How to get help from Associated Content or Any Where For That Matter

I’ve had a draft article about how to get good customer service lying around for months. I did write something similar back in Aug 2006 about calling 800 numbers, but I keep thinking I should rewrite it to include how to write an effective email.

You ask, “Why?” The easy answer is, I’m on the receiving end of many similar emails. Additionally, I see so many rants in the AC forum about Associated Content being unresponsive. I can honestly say, Associated Content has never been unresponsive when I emailed a concern. Does AC love me more than you? No. AC gives priority to clear, concise emails with enough details to address the problem. That’s the kind of email that gets a response.

You don’t have to take my word for it. The following block is straight from the man who handles all of AC’s incoming emails.

1. BE SPECIFIC. If there is one specific article you’re having trouble with, tell us the title. If it’s already published, having a URL of the live content will help IMMENSELY, and will let us fix the issue faster for you. It will also help EVERYONE on the site, as we will be able to move more quickly between issues.

2. Don’t just rant. You would be shocked at how many emails I get on a daily basis that are just rants, which really don’t give any information. “YOU NEED TO PAY ME FOR THIS ARTICLE” does not describe the problem you’re having. We want you to have a positive experience at AC, but if there is an issue that’s keeping you from getting paid, once again, we need specifics.

3. Be nice. Ultimately, we’re all on the same team here. Every day, I remind myself that what’s best for the CP’s is best for AC. We’re not on different teams, we’re not playing against each other. AC is really not trying to “pull one over” on you. Also, the people reviewing your content are educated, they are smart, and they are good at their jobs. Insulting them isn’t going to help anyone do anything. At the end of the day, we are all in this together.

4. One email will do it. If you’re having an issue, you email, and you don’t hear back in 20 minutes, that’s normal. I get more than 200 emails per day, all of which need to be read and answered. Sending multiple emails about the same issue on the same content really slows the process for everyone.

I feel his pain, so let me expound on this just a bit.

5. Include Details. Dates, URLs, and article titles are very important. If needed, use dates to build a time-line of the events. In describing the problem, include the steps that you took which lead there. For example, “I was using the General template to submit an article on May 6th. I pressed buttons 1, 2, 3 and then got a blank page.”

6. Be Concise. Don’t address more than one concern in the email. Get to the point and stay on track. A bullet-point list is easier for the email recipient to scan than a 500-word ranting paragraph.

7. Use the Subject Field. In the subject field of your email, include something that gives a clue about the email’s contents. For example, are you reporting a technical bug with the web site? The subject line should read something like, “Technical Bug With Web Site. Broken URL.”

8. Include Your System Info. If your problem appears technical in any way, include you operating system (OS) and browser specifics. Don’t know what those are? It’s simple. For Microsoft Windows, right-click the My Computer icon and choose Properties. There’s your OS. “MS Windows” isn’t good enough. Include the version number. To get your browser information, select the Help > About menu.

9. Don’t assume things are FUBAR unless they are repeatable. Stuff happens. It doesn’t mean it’s AC’s problem 100% of the time. Try to replicate the problem before firing off an email. It may have just been a temporary network drop. It may have been something you did. Slow down, try it again, and make notes of what you’re doing. This will help if you do end up sending an email.

These are the things to which AC or any site responds. I’ll go out on a limb and say those forum posts about AC’s unresponsiveness are probably the result of failure to adhere to rule number 2 and 4. When you read those, between the lines is, “I fired off an mindless rant with no details and didn’t hear back so I fired off 5 more emails.” I guarantee you, those emails went straight to the trash folder.

These are the tips from the guys who get emails everyday about problems with web sites. You don’t have to take them to heart, but then you don’t have to have your problem resolved either.

Associate Content Tip of the Day 17 Mar 2008: Dealing with Plagiarism

Here is Associated Content’s official policy on pursuing plagiarism:

Here’s some clarification that we hope will help any CP who finds their content has been posted/published/reprinted/etc. on a third-party site that isn’t a partner site of AC’s:FACT: If we grant reprint permission for a piece of content to ANY other site, AC will always notify the CP.

For EXCLUSIVE content:
Associated Content is the copyright owner of all exclusive content. While a CP may be the original author, Associated Content is the only entity that can act legally on behalf of the content in question. If you find an exclusive article on an inappropriate site, please contact AC’s Designated Agent at designated_agent@associatedcontent.com. Include the link to the offending website, as well as a link to your content on AC. Only Associated Content has the legal right to send an effective DMCA takedown notice to an offending company/website. We handle these types of cases multiple times every week, so the Designated Agent will be your best step. Any DMCA complaint that you send to a third-party will be defective, as you are no longer the copyright owner.

For NON-EXCLUSIVE content:
Unfortunately, because the content in question was licensed to AC on a non-exclusive basis, we have no way of knowing whether the offending site published the content before or after it was published on AC. Accordingly, we will not necessarily take any action against the site. (At our discretion, AC may send a Cease and Desist order, but we are not required to.) However, since you [the CP] retained the rights to the content, you are free to enforce your rights against the inappropriate third-party for copyright infringement. Depending on where you find your content reprinted, there should always be a contact or link that every company supplies for copyright infringement complaints that looks similar to our “Copyright Infringement?” link at the bottom of each page.

What I get from this is if you submitted your article as an AC exclusive, AC owns the rights and will pursue the matter for you. You only need to report it to their Designated Agent and they’ll take if from there. If you submitted the article as non-exclusive, you still own the rights and AC is under no obligation to help you. You should take action to rectify the situation.

Doing this yourself can be difficult especially if the thief is a blogger. My recent experience is pretty typical when a blogger steals your article. With no other way to contact them, I was reduced to leaving comments on their blog. After receiving no response for a couple of days, I resorted to reporting them to their host. The host, which happened to be WordPress, took swift action to suspend the blog.

It is important to note, I used all the magic DMCA words when I contacted WordPress. If you are going to pursue copyright infringement on your own, you will need to be very specific with URLs, publishing dates, and use the right language. Under the law, if you follow the DMCA legalese, the responsible party must follow up.

Because of my recent saga, I found a great resource, Plagiarism Today. It has lots of information on how to deal with plagiarists. There is also a very helpful Stock Letter section. Simply fill in the blanks and you have an officially worded DMCA cease and desist letter.

The really hard part about enforcing your copyright is finding out that you’ve been plagiarized. You could pay for a service like Copyscape if that is worth your money, but there is a cheesy free way to follow your work. Set up a Google alert for a key phrase or two from your article. This will notify you if the phrase shows up elsewhere on the web.

The goal is to find wholesale plagiarism. Finding just a except falls under the fair use rules. Don’t freak out if you find one paragraph which cites you as the source or links back to your original article. That’s a good thing. However, if you do find a paragraph or two which someone incorporated into their own work and they didn’t cite you, that is plagiarism.

Good Luck and happy hunting.

Associated Content Promotes MySpace Spamming: They Didn’t Think This Through

Category: Associated Content Boneheaded Idea

UPDATED:  Please see the comments for AC response to this post.

Part of the AC Newsletter for 13 March 2008 was some less-than-helpful tips for promoting your article using MySpace.

Make friends with a friend adder bot. This tool collects a list of MySpace users and then sends out requests for you.

This is an incredibly bad idea.

1. It’s against MySpaces TOS. If caught, you’ll have your account deleted.
2. It’s spam. The adding friends part isn’t, but when you start blasting out bulletins, you’ll get blocked.
3. It’s going to give you and Associated Content a black eye.

My jaw hit the floor after the implications of these suggestions sank in. Please do not take AC up on this. Earn your MySpace friends and you will build a long-term, loyal reader base. Scoop and spam random strangers will get you dropped from all circles.

Just one more thing. This was in the AC Newsletter, too:

Make your MySpace page work for you by using colors, fonts and pictures to showcase your content or use the AC-themed layout.

You MySpacers need to open your eyes. I’m starting to think they are closed because you don’t see how butt-ugly your pages are. Tone it down. Stop with the flashing crap. You’re giving people seizures. Pick colors you can see. Stop putting lavender text on a pink background.

Bone up on some basic web concepts such as correct color combination and white space. Spend a few minutes at Web Pages That Suck. It’s a site that teaches you decent design concepts by showing you what other sites have done poorly. Don’t be surprised if you run into a few examples drawn from MySpace.

Good luck and don’t spam.

Associate Content Tip of the Day 27 Feb 2008: 6 Common Internet Writing Mistakes

Nannette Richford put together Six Common Internet Writing Mistakes. These are not the usual cast of characters. You’ll find some real food for thought in this article. Think of it as web writing 201.

5. Do you have the mistaken notion that crafting well-written and insightful content is all that is needed to attract readers? It isn’t. You need to do your homework and find a way to draw readers to your content. “If you build it, they will come.” Only works in the movies. In real life, you need to build a pathway for them to follow. Think of search engines as a path leading to your content. Even the work of literary geniuses will never be read if there is no pathway to their work.

This and 5 more great tips await. >> Read More >>

Editing and Resubmitting an Associated Content Article

Before an Offer
At any time before an offer/rejection is extend, you have the opportunity to edit your article. Login. Select ‘My Account’ and click on ‘My Content’. Next to the article you want to change, click the ‘e’ icon. You’ll walk through all the same pages you did when you first submitted and have a chance to change any of the settings or text.

The only things you can’t change are pictures. Once you’ve attached a picture, you’re stuck with it. If you want to remove a picture, you have to start a new article. You can, however, attach more pictures at this stage.

After an Offer/Rejection (up-front payment consideration)
You may select to edit an resubmit by selecting the option from the drop-down menu next to the offer in the Content area. Your will walk back through the same pages again. Your article will go back in queue for a few more days until a content manager (CM) gets to it again.

If your rejection included a request to make changes, create a new article. Leave the old article in place and submit the new article with the changes. This lets the CM know you are complying with the request. If you just change the one that is there, when they get back to it four days later, they will not remember they asked you to make changes and will tell you to stop resubmitting the same, rejected article.

Changing to PV-only After a Rejection
You have two options:

1. Use the edit and resubmit drop-down. Change the payment consideration to PV-only. Click to the end and save. Don’t do this!. The article goes back into queue and you must wait for a CM to circle back around and publish it. Many people report that even when they use this method, the CM barks about resubmitting rejected material. They often don’t see you’ve changed the payment method.

2. Start a new article. Copy and paste your old article, bit by bit, to the new template. Publish your article immediately. Delete the old article. Don’t forget to press the “Publish” button at the top of the review page. This works every time.

Associated Content Tip of the Day 31 Oct 2007: More on Topic Focus

The Associated Content Tip of the Day for 18 Oct 2007 was Topic Focus.  There I suggested that contributor to AC need to slice their topics into finer and finer details.  Doing so will prevent the dreaded “topic to general” rejection from AC.  Since writing that, several have asked me privately for more examples of “topic slicing.”

The first thing that came to mind was to send them over to ST’s page at Associated Content.   ST has been around the block with AC since joining back in July 2006.  He’s an ex-lawyer (thank God for the ex part) and now a full-time freelance writer.  More over ST is the king of topic slicing.  He has mastered the skill of devolving a generalized topic into articles that focus on one, tight aspect.  This is what AC is looking for and ST has figured out how to sell it to them.

Take the topic of horses.  Seems pretty hum-drum and not dollar-worthy until you start thinking about all the different things you have to know when you own a horse.  Obviously, riding comes to mind first, but when you start slicing care, feeding, training, buying, selling, and other horse-related necessities, a plethora of articles fall out.

Here’s a sample of what ST did with his horse sense.

1. Equine Escape Artists: How to Keep Your Horse Contained
2. Deworming Your Horse
3. 7 Time-Saving Tips for Horse Shows
4. Tips for Buying a Horse on the Internet
5. Top Five Horse Breeds for Jumping
6. Tips for Selling Your Horse on the Internet
7. Trail Riding Safety: How to Enjoy Horses Safely on Vacation
8. Horse Owner Tips: How to Choose a Dressage Saddle
9. Tips for Traveling with Your Horse in the Summer
10. Horses & ATV Safety: Riding on a Shared Trail
11. Stable Management Tips: How to Reduce Dust at the Barn
12. Is Your Horse Trailer Road-Worthy?
13. How to Find a Quality Barn & Breakfast
14. Horse Care Tips - Returning a Broodmare to Work After Foaling
15. Should You Let Friends and Family Members Ride Your Horse?
16. Horseback Riding Students: How You Can Get Credit for High School P.E. Classes
17. What’s Your Horse Saying? - Interpreting Horse Language
18. Teaching Your Horse “Whoa”: How to Stop Your Horse on a Dime
19. Tips for Riding Your Horse on the Street
20. Stable Maintenance Tips: Win the Battle Against Summer Stable Flies
21. Why Horses Kick
22. How to Safely Pasture-Board Your Horse During the Summer
23. You Can Lead a Horse to Water - Perfect and Easy Equestrian Drink
24. How to Store Hay for the Winter
25. Tips on Developing Proper Head Carriage in the Green Horse
26. Why Does Your Horse Have a Sore Back?
27. Equestrian Sports Guide: Preparing for Your First Combined Training Event
28. Is Your Senior Horse at Risk for Heaves?
29. Night Rides: Trusting Your Horse’s Night Vision
30. Understanding Your Horse’s Hearing
31. How to Disinfect a Foaling Stall
32. How to Handle Horse Head Injuries
33. Alternative Healthcare for Horses
34. How to Wrap Your Horse’s Hoof
35. Does Your Horse Need Horseshoes?
36. Equine Insurance: How Valuable is Your Horse?
37. Keeping Your Horse’s Coat White
38. How to Get Your Horse Used to Clippers
39. How to Stop Your Horse from Rearing
40. How to Care for Your Horse’s Abscessed Hoof
41. How Race Horses Are Trained
42. Top Five Horse Breeds for Children
43. Does Your Child Need a Pony or a Horse?
44. When You Should Call the Vet for Your Horse
45. Guide to Colic Surgery for Horses
46. Turn Your Love of Horses into a Career
47. How to Improve Your Horse’s Style Over Fences
48. Improve Your Horse’s Balance with Counter Canter
49. Caring for Your Horse’s Boots & Wraps
50. Leg Protection Options for Young Horses
51. Does Your Horse Need a Chiropractor?
52. Recognizing Learning Ability in Horses
53. Tips for Medicating Your Horse
54. How to Choose Hay for Your Horse
55. Top Horse Stables in Houston, Texas
56. How to Desensitize Your Horse
57. Does Your Horse Need a Martingale or Tie-Down?
58. Teach Your Horse to Bow, Paw and Perform Other Cool Tricks
59. Does Your Horse Cross-Fire?
60. How to Properly Clean a Horse’s Stall
61. Does Your Horse Sweat Enough?
62. How to Handle a Stallion
63. How to Catch a Horse in the Pasture
64. Should You Board Your Horse or Build Your Own Barn?
65. Tips for Riding Your Horse Bareback
66. How to Increase Your Horse’s Agility
67. How to Choose a Bit for Your Energetic Horse
68. How to Lunge Your Horse
69. How Much Should You Pay for Horse Training?
70. How to Keep Your Child Safe for Horseback Riding Lessons
71. Introduction to Endurance Horseback Riding

That’s 71 articles all centered around horses, but each with it’s own very tightly focused theme.  Why is this important?

• You only have 400-800 words to really get your point across.  More than 1,000 and you’ll probably lose your reader.  Staying on target with a tight theme will wrap up your article quickly.
• With the keywords in your title, you’re going to be picked up in more searches. It is unlikely that someone goes to Google and types “horse.”  It is likely that they type “horse stable clean” or “cleaning horse stables”.
• AC can place ads more easily when you have tight topics.  It gives AC the ability to put not only ads for horse care, but horse equipment, training, veterinary services, etc.  If AC can’t place ads, therefore not make money with your article, they won’t pay you for it.

I hope this example shows the importance of mincing your ideas down to tiny bits.  Once you have pieces, it is easy to assemble a article that AC will pony up the bucks for.  (yes, you may groan at the pun).

That was a long dry spell

Between work and a much needed mini-vacation, I haven’t put anything on AC in quite a while. Now that things are returning to something close to normality, I was able to punch this out over coffee this morning.

Tonight we shall dine in finery at Ruth’s Chris. I’m treating my 25-years-tomorrow partner and the 1-year newlyweds to dinner.

What to get for the big silver anniversary? Eyewear of course. She hasn’t had her eyes checked in over 3 years. I don’t think she’d have gone if she hadn’t slept in her glasses and bent them. All the gentle badgering in the world didn’t seem to work, but blindness is a great motivation.

The newlyweds are having their own life-building struggles. Jenn’s doctor didn’t fill out a form correctly and Public Safety suspended her license. It’s good that her husband adores her so much. He’s having to tote her everywhere now. I hope they are using the togetherness to build a stronger relationship.

Jenn isn’t as upset about not driving as she is about the doctor filling out the form incorrectly not once, but twice. Now the doctor has reversed her decision on the matter and refuses to sign off. That makes the first form a fraud. Jenn is hopping mad and plans to file complaints with the state medical board. Damn, I raise a spitfire.

Enjoy the new article. It’s sort of rantish, but you’ll find it true.

Life Lesson #107

Never fill your coffee maker with water before checking the cabinets for coffee.  Getting water out of a coffee maker is harder than putting it in.

AC Call for Content

No special offers this go-round. Just some ideas for those that might be stumped for something to write. Here’s the email:

Call for Content

Many of us spent the weekend with family, celebrating mom. If you dined out for Mother’s Day, consider submitting a review of the great (or not so great) restaurant and become a local restaurant critic!Here a few things to consider when crafting your review:

- Mention specifics about the atmosphere, menu, service, price, location and menu
- Be accurate and honest
- Make sure it’s at least 400 words
- Refer to your location and the name of the establishment at least 2 or 3 times and include both in the headline
- Attach photo(s) to make your review stand out!

Multimedia idea: Interview a chef, patron or restaurant owner for a video restaurant review.

Associate Content Tip of the Day 28 April 2007: Adding/Deleting Photos

Adding photos to your article
Including a picture with with your article might not increase the original bid, but it does add visibility. Eyes are naturally drawn to pictures before words. Adding a relevant photo increases the chance that mice will click your article.

Sources: StockXchng and MorgueFile both have lots of free-use photos. They both have handy search features to help you find a topical picture quickly. Any site is a potential source if you read the terms and conditions and credit the photo properly. Government sites’ (.gov) photos are normally public domain.

Copyrights: Read the photo’s source site’s terms and conditions. If the photo requires permission be granted prior to use, you’d better get the permission or move on. Even when you do use free-use photos give the photographer credit. There is a spot in the publishing template for their name and URL where you found the photo.

Uploading: Page 5, the last page, of the Associated Content publishing template is where you can upload a picture. Once you locate a picture that you want to use.

1. Right click and choose “Save image…” in your browser. Some sites have a download feature, but the image may be too large for AC’s restrictions. Just use your right-click to save the smaller image.
2. Save the image (remember where you put it)
3. Click the upload button in the template
4. Browse to the save picture
5. Click OK
6. Fill out the copyright, credits and caption information
7. Click “Upload…”

You can upload up to five photos per article. When the article publishes, the pictures will display in order for every page turned. If your article has fewer pages than photos, your readers will have to use the navigation buttons under the photo area to view the extra photos.

Bugs: The Associate Content publishing template currently does not have a “delete photo” feature. Once you upload a picture, it’s permanently attached to your article. If you want to delete it you will need to delete the entire article and start anew.