New Year, New Changes!
Posted Jan 8th 2010 at 4:05PM
by Kristi Anderson (subscribe to Kristi Anderson's posts)
Filed Under: Process
Happy New Year! We hope this finds you happy and healthy as we head into 2010.
We're thrilled so many of you have signed up so quickly after our December beta launch. As early adopters, you've provided integral feedback and suggestions – and we're listening. You'll soon see some changes you've specifically asked for in coming weeks. We've got a lot of enhancements planned, so thanks in advance for your patience as we work to implement them.
Our main priority in 2010 is to provide professional creators like you with a place to submit quality content. To us, it's simply about connecting community to content.
To support this, we're implementing one change that will result in more successful content placement for you. For now, we are removing the open submission option. You've mentioned multiple issues with this option, including low success rates in matching your original content to our sites, and mixed opinions about the earnings share model.
We agree. We think it's best to build our relationship with you based first on our known universe of editors' article requests. This will allow you to effectively match your voice and interests to our existing opportunities to express them. It also lets you familiarize yourself with our properties and their editorial focus.
Next, we'll re-work the open submission process to serve as a forum for our editors to have direct dialogue with you in real time. They will be able to issue requests for content based on immediate needs such as breaking or local news, and you will be able to pitch and propose content ideas targeted to specific AOL sites. No more guesswork on your end, or time invested in creating and submitting content that's not a good match. Best of all, this new process will allow you to establish relationships with our editors that may pave the way for additional assignments. We'll be sure to keep you posted on when the new and improved open submissions section of SEED re-opens.
We hope you agree with this new direction, and use this time as an opportunity to submit articles based on our current requests. As with any new relationship, let's get to know each other first, and then branch out from there.
We also have more good news:
We're thrilled so many of you have signed up so quickly after our December beta launch. As early adopters, you've provided integral feedback and suggestions – and we're listening. You'll soon see some changes you've specifically asked for in coming weeks. We've got a lot of enhancements planned, so thanks in advance for your patience as we work to implement them.
Our main priority in 2010 is to provide professional creators like you with a place to submit quality content. To us, it's simply about connecting community to content.
To support this, we're implementing one change that will result in more successful content placement for you. For now, we are removing the open submission option. You've mentioned multiple issues with this option, including low success rates in matching your original content to our sites, and mixed opinions about the earnings share model.
We agree. We think it's best to build our relationship with you based first on our known universe of editors' article requests. This will allow you to effectively match your voice and interests to our existing opportunities to express them. It also lets you familiarize yourself with our properties and their editorial focus.
Next, we'll re-work the open submission process to serve as a forum for our editors to have direct dialogue with you in real time. They will be able to issue requests for content based on immediate needs such as breaking or local news, and you will be able to pitch and propose content ideas targeted to specific AOL sites. No more guesswork on your end, or time invested in creating and submitting content that's not a good match. Best of all, this new process will allow you to establish relationships with our editors that may pave the way for additional assignments. We'll be sure to keep you posted on when the new and improved open submissions section of SEED re-opens.
We hope you agree with this new direction, and use this time as an opportunity to submit articles based on our current requests. As with any new relationship, let's get to know each other first, and then branch out from there.
We also have more good news:
- No more disappearing articles!: By the end of today, any articles that we don't select to purchase will remain on your dashboard under Completed Work until you choose to remove them, allowing you to copy them to your personal files. To check the status of your article, click the title and the status will indicate 'Not Accepted' for non-purchased articles. You'll also be provided with an option to remove the article. We know that some of you compose directly in SEED, and as writers ourselves, we understand the importance of being able to save this work and potentially use it in other formats at a future time. We were able to expedite this change based on your initial feedback. (TIP: To ensure you never lose your work, we recommend you make a habit of saving a copy of your article to your desktop files.)
- Assignment sorting: Also in effect by end of day, you will be able to sort assignments by photos or text. This option is displayed as two checkboxes at the top of the assignment queue, and they default to list both types of assignments. Simply click what you want to see (text or photos), and only those options will display.
Reader Comments
(page 1 of 2)I tried to subscribe to your posts but the link that came up was funky and looked like HTML code.
K
Thank you for providing feedback about Seeds.com new changes for 2010. I was somewhat confused about an article that I submitted disappearing from my dashboard, including the removal of the "open submission" button.
Right now, my only concern is about an article reappearing on my dashboard. Kristi you mention that, "To check the status of your article, click the title and the status will indicate 'Not Accepted' for non-purchased articles."
I didn't see the words "Not Accepted" listed under my article's title, so I'm assuming that my article was approved. If your new changes are correct, thank you Seed.com and I look forward to working with your team of editors in the near future.
My main concern is that you'll take away the upfront payments for the articles. None of us want to see that. I've had three articles accepted so far and I hope my success will continue. However, I would not have written any of those articles if an upfront payment was not offered for them. Keep the upfront payments!
I may be missing something, but as I look at some of the things that I have that say "pending approval," I don't see what the due date is anywhere. I did these a month ago, so I have absolutely no recollection. It's hard to expect a response 5-7 days after it's due, when we have no idea when that is.
Hi,
I see some content requests that are priced at 0.00. Are these priced that way because they are part of the shared profit system ?
Thanks,
GV
what do they mean by MUST be 'sourced'? do they want the name of the person who gave you the information and their credentials or do they want a link to view?
Hi! Any chance you will extend this exciting opportunity to Americans living abroad? I am sure we could contribute interesting viewpoints from different continents. Thanks!
I can't figure out how to write more than 1 idea for the short articles. thanks
Just getting started and I'm confused about how to determine if my article is unique. I wrote and submitted one yesterday and received a rejection due to similar content. How can I review submissions to see if I'm writing something similar to an already submitted article?
Evelyn, I had the same experience -- my one-and-only submission (and original work) was removed and I was told the reason was because it was a "duplicate submission."
Kristi, how can that be?
How do I provide contact information should my writings become accepted? In "settings", I didn't see fields for adding a forwarding
address.
Thanks
Re: Tracking Views for Completed Work: The "View Chart" does not indicate specifically in detail whether or not work has been viewed.
There is a steady green line across the outside edge of View Chart.
Even though first original submission was not accepted, the view chart displayed a reading of over 2 million views? What does that mean--I'm confused.
I do not understand this site at all. I have submitted 9 articles in 2 days and 5 or 6 of them have been rejected and I emailed them back to see what was the problem here is what they say:
"Thank you for your recent SEED content submission.
We're writing to tell you that we liked your content submission, but that it was not an exact fit for publication on one of our AOL network's sites.
But we strongly encourage you to try again—we loved what we saw, and hope that we find an opportunity to work together in the future.
Please visit SEED (www.seed.com) to find some new assignments that may be a fit for you.
Thanks,
Your SEED Editorial Team
I asked them what they said it is not fit for publication on their networks but they say they loved my work. WTF?
I've had this exact same confusing issue. Well, I sent a reply email asking for feedback after about 4 or 5 articles were rejected, I'm still waiting to hear about 9 other. I received an email back informing me that the editors at SEED are working on being able to give such feedback and more one on one support to turn some of these rejected articles around. I think maybe since the site is still so new we should just keep submitting and be patient while they work the bugs out. I'm confident SEED will prove to be a profitable site for all those of us who love to write and desire to make an income doing so.
In the meantime though, what I've done with my rejected articles is submit them for upfront payments on AssociatedContent.com. Even if they get rejected for upfront payment there, you'll receive feedback as to why and can then even submit it for performance payments as a last result. Patience, Persistence, and an understanding that even pennies make dollars is needed to succeed here. Good luck fellow writers!
I, too, have gotten the "not exact fit". How can it not be an exact fit when the editor asked for it, and the directions were followed? I've even looked at the properties in the category to get a sense for the tone. A little more feedback would be helpful in tweaking our submissions to expectations. Some of these submissions require a great deal of research and/or interviews and to just get a "thanks but no thanks, try again" is not useful feedback for anybody including the editors. They'll just keep getting swamped with "not a fit" submissions.
Also, I would like to be able to go back and review the submission guidelines even if I'm in the middle of writing. Once you start writing, you can't see the article guidelines any more.
Hello.my work was not accepted but it says I earned $33.00. How is that possible?Do you get paid for just trying? and it says I have over 2,000 views. Thank you
I'm not sure why yours would say not accepted if you have earnings; but trust me, I have had about 5 articles rejected and you definitely DO NOT get paid just for trying. I wish though.
Were you able to actually collect the money?
Catriona, When I select an assignment, the first thing I do is copy the specifications and paste them into my document file. As I take notes during research, I save that file as "assignment name notes" when I complete the research, I save a new copy of all my info as "assignment name final." That way, if something happens to your final version, at least you have notes.
Writers often make decisions about discarding notes after an assignment.
I will add that I'm using the story rejected by seed.com -- I pitched it locally and am adding a 'hometown' angle. No point in letting all that work go to waste, right?
My claimed titles disappear days and weeks before they are due, even when I've already started work on them. I don't get it.