Can you believe it’s May already? With the weather getting warmer and a variety of fresh foods in season, we’ve decided to celebrate with a new contest: the HubPages Cookbook Contest!
This June contest will revolve around use of our new Recipe Capsules which include dedicated capsules for recipe ratings, yields and cook time, ingredients, instructions, and nutrition. The Recipe Capsules help to make your Hubs easier to read, plus more attractive search engines (we posted a special blog post with more thorough explanation of how that works)
To enter, all you have to do is publish a recipe Hub using at least the Ratings Capsule (set for recipes) between June 1st at noon (Pacific Time) and June 28th at 11:59 am. By entering, you’ll have a chance to win one (or more!) of 62 prizes worth $3,600.
14 prizes will be awarded each week during the contest, and six prizes will be awarded at the end:
- $1400 in $50 Daily Drawing Prizes awarded to one randomly-selected recipe entry every day of the contest
- $1400 in $50 Weekly Prizes awarded to the seven best recipe Hubs each week
- $100 Best Dessert Recipe Prize for the best dessert recipe Hub
- $100 Best Drink Recipe Prize for the best drink recipe Hub
- $100 Best Family Recipe Prize for the best family meal recipe Hub
- $100 Best Healthy Recipe Prize for the best healthy recipe Hub
- $100 Best Budget-Friendly Recipe Prize for the best budget-friendly recipe Hub
- $300 Grand Prize for the best overall recipe Hub
To qualify for these prizes…
- Hub entries must contain at least the Ratings Capsule set for recipes (see our Learning Center guide on the Ratings Capsule)
- Hub entries must have at least one image
- All images must be legally used (see our Learning Center guide on legal image use)
- Entries must be published for the first time on that given contest day
- Hub entries must be a minimum of 500 words
- Hub entries must be entirely original to HubPages
While there is a good chance that you might win one of our 28 Daily Drawing prizes randomly, you’ll be able to boost your chances of winning a Weekly or Final Prize if you consider our judging criteria while crafting your entries. Our judges – experts in the culinary writing field – will be looking carefully for:
- How well the Recipe Capsules are used (see our Learning Center guide to Recipe Capsules)
- The usefulness of the recipe (summarized steps followed up by detailed instructions with step-by-step photos, variations, demonstrations) (see our Learning Center guide to writing successful Recipe Hubs)
- The overall value of the recipe (additional background or history associated with the dish or recipe, use of the Recipe Capsules to share detailed nutritional information and ingredient information, etc.)
- The presence and quality of original photos and/or video
- Whether the entry is on a long-tail, niche recipe that has not been extensively covered online
- Whether the entry has a search-friendly title (mirrors common search terms)
- Excellent writing (proper use of grammar, capitalization, etc.)
- Uniqueness of the entry (that it is not copied or paraphrased from elsewhere online, full of details, examples, names, and figures)
- Attractive formatting (avoidance of excessive link, eBay, or Amazon capsule clutter, excessive bolding or italics, and all-caps)
- Judicious use of other relevant Capsules
We’ll be announcing our special judges as the contest launch approaches. In the meantime, get cooking! You can always start drafts of your entries now and publish them throughout the month of June.
HubPages Blog 
A contest!!! I knew it! I just joined Hubpages in time! But… a recipe contest??? 😦 Urgh… It’s really not my type. It’s mostly for women. Can’t you have any other contest for a newbie like me?
I would strongly recommend outsourcing the panel of judges for this and all future contests hosted by HubPages –
Finding impartial experts in the related field from outside the community gates who have no affiliations nor relationships with members, real or otherwise, is the only way to ensure the perception of legitimacy and “Fairness” is maintained & preserved –
If judges from within the community are appointed, even Staff Members, it will be virtually impossible to ensure moral, ethical, & legal obligations are met by HubPages –
– Just a suggestion –
– Alternative Prime –
We do intend to have external judges for this contest, Alternative Prime. Thanks for your feedback!
It’s been a long time coming, but we think it’s time S. and I take the opportunity to try out this next contest.
Good news is, not only do we have some great ideas for budget-friendly recipes, but we will also have fun in our own learning experience here – we found a nice place to pick some wild blackberries and we’re planning a bunch of baking for the month!
Yum!
Unfortunately, we still don’t have much opportunity for photos or videos, but maybe we’ll figure something out – Photobucket has been great for this so far so we’ll see what happens…
Thanks for the heads-up, Simone! It’s a shame we couldn’t e-mail some samples, too! 😉
– Chris and S.
So glad to hear y’all will be joining in on the recipe fun!! It really IS a shame that we can’t taste each dish we read about… oh boy, that would be HEAVEN!!!
recpie i like food very much plz give the update of winning recpie.
I’m am sure it will be another trending event on HubPages.
Judges will always have their eyes on unique and productive hubs.
Thanks, Simone!
HI Simone!
Oh how I have many recipes already published, one particularly I would like to enter, does it have to be a new hub? How could I do that if it is possible?
Thanks
Yes just what I needed a Recipe competition, Love it!
I have many recipes already on my Hub page but there are lots more to come. Can have them ready for June
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Hey jenubouka – unfortunately, all your entries must be Hubs published for the first time. If you’d like to create new Hubs using those recipes with entirely new photos and more detailed instructions, though, that might work. Or perhaps you might make a Video recipe!
Can’t WAIT to read your entries, travel_man1971 and viking305. I know they’ll be great!
Sounds like a lot of fun! I have not used the recipe capsules yet and I love to cook!
are we allowed to post more than one recipe during hte contest? I may have missed it…ty
pstraubie48, you can publish as many as five entries each day of the contest 😀
Eh, the one I wanted has so many photos already and if I make it again I fear I won’t fit through my doorway; plus my eyebrows are finally growing back from the last time
(It was a grilling rib recipe) 🙂
Well we got all month so this gives me some time to rock one out. Thanks Simone.
the recipe contest is a great idea, but you’re overselling the benefits of using HP recipe capsules..
you claim “The Recipe Capsules help to make your Hubs easier to read, plus more attractive search engines (we posted a special blog post with more thorough explanation of how that works)” but as many comments and reports in the bugs & features forums show, the HP implementation of google recipe snippets doesnt seem to make much difference at all to either search engine placement or HP traffic
Hey steve estvanik!
When we see a bug with a capsule, we fix it, so rest assured that we don’t let glitches with our capsules persist. I hope you’ll join in on the recipe capsule fun!
yes, i do intend to continue to publish recipes