My First Yahoo! Assignment

I've just had my first direct Yahoo! experience and I want to share that experience with you so if you can manage to snatch up a Yahoo! partner assignment, you'll know what to expect.

Usually I'm not quick enough to grab a partner assignment like this but I happened to be sitting at the computer working on another project when the email came in.  There are other times when the assignment doesn't pertain to me at all.  But this one did.  I'm a regular watcher of "Royal Pains" on the USA Network so when Yahoo! wanted an article about the strangest medical cases on "Royal Pains", I immediately logged on to AC and to my surprise, I was able to claim it.  The assignment details were on point and gave me tips for the style and tone they wanted as well as what they would pay me.  I reviewed the examples and the next weekend sat down for some research.

Even though I'm a "Royal Pains" fan, there was no way I would be able to remember every case and every plot line.  So I sat and sifted through episode recaps, reviews, and commentary until I found the episodes and cases I wanted to write about.  I wrote the piece and submitted it just like I would a regular Associated Content piece.  A couple of days later, it disappeared from my queue and I noticed the little notice at the top of my account page that said, "1 payment pending".  Was my piece accepted?  How would I know when it was published?  So I asked my questions on Facebook and my writer pal L. Vincent Poupard responded.  "If you go under your content tab, you will see a tab that says, 'Partners.' If you click on this, you should see your article. Once it publishes, you can link it from this location."  Although I haven't been able to link it from that tab, knowing that it was going to be on Yahoo!TV, I just kept an eye on the site.  I suspected that they would wait until today to publish it because the finale is on tonight.  I was right.  Today, it is being switched out in the top feature block on Yahoo!TV's homepage.

It's rather exciting to be able to say that I've been published on one of the largest websites ever.  To me this is a big deal.  It's why I heart AC!  If you want to read the article on Yahoo!TV, here it is: The Most Bizarre Medical Cases on "Royal Pains".