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Thursday, December 16, 2010

I was accepted into the Yahoo!TV Superfan program

The results of the "Superfan" for Yahoo!TV are back.  I'll break down the articles one by one to give you an idea of how this happened in my case.

I submitted five articles for the test assignments:

"Blue Bloods" - This article was a recap of a particular episode.  It wasn't reviewed or published in a timely fashion (which is key when doing recap articles) so it published on AC.  I was accepted into the program to write for this show.

"NCIS" - This article was another recap. Like the "Blue Bloods" article, this article took a very long time to publish. Unfortunately, for this one, I wasn't accepted into the program.

"Criminal Minds" - This article was a best quotes type article and even though it was more evergreen than a recap, it was published on AC.  The format slightly screwed up within the article which makes it look bad, but it's getting page views at least.  I was a bit worried about this one.  It was the last to be reviewed.  I'd been told by an AC staffer some time ago that quotes don't count toward total word count on an article, however, the assignment details specifically stated that "Best of" quotes could be a theme idea for the test article.  Even though this article was published on AC, like "Blue Bloods", I was accepted to write for this show.


"American Idol" - This article was in a format of "Where are they now?" which I've had published on Yahoo!TV before.  This one focuses on the past 3rd place "Idol" contestants and what they've done since AI.  It was published pretty quickly on Yahoo!TV.  The funny thing is, while I have followed AI for many seasons, I actually had no intention of watching it again because of all the changes.  But I was actually accepted to write for this show so I will be watching it. It's a pivotal season for them and I am sure there will be many interesting things to write about!

"House" - In my opinion, this was my best article out of all of them.  I did a comparison of House on Vicoden vs. House on Cuddy.  It was delivered to Yahoo!TV but sits in limbo land waiting to be published.  I wonder if they are waiting on a string of new "House" episodes before publishing it.  But anyway, I was also accepted to write for this show.


Not quite what we expected

Several Y!CN members began their excited chatter about what shows they were going to write about and we discovered that it wasn't quite the exclusivity that we thought it would be.  I'm not the only contributor who will be writing on the shows I was accepted for.  It wasn't that I thought it would be exclusive but I actually didn't think that SO MANY people would be dipping into the same shows.  "American Idol", for example, has so many writers on board that I wonder how productive it will be for Yahoo! to pay upfronts for so many articles focused on the same episodes.

In addition, there were contributors who claimed some of the test assignments but for one reason or another, ended up releasing them instead of submitting them.  Some of them were accepted into the program.  I know, say what?  But it gets better.  There were a few contributors who said they never applied and were accepted.  This concerns me.  It makes me feel like the hard work I did on mine was for nothing.

ETA: Now I'm being told that some acceptance emails were sent out in error.  Y!CN is working to correct the problem.  I'll update about this program after the first of the year.

Looking forward to the experience

Even though it isn't what I expected, I'm still excited about it and will be putting on my game face with each assignment that comes my way.  I'm going to enjoy it as much as I possibly can.

Congrats to all others who also made it into the program! Let's look forward to the beginning of our assignments in 2011.


Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!

On that note, this will be the last post of the year on this blog for me.  I'll come back in 2011 with new helpful information concerning the Yahoo! Contributor Network.  Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings and all that jazz.  Here's hoping you don't get too wasted on New Years!

2 comments:

  1. Congrats. I was accepted to write for two of my favorite shows: Desperate Housewives and Good Wife. My goal for 2011 was to write more Entertainment pieces so this has really made me excited. Good luck to all of those who were excepted.

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  2. I didn't have time to make that kind of commitment but I wish everyone well on their experience.

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