PMA Nominations & Holiday Sweeps: Final Week!

With 2009 drawing to a close, there are only a few days remaining to log your nominations for the 4th Annual People's Media Awards. Be sure to take the time to give a shout out to AC's most talented Contributors, and the best pieces of content you read, watched, listened to or created in 2009!

Any piece of content published in 2009 can be nominated for a Content of the Year PMA, and five winning pieces will each receive a $500 prize. Help us find the most most insightful, inspiring, unique, useful, powerful and/or poignant pieces in the AC library!

Contributors can win one of the following awards: Contributor of the Year ($1500), The Community Spirit Award ($1500), News Contributor of the Year ($500), A/V Contributor of the Year ($500) or Rookie of the Year ($500). Click here to read descriptions of each of these award categories, and here to read the official rules.

To log a nomination, simply click the PMA graphic on the top-left corner of any Contributor profile or content page. You can also email your picks directly to community@associatedcontent.com. Nominations officially close at 11:59PM Eastern on New Year's Eve, so be sure to get yours in before 2010 is upon us!

Don't forget! You also have 4 more days to enter to win a $100 Amazon.com giftcard in AC's Oral-B Triumph Holiday Sweepstakes! Click here for more information.

Good luck, happy nominating and all the best in these final days of 2009!

Christmas Tunes from the AC Library

Looking for new tunes to add to your Christmas playlist this year? Don't miss the latest hip-hop hits from AC superstar Greg Reese from Cincinatti:

> Christmas Rap

"Give me the mic and I'm giving you rhymes, my mind is feelin' this flow, it's Christmas time!"

> The Christmas Shake
"Tis the Season for big fun, I wish I had a gift to give everyone, but here's a song to keep it hot, you know I let the jingle bells Rock, Rock, Rock!"

And don't forget about these other Christmas classics from the AC archive:

Barth Wooster takes us on a "warm and nostalgiac trip through the paths of our Christmas past," in his beatiful acoustic tune, A Christmas Sort of Dream.

Trent Sandusky spreads holiday cheer Who's the Boss? style in A Very Tony Danza Christmas.

D-Town Records put an R&B spin on a Christmas classic in Deck the Hallz.

SongLadyBlue pays tribute to his mother in heart-wrenching country tune, Merry Christmas Mama.

Juan Loren Zerimar calls out to a far away loved on in Wish You Were Here for the Holidays.

And Lynn Casper gives us space to reflect in his quiet holiday melody, Seasons Greetings.

What's on your holiday playlist? Tell us in the comments, and post a link to your own holiday music roundup if you published one.

Safe, peaceful and happy holidays from Associated Content!

Holiday Guide & Sweepstakes

Need some last minute Christmas gift ideas or inspiration for your upcoming holiday party? Tap into the collective wisdom of the AC community with the 2009 Holiday Guide!

Dive even deeper with this year's other holiday features: The Holiday Gift Guide (presented by Oral-B) and Home for the Holidays (presented by Folgers).

We also invite you to take part our Oral-B Triumph Holiday Sweepstakes, and enter to win a $100 Amazon gift card you can use to clean up on the post-holiday sales!

To enter, all you have to do is read and comment on one of the first-hand reviews of the Oral-B Professional Care SmartSeries 5000 Power Toothbrush, published by the doctors, moms, dads and other oral health experts of Associated Content.

Click here to read some of the buzz on this new product, and leave your comment by December 31st to enter the sweeps!

Note: Each of the participating Contributors received a free Oral-B Power toothbrush before submitting their review. Sweepstakes winners will be chosen in early January 2010. Click here for full sweepstakes rules.

Good luck, and happy holidays!

November Best of AC Awards

We're excited to announce the winners of the November 2009 Best of AC Awards for Fiction, Shopping Guides and Winter Holidays!

Best of AC: Fiction – Khara House
Khara House has tackled many topics in her 3+ years as an AC Contributor, but it's clear that her passion lies in creative writing. She has published close to 150 stories and poems on AC, including November's excellent "California British Tea" and her Chirstmas story for children, "The Star of Creation."

Best of AC: Shopping Guides – Missy Jess
Missy Jess joined AC in June 2009. In the 6 months since, she has won a Rising Star Award, published 150 pieces of content and climbed to Clout 9. Her top notch, writing, researching and formatting skills come to the fore in all 20 Shopping Guides she published in November. Check out her comprehensive guide to finding the perfect eco-friendly water bottle.

Best of AC: Winter Holidays – Anne Wright
Anne Wright also joined AC in June 2009 and won a Rising Star Award soon thereafter. She has already published more than 100 pieces of holiday content (and 350 overall), including a slew of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's and Winter Solstice pieces published in November. Check out her guide to making an personalized Christmas ornament on any budget.

Be sure to stop by each of these talented Contributors' profiles to congratulation them!

Looking ahead...

There won't be any Best of AC Awards for the month of December, but be sure to take the time to nominate your favorite Contributors and pieces of content for this year's People's Media Awards!

November's Rising Star Award Winners

We'd like to congratulate the five promising new Contributors who won Associated Content's Rising Star Awards for November!

Ramona Taylor joined in mid-October, and she's already on a roll with 135 pieces of published content and over 11,000 page views. She writes on everything from the upcoming winter Olympics to parenting, and her Hanukkah content is fantastic. Check out her piece on what to write in Hanukkah cards.

It's obvious that UC Irvine student Neil Takore knows his school's water polo program front and back. His informative, smart coverage makes him a sportswriter to watch. His other content includes well-researched political pieces, music reviews, tech advice and this helpful piece on the new FTC guidelines.

After joining AC in October, Britney Hornaday Boroughs immediately started building her library (she's already up to 40 pieces) and racking up fans. She was nominated many times in the Forum this month and won AC staff over with her gift guides, arts & entertainment content and exclusive interviews. Check out her Home for the Holidays: AC Exclusive Interview with Congressman Mike Ross.

Gavin Matthews has pinned down in mere months something that takes many Contributors years to develop—a keen insight into what kinds of content perform best. Three months after joining AC, he's earned over 97,000 page views with just 28 pieces of content! Be sure to read 2009 NFL Week 10 Predictions.

New Contributor Catherine Spencer has found a unique voice on AC. While she focuses on content areas covered by many other Contributors (such holidays, local and pets), she always finds an interesting angle (see Decorate a Western Theme Christmas Tree and Book Club Party Just in Time for Halloween; and don't miss her amusing Conical Bra Resurgence).

Be sure to visit these Contributors profiles to welcome them into the AC Community!

AC Labs

We’re excited to roll out AC Labs – a testing environment for new Associated Content features – to all AC Contributors! To access AC Labs, all you have to do is log in and click the pink graphic on the upper-right corner of your Account page:

From there, you’ll be able to access brand new interface under your Account and Content tabs. We’ve been working on a new stats-rich Account page, an improved Content queue and new ways to organize and share your library of images.

We can’t wait to hear what you think! The new pages you'll see in AC Labs are still works in progress, so take some time to experiment. Once you’ve had a chance to explore the new features, please take a few moments to fill out this brief survey. If you prefer, you can also send feedback directly to community@associatedcontent.com – or leave a comment on this blog post.

We’ll continue working on these new features based on your input. If possible, please fill out our survey or send your feedback by 12/20.

Thanks for helping us make AC an even better place to publish!

The 2009 People's Media Awards

We are now accepting nominations for the 2009 People's Media Awards -- Associated Content's 4th annual awards program, which recognizes the achievements of some AC's most exceptional Contributors!

We'll be collecting PMA nominations throughout the month of December, and we're inviting the entire AC Community to get involved! On every Contributor profile and content page, you'll find a PMA graphic that allows you to log a nomination for one of the awards:

Click the graphic on the top-left corner of any Contributor profile
or content page to nominate a Contributor for one of the PMAs.

Any piece of content can be nominated for one of five Content of the Year awards. The author of each winning piece will receive $500. Please help us by finding and nominating the most insightful, inspiring, unique, useful, powerful and poignant pieces of content published on Associated Content in 2009. Winners can be in any format (text, audio, video, slideshows) and come from any category of the AC library.

Contributors can be nominated for one of the following awards:

Contributor of the Year: A prolific and gifted Contributor who reached a large audience in 2009, and built up an outstanding library of useful content that will continue to perform over time. Prize: $1500

Community Spirit Award: Someone who creates lots of valuable content, and gives back to the AC Community by guiding others along the path to success. This is the first year we're offering this award! Prize: $1500

News Contributor of the Year: A prolific and plugged-in Contributor who supplied AC readers with a year's worth of professional and topical news content. Prize: $500

Audio / Video Contributor of the Year: A Contributor who published striking, original audio and/or video content in 2009. Prize: $500

Rookie of the Year: A Contributor who joined AC between August 2008 and August 2009, and quickly discovered the path to success. This is the first year we're offering this award! Prize: $500

Please help us by nominating the most worthy individuals for each category!

All nominees will be reviewed, and final winners will be chosen by a panel of Associated Content staff members. Nominations will be accepted through December 31, 2009, and winners will be announced in January 2010. Read the Official Rules here.

Happy nominating!