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Greasy Spoon

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I've felt overwhelmed because I'm doing Prep for a city guide and the amount of information they asked for in the site description was massive.

and

MoreThanMommy said:
Having done prep for a city, I agree that it can be tough. They expect restaurant reviews, photos, etc. and it can require some leg work (or at least a lot of phone/email)! Family Computing prep was tough, but I could do it all from the comfort of my home in the middle of the night.

*sigh*

Good luck on your review willwrite4food! And happy writing/formating /posting to NancyP, RitrChick and everyone else in prep right now. I for one am on day three, and am soooo anxious for the weekend to end so I can hear back from my mentor on my categories...


I'm hesitant to give any tips to anyone since I'm so early in the process, but one of the things I did beforehand was plan what my blog posts would be so I could have a photo at the ready. So far, so good.
 

kewrite

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Renee - Which city? (I'm just curious.) Good luck. I wrote a lot while I was in prep (60+ documents) but I recently saw a city guide graduate with just over 20 documents. So as long as you do quality work, you should be fine.

Christy - I don't use a desktop blogging software. But I'd imagine you use http://yoursite.about.com/b
 

klow

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Hi Greasy Spoon,
I am on day 3 also. My instructor was out on the first day so I haven't had contact with her except through the initial welcome letter. I have my categories organized and basically ready to go, but was waiting to send them out until I hear back from her about my first piece of content.

For those already through prep, should I go ahead and send my categories even if I haven't heard back about the first piece of content? My question may end up being moot...I have to get them out by Tuesday anyway. I just want to make sure I am doing things correctly.
 
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wow. 60 and even 20 documents sounds like a lot. I'm going to go count mine for the Freelance Writing site....


Wow, I only did 16 original documents, 4 glossaries and 5 blogs. Of course, I linked to many more.., but...

Here is what I *think* got me the site. Because I followed their site description to a T- it's geared toward beginners, for instance, so I just thought about all t he things that scared me when I was a beginner....and voila....

Wow, 60 articles! I'm worried even though I got the gig!
 

kewrite

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LOL Don't be worried. :) I'm sure your site is fantastic.

My point really was that the number of articles written in prep varies tremendously. I think it takes years and years to really cover some of those site descriptions. :)
 

NancyP

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klow,

Send the categories now. They really want to see them first (I know the Prep instructions don't make that clear, but that's what they want).

Try to stick very closely to the site description. Go for quality.

Hang in there, and meet those deadlines...you can do it!!!
 

klow

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Oh NancyP,
Thanks so much! I sent the categories out right after reading your post.
Honestly, this is such a wonderful place to get support.
Best of luck to everyone.
 

willwrite4food

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Kori,

I'm doing prep for Charlotte, NC. And I definitely don't have 60 documents, probably closer to 20, and several of them lists. My instructor seems to like the list tool! And like GardenWallPubs said, I've tried to get at least one piece of content for what they said they wanted in the site description. I think I've got some good images too. The only thing I'm lacking is more government/municipal info, but hopefully they'll cut me some slack. Maybe I can crank something else out tonight. Right now I'm in the editing/proofing stage. In the home stretch! My family misses me:(
 

kewrite

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Renee - I don't think I had any government info in prep either... maybe one thing about registering to vote, but that's it. The list tool is awesome. Just keep chugging along, you are going to make it!
 

willwrite4food

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Kori,

If you're online right now, could you please PM me and show me how to add a freakin' photo to my blog post? I followed the instructions on the blog post document, and it's still not showing up!

BTW, my family and I were in San Antonio last weekend (yep, family vacation fell right in the middle of prep). We had a great time and were looking at your sight while we were there for info!:)
 

kewrite

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I PM'd you I will be online for another hour if you need help.
 

SpiderGal

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I just applied. I didn't get a confirmation. Wow, now does this happen with a lot of people?
 

wolflady26

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Ritrchick, I use I, Me, and My in my blog posts, because I really want the Contests site to feel like a cozy, chummy place to visit. I'm trying to generate a lot of excitement, and the feeling that anyone can be successful with sweepstakes. Many good sweepstakes websites have a strong community atmosphere, and a strong connection with the people who run the site.

There are some guide sites that need a more professional, clinical sound. I probably wouldn't take the same approach if I were writing a medical or business site.

That being said, I do try to avoid making it sound like it's "my" site or "my" articles in the sense of excluding my readers.
 

wolflady26

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Spidergal, apparently About is having some trouble with its automatic replies to Guide applications which is preventing people from receiving them. I had no problem when I applied back in March or April, but recently a lot of people are reporting problems. You can email About to be sure that they received your application.
 

RitrChick

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Greetings from my cave. I miss you all! :(

A HUGE thank you to everyone posting their little hearts out here and for those of you taking the time to answer my questions specifically. SAP ALERT: We are so lucky to have each other. :Hug2:

GardenWall, I am so happy to hear you got the gig with the amount of content you had. Kori's numbers scared me (!) and I know that tackling the jillions of subtopics in my site will take a lot of time (and a lot of work!) Right now, I am focusing on producing quality pieces, or linking to quality articles elsewhere. I hope that does the trick, because I honestly do not know how I can possibly eek another second out of the day (and willwrite4food, my poor kids have been watching more TV than should be allowable by law and my husband pounces on me for conversation every time I'm within a room's distance of him - which isn't often these days - so I know where you're coming from!:))

Huge, happy wishes to everyone in Prep. Today is First Review Day for me. Fingers crossed!!! :D
 

Greasy Spoon

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Many good sweepstakes websites have a strong community atmosphere, and a strong connection with the people who run the site.

Wolflady26, while I was compiling upcoming events for Toronto I discovered that Canada's First National Annual Contestors Convention ended yesterday - and naturally I thought of you. :)

Klow - good to know I'm not alone while I wait for feedback. ;)

All the best for your first review, RitrChick!
 

willwrite4food

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Well, this just sucks. I'm supposed to have everything in for my final review by noon (10 minutes from now) and I am experiencing a major technical glitch. Several of the lists I created are just sitting in the list management tool, and they've been sitting since last night. One of them finally went live this morning, but those and a few other changes I made in some meta description fields are not showing up.

I e-mailed my instructor outlining what was going on, so hopefully they'll cut me some slack. I haven't heard back from him all morning so I'm assuming there is something going on with their system and he's fielding panicked e-mails from those going through Prep.

Anyway, I'm throwing up the white flag. It doesn't help that both my kids are home sick today, so I had to cancel the babysitter, and I'm running on like one hour of sleep now.

On top of that, I've got a restaurant review due for the newspaper I write for tomorrow that I haven't started on (or decided what restaurant to write about) and two web articles due Thursday. I'll try to stop whining now:(
 

MoreThanMommy

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Renee,

Have you tried republishing both the list and the category pages they reside on? Might help...

I'm sure they'll give you a little bit of time for a technical glitch. =}

As for everyone else, you can do it! It will all be done soon! By the way, I wrote just slightly more than GardenWall this time around and got hired. The woman who was hired for the last site I prepped for doesn't appear to have kids (she's pretty young and living in a very expensive area of the city where apartments don't typically fit families) and I think that makes a big difference. It's a lot easier to clear your plate when you don't have to juggle family commitments.

Christy
 

RitrChick

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God bless my mentor for being very, very prompt. I got my first Review right after I posted here this morning.

I think I'm very pleased. Very, very few comments, all of them nit-picky (add a line break here for easier reading, one teensy typo - I HATE making typos! - that kind of stuff. So...either I'm on the right track or I blew it so bad she didn't even know what else to say to me. :Shrug: Hopefully, it's the former. ;)
 

RitrChick

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P.S. Renee: I had GIGANTIC List tool problems over the weekend. It was one issue after another and I was certain it would be the death of me. Seriously. But somehow everything finally posted just in time. Boy, was I sweating bullets!!!
 

willwrite4food

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What was up with that list tool? My lists finally started going live just in the nick of time. Now, I am going to try and decompress as much as I can and try not to think about becoming a guide for the next few weeks until I hear something! I'm realizing how much work it would be, but there's so much you can write about I don't think the well would ever run dry.

Good luck, fellow Preppers!
 

PattiTheWicked

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The list tool seems to be a bit temperamental. When it works, it works really well, but when it doesn't work... well, let's just say it can be moody.
 

wolflady26

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Aww, Greasy Spoon, thanks for thinking of me! I did recommend that conference for my readers, and I'm waiting to start hearing reports of how it was.

I was actually in Toronto for the first time this summer, we spent a day there after going to Niagara Falls. It was Canada Day while we were there. We could have used a good Guide, though, we didn't manage to get much done in the city, despite lots of wandering around. We had some great Dim Sum, though! :D

By the way, the Mentors are usually very understanding if there are problems with the tools. After all, they want the best possible Guides, not to kill us all! :D Good luck with the (hopefully not-too-long!) waiting process, WillWrite4Food!
 

DTNg

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The list tool seems to be a bit temperamental. When it works, it works really well, but when it doesn't work... well, let's just say it can be moody.

I hate the list tool, I absolutely hate it. It's fairly new and it's the bane of my existance. In fact, I have a great list planned but have been putting it off because of that darn list tool!
 
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