We’re now headed into year three. You ready?

We’ve got you all fixed up: clean template, clear navigation, an illustrated and streamlined “how yeah write works” page. What can stop us? Nothing. Let’s do this thing.

Challenge v. the speakeasy

The challenge grid is where we want to see your personal essays and traditional blog anecdotes. Choose moments and stories that will show off your writer’s voice. Submit your short fiction and poetry over at the speakeasy, where they’ll be sharing in the celebrations. Crowd favorite winners there will receive a copy of Best American Short Stories 2012. In the mood for anything goes? On Friday, the moonshine grid has just what you need. 

Grab your badges

Badges for both the challenge grid and the speakeasy are now available in the sidebar, right underneath the “be the first to know” yeah write email blast subscription box. They contain the codes needed to satisfy the backlink requirement of the Inlinkz app. Be sure to paste the code into the html-view of your post before publishing. Your post cannot be dated earlier than April 14.

Another 30, 40, 50, 60 week

30

Writers’ awards if we get to 30 on the grid

For every entry on the grid, up to 50 entries, we are giving away one dollar in gift card loot to the jury prize winner from the invitational grid and the crowd favorite from the challenge grid. Each winning blogger could win up to a $50 gift card to the U.S. or Canada retailer of his or her choosing.

• The jury prize winner comes from the invitational grid which is selected by the yeah write editors.
• The crowd favorite is the blogger who ends the Thursday voting period with the highest number of votes from the entire Internet (around 400 people, the Internet is not as big as you think)

The offer will only happen if we hit 30 entries, which will open the invitational grid. Fewer than 30 entries? No invitational grid and no dollar per entry prize for either winner. At least 30 entries? The writers’ awards will start at $30 and go up to the maximum grid entry of $50. The challenge grid closes to all entries on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, at 11:59 p.m. U.S. eastern daylight time.

We got up to 39 during yeah write #104, and Kianwi, our jury prize winner, and Dawn, the crowd favorite, each earned a $39 gift card to the U.S. or Canada retailer of their choice. Can we hit 40?

40

Family treasure to a random winner if we get to 40 on the grid

Yeah write supporter Jacqueline Bryant Campbell has generously donated one $60 gift card toward any doll or custom design in her studio. The non-ballerina dolls are $60, and you can choose hair color, skin tone, clothing style or even send Jacq a favorite t-shirt or fabric and she’ll work her magic and dress your new treasure with it.

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• If yeah write #105 reaches 40 on the grid, anyone involved will be eligible for the drawing for the gift card
• On the challenge grid? You’re in the drawing
• On the speakeasy grid? You’re in the drawing
• Not on either grid, but you’re reading, commenting, sharing or voting? Leave us a comment on any post this week letting us know you’re hanging out, and you’re in the drawing
• Sent a yeah write virgin? Let us know who belongs to you. You’re in the drawing
• As long as the challenge grid gets to 40 this week, your name is in the hat

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50

Want your own supporting subscription? If we get to 50 on the grid…

Thirty bloggers on the challenge grid will open the offers of the gift card loot. Forty on the grid (this week and next) will open the drawing for Jacq’s custom dolls. Get us to 50? It’s our standard offer: if we hit 50 entries to the challenge grid this week and you’ve recruited a yeah write virgin to the challenge grid, you’ll be eligible for a random drawing for our 12-month, $10 a month supporting subscription donated by one of our yeah write editors. At that level, you would receive at your request:

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• a wet and sloppy kiss on the mouth from your yeah write editor of choice
• a text link in selected weekly sponsor highlight posts
• a custom editorial on one selected yeah write challenge grid entry (worth $40 USD)
• a quick and dirty evaluation of 12 planned submissions to the challenge grid, an average of one planned submission each month, before the weekly challenge grids open
• an evaluation of your blog itself on content and design with clear direction on what’s working and what can be improved (worth countless USD)

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60

The best of yeah write grid will be highlighted again on Wednesday

The best of yeah write grid was revealed last Wednesday. Your favorite yeah write editors selected 60 posts out of more than 3,500 grid submissions from lovelinks #1 to yeah write #100 and put them all on one grid. We then each wrote up our favorites out of the 60 and, tomorrow, we’ll be doing it again. Watch this space.

Side note: are you submitting an entry to BlogHer’s 2013 Voices of the Year?

We’ve set up a special promotional grid for our yeah write subscribers who would like a little extra promo for their VOTY posts. Add the direct link from your BlogHer entry to the special grid and we’ll help you get a few votes. Our way of supporting the community that supports yeah write.

Odds, ends, reminders

• Your post can be no longer than 500 words
• Your post can be dated no earlier than April 14th, the day the yeah write #105 badges were officially posted
• The grid is open from Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. to Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
• It is limited to 50 bloggers
• Voting will take place all day Thursday from midnight to Friday at midnight
• The winners’ post will be published at noon on Friday
• Our new weekend moonshine grid will open Friday at 6 p.m. and close Monday by 12:01 a.m. 
• No self-promotional posts are allowed on the yeah write grid, including those containing links to other blog events and Internet contests
• Combining your yeah write post with other blog events meant to maximize your exposure and minimize your effort is a no-no

Bring us your best stuff.  Bring your friends to read, write and vote. Yeah write #105 is open. . .

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