Like I’ve written earlier on this blog and as comments on Tiffany Dow’s blog, I use iWriter as a filler. If I have a few minutes (at least 15), and I don’t have anything else to do, I go there and check, if there are any interesting jobs.
Obviously, I check the following:
- How high is the requester’s approval rate?
- What does the Special Instructions say?
- How many words is the article supposed to contain?
- Any specific keyword demands?
If I feel that this is an article I’m able to write and do well, I take the job.
Yesterday, I discovered that there was a flaw in my method.
Poorly Defined Request - This Should Have Been a Heads-Up Already
The job, I found and thought looked interesting, just told me to write a 500 words-article around the keywords “Internet Marketing”.
The special instructions told me not to use the keywords more than 3.6% of the time, because the article should be used on Ezine Articles.
No problem. I tend to write too few keywords, unless I force myself to repeat them more often.
So I clicked on the Write Article button, did some brainstorming, wrote an outline based, included the four learning methods, and wrote the article.
After I finished (at 529 words), I ran the article through WhiteSmoke to check for spelling and grammar errors.
After that I submitted the article.
Then I got this strange feeling…
Slow Approval - Give Low Stars in the Ratings to the iWriter Requester
Poor writers in the elite group? Or a difficult to please requester?
iWriter wants us to express with our star ranking how we were treated by the requester. Does he approve fast? (Meaning faster money to you.) Does he comment and tell you his reasons for his review and the rank he gives you?
I should have checked this requester, before writing for him… This is what happened.
After I’ve hit Publish, I got this strange feeling, so I repeatedly went back to iWriter to see, if my article was approved.
It wasn’t.
Not until this morning, I could see that it was approved, and that I’d scored my first 4 star rating. No explanation at all. What didn’t he like? What was wrong? I had no idea.
I Should Have Known - and This is Why You Should Check the Requester Thoroughly
Although it seemed that this requester got a high rank, 5 Stars, if I’d moused over his rating, I would have noticed 4.9 stars. And that’s for a requester who’d asked for hundreds of articles.
Digging down in the reviews, I saw several complains about missing explanations for why he had only given 4 stars, or why he’d rejected an article.
That’s certainly not the kind of requester, I would like to write for. So I should have checked this before accepting the job.
I mean… Although I hate getting a 4 star rating, I would accept it if I’d known WHY he didn’t totally love my article. Was it because he’d had other ideas, but just didn’t give away any clues about those ideas? Did some grammar og spelling pass unnoticed through WhiteSmoke?
WHAT?
Anyway, I learnt my lesson, and I’ll certainly include a mouse-over star ranking check the next time, and if I see less than 5 stars in total, I’ll go through the reviews.
Do you write for iWriter? What do you do to protect yourself from bad rankings or rejections?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article, Britt, and your advice overcomes a problem about which most people probably aren’t even aware.
Thank you, Pete. No, I at least weren’t aware of it before.
I noticed that for the past few weeks, several articles I wrote were rejected for no valid reason, even as the requesters themselves admitted that the articles were well written.
Has anyone had this problem lately ?
I have also experienced the same issue and am very grateful for the advice I have received here please keep the good work going because ignorance is no excuse and prevention is better than cure, thanks