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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Time to Move On

When I first started this blog, it was with the intent to help promote my articles on Associated Content.  Over the course of this blog, which has been running for almost 2 years, it has turned into an all inclusive help guide of sorts.  The ranking shot up, traffic has been fantastic, and I've met many wonderful people and writers through here.

But I think it's time to let this blog rest.  I may post every great once in awhile but it won't be near the frequency I have been.  There is a lot of information on here that I hope can help writers on the Yahoo! Contributor Network.  Because of recent events, though, I simply don't believe I can do an adequate job of providing the help and answers that writers are searching for.


My first reason is that there was a period of time earlier this month where I was without internet.  That time without internet taught me the lesson that I was wasting too much time chasing what ultimately would do me no good in the creative writing field.  This was coupled with the change in the FC program, so I was already feeling down in the dumps.  The fact remains, though, that if Yahoo! thought I was skilled enough to be in their Featured Contributor programs, they would have automatically asked me to stay like they did a select few contributors.

Even still, I had every intention of re-applying for my categories and perhaps even some new ones as soon as I caught back up on other things after my internet outage.  But this week has been terribly stressed as far as Y!CN is concerned.  Some of those who have applied are being given test assignments.  Some of those test assignments are accepted for their target Yahoo! sites but oddly aren't good enough to accept the writer into the FC program.  Still others aren't even being given the opportunity to turn in a test assignment and are being rejected outright.  Others whose articles are being rejected and reverted to Associated Content (now known as the failure Yahoo! site), are being given reasons such as:

-Very minor grammatical errors.  I do not exaggerate.  While I'm happy that Y!CN is finally buckling down on grammar issues, rejecting a piece for a typo which isn't common for that writer is crap.  No matter how long a person has been writing, no matter how professional a writer they are, humans make mistakes.  If they want perfect pieces then they need to either hire editors to correct content or they need to pay writers more so they can hire their own editors.

-Not having the Yahoo! "voice".  This is one of those things that you either have or you don't.  Telling fantastic writers that the quality of their work is exceptional but that they don't have the "voice" Yahoo! needs is contradicting.  I don’t understand.

-I can even dig that Yahoo! wants educationally qualified people to write in these Featured Categories.  But here's the thing; many who are educationally qualified likely have full time jobs and/or aren't going to want to write for what Y!CN pays.  But look!  They have writers who are qualified because of their track records in writing for the web in the categories they want featured.  These writers are dependable, they are experienced in content writing, they bring in the page views, and they write great.  But they are getting rejections, too.

There have been other reasons for rejections that I don't agree with but I'll leave these as the primary ones.  You know, what makes me think I have a chance in hell of getting in when the likes of those wonderful writers aren’t even making the cut?

Oh, the memories...

This reminds me when I was working management for an oil company.  When the company was small and local, my work with them was great.  Then that oil company sold to a bigger regional company and suddenly I wasn't so good anymore.  Whereas the old company dogs were talking promotions for me, I wasn't of much use to the new company.  This has been my experience between the Associated Content to Yahoo! change.

Right now, I'm focusing on my creative writing (*shameless plug alert* head over to my author site).  I'll still write for Y!CN where I'll keep up with my news beats for as long as they'll have me and where I'll still publish on Associated Content.

I'm going to leave this blog with this final thought; I still love Y!CN.  I do recommend it to anyone looking to get their feet wet in content writing.  If you have a passion for it, the opportunities since the Yahoo! change are fantastic.  Just because I don't feel like I can dive into it head first, doesn't mean you shouldn't try.  I'm sure they'll get this FC mess straightened out eventually.

Associated Content was my stepping stone into building confidence and honing my skills.  If it wasn't for writing for Associated Content, I wouldn't have accomplished half the things I have in writing, and that includes my creative writing.  I would have never been confident enough to put my fiction out there for others to read if not for AC and for that, I'm grateful.

Thank you for reading.  You can catch me on my author site to see what I'm up to.  For anything else, here’s my other site.

5 comments:

  1. Sorry to see this one close up Pam, but I certainly understand the reasons.

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  2. Happy trails, and thank you for all the work you did to help everyone. I pretty much gave up on Associated Content after the change when they stopped offering me paid assignments and I now work nearly exclusively on my political blog which has enjoyed some success. I am grateful for the experience that I enjoyed as an Associated Content contributor though and also grateful for the helpful hints I had picked up from you here. Best wishes to you, Pam.

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  3. Totally agree with you - after being a FC for several months, with a regular beat assignment, I was told that I hadn't made the cut into the new program. No explanation was given, and they continue to publish and republish pieces I'd written for them. I also notice that many of the writers who were retained DO make frequent grammatical errors. Whatever. Best of luck to you.

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  4. I have not realize how hard it is to work with YC until I read your post. Actually I found your blog when I googled how much to wait to get an article approved to YC.
    Good luck and thanks for sharing!

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  5. Best wishes to you and have a great new year

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