Rockstar Rumble: Finding the Best Money Post of 2017

Back in the day, I used to host a "March Madness"-style competition to find the best personal finance article of the year. Since Rockstar Finance is well-known for finding and sharing the best money articles on the web, what better place to rekindle such a competition? Plus, this event usually drives a bunch of traffic for bloggers, all while being a lot of fun - so, why not?

How the Rockstar Rumble Works

Here are the basics of the competition:

  • Bloggers will submit their posts for consideration to the Rockstar Finance team
  • A total of 64 128 posts will be selected for the 2017/18 competition
  • Each one will be randomly assigned to a bracket of "games" similar to the one used for the Men's NCAA basketball tournament
  • Rockstar will post rounds which will pit one post against another, listing the title of each post and a short description as well as linking to the full post
  • Each day's competition will be featured on Rockstar's daily curation email to ensure thousands know about the Rumble
  • Readers will vote for their favorite post
  • The post with the most votes wins that round (the Rockstar team will break any ties)
  • The winner will advance in the bracket to play again the next round
  • Ultimately, there will only be one post left -- the champion for this season

The articles will be judged by what Rockstar Finance looks for in a great post. As a summary, here's the criteria:

  • Starts with an interesting title
  • Includes unique content -- we like posts that are edgy, feisty, funny, failure-focused, and super helpful
  • Easy to read
  • Positive/uplifting (vs. negative)
  • Ultimately, the readers will decide what they like best by their votes

How to Enter

If you're a blogger and have money-related posts you want to submit for consideration, please complete this form to enter. NOTE: IF ANY OF THE FIELDS ARE MISSING OR INCORRECT, YOUR ENTRY WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED SO PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING. Submissions will be accepted through Friday, January 5 at noon Eastern time. At that time the Rockstar Finance team will begin selecting from among all the entries to pick the top 128. Brackets will be announced by Friday, January 19 and the Rumble will begin on Monday, January 22. You can submit one post per site. If you have more than one website, you can submit one post for each, though if accepted, your posts will face each other in the early rounds so only one will ultimately get very far. This ensures that we don't have one blogger who's great at promotion facing himself or herself in the finals. :) If you do submit from multiple sites, please let us know in the notes section of the application. And just to be clear: you can submit ONE post per site. Some people are submitting multiple posts. If you do that, all your posts will be disqualified. Also, do not submit a post from a site other than your own (like a guest post you wrote on another site) since that site owner may submit his/her own piece. By the way, we reserve the right to not accept or disqualify any post for any reason. In particular, posts that are laden with ad/affiliate offers and/or tons of obtrusive pop-ups/landing pages will not be accepted.

The Fabulous Prizes

Here's what the winners receive:

  • First place -- $100 in Amazon gift cards
  • Second place -- $50 in Amazon gift cards
  • Third place -- $25 Amazon gift card

Best of all, every participant will receive traffic, links to their posts, and the joy of rumbling it out with their fellow bloggers!

Why Readers Should Care

As readers, you get the chance to read some great pieces and help decide who wins this year's championship. It will be super fun -- good stuff all the way around! So what are you waiting for? Let the submissions begin!   The Rockstar Rumble is brought to you by Mediavine, a full-service ad management solution for digital content creators. Most of the Rockstar team uses Mediavine for their programmatic display ad management and recommends them to other money bloggers who are looking to grow their revenue. If you're a blogger who has over 25k sessions a month (or are getting close), we suggest you consider Mediavine. If you're not at that level yet, Rockstar is working on programs (including this one) to help you get there. Reach out to publishers@mediavine.com with any questions.