Short Term Housing Question

[jadedragon]

Since I run a short term housing business myself I jumped right on the request. I submitted the 8 articles as a set but Ed rejected it for being a set and asked that I resubmit them one at a time. Today I see that another author's work was selected and that it sold like this:

Set of 8 Short Term Housing Articles fullrights $200.00 > Business > Real Estate 03/09/2010

So umm did it go through as a private request instead?

I actually traded a few emails with the buyer, determined exactly what he wanted and then presented a package of landing pages just like he asked for. I had the sent in for review Friday but redoing it into 8 submissions cost two days of review time. As soon as the 8 separate articles were approved the buyer emailed right back to say he had selected another author.

Maybe my writing is not up to standard or maybe he bought exactly what he asked for while my work was waiting for review as 8 separate articles. Oh well - I'm not trying to complain just trying to understand what we are supposed to do.

I looked around at what other authors wrote. There is some good articles for short term housing promotion and website content but none that I saw are suitable as landing pages. I'm sure they will sell since they are more generic.

[MPIvy]

I wondered the same thing but decided to submit individually though it was something of an organization problem for me. I also figured that a really good writer would probably land the prize and then mine could sit there to be sold individually at some future date....maybe. ( I had just had one sell that I wrote in November!) My other piece of reasoning was that if Ed found some small errors (it is really hard to write sometime without incorrectly using the comparative form of adjectives!) that I would not have to troll through all the pieces to find the problem .... I did appreciate the promptness of the requester's reply then felt sort of bad that the poor guy was still getting bombarded with my articles!

[MPIvy]

Okay, I tried to figure this out on my own rather than revealing my ignorance for the world to see, but I cannot understand exactly what a landing page is and why one would write differently for it than any other page. Is it more specific? In the case of "corporate suites", for example, how would an article for a "landing page" be different from another article? I'm not asking for anyone to reveal trade secrets, though I guess it does sort of look like that.

[Ed]

Articles for public requests should never be submitted in a bundle. When the set of articles was rejected, it was explained in the rejection notification why.

For others, the reasons articles should never be submitted as a bundle are as follows:
1)If there are errors, the whole thing must be resubmitted, maybe multiple times. Bundled submissions are also more difficult for me to check for errors.
2)Articles must be able to be sold to other customers in the event the original requester does not purchase them.
3)Often when customers think they can purchase all of their content from one author, they find that purchasing from multiple authors is the best way to go in the end, which they see after they begin reviewing articles.

As it stands, the customer sent a private request and specified to the author that they be bundled. This is not ideal, even for private requests, and really shouldn't make any difference to the customer in the end - especially if separating the articles helps to ensure error-free content - but I can't always do anything about that.

The private request went through after most of the other articles were approved. There were approximately 50 of these articles in total from various authors.

In addition, Jadedragon, your articles were approved even though they contained information which should have not been included in the submitted file. http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... 879#p51086

Thanks,
Ed

[Evelyn]

You're not ignorant to ask. It's a great question, and a lot of website owners don't know the difference, which is why so many e-preneurs fail miserably.

Here's my understanding of landing pages:

1. They're selling something, usually quite obviously. This is not a bad thing--this is what you want. People click on links to GO somewhere to SOLVE a PROBLEM. (Sorry for the emphasis.)
2. Landing pages are not usually where people land first--usually traffic is driven there by some other means. Like through an article with a link in a resource box, or via a blog, or in a print publication, or on direct mail advertising.
3. Landing pages should be SEO strong, however. The web master wants them to pop up during a search, so people who want to buy things can go buy them.
4. Landing pages are rarely informational, like articles. They're usually short and have a lot of links to other pages on the website, so they act as portals leading the visitor through a series of steps (in order to.... wait for it.... buy something!).
5. Landing pages can also be long--for instance if you're selling an ebook or digital media. There's a formula for writing these types of pages, and the gurus say that longer is better. They tell a story about the product, and are heavy on benefits. Usually on these types of landing pages the "buy" button will be way, way down at the bottom, after you find out about all the fabulous features of the product. These types of landing pages borrow heavily from the direct marketing gurus who send you those super bulky envelopes filled with little slick pieces of paper.
6. Articles are often conversational, where you can hear the author's voice and feel warm and fuzzy because an expert is gently teaching you something. At least, all the writers for Constant Content write with this type of voice. Landing pages are rather cold and practical. The visitor is on her way to someplace else to buy something.
7. Landing pages are rather choppy, as well--lots of sections with short explanations or summaries of what will happen when the visitor clicks on a link. No time for a writer to really develop the story.

It's an art to write an effective landing page, and I have a lot of respect for those who can do it. Personally, I suck at writing landing pages because I use way too many words to get to the point. Too many years in academia!

[jadedragon]

Ya I'm not arguing the bundle rejection and I read the valid reasons. I saw the more detailed post you made after they were all in. As it turned out one of the articles did have a stupid error in it.

Ed answered the question - it looks like the buyer did not buy any of the public request submissions. Instead he treated the public request as an audition and then gave a specific assignment to an author. At least I understand what happened and added some good articles to inventory. It's a little annoying when you can't even sell articles written for a business exactly like your own, but hey maybe I'll use them myself someday if no one wants them here.

[MPIvy]

Evelyn, thanks so much for a very detailed and understandable explanation. I can say it made me feel better to find that maybe the term "landing page" is used carelessly in some cases. I still think of myself as really new to the whole concept of online writing and I am completely out of touch with lots of tech terminology and sort of struggle in this world but that doesn't keep me from forging ahead.

Must say, reading the forums is truly educational AND restores my faith in humanity..gosh, there are just some plain nice people giving their time here.

MP

[Sharion]

jadedragon,

I totally feel for you. It's the worst type of rejection for your article not to be chosen when you indeed know the subject matter inside out. I know, because it happened to me, too. Even worse, in my case they only wanted one article, but several showed up on the recently sold list. It knocked the stuffing out of me for submitting to requests.

The weird part is that if I'd personally known the authors to be my cohorts in the forums of that business, I wouldn't have felt as bad and would have genuinely patted them on the back for their success. The thought of someone beating me out who may have had zero knowledge going in, that's what hurt.

It shows true talent if you have the ability to write about a topic that you know nothing about and sell it. To have the knowledge and fail... ouch!

[jadedragon]

I'm sure the stuff he bought was great and I don't know who wrote it either. They might be an expert too (at least in writing). I've been an expert writer for years and can write on pretty much anything. Just need a buyer that needs what I write and knows what they need. Keep building inventory right? I'm over 30 documents here now.

[Sharion]

I could swear I read somewhere that critical mass is somewhere between 40 and 60 articles. Critical mass is that magical place where sales really start to pop.

There are so many different strategies that you can follow here. Some focus on the requests. Others focus on what comes out naturally and let it sell at its own pace. Some use the requests as a jumping board to get themselves in front of the regular customers in hopes of private requests. Then there's Dr. Kristie, a legend with her own strategy. The highly successful authors here all followed different paths.

One thing they all agree on, if you write it and Ed approves it, your odds for an eventual sale are very high. I don't worry if something doesn't sell in a week. Right now my focus is on honing my writing skills, learning the ropes here, and finding my CC flow. Do that, and everything else will follow.

So yes, keep on building that inventory! You're approaching critical mass

[CaseReynolds]

What is Dr. Kristi's strategy? I see she writes short articles and sells usage rights for a low price. Anything else?

[jadedragon]

What is Dr. Kristi's strategy? I see she writes short articles and sells usage rights for a low price. Anything else?

She does it A LOT. That's all I know.