Site Renovations

[Constant]

Hello Everyone! As you can see I have started a new forum to help us communicate with you during the next few months of site development and renovation. I would like to see people focusing their attention on ideas to improve the following:

Intrasite Communication:
Submissions:
Request Notification and tracking:
Author Profiles:
Article Listing and Rankings:
Statistics:

We do know that there are bugs on the site, but those are going to get fixed by beta testing while we move toward perfection. What we really want is your ideas on how to make the site easier to negotiate, utilize and submit. Please direct other authors to this part of the site so that we can keep all of your suggestions straight and viable.

Cheers,

David Kool
Constant-Content.com

[Angie H]

Hello David,

It is nice to "meet" you. I don't believe we have messaged before. I have a few things I think would make CC more user friendly. (some I had previously mentioned)

1. It would be really great if requests and the like could be run on RSS feeds. This way, it eliminates messages getting lost in my inbox and it is easier to see what has been coming through.

2. I think customers would find it extremely helpful if there was a section on profiles for testimonials.

3. Allowing customers to have to option of creating a sort of profile would make it easy for writers to get basic information such as preferred writing style, etc. This would also eliminate customers from having to re-enter the same information repeatedly. I also think it would encourage repeat visits. Another component could be added here as well for private requests. This would allow the chosen writer to enter the article into the correct customers file after it is approved (similar to an article category). Customers could easily see their requests and it would eliminate having the wrong customers buying articles meant for someone else.

4. Requests need an expiry date. A lot of newbies, myself included, find it confusing that several request are listed that are no longer valid.

5. Offer customers RSS feeds of incoming articles (excluding the private requests). It would remind them of our service and help them find articles faster and easier since most people add these feeds directly to their home page.

I had more ideas than I originally thought lol.

That's my 2 cents. Thank you for "listening."

Angie H

[lissie]

The pop-up on the profile is not just to add an image: its also to add your blurb, this could be clearer. Also the pop up on my 14" screen rolls off the bottom of the screen once I have added a photo. I now therefore cannot edit the blurb without going to a computer with a larger screen: the scroll focus is only on the back window not on the scroll.

It would be nice to add articles in a variety of formats e.g. txt, html, pdf, doc - this I think would be useful for the publishers.

[Ed]

Lissie, your last suggestion is already an option. You can simply add more files of the article in different formats.

[Angie H]

BTW, it would be really great if the message threads wouldn't disappear. I was just talking to a customer and now the thread is gone. Now I can't communicate with him and I would hate to lose him as a customer!

Thanks (I realize that this message sounds like I'm irritate...Shouldn't read that way at all. It's just a minor peeve. I'm sure he will contact me through the authors list)

[Constant]

These are great suggestions! They are going into the features/bugs tracking system as we speak and the tech guys are going be working on them over the next couple of months! Please keep them coming, it really helps when we hear how the user experience unfolds and all the things that you notice of the day to day basis. It is hard for all of us to see 360 degrees, but together we can see it all.

Cheers!

[Elizabeth Ann West]

We really need a way to remove requests we aren't interested in, especially private requests. OR, since deleting might be problematic, perhaps allow authors to have an area where they can move requests to a special "work area" to highlight the requests they are working on. It can be very frustrating, especially when the site is running slow, to find the private/public request you want to reference while you are working. Currently, I print all the ones I work on, but this is getting a bit wasteful.....

Always Smiling,
Elizabeth Ann West

[jentypist]

"Requests need an expiry date."

This is a fabulous suggestion. Is there a time-frame that rennovations are target to be completed?

[WTPayne]

I'd like to say "Amen" to Angie's suggestion and add one:

Can you add a means for us to know if a buyer has actually even read our messages to them? It feels like you're sending messages into the void right now. It is particularly frustrating when you answer a private request and then... nothing. The article sits and doesn't get purchased, and frankly, if the requester doesn't buy it in a SHORT time frame, I would like to make it publicly available.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Idea for intrasite communications?

What about putting together a wikki? The forums are great, but most new authors can't really find specific answers to questions, and some information on the forums is outdated. As we have more and more changes come about, it would be easier to have something like the wikki, which combines the best of the FAQs and Forums, so authors, and buyers are receiving the most up to date information about communication changes, pricing, policies, etc. Plus, when we see grammatical mistakes, we just fix it. :)

Always Smiling,
Elizabeth Ann West

[Ed]

I hope to have the ability to incorporate this type of information in resources documents when the time comes, for sure.The blog was a quick solution, but a wiki might not be the best solution. I need to be able to make sure that the information is correct and that everyone understands how CC works from a certain perspective.

Ed

[rcashdan]

If possible, put the "notify me of a reply" button at the top. I hadn't been on the Forum for a while and didn't notice the button until too late because I enlarge the font.

[JD]

I think that customers should be encouraged to provide as much information as possible when submitting requests. This might also help with converting requests into sales. Maybe we’re missing what the customers actually want because we’re not able to read their minds and just have to go on the – sometimes – very scant info that they provide. It would be great to have details such as the customer’s target audience; whether the article should be written with a bias towards any particular point; whether the customer wants the article written in UK English or American English. I think a customer profile, as Angie H suggested, could help with this, though.

I also think that customers should be given a "deadline" of sorts when it comes to purchasing public request articles. However, I understand that we don't want to deter them from buying so perhaps a message on their side of the fence advising them that if they don't make a purchase within x no. of days then it's possible that the writer could very well increase the price of the article and offer it out for general consumption (worded in such a way as to encourage them to buy, of course!).

It would be great to know why customers submit requests and then don’t follow up and buy the articles. Though I understand that it would be almost impossible to get feedback from a customer on this if he or she hasn’t even bothered to come back to buy an article…!

Thanks.

Jane

[DSWaltenburg]

Is there some way to quarantine articles that are submitted for private requests, so that they are not introduced into public inventory upon editor approval?

This is a note from my customer left on our Private Request Q&A today:

""CC has not notified me that the last 2 articles were approved and posted. I found them by accident looking thru the articles posted live on the site.""(Note: One of those articles was written and submitted before my client's Private Request had been processed, hence it fell under "Public Content")

Since we humans cannot stay up 24/7 to monitor approvals, & with an email glitch sending CC emails to the abyss instead of inboxes, having procedures in place to protect P.R. articles would benefit all. How about making articles available in an Author's Content after approval, but not to the public, and providing a function for then making the article "Public" later on if their client does not purchase it, if they so choose? That way, whenever they get back to CC, be it 1 min., 1 hr., or 1 day later, they can then forward the article thru the normal process on the Q&A page, without fear of having it snatched up by public customers.

To be continued, in Part Deux...

[DSWaltenburg]

I don't know if my situation is unique, however, I wrote 4 articles for my client before he sent his Private Request to CC, so when I submitted each article, I put a note in the Short Summary stating for whom the article was intended, and asking that others please not purchase it, in hopes that I would get approvals before the articles spent too much time on display. However, with the email glitch, with that last article before the private req., I simply thought my client was just very speedy, and got to it before I had a chance to post it to the Q&A on the Public Request board. And finally, my point: If this is also the case for others, perhaps making ALL of our content 'invisible' until each author sends it into public inventory, would help eliminate any miscommunications/mis-sales due to timing conflicts, etc. Adding it to the Action column on the 'Your Content' page, with a command to "Make Public" under Edit and Delete, might be the easiest way to do so; however, I'm definitely not a programmer, so I have no clue.

Included in that line of thought: When articles are approved, they would go straight to 'Your Content', but wouldn't be seen elsewhere, including the Profile page. This way there would be no confusion, and each author can control when or to whom their content goes.

Thanks for hearing me out!

Deborah