Waiting times for review of publicly requested articles

[cherylannej]

Hi all!

Just wanted to hear whether it sounds normal for articles submitted for 'public requests' to stay in review for 3+ days?

I totally understand how the system works now and that Ed is clearly massively overstretched in reviewing, and will review submissions to public and private requests before any others.

The first public request submission I sent in, was approved within a few hours. I again completely understand it can't always be this fast but my concern just now is this: I have written an article for a specific buyer that will never suit anyone else's needs so, if it doesn't get before him soon I will simply have lost the time spent on that article. I have also been in correspondence with the buyer so he is expecting to see it.

Does this happen often? Is it better, therefore, to not submit articles for public request that are only going to be useful for that buyer specifically, so that articles can at least have a chance of being bought by someone else if the request has expired or if the buyer's got what he needs before he sees my submission?

Really grateful for all your thoughts. LOVE this site and how it works though, and am so enjoying every aspect of it!

Cheryl-Anne (UK newbie writer)

[AmyT]

Hey Cherylannej!

Hi! Ed is usually very good at getting public-request articles reviewed in a timely manner. Weekends are slow... not sure if he works on weekends. I submitted an article for a public request on a Saturday and it was approved very early Monday morning. It varies, of course, but I think he puts these articles at the top of the list because they seem to get approved/rejected faster than normal articles.

If you are talking about the India tapestry article... yeah. I wrote an article and got it approved by Monday (which is what the customer requested!) but they still didn't buy it! (From what I can tell, he/she bought another article a few days ago) Blah... and because it's an eBay listing, it's like no one's going to buy it. I was just looking at someone's profile and they have over 2,000 articles and only have around 100 sales... I guess you have to build up a good-sized portfolio before you get business. Either that, or you're not writing articles people want I guess. All that to say, I think that i will avoid writing articles that are so specific that no one else will ever want to buy it...

Hope something in there was helpful...

Amy

[Celeste Stewart]

I don't think you need to build a large portfolio in order to get business at all. David Kool, the manager of CC, posted a report detailing sales here on the site (http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... =4&t=14568) and the sales percentage was about 70% of all articles posted eventually sell. Theoretically, the writer with 2000 articles available could reasonably expect to sell about 1400 of them.

Actually, I'm not sure where you saw that because if you look at the most proficient writer's list (http://www.constant-content.com/authors.htm) in the Freelancer's Hall of Fame, you'll see that those with hundreds and thousands of articles are indeed selling large percentages of articles. I don't see anyone with 2000-ish articles and only 100-ish sales. Don't forget to look at all licenses sold. For example, for the writers that sell a lot of usage only articles, they may not have larger numbers under the "sold and archived column" because those articles may have been sold, but they aren't archived because they remain available for sale.

But, yeah, you have to be selective or willing to take the risk on writing obscure topics. Use your judgment on those. That said, there may be a way to repurpose the content for a more general audience.

[nichewriter]

I was just looking at someone's profile and they have over 2,000 articles and only have around 100 sales... I guess you have to build up a good-sized portfolio before you get business. Either that, or you're not writing articles people want I guess. All that to say, I think that i will avoid writing articles that are so specific that no one else will ever want to buy it...

Hmm, the 100 sales may just be full rights sales. One good example: Dr. Kristie has over 3,700 articles with only 81 articles sold and archived. But if you look at the list of Top Selling Freelance Writers, she's actually sold over 1800 usage rights. Articles that have sold for usage still remain available for purchase to other buyers on the site; they aren't archived..

You do have to continue building up your portfolio. You can't expect to sell articles if you're not writing and submitting them. When I started on CC in 2006, I only had 8 articles and then I stopped submitting. I resumed in May 2008 and the sales started coming in. I have over 720 articles now in my portfolio, and I've sold over 440 of those (usage, unique, and full rights sales combined). At that rate, I'm selling 6 out every 10 articles I submit, which is pretty good for me since CC comprises a small fraction of mywriting income.

It also pays to write niche articles, and my usual writing strategy is to identify a topic and break that topic down into smaller topics. (It saves me a lot of time on the research part too.) Case in point: I started doing home business articles back in June last year. I've sold over 90 of those to date, mostly to the same buyer.

Added: just read Celeste's post and I agree with what she wrote about writing obscure topics.

Happy weekend!

Best,
Sherry

[Celeste Stewart]

Amy,
I looked up your profile and checked out the Indian tapestry article. You could easily pull that down and rearrange it. Why not write an article about the "Beautiful Tapestries of Jaipur, India" or "A Brief History of Jaipur Tapestries." If you're interested in the city of Jaipur, maybe write a longer travel article about it and include a section about the tapestries, shopping for tapestries, using the tapestries back at home, etc.... Think about the types of sites that might be interested in tapestries or India: travel sites, fine art sites, home decorating sites, etc... and then figure out how you can incorporate what you already know about this city and its tapestries into an article that would appeal to those sites.

Shoot, you could even write an "How to Write an eBay Listing" article and use the content you wrote as an example.
Good luck!

[cherylannej]

Guys could I just ask you all to think back to my original question as I really could do with some seasoned writers here commenting on whether 3+ days (I think it's 4+ days now) is a usual length of time for review of public request articles or should I be concerned something may have gone wrong in the submission, maybe? One of my non-request ones has been approved since. Thanks, all!

[cherylannej]

Amy, thanks for your post! Yes I am talking about the India article (being the one that cannot be used for anything else). Perhaps if the buyer bought a different article, that may be why Ed hasn't reviewed mine! Perhaps he realises it's dead in the water either way! I will check on that - the buyer hasn't let me know that he's no longer waiting for my article. There's another one I submitted 4+ days ago for a request that also I've heard nothing on as yet, but that's OK as it can go into the pool of articles and I'm sure it will sell (how's that for newbie over-confidence, eh!...).

Amy, question directly to you - has your bedspread article gone into your list of content for sale or, because it was so specific will it not get seen by other buyers? I was thinking that although they're very tailored, it's still a good example to buyers of our style of writing for ebay or similar. Merchandising copy is so different that it deserves to be seen?
..........
Edited five minutes later to say, I just found your Jaipur bedspread article online Amy so hopefully mine will end up there too. I think the suggestions to turn these into other styles of articles about Jaipur weaves are useful....we could do that or, it could just be useful to leave them on there as an example of an ebay listing in case someone else needs an ebay copywriter!

[JoyRCalderwood]

I have articles sitting since last Wed.

[solidsnake1]

I'm also a fellow newbie and have been waiting for two articles to be accepted since about a week now. I guess Ed must be backed up with articles or something. I'm not complaining because I think the longest wait times I've seen according to the forums reach up to 14 days. But yeah, I guess all we can do is sit tight and hope our articles sell whenever they do get approved. I'm a little anxious too because both of mine were for public requests and I thought they would be approved sooner. They're my first articles and I'm really excited about getting them out there.

[AmyT]

Amy,
I looked up your profile and checked out the Indian tapestry article. You could easily pull that down and rearrange it. Why not write an article about the "Beautiful Tapestries of Jaipur, India" or "A Brief History of Jaipur Tapestries." If you're interested in the city of Jaipur, maybe write a longer travel article about it and include a section about the tapestries, shopping for tapestries, using the tapestries back at home, etc.... Think about the types of sites that might be interested in tapestries or India: travel sites, fine art sites, home decorating sites, etc... and then figure out how you can incorporate what you already know about this city and its tapestries into an article that would appeal to those sites.

Shoot, you could even write an "How to Write an eBay Listing" article and use the content you wrote as an example.
Good luck!

Dear Celeste,

Thanks so much for the ideas! I was just going to trash the article but I guess there is a lot of potential there! I actually debated for an entire year on India so I am familiar with the culture, economy, geography, politics, etc. All ideas for articles! Would be nice to actually get paid for all that I learned...

So helpful to have you here, Celeste! Thanks so much!

Amy

[AmyT]

Amy, thanks for your post! Yes I am talking about the India article (being the one that cannot be used for anything else). Perhaps if the buyer bought a different article, that may be why Ed hasn't reviewed mine! Perhaps he realises it's dead in the water either way! I will check on that - the buyer hasn't let me know that he's no longer waiting for my article. There's another one I submitted 4+ days ago for a request that also I've heard nothing on as yet, but that's OK as it can go into the pool of articles and I'm sure it will sell (how's that for newbie over-confidence, eh!...).

Amy, question directly to you - has your bedspread article gone into your list of content for sale or, because it was so specific will it not get seen by other buyers? I was thinking that although they're very tailored, it's still a good example to buyers of our style of writing for ebay or similar. Merchandising copy is so different that it deserves to be seen?

Hey Cheryl!

I saw an India-Jaipur article on the "Recently Sold Content" so I think we can safely assume that "nishi" has gotten the content they wanted. But, yes! I am very excited about transforming this article into something for a wider audience.

Whenever I have submitted to a public request, it says that it will be available only to the specific customer. After three days, it becomes publically available. It looks funny out there though -- ha, ha. No one's ever going to buy it....

Lots of new pubic requests submitted today so better get to work!

Amy

[AmyT]

Hmm, the 100 sales may just be full rights sales. One good example: Dr. Kristie has over 3,700 articles with only 81 articles sold and archived. But if you look at the list of Top Selling Freelance Writers, she's actually sold over 1800 usage rights. Articles that have sold for usage still remain available for purchase to other buyers on the site; they aren't archived..

Okay... that explains it. I was looking at Dr. Kristie's profile and thought -- oh, wow! I wonder why she keeps on trying?!? But, that makes a lot of sense. Encourages me to keep writing...

Amy