Contributor Connect

It's time to honor the first monthly award winners of the new year! Last month, we celebrated our year-end Yahoo! Contributor Award winners. Today, we're excited to announce the first YCA of the new year, and to recognize five new Rising Stars. This month's award category was Finance, an always-competitive niche that requires on-point writing and sharp, consistent topic selection, as well as extraordinary personal and/or professional experience.

And the winner is... Read More »

How does a piece of content become a runaway success?

Maybe you’ve got the perfect attention grabbing headline, one with real “READ ME” quality. Perhaps your article contains a successful blend of hot topics, helpful personal insight, and expertise. Possibly, you’ve captured a trending topic from an original angle. Maybe your story is so unique and captivating (ahem, Content of the Year winner Sean Durity) that it catapults across social networks.

Or maybe your story has grabbed the attention of our editors and landed on the Yahoo! homepage - a singular destination viewed by millions of people every day. Now it's become crystal clear you’ve scored a real hit – your page views are flying off the charts and your voice is being amplified with magnitude. There's really nothing like the feeling you get when your words are traveling around the world at the speed of light!

Let’s take a look at three recent heavy hitters from Yahoo! Contributor Network who made it to the coveted Yahoo! front page: Read More »

Jenny Peters thrives under pressure – and manages to find her footing in almost any situation. Whether in heels on the red carpet or in flippers while scuba diving, Jenny takes her experiences and runs with them, creating in-depth articles that transport the reader to each unique scenario she finds herself in.

For example, Jenny takes on travel from many angles. An educated wine connoisseur, Jenny has attended classes with some of California’s top winemakers, and has explored and written about wine valleys in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. She has traveled across the globe to stay in fine hotels and basked in the some of the world’s most luxurious spas. Jenny’s explored nearby locations too, making the most of every minute. She has also been known to “rough it”, staying in hostels and navigating local public transportation to get around.
And, when it comes to the stars, Jenny takes a similarly hands on approach. Jenny attended Critics Choice Awards , BAFTA Tea Party, and Palm Springs International Film Festival and had her original reporting published on omg! and Yahoo! Movies. This entertainment maven certainly knows how to write for different audiences – her career, spanning over 20 years, has brought her face to face with tons of different celebs for many different media outlets.

In the following interview, Jenny dishes on her jet set lifestyle, her career, and much more. Read More »

Like every New Year’s Eve reveler-turned-New Year’s Day repentant, Hollywood likes to look at the best of what came before upon turning over the newest calendar. For fans of movies, TV, and celebrity news, that period of reflection is awards season, a time when all the stars come out to shine and recognize the best and brightest.

With the arrival of the Oscars , the Grammys , and more on the Hollywood stage (not to mention “the little people” – critics’ and viewer awards from every city, group, and genre imaginable), media coverage makes the last few months of winter the hottest time of the year. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is diving right into things, providing comprehensive original coverage of everything from who’s who and wearing whom on the red carpet; which small screen stars are the ones worthy of awards; and how films fared in and out of theaters with critics, A-list peers, and the people.

Check out what Yahoo! Contributors had to say in the categories of Entertainment News, TV, and Movies below for more on awards season 2012. Read More »

As you can guess, choosing 2011 Content of the Year was a positively ENORMOUS process. Our judges perused thousands of carefully crafted, uniquely informed, and eloquent pieces before narrowing it down. They hogged conference rooms and duked it out on behalf of their favorite contenders for hours. With so many amazing options to consider, the final decision wasn't easy!

Still, with so much great content getting so much attention behind closed doors, we figured it would be a shame not to share more of it. So we rounded up five more community nominations that generated a lot of discussion. Read on and see for yourself just how stiff the competition was! Read More »

How do you choose the five best pieces of content among thousands? Nominations poured in throughout December 2011 for our Content of the Year Awards. All through January, we enjoyed reading each piece our community had designated as among the most powerful, well-executed, meaningful, useful, original, inspiring, and moving. In the end, five pieces stood out. On its own, each is an extraordinary article. Together, they serve to demonstrate what happens when exceptional writers have the opportunity to amplify their voice in front of the world's largest audiences.

And the winners are... Read More »

The Yahoo! Contributor Network community is growing every day. In 2011, we published more original content than ever. Our contributors shared first-person news stories; incisive commentary; fan perspectives on every major sport; passionate responses to television, film, and celebrity culture; and practical advice about nearly every subject imaginable.

2011 was also a year of evolution. Through our launch of Yahoo! Voices and a revision of our Submission Guidelines, we're providing an enhanced platform where unique, powerful voices connect with Yahoo!'s audience of millions.

Our three winners are among the strongest and most distinct voices in our contributor community. It's with great pride that we present our Outstanding Contributors of the Year!

And the winners are... Read More »

S. Alexander Cooke is an academic Clark Kent of sorts. By day he is an English teacher with 12 years of experience at an Ohio high school, by night a devoted law student. This teacher and student wears even more hats outside of the classroom – he is also a tech savvy self-taught musician, a sports enthusiast , and a devoted father. Read More »

We're expanding our presence in the social media world using Pinterest - a virtual pinboard where you "collect the things you love."

If you're already a member, follow our boards. Currently, we're sharing content from Voices’ Lifestyle categories and content that's published on Yahoo! Shine. We’ve shared almost 100 articles – is one of them yours?

On Pinterest, you can pin and re-pin your favorite content from around the Web - including your own! It's a great way to expose your best work to a whole new audience. Read More »

It's the most wonderful time of the year! On Yahoo! Shine, our contributors are getting into the holiday spirit by decking the halls, roasting chestnuts, and dreaming of a white Christmas.

And... gearing up for Santa Claus! Read More »