SEO Contests – This idea has intrigued me for sometime.  An SEO Contest sound like such fun, and I would definitely participate in one.  I listen to the Mr. SEO podcast and have picked up some great tips.  Would like to put them to the test and see how tweaking my code can result in tragedy or victory.

Web Design Contests – I see lots of these, vote-style, mostly on the open source sites. Again, many podcasts to help with this like Boagworld, Web Standards with Imagination  (Dustin has started doing videos, bravo!), and Web Design & Developement Podcast by Engines of Creation.com.  While not quite as an enigma as SEO contests, still quite fun.

As someone that likes to do things on my own, I find podcasts to be a huge resource and wealth of information.  You can even make a rodent -powered nightlight.  Absolutely fabulous.