About.com?

[wolflady26]

Congratulations, Lyrael! I never thought I'd be happy to hear that someone had gotten Leukemia!

[NancyP]

Myrrh, congratulations!!!!!!!! I admire everyone who tries for a health topic, because the requirements are so stringent. I'll look forward to seeing you on the New Guide listserv!

[Kari D.]

Hurrah for Myrrh! And congratulations, if not for the morning sickness, then for what that promises!

It'll be fun to "go live" together (if they in fact let me. I won't be able to touch the site until this weekend, but I'm hoping that I'll be enough over the flu by then to give it my full attention. Right now it's hard enough to keep up with my current job). The one problem with writing from home is that you can't call in sick ...

Kari

[klow]

Myrrh,
What wonderful news! Congratulations. I am looking forward to seeing both Kari and your sites.

Kari, sending healthy thoughts your way...hope you feel better soon.

[Linda Garrison]

Hi everyone - I'm back from my cruise to Australasia and have spent the evening catching up with this thread. Congrats to all the new About.com guides, good luck to all those starting the prep process, and condolences to all who didn't make it through prep. As has been said on this thread many times, we all hope another topic you are passionate about will come up soon!

I had a terrific cruise and only gained 2 pounds in 22 days! That's pretty good, considering all the delicious food (and drink) I consumed. Now, the "fun" part starts--writing up a profile, pictures, and review of the ship, along with articles and photos of the ports of call. I'll be very busy the next few weeks.

[inkkognito]

Hi all! So glad to find this thread. I just applied for the borderline personality topic, so I have my fingers crossed. I've been running through the thread, and it's great to see so many success stories.

[PattiTheWicked]

Well, if you're looking for people with borderline personalities, there's plent of 'em here at AW.

/rimshot

Seriously, welcome to the fun.

[EJBorer]

Welcome Inkkognito!

Congrats to everyone in all stages of the About process!!! Kari and Myrrh, I look forward to seeing your sites!

Welcome back Linda - a 22 day cruise sounds awesome right now with the 6 inches of snow I'm sitting in with another 6-9 on the way!!

I hit my 7 week live date tomorrow and I'm still adjusting to the amount of work it takes to keep up with a site and 2 little kids - I haven't posted in a long time but I still read the posts every day and keep up with everyone's news To those of you going live - the experience is so exciting but overwhelming - the overwhelming feeling I found went away after about a month, but the endless list of things to do just continues to grow, thankfully we all love what we do

Thank goodness Oprah only had one new show this week which finally frees me up from recaps and gives me a chance to do some evergreen content - I haven't done any since prep!

Keath - I'm going to miss seeing you on the listserv and Christy I'm sure you'll be going soon as well At least Sandra is there with her abundance of wisdom! It has been so awesome adjusting to being a guide and getting to know everyone - there are so many funny people - I hope I get to go to the NY event and meet some of them!

The time change is this weekend - I can't wait for winter to be over!!!

Happy Thursday all-
Eizabeth

[inkkognito]

Originally Posted by PattiTheWicked

Well, if you're looking for people with borderline personalities, there's plent of 'em here at AW.

That's one of the reasons I hang out here, hee hee!

[ColleenV]

Hi Everyone!

I'm actually here because I asked a question about Prep over on Deb Ng's blog, and NancyP pointed me to this thread. (Thanks, Nancy!) I'm going through prep for my 2nd time. I just had my first review, and (thank goodness) the only criticism my prep instructor had was that I need to put a line space between each item in a bulleted list. :-)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've read all 93 pages of this thread, and it has been an absolute inspiration. After reading about Kari D, NancyP, Elizabeth, wolflady, and so many others going through exactly what I'm going through and succeeding, I am motivated to keep working, even when my energy starts running low.

Thanks to everyone who's shared their experience in this thread---the things I've learned here have been invaluable. I'll be checking in again, in between writing lots and lots of articles!

[wolflady26]

Congratulations on being accepted into Prep, Colleen! I'm glad to hear that this thread was helpful, and I'm wishing you a lot of luck during Prep!

[NancyP]

Colleen, you're welcome. Writing can be very discouraging - sometimes it feels like 200% rejection to me - so finding this community has been very inspiring to me. I'm glad you feel the same way.

Keep plugging away at Prep; you know the drill, but it's still tough to keep at it, especially those last few days! Good luck!

[klow]

Welcome Inkkognito! I hope you get good news soon.

Colleen,
Good luck with prep. Don't hesitate to post a question here if you get stuck...or just need a little boost of encouragement. Sounds like you are on a good roll already.
Keep us updated.

Elizabeth,
I am really going to miss being on the new guide listserv. I am happy to get passed my three month review, but that listserv has been so, so informative. I wish they would keep me on it! I still have the health listserv, but it is not nearly as active (or as fun) as the new guide one.

Keath

Keath

[ColleenV]

Thanks everyone! Actually, I do have a quick question for you. One of my prep requirements is to create a glossary. When I was listing terms that belonged in my glossary, it came to over 50. My question to you is how many glossary entries are enough for prep? I still have several articles and blogs that I want to write before review #2, and I guess I'm just wondering how much emphasis I should put on adding glossary terms vs. writing articles.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[klow]

Colleen,
I hope other guides will chime in on this one...
My glossary was the very last thing I did. Honestly, I put much more effort into the articles and blogs. I separated the glossary into three folders A-H, I-P, Q-Z. I am guessing I had between 5 and 10 (maybe less) in each folder. My definitions were very, very brief.

I did spend some time when I was prepping to go live adding more to the glossary...I know I need to work on it some more.

[Lyrael]

Thanks for the congratulations, everyone - on the guide position and the baby! I have a LOT to do, especially since I had to leave town for a family funeral on Thursday, so I haven't been able to do anything this weekend.

I am really excited and honored to have graduated from Prep. I truly couldn't have done it without you guys and the 90+pages in this thread!

Thanks again,
Myrrh

[ColleenV]

Originally Posted by klow

Colleen,
I hope other guides will chime in on this one...
My glossary was the very last thing I did. Honestly, I put much more effort into the articles and blogs. I separated the glossary into three folders A-H, I-P, Q-Z. I am guessing I had between 5 and 10 (maybe less) in each folder. My definitions were very, very brief.

I did spend some time when I was prepping to go live adding more to the glossary...I know I need to work on it some more.

Thanks, Keath. I'm glad you mentioned that they were brief, too---I feel a little more comfortable with my own one or two sentence definitions I'm guessing I'll focus on the articles more, and just make sure that the most important/basic terms have glossary entries.

Thanks, again!

[Kari D.]

Hi, guys!

Welcome, Inkkognito. I'll cross my fingers for you!

Congrats on getting accepted into prep, Colleen! Are you doing herb gardens? If so, I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with as I try to grow dill this year without killing it.

I believe that the glossary issue might be different for writers depending upon their fields. Like Keath, I saved it until the last minute and even then just did a token effort (5 definitions total). While I know I'll have to focus more on the glossary at some point, I just felt that it was more important to get up substantial content that demonstrated that I could structure a site and write in an interesting, approachable fashion.

I'm sorry to hear about the death in your family, Myrrh. Hope you can take some time each day to relax and focus on yourself and Myrrh Jr!

I'm beginning to worry about what happens if I don't meet the 10-day "go live" deadline, but I told Ryan that we've all been truly levelled by the flu, and he seemed to take it in stride. If worse comes to worst and I haven't added all of the links and content they want by the end of the week, I'm just going to trust that the editors will figure that it is more cost- and time-effective for them to give me an extra week than it would be to search the topic all over again.

I haven't had a real case of the flu in two or three years, so the timing here absolutely stinks.

However, I did manage to cook, photograph, write up, and publish just about the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever made--Kladdkaka, Chocolate Sticky Cake. So the site is growing steadily, if slowly.

Off to bed ... tomorrow, I write.

Kari

[NYCWriter]

Originally Posted by Kari D.

Hi, guys!

Welcome, Inkkognito. I'll cross my fingers for you!

Congrats on getting accepted into prep, Colleen! Are you doing herb gardens?

I'd appreciate knowing if you're in prep for Herb Gardens too Colleen as I applied for that 3 weeks ago and have heard absolutely nothing. This is my third/fourth attempt with About..the first two got me rejections after 3 month waits...never made it to prep-both said the topic had been filled by a promotion within. I also applied for Organic Gardening but I see prep has started on that..never got a rejection but obviously I have been. Herb Gardens is a dream topic for me and one I am more than qualified for. However it looks like yet another rejection is on the way. I'm done with About...between the months long wait to find out if you got into prep, the expectation that you clear your entire schedule and devote every minute of 2 weeks to prep if you make it, and then having to wait yet again to see if you made it is just a huge and stressful waste of time. I've gotten several new long term clients since the last app I sent to About, so clearing my schedule and spending time on nothing but prep for two weeks is just not possible anyway, so perhaps it's just as well. I do think they could be a little more professional about how they do things, and perhaps improve the speed of their communications. Sorry to sound so negative, I'm just frustrated. Oh well..everything happens for a reason.

Congrats to those who made the cut, and good luck to those in prep!!

[saf1367]

Congrats to recent About.com grads and those accepted to prep!

I thought it was funny that today I received a rejection e-mail for the law school topic I applied to 6 months ago. The e-mail invited me to apply for another topic. Meanwhile, I've been a guide since January!

[ColleenV]

Hi NYCWriter. I'm in prep for the Organic Gardening job. I think they keep the topic posted until they hire someone. If one of us who are currently in prep don't make the cut, they'll hold another round of prep for the topic. I'm trying to remember...I think I applied for Herb Gardening, too, and I haven't heard anything about that one. I want the Organic Gardening one a lot more, though, so I'm happy I got accepted to prep for it. Maybe they're already in prep for herb gardening as well? I'm trying to remember if someone else on this thread mentioned starting prep for that...

I totally understand being frustrated. I went through Prep last August, agonized through the process, and then found out that they ended up not hiring any of us. I hate to admit that I cried like a baby and spent an evening curled up on the couch in a fetal position. This time around, I'll be disappointed, but I have two ongoing, rewarding gigs that I love, and I'm also about 8 weeks away from giving birth to our third child, so it won't be as bad. And, at least with this topic, I can at least use all of the Prep articles I write on my own site if I don't get hired.

Good luck to everyone else who's in Prep, as well as those who are waiting for word!

Originally Posted by NYCWriter

I'd appreciate knowing if you're in prep for Herb Gardens too Colleen as I applied for that 3 weeks ago and have heard absolutely nothing. This is my third/fourth attempt with About..the first two got me rejections after 3 month waits...never made it to prep-both said the topic had been filled by a promotion within. I also applied for Organic Gardening but I see prep has started on that..never got a rejection but obviously I have been. Herb Gardens is a dream topic for me and one I am more than qualified for. However it looks like yet another rejection is on the way. I'm done with About...between the months long wait to find out if you got into prep, the expectation that you clear your entire schedule and devote every minute of 2 weeks to prep if you make it, and then having to wait yet again to see if you made it is just a huge and stressful waste of time. I've gotten several new long term clients since the last app I sent to About, so clearing my schedule and spending time on nothing but prep for two weeks is just not possible anyway, so perhaps it's just as well. I do think they could be a little more professional about how they do things, and perhaps improve the speed of their communications. Sorry to sound so negative, I'm just frustrated. Oh well..everything happens for a reason.

Congrats to those who made the cut, and good luck to those in prep!!

[ColleenV]

Hi Kari! Nope, I'm going for Organic Gardening. I'll be right with you on hoping whoever gets that job will explain how not to kill dill

Thanks for the advice about the glossary. That's two votes now on not stressing about it. I think that what I'll do is write a glossary term for anything on my list that I happen to mention in an article---that way the site will have a more cohesive feel. I hope....

Review #2 is on Thursday....I have a crapload of writing to do

Originally Posted by Kari D.

Hi, guys!

Welcome, Inkkognito. I'll cross my fingers for you!

Congrats on getting accepted into prep, Colleen! Are you doing herb gardens? If so, I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with as I try to grow dill this year without killing it.

I believe that the glossary issue might be different for writers depending upon their fields. Like Keath, I saved it until the last minute and even then just did a token effort (5 definitions total). While I know I'll have to focus more on the glossary at some point, I just felt that it was more important to get up substantial content that demonstrated that I could structure a site and write in an interesting, approachable fashion.

[contempochic]

Hey all!

I have a question. I guess I could ask the listserv, but I'm already here, and too lazy to switch back. Anyway, I thought it might be useful for people going through prep too.

I was checking out the lounge and saw that there are a few ways to do your glossary entries. It looks like you can do individual terms on a page, or you can put multiple terms on a page.

If you do individual terms, do you have a complete glossary page that links to all the terms, or a page with all the terms AND defiinitions? If you have just a glossary page, do you find that it's harder to link back to the glossary?

I've been live for over a month now and still haven't gotten my glossary going. Boo. Any advice?

[Linda Garrison]

Originally Posted by contempochic

Hey all!

I have a question. I guess I could ask the listserv, but I'm already here, and too lazy to switch back. Anyway, I thought it might be useful for people going through prep too.

I was checking out the lounge and saw that there are a few ways to do your glossary entries. It looks like you can do individual terms on a page, or you can put multiple terms on a page.

If you do individual terms, do you have a complete glossary page that links to all the terms, or a page with all the terms AND defiinitions? If you have just a glossary page, do you find that it's harder to link back to the glossary?

I've been live for over a month now and still haven't gotten my glossary going. Boo. Any advice?

Hi Courtney - I set up a category for "Cruise Glossary" and then used the glossary tool for each individual entry. It was very easy, and all of the terms end up on the category page. Mine is pretty boring and looks like this. http://cruises.about.com/od/cruisegl...m_Glossary.htm

I don't get a ton of traffic from it, but much more than I expected. Since it's evergreen, I just add to it occassionally, and it just brings in the $$.

[jonquil38]

Originally Posted by Kari D.

Hi, guys!


I believe that the glossary issue might be different for writers depending upon their fields. Like Keath, I saved it until the last minute and even then just did a token effort (5 definitions total). While I know I'll have to focus more on the glossary at some point, I just felt that it was more important to get up substantial content that demonstrated that I could structure a site and write in an interesting, approachable fashion.

I'm sorry to hear about the death in your family, Myrrh. Hope you can take some time each day to relax and focus on yourself and Myrrh Jr!

I'm beginning to worry about what happens if I don't meet the 10-day "go live" deadline, but I told Ryan that we've all been truly levelled by the flu, and he seemed to take it in stride. If worse comes to worst and I haven't added all of the links and content they want by the end of the week, I'm just going to trust that the editors will figure that it is more cost- and time-effective for them to give me an extra week than it would be to search the topic all over again.


Kari

Kari, I made my glossary by linking to german.about.com, which has been live for 10 years and had a food glossary, albeit not one I would write. I am now working on separate lists for herbs, fruits and veggies.

I got the job 1st week in December and didn't go live until 25th of January. First, they didn't send me my welcome note/contract for a week so I thought they made a mistake and didn't want to tell me (don't ask, it's been a weird year) and I finally asked Ryan. "You didn't get yours?" was his reply. Then, it was Christmas, busiest time in the wine shop I run. So about the 2nd week in January, they ask if I can go live the next week. I work like crazy and get all my recipes in, but don't get the little bits like newletter/email/mpboards set up, so the go-live gets set back a week (they seem to only do it once a week). Hurt the pocket book slightly, but nothing else.

My point is, they seem to be flexible to a point, as long as they see that you are steadily working towards a goal and keep them informed of major life-event issues. They've already invested time and energy (=money) in you, they are not going to drop you at first hurdle. Shipwreck, maybe, but not the low hurdles.

Take care and keep cooking
Jennifer
germanfood.about.com