[UPDATE: Postponed] Announcing the Stellar Hub Showdown – Our April Contest!

UPDATE: The Stellar Hub Showdown has to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances and will not run this April. We’ll get it up and running again as soon as possible!

Our Rigorous Review Contest last year was a real blast, but we’re long overdue for a new bout of healthy community competition! I am therefore happy to announce our latest contest, which will run next month: the Stellar Hub Showdown.

As always, we’ve got some super fun cash prizes to offer:

• $700 in $25 Daily Drawing Prizes awarded to one randomly selected entry every day of the contest
• $700 in $25 Weekly Prizes awarded to the seven best entries each week
• $50 Passion Prize for the entry demonstrating the greatest use of genuine passion
• $50 Expertise Award for the entry demonstrating the greatest use of unique personal expertise
• $50 Utility Award for the most extensive, unique, original, and practical guide
• $50 Media Maven Award for the entry with the most attractive, original, and useful use of media (videos, images, maps, etc.)
• $200 Grand Prize for the best overall entry

This contest revolves around Hubs that meet (and hopefully exceed) our Stellar Hub criteria. Our entry requirements are as follows:

• Hub entries must have all the elements of a Stellar Hub (1150+ words, at least three high quality and properly-used photos, at least one video, at least one Map or Table Capsule, at least one Poll or Quiz Capsule, a succinct and compelling custom Summary, and attractive and logical formatting)
• All images must be legally used (see our Learning Center guide on proper image use)
• All images (unless original) must come with attribution and link to their source
• Entries must be published for the first time on that given contest day
• Hub entries must be entirely original to HubPages

And we’ll be judging the entries against this criteria:

• The unique value provided by the Hub (i.e. it has information that cannot be found elsewhere online)
• Genuine demonstration of the author’s passion or expertise on the subject at hand
• The extent to which the author effectively utilizes the elements of a Stellar Hub (Is the video relevant? Are the photos adding value? Is the table/map useful? Does the formatting help the Hub or make it busy?)
• The search friendliness of the Hub’s title (it matches common terms typed into search engines like Google – for more on this, stop by our Learning Center guide to creating successful titles)
• Ability of the Hub’s title to compete with other results for keywords it contains
• The relevance and usefulness of a Hub (Is it about something other people would care about? Does it help them learn something new or solve a problem?)
• The presence and quality of original photos and video
• Excellent writing (proper use of grammar, capitalization, etc.)
• Lack of plagiarism (the Hub must not have portions copied or paraphrased from elsewhere online)
• Attractive formatting (avoidance of excessive linking, eBay, or Amazon Capsule clutter, excessive bolding or italics, and all-caps)

More information on how to enter (as well as detailed contest rules) will come out soon- I just wanted to give you a heads up so you have sufficient time to think of super-detailed Hubs you might create addressing the subjects about which you care and know the most!