Benj,
It does not have to be new domain. For example if you have a domain "some_domain.com" you can create new sobdomain something like seo_contest_term.some_domain.com or subfolder like some_domain.com/seo_contest_term and use it in competition. This subdomain or subfolder can not be created before January 31st.
When you create new page Archive.org will not have cached version of it before it's spiders crawl it. When you register the page you will be optimising for the contest we will check for cached version of it on Archive.org - if there is cached version dated prior to January 31st page will not be allowed to participate.
If you prefer to register new domain for the contest - go ahead but make sure not to create any pages on it (even the index one) before contest starts.
I hope this answers your questions.
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