Seed

Got an email from them that they’re experiencing some bugs with their email system. They were apologetic.

SS

Still Seaking said:

I received another rejection letter and still haven’t submitted anything since the two photographs and one article. I sent them another email inquiring as to what is going on and telling them this is the second time this has happened and the last time I sent an email asking why I’d received a rejection when I hadn’t submitted anything and I hadn’t received a reply to that email.

Receiving rejection emails when I haven’t even submitted anything really doesn’t boost my impressions of Seed. I’m a writer and I receive enough rejection letters for queries I pitch I certainly don’t need to be rejected for things I haven’t submitted.

I hope they get their act together soon. It would be nice if Seed turned into what it originally seemed to possibly be.

Anybody else getting emails like this?

SS

Click to expand...

Nope. The only emails I get are in response to the submissions I make. I wonder if another writer screwed up and somehow made a typo that resulted in your email address being listed as theirs? Happened to me once. I used to have an email address that started with my first name and last inital. One day I started getting emails addressed to someone else with mortgage applications attached! Turns out the other person's email address was in her name, which was the same as mine but with a different last initial-but there was a typo on their website resulting in my address being listed as the contact address!

That would explain why you are getting those emails. There is probably a writer out their screaming angry at Seed because they aren't getting any response to their submissions. It could happen. Something to think about rather than automatically blaming Seed.

Hope you get lots of acceptances!

I was intrigued by this, so I signed up.

First, don't be so hard on them - they fired up their BETA version of the site in Dec., so there's bound to be bugs or things they didn't think of.

I decided to just check out a couple titles that are closely related to topics I normally write. I figure anything that I write that they don't accept can be published over at Suite or on my blog.

It looks promising though. Thanks for the heads up.

I had my first tip for them accepted a couple days after I submitted it.

http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/19/souvenir-tip-buy-local-music/

There was a payment delay, so I ended up getting paid for the first and second tip at the same time.

The downside is that they declined some other articles. So it feels like playing a slot machine. I'm going to use the work I wrote for them on rev share sites. Still, the two tips brought in $20 for only a few minutes of my time. I'm staying away from the longer articles at the moment, because getting the "we loved it letter" doesn't pay my bills. It's like playing a slot machine.

This is the published tip:

http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/19/souvenir-tip-buy-local-music/

http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/19/souvenir-tip-buy-local-music/

I've signed up for Seed but haven't done anything there as of yet. It sounds like they are a little messed up from reading the posts. Have things gotten any clearer over there? Are people making any money or does it still feel like a crap shoot with your articles being accepted? Thanks in advance.

I recently signed up and wrote up a couple of articles just to check it out. I'd say Demand Studios is a much better choice for people wanting they type of place to write for -- Seed.com has a horrible back end with disorganized array of articles, they take forever to give your article a thumbs up and even then the article may be declined.

Seems to me that they want to pay in the Demand studios range but try and get higher quality by having a lot of people write a single article and take the best of those. At those rates, you'll make much more writing for Demand and getting more articles accepted.

Herdon, thanks for the insight. I presently write for DS and am really happy despite all the glitches. I'm not sure I want to take the time writing an article and not being sure if I'm one out of 100 entries and then getting rejected. It sounds like you might be able to make some money there but not anything you could steadily count on. Thanks again.

I wrote an article for Seed and it took them 77 days (after the review date) to tell me whether or not they approved it. I emailed multiple times, only got 1 response back (passing the buck) then never heard anything again. One day I logged in and saw that my article had been dumped. Or maybe it was just in the system so long without being reviewed that it got booted out. Who knows.

They don't keep up on their "Academy" or Blog, they don't answer questions, and they have horrible service.

Then, the articles they do want written are all within one category (like travel) or odd Lifestyle articles about being hired or working in specific places. Which would be fine if they didn't want first-person accounts. They're supposed to be filling content for over 80 network sites, so I don't understand why they always just want the same stuff written.

I've found it less and less worth it. I've been watching it for over 6 months and it's been a pretty big disappointment.

That's my .02 on Seed.

I think seed is a failed experiment to create another demand studios. I did get one thing published through their system, but there weren't a lot of topics and the system of hunting for individual articles was horrible the last time I was there.

Question: Are the "available titles" just going fast, or are they only available to certain people, or what? I sold a few travel articles to Seed months ago for a decent price, but I checked a few times this month and I never see anything over say, $25...and the titles are all about "I interviewed at McDonald's" or $5 blurbs. Wondering if I should shoot an email to an editor or if it's this way for everyone.

Seed is a client-based writing site. That means the people who submit the article requests are the ones that choose the article. Seed does not do anything except act as an intermediary. They pretty much handle paying the people chosen and sending out reject letters to everyone else who wasn't. Because it is client-based, the titles will vary.

Timelines vary widely and can last up to several months. If you haven't heard back in awhile, it is likely due to the fact that the deadline hasn't ended. I am not sure how much time after it closes that the clients get to choose.

Most of the clients are on the AOL network. The clients choose based on what fits in with their publications. They are looking for a specific voice and style. Those are the ones that win the money whether or not it is a good article.

This is a competitive writing site comparable to the Helium marketplace. They are legit and do pay on winners. But don't expect everything you write to get accepted. Most articles posted will get rejected. I suggest you recycle these on another residual site or use them elsewhere.

Seed has a tendency to cancel article assignments while you are in the middle of writing the piece. Since I've had that happen many times, I don't write for them anymore.

Is the setup a lot like Demand? Not the "How to" element ... but everything else? I just tried to sign up to investigate, but they don't appear to be accepting new signups right now.