Seed

I haven't written anything for them but my father has. They take awhile to approve, two weeks I believe is the average he told me. He has had one accepted and paid out. Pay-outs happen after the 6th of the month if you request payment, either via Paypal or check.

Is this a website? Could you post a link?

seed.com

There's a thread here you might check out: http://accentuatewritersforum.com/files/viewthread.php?tid=10056.

Also one on the Demand Studios forum for those who have access.

I submitted a few pieces over the last few days but haven't heard anything. It seems like a great opportunity IF they accept most quality pieces AND IF they do pay as promised. Most of what I've read indicates that no one has actually gotten $ yet, it may be in their Seed account but not yet in Paypal. And I've read varied things about what their approval timeline is supposed to be.

My main concern is that, though they say so far they have only done full licenses (up-front payment), their terms say they have a choice between that and a limited license which only pays rev share. Why do $30 or $100 or $500 worth of work for a piece and then let them take it as rev share only? I think that should be an option they offer the writer (if they don't take the piece for the original request), not an option they automatically get that writers must accept.

They're not very clear on how their process works at all, which is why many people are frustrated.

Anyway, I'm hoping it turns out to be all it could be, but am waiting to see how things go before I submit anything else.

Heidi

They just sent out an email announcing some improvements. It does seem they are being professional and listening to feedback. So really the only things keeping me from submitting more for now are:
(1) not knowing whether what I've done thus far meets their standards, and
(2) waiting to see if pieces that don't get the offer price get accepted as rev share or revert back to me

I'm expecting good news.

Heidi

Update:

I got a couple articles accepted yesterday. Also on the Accentuate writers' forum someone posted about two people who got their money, paid in full via Paypal. One for a $300 article, one for $30.

Heidi

I'm liking their layout and assignments. Maybe I'm cracked. Goodness knows with us moving I need the extra cash to replace our things, even if there is a bit of a wait for approvals. If they pay consistently the way Demand has paid me, it will be a great move for content writers.

Hum, I read where more than one writer could claim a title as long as it was before the deadline. Then it said it was up to the editor to accept both articles or one but I didn’t see anything about splitting pay between all writers who claim an article, write and submit it and are accepted. I don’t like that at all. Why can’t the sites be upfront with no bs? It either pays the rate we agree to before I claim the title or it doesn’t. if it’s going to be rev share than say it up front and let me decide if I want to waste my time or not. If I write an article I claimed that is listed at $23, $30, $100 or $505 than that is what I expect. I don’t care how many writers submit articles on the same subject either allow only one writer to claim it at a time or accept only one or pay all what they agreed to beforehand. The company, and as big as AOL is they should already be doing this, stay within their budget. You only have enough money to pay one writer, than you only accept one article.

I haven’t submitted anything yet but claimed 42 articles and was very excited; however it was around 4 this morning so I hadn’t read over a lot of things. I’m still excited at the prospects, this seem to me more in the line of keyword rich journalism articles instead of the run of the mill content articles which at least to me is much more stimulating.
One question I haven’t been able to find an answer too is what do the deadlines mean? I saw some that were within a few hours and others that are a few weeks out. Is that when they are due to be submitted, claimed or both? If I claim one and can’t meet the deadline, not that I plan on that happening, am I penalized, does it just fall off my desktop?

I hope this does turn out to be as promising as it appears but I suppose only time will tell.

SS

I’m blonde and just caught onto to a way things are worded.

“Please note offer price is for all photos submitted.”

I took it to mean they would pay you the agreed upon price for all the photos you submitted not per photo. Given more than one contributor can claim a title, the editor has the right then to decide to use one or more, and then the pay is split between them.

That really sucks. I was psyched about getting $25 and up for photos. I have a feeling it might end up being $0.02 a photo instead.

SS

I received a reject for both the photographs I submitted. I’ll paste a copy of the email I received below. They didn’t mention anything about the photographs themselves and both say the same thing, obviously a form but considering these were listed as pictures not as articles, I don’t think it applies at all and have sent an email in response requesting clarification. I’ll let y’all know when I hear back. No word yet on the actual article I submitted.

SS

We're writing to tell you that your article was not accepted for publication on one of our AOL network's sites. Contributing factors may include that it was passively written, or not well-researched. Or, it may simply be that it just wasn't the right fit for the assignment.

Not all seeds take root, and that's okay. We encourage you to review your article for the following:

• Is your tone helpful, informative, conversational and inclusive?
• Did you write with a clear point of view that engages and doesn't alienate readers? Articles that read like a neutral term paper -- or are absent from any spark of opinion – are usually candidates for rejection.
• Have you fact- and spell-checked your article?
• Did you add relevant and clear categories and tags?
• Did you use easily digestable, short paragraphs? Remember, less is more when writing for the Web.
• Did you employ lean prose, action verbs and descriptive adjectives?
• Did you utilize interesting text links, preferably to related articles on the AOL network?
• Did you use your real name instead of a pen name?

We are quickly working to capture the above pointers and other tips in a short style guide that will soon be available to all SEED contributors.

Until then, please visit our SEED Academy (link: http://academy.seed.com) for writing tips and resources to help you improve content quality.

Let's try again. We're looking forward to helping you succeed!

Your SEED Editorial Team

It was as I thought. I sent a response thanking them for their quick reply and asked for additional clarification such as why I was required to write something in order to submit the picture. I also asked about the multiple writers being allowed to work on the same titles and how more than one writer can be selected and then not receiving the amount of money offered for the article but half (or a third or fourth). I’ll let y’all know what the next response is.

SS

Thanks for writing us, and participating on SEED. The e-mail your received likely was an automated response for a content submission, and indicated "article" rather than "photo"---we're looking into this bug.

The reason your photo was not selected was that our editors found another photo that met their needs.

As we improve SEED, we're working to introduce new types of assignments (1-to-1 assignments, pitches, RFPs), to give writers/photographers much more flexibility and insight when submitting assignments.

Hope that answers your question,

The SEED Team

Received a very quick response to my second email to them and here is what they said.

SS

For your first question: We require a short description of the photo that you upload. You should be able to upload multiple photos, we will check to see if there is a bug that is preventing multiple submissions

For your second question: Currently seed accepts multiple submission for each assignment. If an assignment is listed at $50, and if multiple people respond, and if 2 are chosen, BOTH chosen writers will get $50. Writers not chosen will not be paid, and rights to their work will remain with those writers, so they can publish these non-chosen pieces elsewhere. We want to be straight-forward with the payment that we give to writers/photographers.

Regarding your points on doing work, and not knowing if your work will be accepted--that point is well taken. This is why we're working to introduce new types of assignments later this quarter (1-to-1 assignments, pitches, RFPs).

Thanks for your questions and interest in SEED.

The SEED Team

Still Seaking said:

We're writing to tell you that your article was not accepted for publication on one of our AOL network's sites. Contributing factors may include that it was passively written, or not well-researched. Or, it may simply be that it just wasn't the right fit for the assignment.

Not all seeds take root, and that's okay. We encourage you to review your article for the following:

• Is your tone helpful, informative, conversational and inclusive?
• Did you write with a clear point of view that engages and doesn't alienate readers? Articles that read like a neutral term paper -- or are absent from any spark of opinion – are usually candidates for rejection.
• Have you fact- and spell-checked your article?
• Did you add relevant and clear categories and tags?
• Did you use easily digestable, short paragraphs? Remember, less is more when writing for the Web.
• Did you employ lean prose, action verbs and descriptive adjectives?
• Did you utilize interesting text links, preferably to related articles on the AOL network?
• Did you use your real name instead of a pen name?

We are quickly working to capture the above pointers and other tips in a short style guide that will soon be available to all SEED contributors.

Until then, please visit our SEED Academy (link: http://academy.seed.com) for writing tips and resources to help you improve content quality.

Let's try again. We're looking forward to helping you succeed!

Your SEED Editorial Team

Click to expand...

Hi, newbie here. Sorry for butting in but I just wanted to note that Seed apparently has different rejection messages. I am guessing the one SS got goes to those writers whose articles are rejected because they were simply not written well. The one I got yesterday is much more positive. I will assume my article was well written but just not quite what they were looking for (the article title is one I claimed...having 2 cats it's something I am familar with! LOL)

BW,

Thank you for your recent SEED content submission, How To Treat Kitty Dandruff.

We're writing to tell you that we liked your content submission, but that it was not an exact fit for publication on one of our AOL network's sites.

But we strongly encourage you to try again—we loved what we saw, and hope that we find an opportunity to work together in the future.

Please visit SEED (www.seed.com) to find some new assignments that may be a fit for you.

Thanks,

Your SEED Editorial Team


It was my first submission with them so I'm not too crushed. I just submitted it to another site and we'll see what happens!

Yeah, I only submitted one article to them and two pictures. I wasn’t surprised they were rejected but the notice I received for each didn’t say anything about pictures and I was required to write something with them, with no instruction and I wasn’t prepared for that. I wrote a caption type to go with each picture because it wouldn’t allow me to just submit the pictures although taking a picture was the only instruction I had.
They did seem very nice and were quick to respond. As you can tell I addressed some of the other issues I’d brought up before and they were addressed as well, the bit about writers receiving the amount of money offered if they accept your article regardless of how many articles are accepted is a big positive. The only thing I didn’t ask her about was the clause about the rev share issue. Maybe we read that wrong too and it doesn’t mean they can decide to go with that instead but that it would be offered as rev share from the beginning or at least if they like it but don’t want it for the original purpose, will give us the option then to take our article back or accept rev share.

Anybody else heard anything?

SS

Yeah they still have a lot of work to do getting their processes working and keeping contributors informed. But they are good at responding to support messages.

I got the "we loved it but it wasn't exactly what we needed" email for the couple articles they declined, but the "here's how to do a good article" email for a couple photos. And I too had no idea what to do with the two text fields for each photo since there were no instructions whatsoever.

As for the revenue share, the terms definitely give them the right to accept the article and pay only rev share, which is a huge concern to me, except they apparently haven't done that yet. I sent some suggestions via email and one of them was that accepting a piece for rev share needs to be an option they give us, not a right they automatically have. I'm not sure they meant it to be automatic but that's how it's being presented thus far.

Heidi

It seems more like a contest than anything....

I received the exact same email as Berry for the article I wrote. Good news is I can market this one (unlike the photos I took) elsewhere and still be compensated for my time. The pay might be a little less than Seed offered but I’ll be paid for it where as with Seed, I wasn’t.

I think Seed has potential but I’m not submitting anything else with them or wasting my time looking through what they’re looking for until they fix some of the kinks. If I don’t have an exclusive chance at something than it isn’t worth my time right now. If they choose not to accept what I submit then fine, offer it to someone else but right now, I don’t have the time or finances to write articles I might or might not get paid for, that time is reserved for query letters to magazines not SEO articles.

Down, I agree, right now it’s a no-entry fee contest with great rewards IF you win. Maybe I’ll have a little time to for contests in upcoming months and then I’ll submit to Seed again. Of course I was told they are working on “1-to-1 assignments” and the others mentioned so we’ll see but until then, I’m done for now.

SS

Still Seeking, it's interesting that you had a problem with them sending you a rejection letter that wasn't for what you sent. I wrote a "how to plant a tree" article that didn't mention any commercial products or, er, "adult" themes and got this response:


Hi (baltogardener),

We have received your recent content submission.

However, we cannot accept it because it does not comply with our Publishing Guidelines (link to http://academy.seed.com/contributor-guidelines/), which prohibit any content that is considered SPAM or inappropriate for our readership – and your submitted content fits that profile.

If you continue to submit this type of content, we will immediately suspend your SEED account.

If you have questions about this decision, please contact us at [email protected].

Best,

Your SEED Editorial Team

This happened a week ago and I wrote to them and asked them why my article is considered Spam, but got no response. I've not had this problem before with them and it also raises the concern about the fact that they have no specific guidelines on Seed. I'm insulted enough to pull back from them for a bit.

I just got another rejection notice. But I didn’t submit anything else. I looked at my dashboard and it shows an untitled blank article. I sent them an email and asked what the heck is going on. Will let you know what happens now.

SS

I've looked through their available titles and had to chuckle at all the "expert quotes REQUIRED" comments in them. I can see it for their higher-paying stuff, but for a $30 article on teaching your cat to use a litter box? That is just plain silly. Add me to the list of people who'll be sticking to other work.

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