Since launching the Private SEO Black Hat Forum everyone keeps contacting me to ask two questions:

1. How is the Forum Going? and
2. Can I get a free Membership?

First, the forum is going great! It is already much more successful than I had hoped it would be. The value per post is unparalleled. The conversations are meaty and the best I’ve seen anywhere on the Web.

Inside the Private SEO Black Hat forum, we are having a contest for the month of September. Here is the thread:

I’m going to give $500 to whoever writes the best post in September.

Here are the rules:

Anyone can enter: including moderators. (I won’t enter).

You nominate your own best post in this thread.

I’ll close the thread on October 2nd and start a poll with all entries.

Voting for 5 days.

Top 4 posts will be selected for a new runoff poll.

5 more days of voting.

Whoever wins the most votes in that poll gets the $500.

A word of caution: I do not recommend joining the forum solely on the expectation of winning that contest. There are some very strong candidates already and we are less than a third of the way through the month.

But since I keep getting emails and messages like this:

Hey Quads,

These are some of the sites that I own: [list of sites]. I’ve been doing [list of expertise] forever and was wondering, could I get free subscription to yours forum?

-[lots of people]

and I’m tired of just saying no all the time, we’re going to open up another contest for people that are not yet paid members. Maybe, for someone like you . . .

During the next 7 days, you will have a chance to win a 3 month subscription to our private forum. All you have to do is email me (contest at seoblackhat.com) with the best post you can come up with. I’ll post all the good submissions in the forums and let everyone vote. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the subscription.

What should you write about? Whatever you think will get the most votes.

It’s put-up or shut-up time.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, here’s your chance to prove it.