Can someone please help?

[Hannah047]

I submitted an article on March 28th. It was in review day after day.
I just logged in and there is no sign of anything in regard to my article. Don't the editor's tell you what is going on?

Thank you,
Hannah

[Hannah047]

Disregard my prior message please.

I received a message from CC stating that the article needs some revision before they can accept it. My capitalization's and apostrophe's were sometimes incorrect.

They also mention something about erroneous bolding....I NEVER bolded a word in that article...not even one word.

Also, something about my summary was mentioned....that they can't tell where the summary ends and the paper begins. What is that about? The summary was submitted in the "summary bo_." (I just cleaned my keyboard & am now having a problem with that letter I left blank in the last sentence.)

In addition, the CC message stated the following: "We do not accept content with website addresses/links.http://www.constant-content.com/blog/?p=35.

I did not use www. How else would I avoid plagiarism? If I do not use (site.com) after a quote or facts I found regarding a scientific study, for e_ample, then that would be plagiarism, would it not? I am confused now, for real.

If the message stated that I should correct it, then what about this paragraph in their message to me?
"Because articles are purged from our system once rejected, editors cannot always answer specific questions about your article. If you have a general question about your rejection, please visit “Article Rejection forum – be sure to include the article title in your post. In addition to the “Article Rejection” forum, other forums may help you get answers for other questions you may have about Constant Content."

Does that mean I am NOT supposed to correct it.....that they purged it?

Can someone give me the run-down about SUMMARIES? What I understood, was that I was to copy and paste the best 1/3 of the article.

I don't get it.

All I get, is that I put a lot of work into it, and how can I make money like this?
Hannah

[Amy W]

First, I can promise you that the process gets easier. You just need a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the system.

Second, summaries - there are two of them. The long summary is where you post 1/3 of your article, although you can always post more. It's up to authors what part of the article they want to show customers. The short summary, on the other hand, has to be an original three-sentence-or-so summary of what the article is about. Without seeing your submission, I have no idea what the rejection notice means when it says the editors can't tell where the summary ends and the article begins. Did you include the short summary in the body of your article? It's not necessary to include it, but if you do, you need to separate it from the rest of your article - **** should do the trick. So it will look like this -

This is the article summary.

****

Title of article
By author name

Body of article

As for website addresses/links, sometimes hyperlinks appear if you cut and paste text from a webpage. Even if you copied a single number from a webpage, a hyperlink can still appear. Hover your mouse over any text you might have copied from a webpage to find out if you have hyperlinks.

And you can always correct and resubmit your work. That message just means that if you email the site and ask specific questions about the rejection, they can't answer them because they can't see the article in question.

Good luck!

[Hannah047]

Hi Amy,
I didn't know anyone else had submitted an answer to my questions (above). I'm sorry, but I just now saw and read your posted response.

Under the title to my article, 2 spaces down, I have the word Summary.
Beneath that is a good sized paragraph summarizing the article.

Then I skipped a space like I did here in-between paragraphs, and that is where my article began. I thought that it was obvious that the first paragraph under the word summary, was the summary.

When I submitted it, and it asked for two different sumnaries, first I submitted the summary that I wrote in the beginning of my article.

When I saw that it asked for another summary, a long summary (now I am forgetting just what it asked for), I remembered reading to copy & paste the best portions of the paper and so that is what I did, and I submitted it.

I don't understand. We are not writing very long articles. Mine was 1160 words. I submitted my short and long summary, plus of course the article itself, and that was sort of strange because after reading the short and long summaries, there is hardly anything left to wonder about. Why buy the article?

So, I should write out the words, "This is the summary of the article" and then separate it like you did. Yes, separating it with title and author is good....The thing is, these things should be spelt out for the authors....

No, a hyperlink or whatever does not appear when I run my cursor over the words. Anything I quoted was in quotation marks and after the quoted sentence, I put (site.com). Is that OK? I took out all the other references.

On the Reference list, should I also take out the www. I did it properly in MLA style, but the websites of course were spelled out to the very page. In other words, it read http://www.site.com/bla bla bla/bla bla/bla.

Thank you so much for your help. I read much of the instruction on this website, but it does not answer these questions. It isn't fair.

Also, when I recvd. the message from CC, it said it was reviewed - not the words rejected & I should correct it and submit it again. Is it too late? I recvd. the email on March 3rd. I have not been well enough to do it. I am fine, now. I just want to be sure it is correct this time. This is ridiculous. Things like this should be clear.

Bye for now,
Hannah

[Hannah047]

Wait!! Amy, I hope you read this.

I just looked at a few of the sample articles. Each one of them has the word Summary, then a paragraph (which is the summary). Then double spaced down a new paragraph begins, which is the beginning of the article.

Why are they complicating this?
Hannah

[aprilk10]

Hannah, there are two separate boxes on the submit page. One is for a short summary and one is for your article (It reads "Content exerpt"). Your summary is a description of your article. You can't use part of your article here. It needs to explain in about 3 or 4 sentences what the article is about. Then...in the content exerpt box, put in whatever portion of your article you want to be visible to customers. I personally use the entire article, but it has to be at least 1/3. You do not need to put any summary here...only your article. The separate summary goes in the top box only. I guess some authors also include a summary within thearticle, but I think that may be where you are running into complications. Try only putting it in the top "summary" box and just put your article in the "content exerpt" box. Once your article is accepted, it will show with your summary at the top and your article below it...just as the sample articles you are reading do. Don't include anything in the content exerpt box except the article itself (no summary...that goes in the top box).

Hope that helps...

[Hannah047]

Yes April, it certainly did help. Thank you so much.

I did do a summary which was not part of the article. The fact that only 2 spaces between the summary and the article appeared in my paper, I guess CC didn't know that it was only that one paragraph in the article with the word Summary above it, that was the summary....Gosh, too many words to write what I mean.

You cleared up the rest....

I certainly hope now that I took out all the references (citations) in the content of the paper, they won't try to say I plagiarized.

Thank you again!!!! I appreciate it.
Hannah

[Hannah047]

If I use the entire article in the excerpt section, do I still submit the article in the article section????? That would be doing it twice.
Please reply asap.
Thanks.

[Amy W]

You don't need to include proper MLA citations - in-line citations are fine for web content. But if you do want to include proper citations at the end of your article, eliminate the www. I know it's not proper form, but you can't have any www. anywhere in your submitted article.

Don't feel like there is a time limit for submitting articles. You can revise your article and submit it whenever you want - today, a week from now, a year from now. Revision emails and rejection emails are the same thing - I think the editors switched from rejection to revision because revision sounds a bit better. If you get one, just make the changes the editors suggest in the email message, do a final proofread, and resubmit - no matter when.

I'm not sure what you mean by article section. As far as I know, there is no article section. You still seem a bit confused, so I'll go through my step-by-step process for submitting.

First, I write the article, formatting it like this.


My Article Title
By Amy White

Intro

Paragraph #1

Paragraph #2

Paragraph #3

Conclusion


I don't include a summary in the body of my article. Why confuse things?

I save my file as a .doc file, then I head to the Submit Article section of CC. I fill out all of the info at the top of the page - title, word count, price, etc.

In the short summary section, I write three or four unique sentences summarizing the article. This is what customers see when they are browsing the site - the summary appears below the title of articles in the article listings.

In the content excerpt section, I copy and paste my article. I paste my entire article, but you can paste however much you want, as long as it is more than one-third. This is what customers see when they click on a title in the article listing section of the website.

Under the keywords section, I type in the main keywords I used in my article, separated by commas. Customers don't see this list. It is used for the search feature. If you type in marshmallows in the keyword box, and a customer does a search for the word marshmallows, they'll see your article. If you didn't type in the word marshmallows, the customer won't see it.

And that's all you have to do.

If you have other questions, just post them. Better to ask for clarification first before you submit.

[aprilk10]

Hannah, I am guessing by "article section" you mean the area where you attach the file. Yes. You always need to attach the file. In fact, I don't think it will allow you to submit it without a file.

[Hannah047]

Yes, I'm sorry I wasn't more clear.

What I meant was, since I am submitting the entire article in the excerpt box, do I submit also in the article box? You answered yes, otherwise the article box would be empty. Thank you.

You sure have a lot of good stuff coming your way. You have given of yourself, and that is so kind & generous of you.

Also, thank God you just told me about not rushing to re-submit. What a relief. Still, the more time I spend on this, the more time sort of wasted. i would like to submit another article.

I hate to bother you with one more important factor. If it's too much, just tell me.
When you have to fill in the cost or amount you want to charge, why not go with the amount listed in the original request? In other words, if the people are offering $50 - $60 for an article, isn't it normal to simply use one of those figures?

I have to tell you, I am not fully understanding that whole thing regarding cost. Nevertheless, that is what I used for a price. It stated on the submit form that it had to be above $7.00. Are they kidding? Over 2 weeks....maybe it was 3 that it took me to write the thing and I am going to charge $7.00??? (HILARIOUS!!). Then I followed CC's suggestion where the last two boxes get checked.

Also, being new and not having a kind of "portfolio," (am using a methaphor), in order to earn money, since I am no longer working at what I did for years - a legal assistant, I am not exclusively bound to working only here with CC, am I? I would like to be able to earn money SOMEWHERE!! SOON! .

I read on the forum that CC pays better than most. How can that be? 65% is a lot to take off the top.
Thanks,
Hannah

[aprilk10]

CC takes 35%...you get 65%. There are various ways to determine price. You can just figure it at how much you want to make per hour and add 35%, figure an average for word count (400-500=$40, 501-600+$50, etc), or just wing it and price more specialized articles at a higher cost and simple articles lower. There is also a link at the top of the submission page that will take you to an average pricing guide. How you determine pricing is completely up to you...just remember to include the extra 35% so you get what you want out of the article. You might look through and see how other authors are pricing or watch the recently sold list. I have sold some articles at as low as $25 and some as high as $125 (for the same length). There are actually some who sell articles at very low prices...if it works for them, so be it I guess!

With public requests, I will price according to what therequester says they will pay. Some do price lower though. Some do this to maintain their pricing strategy and others do it in hopes the requester will buy their article because it is cheaper. A client may also end up buying 2 cheaper articles instead of the 1 higher priced one...it's really just a matter of playing around with pricing until you find something that works for you.

Oops...forgot to answer your other question...No, you are not bound to work only here. You are not an employee, you are an independent contractor. I think most on here draw an income from various sites. There are a number of other writing sites out there. Some are like CC, but they vary. You can find quite a few comments in this forum about other sites. Use the search box at the top right hand of this page to see what comes up. Try searching things like "writing sites" or "other sites," etc. To give you an example, I also get work at Textbroker and wiseGEEK. I have been approved at one that is still in beta (so not sure where that will go) and intend to add more as I go along and adjust to the life of a freelancer! There are lots of sites out there though.

[Celeste Stewart]

I read on the forum that CC pays better than most. How can that be? 65% is a lot to take off the top.

Like April says, we get to set the prices. With some of the other sites, the pay is determined by the site owner. While they may not take a large chunk the way CC does, the pay tends to be super low.

For example, on Associated Content, you may be offered $4 upfront for an article and then $2 for every 1,000 page views (which could take ages to ever get). On Demand Studios, you might get $10 for an article. On CC, it's not unheard of to sell an article for $50. So, 100% of $10 is $10 while 65% of $50 is $32.50. Even with the big commission, you could find that CC pays much better than the other sites.

[Hannah047]

Thank you so much, gals!