So, I got my first couple of rejections from Yahoo. To be precise, they turned down two of my Civil War articles saying that I need to cite my sources. Which is odd, because they didn't ask for that on the first four articles in the series...and they didn't ask for that in four more they published in the same series that had been submitted after the two that got refused!
Puzzling, to say the least.
I can only hypothesize that Yahoo has a ton of different editors, and that the two articles that I submitted on the 20th that got rejected went to one who's more of a stickler for the rules than the one who got the four I submitted on the 23rd.
Nevertheless, one of the rules for being a good writer is "Give the client what they want." So, tempting as it might be to revise one and re-submit the other unamended to see what happens, I shall swallow both pride and curiosity both and do as I am bid. That's the job.
In other news, as I mentioned, I have a bunch of new articles up. Starting off with four new Civil War articles here:
Tupelo
Stones River
Kennesaw Mountain
Brice's Crossroads
What's interesting about these is that they're the first battlefields in the series, well except for Fort Donelson which was the last stop on my trip last March, that I haven't actually visited. I'm basically just summarizing what I know about the battles, backed up by Shelby Foote and Wikipedia, and pulling relevant travel details from National Parks sites.
Why yes, I do feel like a contributing member of society, why do you ask?
The thing of it is, most people interested in going to these battlefields are almost certainly ending up somewhere else other than Yahoo for that information. But if Yahoo is willing to pay me to mold that content into a few hundred words on their site, who am I to argue? I'm not copy and pasting, and you'd have to go to two separate sites to get both the history of the battle and the travel information, so the pages I'm writing are more efficient, if nothing else.
Finally, I also have a review up of Murder for Two, a cute hour and a half long musical about a murder with fifteen characters and only two cast members.
Yes, I actually went and saw it, just over a week ago, in fact.
You can give it a glance here.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Working for Yahoo, Part X
So a couple of days ago, I had two more articles posted by Yahoo. They were more of my Civil War series, talking about the Battle of Pea Ridge, and the Siege of Vicksburg. The thing of it is, they actually got posted on Saturday the 21st, while I didn't Tweet or Facebook about them until Monday the 23rd. In the interim, I let them both go unannounced over the weekend to see what happens. Also, I figured I'd get a bigger bump by mentioning them on a Monday, instead of a Saturday.
And a funny thing happened. The Pea Ridge article did nothing at all. Indeed, it only got 6 hits in total on Monday when it got a little publicity from me, and nothing since. The Vicksburg piece, on the other hand, has been averaging 9 hits a day, with or without my pumping it up. Vicksburg, of course, was a crucial battle in the Civil War, and is much more likely to be known by people than the relatively small battle that was Pea Ridge, so those numbers make a certain amount of sense.
So, once I saw how those numbers were going, I did the obvious. I wrote up a similar article on Gettysburg, as a start to be "Travelleing the EASTERN Battlefields" series. If a moderately well known battle can draw in much better hits/day than anything else I've done, how about the most famous battle of the war?
I also finished off the Western Battlefields set, so I've got nine Civil War articles in the queue awaiting approval. A couple of those, like Chikamauga and Shiloh are of big and reasonably well known battles. Others, like Stones River and Brice's Crossroads, not so much. But I am very interested to know how well they'll all do, and whether the success of Vicksburg is an aberration, or if the bigger battles lead to more hits.
And, just to keep things fresh, I've also got a review of a little play I saw on Friday and some commentary about last night's Bulls game. This last one could go either way. Its a time sensetive piece, in that it won't make any sense if it goes up after the Bulls play Game 5 on Thursday. But if they do accept it quickly, it may be able to get me a ton of hits quickly.
We'll see.
And a funny thing happened. The Pea Ridge article did nothing at all. Indeed, it only got 6 hits in total on Monday when it got a little publicity from me, and nothing since. The Vicksburg piece, on the other hand, has been averaging 9 hits a day, with or without my pumping it up. Vicksburg, of course, was a crucial battle in the Civil War, and is much more likely to be known by people than the relatively small battle that was Pea Ridge, so those numbers make a certain amount of sense.
So, once I saw how those numbers were going, I did the obvious. I wrote up a similar article on Gettysburg, as a start to be "Travelleing the EASTERN Battlefields" series. If a moderately well known battle can draw in much better hits/day than anything else I've done, how about the most famous battle of the war?
I also finished off the Western Battlefields set, so I've got nine Civil War articles in the queue awaiting approval. A couple of those, like Chikamauga and Shiloh are of big and reasonably well known battles. Others, like Stones River and Brice's Crossroads, not so much. But I am very interested to know how well they'll all do, and whether the success of Vicksburg is an aberration, or if the bigger battles lead to more hits.
And, just to keep things fresh, I've also got a review of a little play I saw on Friday and some commentary about last night's Bulls game. This last one could go either way. Its a time sensetive piece, in that it won't make any sense if it goes up after the Bulls play Game 5 on Thursday. But if they do accept it quickly, it may be able to get me a ton of hits quickly.
We'll see.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Working for Yahoo, Part IX
So, after three weeks in the system, here are some numbers.
Here's Louie 22 days, 37 views
Visting Civil War Battlefields: Wilson's Creek 21 days, 70 views
Kings, Queens, and Generals: A Summer 2011 Reading List 21 days, 34 views
AMC Randhurst 12: A Theater in the Digital Age 16 days, 98 views
Lord of Ultima: A Copy of a Copy 10 days, 37 views
As we can see, certain trends are at work here. For one thing, the two assignment pieces I did, "Here's Louie" and "Kings, Queens, and Generals," are the least efficient ones I've done. I'd expected that assignments would get some play somewhere on the Yahoo network, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Apparently assignments are only good if you can't think of something else to write. What's worse, both of these, especially Here's Louie, have almost all their views in the first couple of days, that is through views generated by my mentioning them here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. There's virtually no hits after that first bump, so these are pretty much entirely self-promoted.
Ergo, assignments are a bad deal.
I'll admit, I expected the Lord of Ultima piece to do better. I know I search for reviews before playing random internet games, but traffic on this one is pretty much flat too. Technically, the reading list is getting more play. So Yahoo is right...video game reviews, even of a game for which I couldn't find any other reviews, don't do well.
Where they're wrong, though, is in the popularity of the movie theater review. As you can see, its outpacing everything else in both a per day hits and in overall. Yahoo wouldn't give me the upfront payment on this one, but it's still doing pretty well.
Despite the theater review's comparative success, I've spent all week pumping out six more Battlefield articles like my Wilson's Creek one. Why? Well, the thing of it is that the $2.00 I get for each one is equivalent to 1,333 views straight up. So regardless of the fact that the Randhurst piece is nominally more efficient, if I can keep scoring the upfronts, that's probably better overall.
Of course, it's still not much money, but it's a start.
Here's Louie 22 days, 37 views
Visting Civil War Battlefields: Wilson's Creek 21 days, 70 views
Kings, Queens, and Generals: A Summer 2011 Reading List 21 days, 34 views
AMC Randhurst 12: A Theater in the Digital Age 16 days, 98 views
Lord of Ultima: A Copy of a Copy 10 days, 37 views
As we can see, certain trends are at work here. For one thing, the two assignment pieces I did, "Here's Louie" and "Kings, Queens, and Generals," are the least efficient ones I've done. I'd expected that assignments would get some play somewhere on the Yahoo network, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Apparently assignments are only good if you can't think of something else to write. What's worse, both of these, especially Here's Louie, have almost all their views in the first couple of days, that is through views generated by my mentioning them here, on Facebook, and on Twitter. There's virtually no hits after that first bump, so these are pretty much entirely self-promoted.
Ergo, assignments are a bad deal.
I'll admit, I expected the Lord of Ultima piece to do better. I know I search for reviews before playing random internet games, but traffic on this one is pretty much flat too. Technically, the reading list is getting more play. So Yahoo is right...video game reviews, even of a game for which I couldn't find any other reviews, don't do well.
Where they're wrong, though, is in the popularity of the movie theater review. As you can see, its outpacing everything else in both a per day hits and in overall. Yahoo wouldn't give me the upfront payment on this one, but it's still doing pretty well.
Despite the theater review's comparative success, I've spent all week pumping out six more Battlefield articles like my Wilson's Creek one. Why? Well, the thing of it is that the $2.00 I get for each one is equivalent to 1,333 views straight up. So regardless of the fact that the Randhurst piece is nominally more efficient, if I can keep scoring the upfronts, that's probably better overall.
Of course, it's still not much money, but it's a start.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Working for Yahoo, Part VIII
So doing a short story for Yahoo was a terrible idea. With the deadline looming, I slapped together what I had and put it up. I'm not the slightest bit happy with it, and don't plan to link to it even though the damn thing got published immediately. Fortunately, since it was an assignment, it ended up being in the "Display Only" category, which means I can take it down or edit it whenever I like. I'll likely try and fix it through editing, but since I blew a whole week working on what turned out to be drek, that'll have to wait until I get more paying articles up.
As the deadline neared, I tried to cancel out of the assignment only to be warned that doing so near the deadline (which I most certainly was) would endanger my ability to receive other assignments. So I swallowed my pride and dumped it up. It does suggest, however, that Yahoo definitely has a Quantity over Quality point of view towards what it publishes. It doesn't matter if it sucks...just get it up there. I did cancel out of a similar Science Fiction short story assignment that had 15 days left on it. I'm not getting shoved up against a wall like that again.
However, since I have no intention of linking to the story here or anywhere else, it will make a good test case to see how many clicks something that has no author advertisement at all can garner. Right now, it has 0 clicks. I wonder if it'll get any at all?
In more positive news, the article I wrote about the slow speed RTS Lord of Ultima finally got published. Have a look at it here. I do wonder what took them so long, since I wrote it almost two weeks ago.
I also got my second article about Civil War battlefields submitted. It should be published late this week or early next week if Yahoo works as fast as it did on my first article in the series.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Working for Yahoo, Part VII
I've got a new article up, a little review I wrote about the new AMC Randhurst 12 movie theater that just opened up last week. It was the first one that I've submitted that was rejected for the upfront payment on the thought that it wasn't likely to appear on a Search. I submitted it anyway to get a few more page views, though.
Most of my writing time's been taken up with trying to finish this short story that's due in only four days now, which is why things have been a little quiet around here. Nevertheless, I hope to get it done and out of the way soon and back to my normal production.
Most of my writing time's been taken up with trying to finish this short story that's due in only four days now, which is why things have been a little quiet around here. Nevertheless, I hope to get it done and out of the way soon and back to my normal production.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Working for Yahoo, Part VI
Well, I've got some money back now. Granted, its only $2, but it is money. So I guess I'm officially a professional writer, if only by the narrowest of margins.
That $2 comes from the Up Front fee for my Civil War Battlefield article about Wilson's Creek. That was part of a trip I took back in March to a number of battlefields. Since the first one paid out, I guess I'll do the rest soon.
I also accepted, wrote, and got published on the same day an Assignment from Yahoo about my Summer Reading List. Its not bad, if perhaps a bit obvious in a couple of cases. I did think it was interesting how quickly they got it and published it, especially since I've got a couple more articles in the queue that are still awaiting approval.
Something that is annoying to me is that they suggest putting up a Contributor Photo. Which is fine, but every time I try, it bounces and I'm stuck with the default blank slate. Its getting on my nerves, and I don't know what I need to do to make it work.
That $2 comes from the Up Front fee for my Civil War Battlefield article about Wilson's Creek. That was part of a trip I took back in March to a number of battlefields. Since the first one paid out, I guess I'll do the rest soon.
I also accepted, wrote, and got published on the same day an Assignment from Yahoo about my Summer Reading List. Its not bad, if perhaps a bit obvious in a couple of cases. I did think it was interesting how quickly they got it and published it, especially since I've got a couple more articles in the queue that are still awaiting approval.
Something that is annoying to me is that they suggest putting up a Contributor Photo. Which is fine, but every time I try, it bounces and I'm stuck with the default blank slate. Its getting on my nerves, and I don't know what I need to do to make it work.
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