Another suspension

[ReneeF]

I have a six-page double columned editing check list and then run it through two editing programs. I check for EVERYTHING listed on the CC guidelines and outlined in Owly, even editing out all but maybe one this or that or those and even when I leave them in, there is a modifier as in "blah blah blah, when those credentials are checked blah blah blah" I write super in-depth technical SEO stuff researched on google guidelines and triple checked against news articles for accuracy.. For every thousand words I write I delete a and condense out at least 250 or more words to reduce any kind of wordiness. so wordiness, No.. my big errors were comma usage.. and I have a whole two-pages dedicated to comma usage in my editing notes.

Every 500 word article is worth at least 3 hours editing of work and most of my articles are 750 to 1,000 words.. so easily I was making about $7.50 an hour here.. There is no way i'd go back to Text broker at this point. I'd bust a 40 hour work week there just to make $100


I've had professional editors and copywriters look over my work and only mention comma usage. If anything, they only mentioned that I left out detail and could use more details.

[LauraGinn]

Are they refusing to reinstate you Renee? Have you tried talking to Eric about it?

I've had a lot of my articles rejected this year for wordiness and I won't be submitting any more now. I have hundreds of unsold articles in the gallery and if they do what they did to you to me, I'll have wasted hundreds of hours over the past year writing for this site, and be stuck with dozens of articles that I probably can't do much with.

It's not professional in the slightest, and I am really upset that they have done this to you. There should at least be some form of warning process. But to have devoted three years to this site just to be let go with no explanation is really not on.

[remoteriverman]

I really don't know what has happened to this site since the start of this year. It seems to be constantly (no pun intended) shooting itself in the foot. Where are its decent writers going to come from, if it can't even communicate properly with its existing ones and treat them properly?

Renee, I wish you well, and hope you are able to use the experience of writing on this site to pursue your own writing clients. That's what I've been doing since the start of 2014, and I'm averaging 20-25 cents a word for my writing these days (I even made $1000 doing some part-time writing during my month-long holiday in Austria last month - thank you laptop, Wi-Fi and PayPal). So don't lose heart - just start networking like crazy.

Your story of poor (or non-existent) communication from CC seems to be an ever-increasing one. What a shame. I love the idea behind this site, but its management is obviously having some serious issues at the moment. It will either improve, or go out of business. I hope it improves, so I can start recommending it to people again.

Cheers,
Kevin Casey

[ReneeF]

Laura - Eric is on vacation until the 6th.

Yes, they are refusing to reinstate me.

I'm being more productive now that I am not crazy scared and editing heavily.

I'm thinking about writing for hub pages to go along with actually running my own blog and guest posting. I'm loving the creative freedom this will give me.

I had two rejects last month and the only warnings i got were "it's not my job to edit" and "there are too many errors" and they simply deleted the articles. I've posted these onto Untrained Housewives, but they are not published yet.

I think the real issue is that I wrote a 5,000 word article, as per a client request, and that pissed off the editorial team. They refused to approve it and sold it to the client unapproved or even looked over.

[LauraGinn]

It's surprising how much pressure can dent your creativity isn't it? On the few occasions that I've been spoken to rudely by the editors on here (and I must add that some of them are amazing, but some need to seriously chill out!), it made me start to doubt myself, and I never wanted to write anything. Spending three hours editing an article to make $7.50 an hour is not worth your time Renee - hell, it's not even the minimum wage in most western countries!

I don't advise joining HubPages unless you are doing so for the community. I used to be a member there but have recently started moving stuff over to my own blog (see http://www.laura-ginn.co.uk/why-you-sho ... n-website/ for more info). The community is lovely, but I like having control over my content, and making the full price for advertising and affiliate referrals.

I've been sending pitches out to companies this week too, so this may be something else you may want to think about? Either pitch to writing companies, or pitch to website owners themselves. I find this kind of work much more fulfilling.

Finally, you may also want to pitch to magazines if you have anything interesting to write. I recently had an article published on xoJane, and their rates are similar to what I charge here

[evaku]

This is absolutely ridiculous. I got my very first and only rejection for wordiness about a week ago, and now I am scared out of my mind that a suspension may be coming my way. I used to love this site, and I guess I still do, but this is beyond horrible. I'm sorry that this happened to you Renee. I hope that you are reinstated but I understand how cautious you would be to keep working on this site. How terrible.

[ReneeF]

This is absolutely ridiculous. I got my very first and only rejection for wordiness about a week ago, and now I am scared out of my mind that a suspension may be coming my way. I used to love this site, and I guess I still do, but this is beyond horrible. I'm sorry that this happened to you Renee. I hope that you are reinstated, but I understand how cautious you would be to keep working on this site. How terrible.

This is crazy. I dont know why they are suddenly, seemingly self-sabotaging. But, well.. You are probably safe, for now. I think I made an editor angry, unknowingly. And well, "wordiness" was the only thing they could pin on me. And if most of us were charging per word and stuffing articles to get more, I could see it as a problem. I was charging a flat rate for articles, no matter the length.

They have made me a much better writer. My writing is as tight as it can comfortably be without being boring.

I am going with the run my own thing action plan. No more clients. no more upfront, single pay for work. I have a huge network of writer friends outside of CC and many of them are self-published or publishing house authors, I have ten years of SEO training due to client requests. I think it's time to strike out on my own.

I will start working on the domain I bought last year getgreenmedia, my 100% commission position at untrainedhousewives, and my husband's two blogs.

I did find this piece of research, which has some good points to add to my plan. Maybe it will help others here to make money on their blogs too. They can add that to their CC earnings and survive in this world.

http://www.seanogle.com/entrepreneurshi ... niche-site

[Abbamay]

Oh no, Renee. I just got back from a holiday and read this thread. I am very sorry for you. I would put my faith in Eric and ask to talk to him about the situation so that you understand what's going on. Then if you want to strike out on your own, I think you'll succeed because it sounds like you're a very hard worker.

I really wish you the best.

Abba

[weagle87]

OMG! I have 8 that are due soon, and I was in the middle of submitting them. They are for pools and are on stupid topics, like makeup. The topics are so fluffy that conciseness is almost impossible. This may be my last hurrah, too, but I have to at least submit them. That solves it - if I don't get the full-time instructor position I'm crossing my fingers for, I'm leaving writing and looking for a cubicle somewhere.

[ReneeF]

I believe THIS is why I was suspended for wordiness. I used "to be" verbs in my work and that is NOT acceptable 100% of the time now.

https://www.constant-content.com/blog/2 ... wordiness/

They also now do not want ANY -ly adverbs as those make content wordy too. This enormous list of words are 100% not acceptable any more.

http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wordiness.html


I could see this as a problem if I padded my content with them to charge by the word to earn more money, but I didn't. I charged a flat rate of $30 for content under 1,000 words and a flat rate of $50 for content over 2,000 words. (Yes, cheap, I know. But I could spend an hour writing a 1,000 word article as easily as I could spend it writing a 6,000 word article, if I was in the mood. And then I'd spend about 2 hours editing that content and then another hour doing SEO for it.)

I DID NOT charge by the word, therefore I was NOT padding my content to get more money out of it. Therefore, their reasoning is highly illogical when my clients were requesting 500 to 1,000 word content and paying $30 and I was delivering 750 to 800 word content for $30.

I will continue to try to support other writers in this community and hopefully prevent a few suspensions until they decide otherwise.

[SpikeWyatt]

I think I made an editor angry, unknowingly. And well, "wordiness" was the only thing they could pin on me. And if most of us were charging per word and stuffing articles to get more, I could see it as a problem. I was charging a flat rate for articles, no matter the length.

Know the feeling. I've had infuriating "discussions" with CC editors who think they're right when they're not, who refuse to accept that they make mistakes and who have no clue about writers' voices. They drive me bonkers, frankly, because 99% of the time I can point them to existing, accepted content that has ten times as many problems as anything I produce, but which is still on sale at ludicrously high prices.

And that whole "wordiness" thing? Don't get me started. Editorial comments have thousands of extra words in them.

[ReneeF]

What is sad is that the client is messaging me through constant content begging for more articles and nobody has bothered to tell him I have been suspended from service. and I cant respond to these messages...

[squonk]

Okay, I'm concerned about this as well. I just submitted my first article in a long time, about 900 words. I wouldn't say it's especially wordy, but I'm afraid these editors might disagree.

Also, no adverbs now? At all? That's a great idea if the CC editors are looking for the writing equivalent of plain oatmeal - you can eat it, sure, but it's just about the most boring breakfast imaginable. I'm not going to pad out my articles with 1,000 words of stylish nothing, but really, we have to be allowed some room for style. Only where and when it's appropriate, of course. I'd be interested to hear from some of the editors about these changes on this forum. Have they posted anything about their new policies? I might have missed an email from CC or something.

I'm sorry to hear about your suspension. It doesn't sound fair at all. The clients' needs are extremely important, of course, but the writers have to be treated with due respect.

[ReneeF]

The client emailed me and said the 5,000+ word article I wrote for him did an amazing job at pulling traffic and link-backs for his site and he is overwhelmingly pleased. He wants more articles at 2,000 to 3,000 words or more.

CC wont allow articles over about 1,500 words. I'm pretty sure I was let go, in reality, to the 5,000 word one the client requested and the editors refused to review for him.

I am just angry that Cc didnt have the professional cutesy to let him know that they let me go. It makes ME look unprofessional and that is the real game ender right there.

I agree, not being able to use adverbs or -ly adverbs is seriously a huge problem with style. they seem to want our work to resemble very boring lab reports without any account towards flavor and audience value.

if i was padding for word count I could see it as an issue, but I wasnt.

[tayalltheway]

Have you tried calling again now that Eric is back in the office?