The two focal points of interest with Y!CN as of late: Google's big screw up and the changing of the Associated Content Featured Contributor program.
Let's get the FC program change up out of the way first. I have not changed my mind about how unfair and time wasting it was to start from scratch; to accept some while telling other deserving contributors to reapply for positions they had already worked for... but since I already wrote how I felt about that, I won't go back into it.
Will I reapply? Yes. But how many I will apply for remains to be seen. I still have bills to pay. (I originally typed "I have bill to pay." Bill is my brother-in-law and as far as I know, I don't owe him any money.)
It's been a crazy and stressful couple of weeks. Which leads me to the next topic of Google trying to hold a monopoly over their search engines.
I don't understand all this search algorithm tech stuff. Even though I understand the basics of SEO, I don't speak tech. All I know is that Google has decided that since we are part of Yahoo!, they are going to shove us to the bottoms of search results, even if we have the information people want. That's the short version. Here's the long version. In the meantime, contributors across Y!CN report record losses of page views. And they report monetary losses of up to $100 or more.
My page views are the lowest they've been in over a year. Google has decided they only want to show content they have a vested interest in. In the meantime, every place that they are blocking or pushing to the bottom that has Google Adsense... well, you don't have to speak tech to understand how that will eventually turn out. It will end up biting them. Whoever's brilliant idea it was to start this crap and to mess with people's paychecks, I hope they end up eventually losing their job. Let's see how they like it when they can't pay their bills.
Whew. Now I feel better. If this continues, everyone is screwed, not just us writers. Small businesses are screwed, too. Just read through this article. I guarantee you won't like it any better than I do.
I'll keep y'all updated on the FC thing and hopefully Google will come to their senses.
Showing posts with label assignments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assignments. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Yahoo! TV Superfan program - First round of cuts
If you were in the Yahoo! TV Superfan program, you should know by now that the first round of eliminations has been completed. (This almost sounds like a TV program in itself.) Some beat writers were cut for various reasons, many stayed. I’m happy to report that I survived the first elimination for all four of the shows I’m covering which is “Criminal Minds”, Blue Bloods”, “House”, and “American Idol”. Our submission limit has been uped to 2 per month and on our assignments, we’re still being instructed to write evergreen content. While I’m glad that our limit has gone up, I’m discouraged that we’re still having to do just evergreen. Recaps get more page views (if they are indexed quickly and are on the right feeds, that is), but from what I understand, if we survive the next few rounds of cuts, we’ll be able to do those recaps with a mixture of evergreen content. (I have to wonder if by then, some of the seasons will be over!)
Another big change in the program is that upfronts have gone down on these assignments slightly. Most people I have talked with actually expected this change and aren’t that concerned about it. While I’m okay with getting a lower upfront, I hope it doesn’t get to the point where we’re only making a couple of dollars a piece on them. I'm not sure any lower upfronts would be worth the research for evergreen or be worth the long review time.
Congrats to everyone who made it through the first round of cuts. May you all have a prosperous month and happy writing!
This post brought to you by TV Slugs.
Another big change in the program is that upfronts have gone down on these assignments slightly. Most people I have talked with actually expected this change and aren’t that concerned about it. While I’m okay with getting a lower upfront, I hope it doesn’t get to the point where we’re only making a couple of dollars a piece on them. I'm not sure any lower upfronts would be worth the research for evergreen or be worth the long review time.
Congrats to everyone who made it through the first round of cuts. May you all have a prosperous month and happy writing!
This post brought to you by TV Slugs.
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!
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!
Friday, December 3, 2010
November 2010, Month End Review
So for the past two months, I've been whining about my page views on AC. There's a sweet spot where if I pick a topic that gets good views and stick with it throughout the month, I do well. For September and October, I never hit it. November was a bit different and my page views once again increased enough for me to make a descent amount in performance pay before Christmas. I've even managed to get my Hot 500 badge back! (It now says "Hot 500 Yahoo!" and is no longer a cute little flame, but that's cool.)
But there were many more things that went on in November. First, entertainment contributors were offered the opportunity to apply for a regular Yahoo!TV gig. We opened an application window, told them what set us apart as television contributors, check marked what shows we kept up with on a regular basis and sent it in. A short wait later, we received descent paying assignments that would test our ability to write for those shows on a regular basis. For me, it included five shows, "Criminal Minds", "House", "American Idol", "NCIS", and "Blue Bloods".
As of right now, I've had the "NCIS" article and "Blue Bloods" article, which were both episode recaps, published on AC. Now, I'm not sure if that means that I won't get those spots. Recaps were allowed as part of the test articles but their timeliness in publishing is what makes page views. The staff did not get around to publishing them until they were a few weeks past air date so inevitably, they went on AC and page views suck because they weren't timely. Going to Yahoo! TV was more evergreen content. My "American Idol" article has already been published over there and my "House" article, which is a comparison of House on vicoden vs House on Cuddy, was delivered to Yahoo! TV yesterday but hasn't been published yet. My "Criminal Minds" article, which was a "best quotes" type thing, is still sitting in my queue waiting review. I'm anxious, as I'm sure everyone who applied for the positions is, to see who gets the gigs.
November also saw the change from our status as an Associated Content contributor to the Yahoo! Contributor Network (has a nice ring to it). There are still glitches to be worked out but I have confidence they will be remedied. As long as I can publish and I'm getting page views and am getting paid, I can live with the glitches without getting too upset. Annoyed at no notifications, yes. Angry, no. There's no point to it. This was a huge roll out and was inevitable. It still can't compare to the disaster that was Examiner.com's "upgrade". After that, I can deal with the stuff YCN is going through. (Once I hear back from Yahoo! about logo use, there will be a change in this blog's header, too, hint, hint!)
So November was a rising point for me. And I continue on.
Be looking for an upcoming special post within the next week or two about the Yahoo! Contributor Awards. Check your account page on YCN if you have no clue what I'm talking about. I am planning a day devoted to reading and nominating my choices for these awards and I will post my choices on this blog in case you'd like to nominate them, too. :)
I hope all the U.S. contributors had a lovely Thanksgiving. Hope your Christmas (or whatever you celebrate this time of year) goes well.
-Pamela
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But there were many more things that went on in November. First, entertainment contributors were offered the opportunity to apply for a regular Yahoo!TV gig. We opened an application window, told them what set us apart as television contributors, check marked what shows we kept up with on a regular basis and sent it in. A short wait later, we received descent paying assignments that would test our ability to write for those shows on a regular basis. For me, it included five shows, "Criminal Minds", "House", "American Idol", "NCIS", and "Blue Bloods".
As of right now, I've had the "NCIS" article and "Blue Bloods" article, which were both episode recaps, published on AC. Now, I'm not sure if that means that I won't get those spots. Recaps were allowed as part of the test articles but their timeliness in publishing is what makes page views. The staff did not get around to publishing them until they were a few weeks past air date so inevitably, they went on AC and page views suck because they weren't timely. Going to Yahoo! TV was more evergreen content. My "American Idol" article has already been published over there and my "House" article, which is a comparison of House on vicoden vs House on Cuddy, was delivered to Yahoo! TV yesterday but hasn't been published yet. My "Criminal Minds" article, which was a "best quotes" type thing, is still sitting in my queue waiting review. I'm anxious, as I'm sure everyone who applied for the positions is, to see who gets the gigs.
November also saw the change from our status as an Associated Content contributor to the Yahoo! Contributor Network (has a nice ring to it). There are still glitches to be worked out but I have confidence they will be remedied. As long as I can publish and I'm getting page views and am getting paid, I can live with the glitches without getting too upset. Annoyed at no notifications, yes. Angry, no. There's no point to it. This was a huge roll out and was inevitable. It still can't compare to the disaster that was Examiner.com's "upgrade". After that, I can deal with the stuff YCN is going through. (Once I hear back from Yahoo! about logo use, there will be a change in this blog's header, too, hint, hint!)
So November was a rising point for me. And I continue on.
Be looking for an upcoming special post within the next week or two about the Yahoo! Contributor Awards. Check your account page on YCN if you have no clue what I'm talking about. I am planning a day devoted to reading and nominating my choices for these awards and I will post my choices on this blog in case you'd like to nominate them, too. :)
I hope all the U.S. contributors had a lovely Thanksgiving. Hope your Christmas (or whatever you celebrate this time of year) goes well.
-Pamela
Monday, November 1, 2010
2 Year, 2 Months - Month End Review
October is over and I doubt very seriously that I'll get my Hot 500 badge back for October. My page views were even lower than September.
While this hasn't been a very good month overall for any $ project, I did get a one of my highest upfront offers ever for a general article (excluding Featured Contributor assignments). I got a good offer because my article relates to NaNoWriMo which actually begins today. I also believe that I got a good offer on it because of my personal and professional experience with the topic. If you care to take a look, click the title below.
There is No Such Thing as a Perfect Rough Draft
Another good thing that happened at AC this month was that I had another Yahoo! pickup. One of my FC assignments was flagged by AC for Yahoo! Editors to look at. While the article sits now in the "Partner" tab on my account page, I have to keep an eye out manually on the Yahoo! TV blog for when it might be published. If Yahoo! rejects it, it will be published on AC, and I get to keep the extra compensation, but I think with it sitting in my Partner tab, it might have already been accepted. Not sure.
In any case, I've had the opportunity to apply for a regular Yahoo! TV writing gig. I'm currently waiting to hear if they want me to send a sample article. I would be so psyched to write for Yahoo! on a regular basis!
In any case, here's hoping November will not only provide me more page views and upfronts, but also that I have more time to pursue those page views and upfronts. I seem to be caught up enough to do just that.
Have a great November, everyone!
Oh, for a tip, get your Thanksgiving articles wrapped up this week and then start working on Christmas articles. You want to have those Christmas articles up and indexed by the time the major searches start happening in order to take advantage of rising page views. :)
While this hasn't been a very good month overall for any $ project, I did get a one of my highest upfront offers ever for a general article (excluding Featured Contributor assignments). I got a good offer because my article relates to NaNoWriMo which actually begins today. I also believe that I got a good offer on it because of my personal and professional experience with the topic. If you care to take a look, click the title below.
There is No Such Thing as a Perfect Rough Draft
Another good thing that happened at AC this month was that I had another Yahoo! pickup. One of my FC assignments was flagged by AC for Yahoo! Editors to look at. While the article sits now in the "Partner" tab on my account page, I have to keep an eye out manually on the Yahoo! TV blog for when it might be published. If Yahoo! rejects it, it will be published on AC, and I get to keep the extra compensation, but I think with it sitting in my Partner tab, it might have already been accepted. Not sure.
In any case, I've had the opportunity to apply for a regular Yahoo! TV writing gig. I'm currently waiting to hear if they want me to send a sample article. I would be so psyched to write for Yahoo! on a regular basis!
In any case, here's hoping November will not only provide me more page views and upfronts, but also that I have more time to pursue those page views and upfronts. I seem to be caught up enough to do just that.
Have a great November, everyone!
Oh, for a tip, get your Thanksgiving articles wrapped up this week and then start working on Christmas articles. You want to have those Christmas articles up and indexed by the time the major searches start happening in order to take advantage of rising page views. :)
Thursday, August 26, 2010
My First Yahoo! Assignment
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.
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".
Monday, October 5, 2009
A Comparison of the Best Content $25 Assignment
This has been a heated debate among the forums, springing up thread after thread of ideas, speculation and others who have outright said they were leaving over it. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, perhaps you should read my previous post on the subject. But all that stuff aside, there were more good feelings about the assignment then bad (in general). Even though everyone didn't get the $25, the offers were still generally higher then what is usually given. Let's take a closer look at these articles. I tried getting all the links I could. There were a ton of them. So I took five that were offered lower amounts and five that were paid the $25. I apologize to the people I've missed but I just couldn't fit everyone in the mix. Feel free to leave your Best Content - $25 link in the comments section if I didn't mention you and let us know what your offer was and the reason AC gave. There are some people that are still waiting on their submissions to be reviewed by AC.
The goal? To try as we might to figure out what it is that AC is really looking for. They certainly don't tell us and the only reason I can think of is because they really don't want to spoil the spirit of AC which is for writers to write what they want. But at the same time, AC claims they want us to strive to earn. The more we drive traffic to AC, the more potential our articles have. A lot of theories are thrown to the wind. It's gotta be unique, it's gotta be SEO friendly (which a lot of writers just don't get the concept of, including yours truly), it's gotta be popular. So let's see how this turned out. Maybe this will help with the next assignment.
Oh, and do yourself a favor while you're going over these. Don't just click on the ones that were accepted. Click on those that weren't also. Only by reading over all of them can you get your own informed idea of what to do the next go around.
The Lower Offered Articles:
Lucinda Gunnin's Angie Wyatt Talks About Her Book, Timmy the Tractor: His Hay Day. Gunnin didn't specify how much was offered but we know it wasn't the $25. Why? Because AC called it a book review which doesn't typically get an upfront payment. Gunnin classified it as an author interview, though.
Travis Fox's How to Install a Doggy Door received an upfront offer of only $8. It was not unique to the web which was the reason AC gave for the lower offer.
Marie Anne St. Jean's Best Part Time Jobs for Seasonal Employment got an offer of $7. The feedback said that the topic was too broad.
Kim Keason's Choosing the Right Martial Arts Program for Your Child was offered $7. They claimed the topic was too common.
Jennifer Amlie's A Guide to Foreign Horror Movies was offered $7 also. AC said that even though the article was interesting, it was too similar to other content.
Articles Accepted for the $25 Upfront
I'll start off with mine: Why Nutrition Daily Value Percentages are Inaccurate.
Carly Hart's What to Expect If You're Diagnosed with Ocular Hypertension.
Tamara Water's Postpartum Depression: My Time in Darkness.
Cathy A. Montville's Past Life Regression.
R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen's BRCA Mutation: What Does it Mean and What is it like to Be Affected?.
I know that many of those who received the $25 also received a nice little feedback letter. That was nice on AC's part. We don't get much praise for what we do and it was a nice addition to the assignment. Thank you for that, AC.
I hope that this serves as a sort of reference for future assignments (which AC claims that they will be doing more of). Thanks to everyone who provided me links.
Friday, October 2, 2009
The $25 Offer and the Controversy - Did AC Pull a Fast One?
From the onset of the $25 upfront article assignment, there's been a scattering of approvals, lower offers, etc. etc.
When I claimed the assignment, I was completely aware, as I'm sure others were, that there was a great chance that my article could be declined for reasons that I don't completely understand. Do I ever really understand why a subject matter that I write on one week will be accepted for upfront but the next week it won't? Why do I get close to $5 upfront on some articles but as low as $2 on others? The feedback AC gives doesn't necessarily cover all crossings. As I've proved in past posts, AC isn't always consistent or precise. Nothing I've ever done with AC has always made sense to me. Sometimes you shoot and make it, sometimes you don't.
But getting back to the assignment, I was surprised to find other contributors reporting that they were being offered $6 to $10 for the assignment; in other words, the article was rejected on AC's end for $25 and so the contributor was being offered another dollar amount. Since I'm sure others were expecting rejections like I was, I'm sure the lower offers were quite a surprise and may have been even a welcome surprise by many.
But then Michelle Devon (aka Michy) announced in a thread in the forums that she was leaving AC. She's been with AC since May of 2006, someone with almost 800 fans and inching towards 2 million page views. She's an experienced AC writer, who newbies looked up to and asked for advice. She was respected. It was a shock to a lot of people to say the least. But apparently she must know more then I do because I do not find her leaving disturbing. If that's what she wants to do, that's her. But I'm not compelled to follow. Even if my $25 article was offered a lower amount, I would've been happy with the lower offer because even $6 to $10 is higher then the standard upfront pay. But that's just me. There's a lot of variables here and many theories that I will prefer to keep to myself in relation to this move.
I will say this... essentially what I've said before; no matter how long I'm with AC or think I have things figured out, I don't. I don't know of anyone who can say they do know everything - every reason AC declines one article but then turns around and accepts another article on a similar subject or premise for upfront - and I don't know of anyone, no matter how long they've been writing online that knows all the reasons.
But what if AC really did pull a bait and switch like Michy claims? Of course, I would shame, shame them. But I don't know that for certain. What I do know is that I'd had a weird feeling from the moment the hype on this assignment started. I stated as such in the forums which is why I started blogging about it to begin with. Was it right to change the wording on the assignment after the fact? No. As legal as AC tends to be, they should've have seen the liability in their choice of words to begin with. Did they do it on purpose? I don't think so but again, I don't know. And come Monday, I'm taking a ton of links that other contributors have provided to me and I'm going to try to make some sort of sense out of the ones that were rejected compared to the ones that were accepted. So look for that post here next week.
In the meantime, I really don't see the need to threaten AC with leaving. They have thousands of people who write for them and I'm only a little face in the crowd. They could probably care less. I could scream conspiracy theory if I wanted, adding to all the hype in the forums. I actually butted heads with another contributor a couple of weeks ago because he was sour about losing the short story contest, accusing the contest of being rigged. Sheesh.
But that's enough of that.
Toodles.
When I claimed the assignment, I was completely aware, as I'm sure others were, that there was a great chance that my article could be declined for reasons that I don't completely understand. Do I ever really understand why a subject matter that I write on one week will be accepted for upfront but the next week it won't? Why do I get close to $5 upfront on some articles but as low as $2 on others? The feedback AC gives doesn't necessarily cover all crossings. As I've proved in past posts, AC isn't always consistent or precise. Nothing I've ever done with AC has always made sense to me. Sometimes you shoot and make it, sometimes you don't.
But getting back to the assignment, I was surprised to find other contributors reporting that they were being offered $6 to $10 for the assignment; in other words, the article was rejected on AC's end for $25 and so the contributor was being offered another dollar amount. Since I'm sure others were expecting rejections like I was, I'm sure the lower offers were quite a surprise and may have been even a welcome surprise by many.
But then Michelle Devon (aka Michy) announced in a thread in the forums that she was leaving AC. She's been with AC since May of 2006, someone with almost 800 fans and inching towards 2 million page views. She's an experienced AC writer, who newbies looked up to and asked for advice. She was respected. It was a shock to a lot of people to say the least. But apparently she must know more then I do because I do not find her leaving disturbing. If that's what she wants to do, that's her. But I'm not compelled to follow. Even if my $25 article was offered a lower amount, I would've been happy with the lower offer because even $6 to $10 is higher then the standard upfront pay. But that's just me. There's a lot of variables here and many theories that I will prefer to keep to myself in relation to this move.
I will say this... essentially what I've said before; no matter how long I'm with AC or think I have things figured out, I don't. I don't know of anyone who can say they do know everything - every reason AC declines one article but then turns around and accepts another article on a similar subject or premise for upfront - and I don't know of anyone, no matter how long they've been writing online that knows all the reasons.
But what if AC really did pull a bait and switch like Michy claims? Of course, I would shame, shame them. But I don't know that for certain. What I do know is that I'd had a weird feeling from the moment the hype on this assignment started. I stated as such in the forums which is why I started blogging about it to begin with. Was it right to change the wording on the assignment after the fact? No. As legal as AC tends to be, they should've have seen the liability in their choice of words to begin with. Did they do it on purpose? I don't think so but again, I don't know. And come Monday, I'm taking a ton of links that other contributors have provided to me and I'm going to try to make some sort of sense out of the ones that were rejected compared to the ones that were accepted. So look for that post here next week.
In the meantime, I really don't see the need to threaten AC with leaving. They have thousands of people who write for them and I'm only a little face in the crowd. They could probably care less. I could scream conspiracy theory if I wanted, adding to all the hype in the forums. I actually butted heads with another contributor a couple of weeks ago because he was sour about losing the short story contest, accusing the contest of being rigged. Sheesh.
But that's enough of that.
Toodles.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Your Best Content - $25
Associated Content has been very gracious with the assignment desk as of late; so much so that the list is exhaustive to go through every day. It's great that they are really trying to keep the creative juices flowing, so to speak, by providing these assignments. What's not so great is that probably over half of these assignments are not even eligible for upfront payment which is what most people rely on for their income. I skim through the assignments occasionally but not every day. When I popped into the Contributor's forum last night, though, I was shocked to discover that some people were getting assignments calling for "Your Best Content" which promised to pay a $25 upfront for an exclusive piece. I immediately looked in my assignments, found it, and claimed it.
According to the guidelines, this piece has to be at least 450 words, which is 50 words longer then standard guidelines. They also say an applicable category will be selected upon review which means they don't want to specify categories. It may depend, this time, more of how the article is written then anything else. I could try to speculate but I don't know. I'm taking a wild guess here that the current categories that they don't accept for upfront may be the same categories they won't consider for the $25 upfront. Who knows? The whole thing is not very concrete and is just as much a gamble as any other submission. Different content reviewers have different opinions on what is and is not acceptable on AC. This is obvious to me because of my past experience. So I'll play Russian roulette and just wing it.
Let's find out what the outcome of this assignment will be.
According to the guidelines, this piece has to be at least 450 words, which is 50 words longer then standard guidelines. They also say an applicable category will be selected upon review which means they don't want to specify categories. It may depend, this time, more of how the article is written then anything else. I could try to speculate but I don't know. I'm taking a wild guess here that the current categories that they don't accept for upfront may be the same categories they won't consider for the $25 upfront. Who knows? The whole thing is not very concrete and is just as much a gamble as any other submission. Different content reviewers have different opinions on what is and is not acceptable on AC. This is obvious to me because of my past experience. So I'll play Russian roulette and just wing it.
Let's find out what the outcome of this assignment will be.
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