Today we're taking a different angle than we normally do on the blog. As you know, recently New Zealand and Christchurch specifically was seriously affected by an earthquake on February 22nd. After Rand sent out an email last week for those chosen to participate in the 2011 Ranking Factors, our friend Kalena Jordan from Search Engine College responded asking if we could help raise money for the New Zealand Red Cross to help with the aftermath of the earthquake. The answer was "Absolutely!" so we thought about ways to include the community.

Donations For Thumbs Up

SEOmoz will donate $1 for every (authentic, human-created) thumbs up on this post and every thumb to every comment (up to a maximum of $2,000) received by 12pm Noon Pacific Tuesday, March 8th. We also invite any organization (or person) to offer a 10% match (providing 10% of the thumbs up in dollars donated) and we'll add you to the "matching" list below.

Want to match? Send an email to jen[at] seomoz.org to be added to the list.

In order to get as many comments and donations as possible, we ask that you add your best, creative and unique "white hat" link building ideas in the comments. The idea is to then thumb up any and all of the tips you like and agree with to help get the thumb count high.

You can also make donations directly to the New Zealand Red Cross.

Information About the Earthquake

On February 22nd, Christchurch was struck with a 6.3 magnitude earthquake which has caused devastation throughout the city. The New Zealand Red Cross is in desparate need of money to help the homelss and displaces. Currently, over 75% of the city is without water and half without power and sadly the death toll has risen to 163.

Read more up-to-date information about quake and aftermath:

• NZHerald
• Google page

Companies/People Matching

Following are the groups or people who will be matching 10% of the thumbs up:

Distilled
Lindsay Wassell
Dr. Peter Meyers
Jamie Steven
Direct Match Media
Odd Dog Media
Alan Bleiweiss
Affilorama - Based in Christchurch, New Zealand will match 20%
Viperchill
Best Buy Metals
Kate Morris
Third Door Media - Will match $2,000
@jameszol
Lauren Hall-Stigerts
Linear SEO
Image Freedom will happily match 20% of SEOmoz donation.
WyzAnt
Metronet Norway - on behalf of Anita Williamson and her loved ones in Christchurch
Geeks.com
Trip Technologies Inc
Click2Rank
Kris Roadruck
Lucas Ng
Eintouch
Whitespark
Liberty Games
eurobookings.com
Paddy Power
Bill4Time
Local.com
Slingshot SEO Inc.
SearchEngineConsultant.com
 

Thanks to everyone for participating, let's see how many thumbs up we can get and raise money for a much needed cause!

Update 9:00pm PST March 3, 2011: Wow! In under 8 hours we've tallied a total of 2077. We also have 20 individuals/companies who are matching a percentage of our $2,000. Right now we've raised: $8,200!!!

Update 11:00PM PST March 3, 2011: We got quite a few more contributors in the past 2 hours and we're now up to $9,400!! Thank you thank you thank you everyone for your contributions. :)

Update 10:00AM PST March 4, 2011: Whew! We have over 3500 thumbs up total and have raised a total of $9,800!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.

Update 10:00PM PST March 5, 2011: We have raised a total of $10,200!! Please remember that every little bit helps so feel free to donate directly to the NZ Red Cross however much you can.