasure hunt

The day 1 clue was "sleazy link-whoring tactics"

Without giving away the answer to the clue, I can tell you that the number one result for that search *now* is not a participating blog. However, because he posted the clue as the title to one of his posts, we see the power of keyword stuffing...and that the thin content penalty does not apply to low-volume searches.

The interesting thing is that the number one result *does not* have the keyphrase sleazy link-whoring tactics in the title tag. The title tag, as of this moment, is "[Geeks are Sexy] technology news"

Nor does the number one result have the keyphrase in the URL.

Some more interesting results:

This search on Google yields approximately 29 results when, the day before we ran the contest, it yielded exactly ZERO results.

Some of the results in the Google SERPS are based purely on Anchor text. Why else would YouTube and Ezinearticles show up for such a search? After all, they have absolutely no on-page relevance to sleazy link whoring tactics. But yet they got linked to with that anchor text.

By the way Kiltak, you're going down. This post is going number one in 48 hours.

Yesterday was the beginning of the week-long Performancing Treasure Hunt with seven great prizes up for grabs. Yesterday we unveiled Clue 1 and provided an alternative method for entering the contest.

Today, we are announcing Clue Number 2:

Clue #2: "All the SEO girls want Rand Fishkin"

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

* Everyone who blogs about the contest by next Thursday will be eligible to win one prize.
* The first person to identify the associated word for a given clue, wins one prize.
* The first person to solve the treasure hunt completely, wins EVERY prize.

To win the grand prize, you must be the first person to send Ryan a private message with the "hidden phrase" that we've hidden throughout the blogosphere. But we are also giving away a prize to the fist person who solves each clue independently.

However, you can enter the contest in a simpler way as well:

Blog about the contest and link to this page.

Treasure Hunt Prizes

1. 1 hour free consultation with Chris Garret (value $150)
2. Free custom logo from Randa Clay (value $350)
3. 1-year free Professional MegaEdition subscription to PMetrics (value $99)
4. Professional linkbait service - 1 linkbait plus promotion (value $2,000)
5. Blog Reboot - a step-by-step report on how to improve your blog (value $500)
6. SEO Reboot - free keyword research report + SERPS analysis (value $350)
7. Custom tweak / install of Brian Gardner's Revolution theme (value $500)

Note: If you'd like to sponsor a prize, please leave a comment or contact me.

Today marks the beginning of the week-long Performancing Treasure Hunt. Let the SERP hunting begin.

Clue #1: "sleazy link-whoring tactics"

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here's a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that's how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you've collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word.

If you need confirmation that you've found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of Performancing's launch. To celebrate, we're running a massive online treasure hunt and giving away lots of prizes (a growing list). We hope you can participate because this should be a lot of fun!

The basic idea is this. We've selected a phrase that's essential for online success. This phrase has 6 words. The ultimate goal is to identify this phrase and be the first to notify Ryan of the correct answer in a private message.

The Details

A 'jumbled phrase' treasure hunt. One sentence, 6 words, no order given. Here's how it works:

Read the rest of this entry