Learning Through Contests

I’ve recently decided to take a look at learning some new skills just incase I lose my job or get layed off.  Since I enjoy working with computers and the internet I decided to take up web developement and perhaps will take a chance at doing some online money making.  I’m not talking about selling stuff on craigslist or ebay but real live internet based business.  I ran across a cool little contest the other day while browsing through a bunch of digg and mixx posts that really caught my attention.  Not understanding exactly what it was about I looked into it a bit deeper.  The contest is designed to help you understand what it takes to promote websites and how to get them seen by others.  It definately has an odd name its the dirty blue widget contest.  the contest works based on your skill level you will create a site about eitehr clean widgets or dirty widgets .  Being a beginner I probably should have chose the clean widget topic but figured I might learn more working with the advanced blue widget team.  What exactly I’ll gain from this I’m not sure but one thing is for certain when the contest is over I should have the market cornered on dirty blue widgets.  I hope this exercise allows me learn how to make extra income quicker using my websites.