About.com?

Greasy Spoon,
Oh my goodness, congratulations! Please keep us updated so we can see your site when it goes live.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the rest who finished up prep...or are going through it right now! Good luck everyone.

Congrats, Greasy Spoon! I'll see you on the Cities & Towns group!

--Kori

Hurray, Greasy Spoon! We're taking over!

Rachel, check your spam folder. If you don't hear by tomorrow morning, email your mentor. Better to be safe than sorry

Christy

I heard back yesterday afternoon. It was mostly a few formatting issues so I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It was wishful thinking but I was kind of hoping for a "way to go!"

Rachel,
I felt the same way when I got my first review! I was also hoping for more feedback related to my content. I imagine a lot of people get formatting feedback during the first review. Keep hanging in there and be sure to fix any formatting issues they address.
Good luck with your second review!
Keath

Throughout Prep, I received very little indication that I was doing a great job. There were some compliments, but I really couldn't tell at all if they liked me enough to graduate me until I received the official notice. So don't take it as an indication that you're not doing a FANTASTIC job. The way I look at it, it's probably better for them to skimp on the compliments than to make people too confident to the point where they don't continue to work their tails off to create the best possible site during Prep

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I was just expecting more detailed comments to give me a better idea whether or not I am on the right track. I'm not feeling very patient lately. It's driving me crazy not knowing whether or not I've really got a shot at the job.

When I got my first review it was almost all formatting thingies, because i really had no idea how HTML worked other than what I had managed to cram in the three days before Prep started. The great thing is, if formatting is your problem, you can fix it in seconds flat.

In other words, be glad if all you have to really change is a few markup tags

Other than formatting issues and regular editorial comments, feedback doesn't seem all that helpful anyway. Some people get positive feedback and are blindsided when they don't get the job because they didn't have enough content. Other people get no feedback other than the basics and get the job.

Just try to do your best writing and stick to your site plan. You'll have to be your own best critic and cheerleader!

Christy

I HEART Toronto! Ive been twice (I'm nearish Detroit) and hope to take my family there someday. Congrats SPOON!

Congratulations Greasy Spoon! I have visited Toronto and it's a beautiful city - I look forward to reading your content!

Rachel - good luck to a fellow Suite101er! Have you mentioned which topic you are in prep for?

Elizabeth I'm in prep for the Cooking for Kids topic.

Thanks everyone! I'm still plugging away at getting my site ready to go live, so I'll let you all know when I get the official word on whether or not they're happy enough with it to go forward.

Has anyone else who finished prep the same time I did heard anything yet? Klow? NancyP?

Good luck to all those currently in prep - Rachellist, my first review was mostly formatting as well.

Hey all. I just spent like, an hour, looking t hrough this thread, but couldn't find what I'm looking for:

Back in the Summer, I thought I read someone saying something about the About Freelance Writing site, that they had had an issue with the guide's material or something... I can't find that post.

I'm not a gossip monger AT ALL, but I do want to do well with this contract, and so I have been curious as to what the "problem" was, or maybe why the past Guides are no longer there...

This is sensitive info, so anyone, feel free to PM me too, if you want. THanks, Allena

EJBorer said:

Rachel- That sounds like a fun topic, I have 2 little ones myself. I don't know if you're permitted to print recipes or how that works with About, but I just received the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, if you would like any information out of it

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I have to use original recipes unless I get permission to print them. It's probably not worth looking into getting permission to print recipes while in prep but that sounds like a fun cookbook. I'll have to check it out. My 4 year old loves to cook and he has a cookbook collection that rivals mine.

btw did any of you who have been through prep have your subcategories up? I haven't started adding subcategories and it hasn't said much about them in the prep materials. I'm not sure if they are looking to have those posted in prep or not.

GardenWall, I don't know if there was something else going on, but I'm pretty sure she hurt her hand and couldn't keep up. She had blogged about it for awhile.

Rachellist, I was discouraged from adding subcategories during prep. They want you to focus on content.

rachellist said:

I have to use original recipes unless I get permission to print them. It's probably not worth looking into getting permission to print recipes while in prep but that sounds like a fun cookbook. I'll have to check it out. My 4 year old loves to cook and he has a cookbook collection that rivals mine.

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This cookbook is all about hiding fruits and vegetable purees into kids favorite foods - the principle is not original, but the recipes are hers - there is another cookbook out, the sneaky chef, that does the same thing - I would think you could use the same concept but in your own way - btw, my 3.8 year old son loves to cook too!

Greasy Spoon,
Still haven't heard anything yet. My topic is a health topic so I think it has to go to the health editors first...at least that is what I am telling myself to keep from being worried! Some people have advised contacting the instructor if we haven't heard back in a week. I haven't emailed her yet, but I will if I still haven't heard anything by the end of this week.

Rachellist,
I added subcategories before my last review. My instructor never told me to do so, I just had some extra information that fit well as subcategories.

Well, I'm chewing my nails waiting for my final review. I've got plenty to work on, but it's going to take a concerted effort to keep my mind on it.

Wow, this is a crazy long thread and I haven't been on the forum in a while but I just received an e-mail today stating that I got accepted into prep for a topic I applied for a little while ago. After doing a happy dance , I'm just wondering about a few things - and I'll be sure to read this thread more later on, but wanted to ask a few questions.

First of all, how much time did you guys dedicate during the prep phase each day to doing the work? I am in school part-time so I just want to be sure I'm not attempting to take on something I wouldn't be able to handle. And after the site goes live, then how much work do most guides dedicate to it? (I know this probably varies a bit, but on average)

And secondly, is everything pretty much done online or do you speak to editors/instructors over the phone?

And third, what is it that they're mostly going to be looking for in determining if you're successful (or what have you found anyway).

Oh and one more thing, after getting the initial e-mail from them, should I be sending some type of confirmation that I will be doing prep and accepting the offer?

Any thoughts would be great!

Well...I wasn't thinking I'd have anything to post, but I just learned that I'll be your next About.com guide to Senior Travel...!!!!

Yay! Congrats NancyP! And to you too Spoon! (I'm also in Canada and looking forward to looking at your site...)

M

ShannonC_77 said:

First of all, how much time did you guys dedicate during the prep phase each day to doing the work? I am in school part-time so I just want to be sure I'm not attempting to take on something I wouldn't be able to handle. And after the site goes live, then how much work do most guides dedicate to it? (I know this probably varies a bit, but on average)

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Shannon, when I did Prep I put in about 35 hours each week for the two weeks of prep. I took one day off because it was my daughter's birthday. Now, that having been said, that seven or so hours each day included researching topics, teaching myself HTML coding, and digging up old articles I had written to see how I could adapt them to About.com's needs. My site went live in June, and now I put in about 20 hours a week. It's a bit now more than it was when I first went live because (a) seasonally, Wiccans and Pagans really dig Halloween content, and (b) the more content I create, the more page views I get, and I've really seen a jump in my newsletter-driven traffic.

Shannon said:

And secondly, is everything pretty much done online or do you speak to editors/instructors over the phone?

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All your contact with your editors is via email.

Shannon said:

And third, what is it that they're mostly going to be looking for in determining if you're successful (or what have you found anyway).

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It's going to depend on which channel you're prepping for, because they each have very different needs. Your first day of Prep, you'll get an email that says basically, "Here's what we want to see." That's what you need to focus on.

Shannon said:

Oh and one more thing, after getting the initial e-mail from them, should I be sending some type of confirmation that I will be doing prep and accepting the offer?

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You probably don't have to, but I dropped them a quick email saying, "Thanks for accepting me into prep, looking forward to working with you, blah blah blah."

In the meantime, before you actually start Prep, you might want to read this entire thread (I know it's long, but it contains a TON of information), as well as start planning out what sorts of content you want to include on the Prep site.

Good luck!