I wonder if this would work for everyday type users too?  Some kind of promotion where visitors can post a link on their blog and they'll be entered to win a flat screen tv.

Ok, but in this article isnt explained what was contest, how did they do contest.

Really nice case study from Debra on link development through contests and niche targeting. Thanks for the post!

Not sure I follow the complaint about what the contest was or how they ran it. That wasn't really the point of the post and most SEOs are never going to give up the details of their contest. It's too easy to track. I can say we just finished up a contest that performed incredibly well and the back links are still rolling in. If you don't know how to run the contest, stop looking for hand outs and figure it out, that part isn't SEO, it's lawyers, social media and people.

Again, really enjoyed the read. I hadn't considered the association angle before, really like the thought process behind it.