Category Editor Home Improvement, Gardening, Decorating and Design
The task of selecting articles is not an easy task. I am looking for quality content that fits into the right category. Content that is relevant to readers. Mainly, content that is well written. The difficulty in selecting the pieces lies in a few of the required guidelines. All selected pieces must contain an image. If an image is not already provided, the Category Editor must find an image and provide a link to the image. Naturally, this extra step will undoubtedly eliminate quality articles simply because they do not have an image associated with them. I and most other category editors have stated that we will look past the lack of an image and try to include quality articles that lack images and provide an image for the writer. However, as a writer, you will have a stronger chance of being featured if you do include an image.
Another difficulty lies in selecting an article that actually fits into the category. Many articles are categorized wrongly by either the author or Associated Content. Several articles that I have comes across do not belong in the category that they have been placed in. My advice, review your articles make sure they are in the correct category. If they are not, contact AC to have them moved, or if it is a non upfront payment piece, go back and move them yourself.
Finally, the title must be easily searchable according to AC. Keep the titles simples and to the point. AC wants the title to follow SEO guidelines. In truthfulness, catchy titles may sound good but plain simple title usually get more page views and hence more readership.
Making a few simple change to your articles will greatly enhance you chance of getting selecting for featured content.
Category Editors are on a revolving status. For example, one home improvement category editor selects pieces to feature this week and a different home improvement editor selects pieces to feature next week. But we are all looking for quality pieces of writing all of the time. Occasionally I find myself reading great, meaningful articles that would definitely be featured content worthy, only to dismiss the article for too many spelling errors. We can not correct errors, so double check your writing to make sure that is correct.
In general, this article is just a brief guideline designed to help great writers have additional success on AC. I want to feature everyone's content that is worthy to be featured. There are so many writers, that the task becomes difficult. Make your writing stand out, cover a unique topic, write articles that are timeless, and write with a passion.
I look forward to featuring great content producers every time that I get the opportunity to. Please comment on this article with any questions or possible suggestions for featured content.
Published by Eric Loveday
Journalism is my career, but I am an avid do it yourselfer who has tackled countless home improvement and automotive repair projects. In the automotive category, my hands on experience as well as profession... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentThis is a great article that should be put on an AC tutorial page. I found it only after clicking your name on an article then looking at what you have written in the past. Perhaps you should email AC Darnell and have him post it to the AC blog or tweet it?
I just wanted to say that this article has excellent information for the many AC sources that write topics in Home Improvement, as well as the many other categories. I write on a broad range of topics, however, this article outlined many important factors on becoming "featured" regardless of the category. Thanks for a great resource.