May 28, 2016 at 9:07 pm

@grecy095 I’m eager to read your post too! I promise to add another challenge once people have had time to catch up with the three challenges that are ongoing 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 9:06 pm

@thinker Apparently we are supposed to just edit the amount and leave the rest alone. Be sure your PayPal or Payoneer info is on your profile before trying to redeem, and then just follow the directions. @kaka135 wrote a post about it too, if that might help 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 7:02 pm

@peachpurple and @sunl Thanks so much for the encouragement! I do hope I’ll be able to make it before the end of month. It is frustrating when we sometimes have to wait a day or two for posts to publish. I haven’t been submitting enough, as it’s discouraging to see then pile up in the dashboard 🙁

@scheng1 Yes, I think I will try very hard to get several texts submitted over the weekend so I can give it extra time to publish. But with the backlog in posting here right now, I think perhaps forum participation and lots more visitor referrals will have to bolster my earnings significantly!

May 28, 2016 at 6:56 pm

@scheng1 Social media management apps can save a lot of time for both individuals and companies. I really love using Buffer for my Tweets and posts to my Facebook author page 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 6:55 pm

@scheng1 I would love to do such a job!

Did you become more or less immune to the smells of the place over time? I used to work in a shop that sold a variety of incense and scented oils. Most people noticed the perfume when they entered, but the staff soon stopped noticing the smell in the air. When you breathe it in all day, every day, your body stops noticing…

@peachpurple I am sure that in your house, the aroma of food cooking is always a pleasant one! I look forward to reading your contribution, once you have the time to write it 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 6:50 pm

@scheng I think “Anonymous” is @rapidblue. Not sure why, but she seems to have disappeared from the forums recently.

My ideal post length? I naturally tend to write posts that are in the 500-700 word range. I would like to see these posts and the longer ones given an even larger compensation on LB, because as you say there is better compensation for writing two shorter posts at this time. The site needs to offer more incentives for people who post longer, better quality texts.

May 28, 2016 at 1:49 pm

@bestwriter Congratulations, Grace! And to you too @sunil!

I am still a few dollars short, but I think I will try to get more posts submitted and see if I can make it for the 31st. I have two in the queue right now, and a couple on my hard drive that just need finishing touches.

I am also hoping that if things go well, more of us will be earning regularly here. I am still cautious, but I am feeling optimistic about the future of LiteracyBase 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 12:10 pm

@bestwriter What do you think of iwriter, Grace? I signed up for an account there a long while back, but had a lot on my plate and never tried any of the assignments. Do they pay reliably?

I have an Expert rating at HireWriter, which I initially liked very well. I haven’t written for them in a long while, though. There was a pretty dry spell for the assignments. Lots were posted, but I had a bad feeling about the clients who were asking for the work. Too many rejections, the instructions were either unclear or expectations were unreasonable, etc. Some were asking for such things as fake endorsements on Amazon or FB. It just wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to put my name to…

May 28, 2016 at 12:04 pm

@bestwriter I don’t think the keywords are “hot” here if we use the # hashtags – though it would be much easier to find one another’s posts if they were! Perhaps we could lobby @support to add this to the wishlist?

@swalia It would also help if the admin had a regular presence on social media. If they were to use a social media management app like HootSuite or Buffer to schedule Tweets for new posts, or to add those links to the Facebook page, it would take only a few minutes to schedule new content as the posts are published and the account would then have a regular flow of content for 24 hours or more!

Buffer is great because it will pick up the featured images and add them to the FB posts and Tweets. I’ve been experimenting with just the free app for a few weeks, and I love it!

May 28, 2016 at 10:59 am

@bestwriter Actually, having to write on an assigned topic is a challenge even for experienced content writers. Most of the really excellent writers I know occasionally engage in such exercises because it keeps the skills sharp. Always writing on our preferred topics, with little or no editorial oversight, tends to dull a writer’s ability over time.

I think it’s important not to push oneself to write when something really doesn’t feel right, and so for example I’ve chosen not to accept @scheng1‘s excellent second challenge because it’s not a topic I personally care to write about.

I did write on how to spend a million dollars, which allowed me to practise a bit of creativity. It’s not a topic I would normally choose on my own, but I enjoyed being part of a joint project. And I think it benefits the site when we work on such challenges as a community.

It isn’t for everyone, though…

May 28, 2016 at 9:44 am

@bestwriter That’s an excellent question! First, keep in mind that the exercise is intended to help improve our writing skills & give practice with specific skills such as:

1. Writing list posts;
2. Writing effective titles;
3. Learning to take a straight forward topic (e.g. smells) and identify a unique approach that will allow us to add value – a skill that is very useful when writing about current events and trending topics 🙂

So the SEO value isn’t so much in the topic (pleasant smells) but in how you choose to tackle it. how creative can you get?

There is also some value in a group of people all writing on a common topic – and the bigger the group, the better! Search engines would perceive that as a trending topic, especially if people tend to use the same keywords or tags. And that’s why I suggested some hashtags!

May 28, 2016 at 9:35 am

@scheng1 Yes, there’s a lot of latitude! And there are some current news stories that have a longer shelf life (e.g. the new Chanel perfume that will debut in the fall) that tie into the topic. Plus, the Chanel model is Johnny Depp’s daughter & I hear he’s now in a divorce…. So lots can happen both in the post, and in terms of linking posts on interrelated topics.

@bestwriter The best title for your post will depend on what you write about. But for a list post, it’s natural to use a number in the title. I have a post coming out soon (hopefully) that will help more with titles. I promise to link once it’s ready 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 8:26 am

@scheng1 I have tried a few tools like Hastagify Me, but in the end to find good tags on any social network I often just plug in a few tags to see if anything comes up. On FB, all the popular searches are marked as such. That makes it easier to see which tags will get a bit more exposure 🙂

@morgoodie I’m still not sure how much hashtags help on G+. I’ve recently read that posts without are doing better, but I know that I like to “tag surf” sometimes, and I’ve discovered interesting content by clicking on those good old tags…

May 28, 2016 at 7:27 am

@bestwriter Unfortunately, if we are paraphrasing news most people will prefer to just go straight to the big box media sites. That doesn’t mean your text is less worthy, just that people have a habit of going there instead of reading at a less known site.

Try to work on the titles, and maybe add some personal content or an unusual twist to your posts. If you add unique value that can’t be had from big box news, your ratings will rise 🙂

May 28, 2016 at 7:20 am

@scheng1 Kudos to you for suggesting such a flexible topic! It’s been really interesting reading all of the posts so far, and I look forward to more coming as they are approved 🙂