Long Summary Being Auto Generated

[jkcki]

I noticed the long summary is now being auto generated. The problem is that it's being auto generated at 1/3rd the article length. Many writers here say that the best way to get sales is to include the entire article. I've been going back and editing my submissions to change my long summary, but I'm wondering if it's something Constant Content is trying to discourage us from including. If not, it would be great to be able to choose. Maybe like a select list with "33% of Content, 50% of Content, 75% of Content, Show All Content" or something?

[evaku]

Just click on "edit my account" and set the "Default Long Summary Percentage" to 100!

[JDWhang]

Including the whole article in the long summary helps sales? I haven't heard this, can anybody weigh in on it?

[evaku]

Yeah, that is the conventional wisdom. I don't have any stats to back it up because I've always included the whole thing so I have nothing to compare, but I would be iffy about buying something when I couldn't see the entire thing. Maybe you can see that the writing quality is there, but what if you don't like how the rest of the topic was handled? Once I saw someone who included about half of each paragraph. I think that is a good idea if you don't want to include the whole article, because then the buyer can at least see what you wrote about.

[jkcki]

Can't believe I never saw that! Thanks!

I can't say that I actually noticed a difference when I switched over, but personally I do it because I also use my Constant Content portfolio for a lot of things (such as displaying my work for eLance).

[Lysis]

aw crap is that by default. That means like the last 15 articles of mine aren't showing the whole thing. Dammit. -_-

[Lysis]

Oh man. QQ me. FYI: you have to go back and put in the long summary for the whole article. It's too early for this and I haven't had coffee.

[Constant]

We're considering going the opposite way with this - the default being 100% but allowing writers to reduce it to 33% if they like. Would you guys be in favour of that?

[Lysis]

I already changed mine, so either way. But had I not read this thread and forum, I woulda only been showing 33% and I think that hurt sales, personally. I had to go back and redo everything.

Maybe have some kind of notice on the form?

I think you're gonna anger someone either way on this one.

[jkcki]

I think 100% should be the default with a notice and a link to an explanation. Ultimately, I believe that it will increase sales for both CC and all writers if they are aware that the summary should be longer. As we saw in this thread, not everyone realizes that and by the time they do realize it they could be looking at lost opportunity, since their articles are no longer on recent lists and others have already looked at and passed on their work.

I also think it might be beneficial if, instead of seeing our "listing" when we post we see the full article as it will be seen. Right now, you see the "listing" then you can choose whether you click on your listing to view it. I think the view should be automatic because there can be some formatting issues that simply are not apparent until you view the listing.

[evaku]

Good idea to be fair, CC did say that the summary length was set to a default of 1/3 in the e-mail they sent out about the new submission system. I don't at all mean to say that you all should have known, but I can see how they must have thought that was enough to make everyone aware. If I hadn't been using the new submission system for a while I would probably have glossed over or not even remembered that bit. I always check my entire article after it is posted which is how I quickly realized I had to change the default. So good idea about being shown the entire article after it is submitted!

[jkcki]

I don't think it's so much an issue of what's default as that authors aren't aware that having 100% of their article can increase their sales. They know they should have more, or at least 1/3rd, but they don't know that the whole thing is better because it isn't stated clearly. I think I actually learned that from Celeste's articles about CC, not from anywhere on CC itself. Again, I don't know if it's a truth or folk knowledge because I started using 100% very early on. But as a content buyer myself, I do know I would hesitate before buying an article that I couldn't see completely. It's probably written somewhere on CC, but there's so much information to absorb when you first start that it might just get passed by.

Constant Content could probably run a quick database query to compare article percentages and sales to see if articles with 100% have a greater chance of selling. If they do, it would really be to CC's benefit to make 100% the default. It's not likely to deter new authors because frankly Constant Content is really the only significant spec site out there today besides royalty sites.

[Abbamay]

Hi CC,

If you changed the default to 100% with the author having the option to change it, that would be fair. I like 100% for my private requests because I think those buyers should be able to see all of what they are buying first.

Thanks,

Abba May

[JDWhang]

I was worried about content theft with 100%, but logically, I don't think many people will sit down and retype something to steal content. Giving it a shot, thanks for the heads up.

[TjCharles]

JD,

They don't have to type it. They can just take screenshots and then use OCR software to convert it to text.

There's no real protection. This isn't CC's fault, though.

The most you can do is search for your content online regularly. This could get tedious of you're a big producer though.

If you find it online, file a DMCA notice, or ask CC to do it for you. As far as whether showing 100% increases sales, that does sound like something CC could check, and I for one would appreciate it.