To start with:
So you all might have heard about our current contest for the Guitar Hero Metallica. Well, we need to get the word out on our little contest. So I have a deal for you. I don’t care if you are an SEO expert, internet marketer, blogger, social media expert, or just someone with a ton of followers on Twitter. I will judge the contest by not just who gets the site the most traffic, but also who gets people to be active on the contest. I will look at who brings new inventive ideas to the table. I will be watching many social networks, other social news sites, and several other places I must keep secret.

What earns you points?
Well, unlike our other contest, this does not have an automated point system. This is judged by many factors and will be picked by the HeavyAsHell staff. However, there are a few things you can do to greatly improve your chances. Get any story about this contest on the front page of a social news site. Blog about the contest. Send a Twitter message promoting the contest. Post the contest page to your Facebook page. Vote the story up if you see someone else submitted something before you. Now of course the best way to win this is if you think of a few things that I haven’t listed here. Use your imagination.

The true reason for the contest:
Now I will be honest and admit that there is more than one reason for this contest. Of course we want people to be more active on this contest, but I also would love to have some SEO, internet marketers, and bloggers I can recommend to bands, labels, and music fans that come to our small family of websites. The question is if can you promote something that is outside of the SEO of an SEO blog. If you can get the word out on something in the real world we will know you have what it takes to trust our contacts to you. Good luck everyone! Feel free to ask any question in the comments or contact me directly on Twitter.

Now for a few boring rules:
First off you must be over 18 to win. We are very sorry, but only winners from the United States are eligible due to legal reasons. Users worldwide are welcome to be a part of the site, but this contest has to be for U.S. residents only. Of course any user suspected of cheating, gaming the system, or being involved in activity that could harm the site or it’s users may be banned. Being banned from this site will disqualify you from this and any contest. No one directly connected to this site can win for obvious reasons.

What you win:
Now since we want everyone to jump into this contest no matter their musical tastes (unlike the contest you are spreading the word about), we wanted the prize to be something everyone can use. So we are giving away a $250 Amazon gift certificate! This means it can be used to buy anything offered on the Amazon website. It will be given by email, so make sure you give us the right email address.

It has already started!
This contest ends at the same time the other contest ends. April 1st. It has already started. Make sure to use the #hash tag #heavyashell on Twitter so we can track it. Feel free to follow me personally too. I’m @MarkCarras on Twitter. The contest you are pushing is at http://www.heavyashell.com/blog/2009/03/02/guitar-hero-metallica-giveaway-contest-for-march/ Thanks everyone.

Mark Carras Heavy As Hell News

Guitar Hero Metallica giveaway contest!

You pick what game system version you win!
We are giving away 1 Guitar Hero Metallica packages. Last month many said they wanted to pick the game system version after they won. So we have continued this plan for our March contest.

How you earn “points” to win:
As always, you earn “sins” (points) for submitting links to stories about hard rock, classic rock, metal, punk, industrial, glam, goth, grunge, grindcore, hardcore, metalcore, etc. It’s not just metal! For example, we think THIS VIDEO is Heavy As Hell. Voting for stories others submit also gets you “sins”. The third method of getting “sins” is to comment on submissions others have made. Pretty much just be active on the site. The point of the site is to be social, so make sure and “friend” users with the same musical tastes as you have. Feel free to invite friends, too.

Three Hints on how to win:

• If someone was to just vote for every story in the upcoming section that they think deserves a vote, they could have a good chance with that alone. It’s just that easy, people!
• Voting for other people’s stories can only help your chances of winning.
• If you don’t vote for other people’s stories it can really hurt your chances in this contest.

The first user chart means nothing:
We used to give the prize away to the top users of all time. Last month we gave the prizes away to the top 3 users of the month. This month we are giving one prize to the top user of the month. So that first chart means nothing really. Eventually we will give the Top Users Of The Month chart it’s own page, but until then please scroll down to the chart that counts most! We hope this makes new users feel more welcome.

How can you tell if you are winning?
Go to the Top Ten Users Chart link at the bottom of every page. The first chart is ranking users overall and has nothing to do with this contest. For the rest of the month, the important chart is the one below that. It’s the one that says “Top 10 Users During the Latest Contest” in big bold letters.

Winner will be announced April 1st.
Ok, we understand that this is also April Fools Day. So please trust us that there will be no April Fools joke connected to this contest. Your trust is too important to the success of this site. Once we receive said winner’s address the “Guitar Hero Metallica” package will be sent out to them. We are very sorry, but only winners from the United States are eligible due to legal reasons. Users worldwide are welcome to be a part of the site, but this contest has to be for U.S. residents only. Of course any user suspected of cheating, gaming the system, or being involved in activity that could harm the site or it’s users may be banned. Being banned from this site will disqualify you from this and any contest.

Only guitar based music stories win Guitar Hero prize!
So why no rap? Rap doesn’t use guitars. We are giving away a Guitar Hero Metallica package. Not a beat box hero game. We want to celebrate people who actually play instruments. This is what we are passionate about. This site was started to talk about hard rock, classic rock, metal, punk, industrial, glam, goth, grunge, grindcore, hardcore, metalcore, etc. No rap, rapcore, dance music, techno, hip hop, pop, or country. So we strongly discourage those styles. Now before thinking there are racial reasons for us not liking rap, please look up the bands God Forbid, Bad Brains, Kings X, & S2C. I’m pretty sure the admins of this site have not only voted up stories of black artists on this site, but submitted them as well. It’s not about color, it’s about the music!

To be clear, rap and techno do NOT count for this (or any) contest at this site. This has always been the case with this site and it always will be.

The contest has already started!
When does the contest start? If you are reading this it already has. So CLICK HERE and get started already!

Mark Carras Heavy As Hell News Contest, Guitar Hero, Metallica