Page View Millionaires

If you’ve raked in more than 1,000,000 page views with the work you’ve published on Associated Content, you’ll notice a shiny new icon on your Contributor profile. Check out the new PV Millionaire badge:

If you’re not part of the “millionaire’s club” quite yet, be sure to spend some time on our Tutorials page to pick up some tips for AC success. We’ll be awarding new badges at the beginning of each month!

AC Twitter Challenge Winners: Congrats to Our Grand Prize Winner and Runners-Up!

Congratulations to our AC Twitter Challenge grand prize winner, JoAnn Selke, whose participation in the AC Twitter Challenge won her an ASUS Eee PC Netbook with the brand-new Windows 7 operating system!

You can find Joann on Twitter as @Jselke. Joann is a Chicago resident who published her first article on Associated Content in October, 2008. She's got three lovely children and a wonderful husband of 15 years. That's a lot of competition for the first chance to try out Windows 7 when JoAnn's netbook arrives!

Our five runners-up each won their choice of either a $100 ThinkGeek gift certificate or a Laplearner Lap Desk. In no particular order, the runners-up are:

Ari Berenstein, who discusses his experiences on Twitter here. Ari is a Brooklyn resident who writes a popular column on professional wrestling. Follow Ari as @AriBerenstein on Twitter.

Rissa Watkins, a writer from Sunny, Arizona who is working on her first novel. Follow Rissa as @RissaWatkins on Twitter.

Viktorya Hale, who discusses her Twitter challenge experience here. Viktorya is a top 1,000 AC contributor living in Vivian, Louisiana. She can be found on Twitter as @ViktoryaHale.

Kara Andersen, a twenty-something actor/writer/student living in Chicago. Kara tweets as @KaraAnders.

Vanessa Rochea, who writes about the power of Twitter here. Vanessa is a Kentucky University student and the author of three upcoming books. She's on Twitter as @VRochea.

Congratulations to all six AC Twitter Challenge Winners!

Tricks & Treats from AC's Halloween Guide

There are more than 15,000 pieces of crafty, handy, frugal and sometimes frightening Halloween content in the Associated Content library – and they help make October one of the biggest traffic months for AC Contributors. This year we got into the spirit of the season by carving up our standard article template and dressing it up in a spooky, new disguise. Check it out:

Looking for some last minute Halloween costume ideas? Need some recipes for your Halloween party? Wanna read some bone-rattling short stories? Check out the Associated Content Halloween Guide, powered by the sharp insight and fiendish imagination the AC Community:

So, how do you like Associated Content's Halloween costume?

AC Twitter Challenge Contest Recap and Some Outstanding Content

The AC Twitter Challenge is over. A whopping 460 entrants used Twitter to enter the sweepstakes and/or accepted the AC Twitter Challenge assignment through the AC Assignment Desk, for a total of 1,056 entries!

Six winners have been randomly selected and will be announced publicly as soon as we have contacted the winners privately to share the good news. For now, let's take a look at some outstanding content published by AC contributors who took the Twitter Challenge and wrote about their experiences.

Lyn Lomasi was an active Twitter user before the Twitter Challenge and took the contest as an opportunity to increase her participation and connect with other AC contributors. Her article, "Twitter Is a Must for AC Contributors," describes her experiences with HootSuite and gives props to a few AC Twitterers who are especially good Twitter pals.

KK Thornton is a savvy Twitter user who took time to share her best tips in her Beginner's Guide to Tweeting for Fun and Profit. KK discusses privacy, the correct use of hashtags and how to get others to retweet you, among other witty and helpful nuggets of advice.

Tamara Waters didn't fall in love with Twitter at first Tweet, but as she dove further into the community she began to see the value in microblogging. She's discussed her evolution from Twitter skeptic (Tweptic?) to True Twit in her post, "Microblogging with Twitter: True Confessions of a Twit." Tamara even Tweeted to keep up with friends and family while turkey hunting recently!

Jolie Du Pre knows that Twitter is only as useful as you make it. In, "How Twitter Works for Me," she shares her favorite Twitter applications, tips for organizing your Tweets and advice on how often to Tweet for maximum efficiency.

Check these great articles out while you wait for the big results announcement. We'll feature more top content tomorrow. Look for an "awards show" post from AC Jelena shouting out some excellent AC Twitterers later this week.

Also, please be sure to read the addendum we added to the Offical Rules of the contest. Due to limitations in our ability to search Twitter's archives, we are unable to verify repeat entries by the first week's entrants. To account for this, we gave all of week one's entrants an additional content entry. Click here

September Award Winners

We’d like to congratulate the talented winners of Associated Content September 2009 Best of AC and Rising Star awards!

Best of AC

Christine Bude Nyholm won in the Alternative Medicine category. This is the 2nd Best of AC win for this multi-faceted, Clout 10 Contributor (she also won last year's award for Winter Travel Guides). She has written more than 150 Health & Wellness articles during her AC career, including an impeccably researched and crafted set of alternative medicine guides published in September, like this one: "Arthritis Alternative Treatment Options."

Kimberly Lawson won in the Fashion category. This Clout 10 fashion student and entertainment blogger has published close to 50 fashion guides in 2009 alone, offering a wide variety of style tips, trend alerts and well-researched shopping guides. AC fashionistas should be sure to check out her recent tips for looking hot when the weather's cold.

Victoria Leigh Miller won in the Television category. This long-time Contributor and Arts & Entertainment Category Editor has published close 100 pieces of television content this year, and more than 30 in the month of September -- mixing coverage of breaking entertainment news with retrospective roundups of great moments from TV history. Looking for something to watch with your kids this Halloween? Check out her recent roundup of the best Halloween-themed TV episodes for kids.

Note: We’re currently accepting nominations for our October Best of AC Awards in the following categories: Personal Finance, Politics and Sports. Be sure to nominate your favorite publishers in those categories by posting in this forum thread or emailing community@associatedcontent.com.

Rising Stars

Be sure to check out all five of September's "Rising Stars"...

Kimberly Sharpe
Joshua Huffman
Missy Jess
KK Thornton
Peter L. Bosch

...and welcome them into the AC Community!

Post in this forum thread if you'd like to nominate any new Contributors for October's Rising Star Awards.

Congrats to all!

Enhanced Article Previews

Starting today, Associated Content is improving the "Preview" step in the article submission process by giving Contributors a more accurate look at how their content will appear once it's published on our site.

Our old submission process presented Contributors with a rough preview of their article text after it had already been published or submitted for review. Using the new system, you will now be see a realistic preview of your article, exactly as it will appear on AC – before it gets published or submitted.

This update allows you to:
• See how your article will look once it's published, including the alignment around advertisements.
• Preview images, takeaways, resources and other items attached to the article.
• Proofread your article before sending it to us.

Click the thumbnail below for a preview of this new feature:


Important Note: This change also creates a new step in the publishing process. In the old submission process, content was submitted or published immediately following the "Add Image" step. From now on, you will now need to preview your content and click the "Submit" or "Publish: buttons underneath the content preview. Your content will not be published or reviewed by AC unless you complete this step. As always, you will be able to go back to edit your content by clicking "Make changes now."

What do you think about this update to the submission process? Once you’ve used it a few times, leave some feedback in the comments section of this blog post.