Responding to New Article Requests

[Greg Melikov]

Since I've been receiving offers, none of which so far is in any area of my
expertise, I'd like to know who do I respond to if I agree to write a new article. And
what is the procedure to follow through. Does any specific section cover it? I'd really appreciate some advice and help. Thanks.

[Word Gypsy]

Greg,
Check out the “About the Site” section on the left. Click the Writer Tutorial. It should answer your questions. Simply write the article, submit it for approval, leave a comment in the request. Happy writing!
Word Gypsy

[Cheryl McKenzie]

When you write, "leave a comment in the request," where is this request feature?

[Word Gypsy]

Hi Cheryl,
If you click on requested content, you get to the list of requests. Clicking view description lets you read about that specific request. Beneath that, you should see a "Q & A" to the bottom right corner. Click that to leave a comment and a link to your article.
Good luck!
Gypsy

[eleahy2003]

Don't you have to wait for your article to be accepted by the editors before you can put a link to it in the Requested Content comment section?

[writewellcfl1]

Yes, an article has to go through the review process before it can be linked in the Q&A section.

[CassaundraFowler]

I am a VERY new writer (having JUST set up my account and am trying to figure this all out). I read this thread and am wondering...if we have to wait for the articles to be approved once we have written them before we can submit them to an article request, how do we know when/if the customer will still want the article once it is approved? How can we be sure that the request will not have already been filled by another author?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Cassaundra

[JD]

Cassaundra

Hi. Welcome. To answer your question, you won't know whether the request will have been filled by another author while your article is waiting to be reviewed (although checking the 'recently sold content' page may give you an idea). There is a chance that the customer will buy another writer's article while yours is in the submission process, but then again, there's also a chance that the customer will not buy any article. If your article isn't bought then it will be added to your portfolio where hopefully it will be purchased at a later date by someone else - or, who knows, maybe the original author if s/he decides s/he needs another one on the same topic.

Good luck.

Jane

[4rumid]

Cassaundra,

Also, articles that are submitted for requests tend to get reviewed very quickly. Plus, if you indicate your article is for a request on the submission form*, once it gets approved it goes directly to the requester -- so getting the article approved and submitting to the request only involves one step on your part.

Good luck!

*You'll see a field right at the top for that purpose.

[JD]

Apologies - "...maybe the original author if..." should have read "...maybe the original buyer if...".

[CassaundraFowler]

Thank you both for your help!

[Lee]

Is this all still current? I'm a new writer here, and I tried clicking on the "send message/attach article" link and haven't gotten any response back. Does this mean that the messages, attachments, etc. aren't going through, or that the customer just isn't responding? Am I doing something wrong?

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi Lee,
This is an old thread. Have you had any articles approved yet? If not, there's a policy where new writers are blocked from contacting customers due to past spammers signing up as writers and annoying customers as well as other issues such as writers contacting customers and inappropriately bidding or working out other arrangements.

I'm not sure how the "no contact until an article's been approved" policy works but I'd assume that a link wouldn't even be available until passing this first milestone. Could be wrong though.

And yeah, it's not unusual for customers to ignore writers. In general, we shouldn't be contacting customers with "I'm interested in writing this for you and can do it for X" types of messages. Simply write the article, state your price in the submission, and mark it as a public request (and then choose the right request in the dropdown). CC automatically notifies the customer with the approved article's link. Otherwise, customers get overloaded with messages from well intentioned writers and/or bidders and that's the exact opposite of what they're expecting.

[Lee]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've had one article approved, but one other is still awaiting review after 7 days, even though this is for a public request. Is it normal for review to take so long? I'm concerned that the customer may well have bought something else before this one is approved.

I'd like to have more information on some of the requests, as they're not very informative about what tone the customer is expecting. But you think it's not appropriate to ask? Once the article passes review, should I click on the link to bring it to their attention?

[Celeste Stewart]

It's appropriate to ask relevant questions as many requests can be quite vague. Use your judgment and realize you may or may not hear back. Don't let a lack of a response postpone you from writing an article if you're interested in the topic. Sometimes, customers don't really know what they want - they know it when they see it.