Anytime it’s not, your Customer Success Manager (CSM) can step in to help you understand the platform, troubleshoot concerns and ensure quality results. Here are just a few things your customer success manager can do for you.

1. Finding just the right talent to tackle the job

Niche content requires niche content writers, and we have plenty of those at Crowd Content. How do you decide which of our thousands of writers has experience with photography equipment, a background in microbiology or knowledge of financial compliance? The system has search capability built in, but your customer success manager can provide an even deeper dive, especially for the most unique areas. Your CSM might have previously worked with the perfect candidate, and she can also leverage the experience of internal project managers to locate writers appropriate for almost any niche.

 2. Choosing the right content ordering options

Our content ordering system is pretty intuitive, but it does offer a lot of options that let you reach exactly the right writers for your project. If you would like to get some advice on how to best configure your orders, your CSM can help with that.  She can take you through a quick demo, provide tips and tricks to make your process efficient, and answer any questions you might have.  She will walk you through the process in no time, even helping you set up a few orders that can act as templates to make future orders super simple.

3. Triaging troubled content

We’ve got some of the best writers in the business, and we bring on writers at all skill levels and interests to ensure clients can find talent to match their content needs and budget. But we also know that content creation hiccups and communication errors do happen, and occasionally clients end up with content that just doesn’t quite ring all the right bells. Built-in revision capabilities let you work directly with writers and editors to tweak content when necessary, but if you feel something went especially amiss, your customer success manager is always available to assist with project or content triage to make things right.

4. Building a custom crowd to support success

Our regular freelance writers and editors love to support client success as much as we do, and you’ll find some great business partnerships both with the Crowd Content internal team and what may become your favorite freelancers. If you know you want to develop that kind of relationship, your customer service manager will take time to understand your needs before helping you put together a strong go-to team of writers and editors for your project.

The post 4 Crowdsourcing Content Challenges Your Customer Success Manager Can Help You Overcome appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

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In an ongoing effort to encourage authentic, relevant discussion, we’re rolling out the following updates.

Updates are based off of feedback from contributors and partner blogs. All updates are intended to align with our primary objectives to:

1. Help our partner blogs build vibrant communities, and
2. Provide a positive and fun environment for contributors to earn rewards

Updates for July 22, 2016 include:

• Added New Awards: Introducing Fresh and Prime comments

• See a “leaf” or “lightning bolt” icon at the top of a thread? That thread is in Fresh or Prime state
• Leave a comment during either state and get 10 coins instantly
• Each contributor can only earn one Fresh or Prime award per thread (not both)

• Made Milestones and Rank Simpler: Milestones now only earn Rank, not Coins

• Because earning 3 or 5 Coins didn’t feel meaningful, Milestones now just contribute to your Rank
• Ranking up earns Coins

• Rebalanced Rank Up Rate: Updated rate points are earned to next Rank

• Each Rank up now generates 25 Coins
• Rank is important! Some Milestones, Awards, and other actions unlock at certain Rank levels

• Rebalanced Coin Value: Because Coins are easier to earn now, the value has been reduced

• 100 Coins is now worth $10
• Coin conversion will take place on Thursdays. Email support@crowdcontent.com when you’ve reached at least 100 Coins to have them converted on the following Thursday!
• To help with the transition, we’re increasing current Coin balances on all accounts by 2.5X immediately!

• General Notes:

• We will continue to adjust the model based on feedback from contributors and partner blogs
• Some Milestones that were being abused have been capped or limited in other ways
• We will continue to add new Milestones and Awards — (Milestones and Awards for authors are coming soon!)

If you are a contributor, please remember to read and understand the Commenting Guidelines before participating.

Thank you for your continued participation in Crowd Comments! As always, please email any feedback to support, or leave a comment below.

The post Crowd Comments Updates – July 22, 2016 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

While most blog posts have a highlighted top comment at the top of the discussion area, there’s another way to find additional comments that qualify as Top Comments.

Click the comment count at the top of the thread.

Here, you will find Top Comments on the post, who posted that comment, and when the comment was posted.

From this view you will also be able to determine who is involved in the discussion. Everyone who has left a comment can be found in [7] Commenters tab.

This feature is handy if you have established a good discussion relationship with certain community members. You can use this as a quick view to see if your Community friends are involved in this particular discussion.

Plus, you also get a snapshot view of commenter’s user profile.

For example, I can see when the user was last active, how many comments they have written, and how many people they are following and how many people are following them.

Do you use this feature? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

The post [Community Talk] How to See Top Comments in a Thread appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This article examines how you can find articles on the topic freelance writing and how you can be a featured author on the Crowd Content blog.

What is Writers Hub?

Writer Hub is an area of the Crowd Content blog where you’ll find articles related to freelance writing, writing best practices, and how to craft content in certain styles such as press releases and search engine optimized product descriptions.

Some of the current trending topics in Writers Hub include:

• How to Use Social Media as a Research Tool for Your Writing
• 5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Capture a Fair Share of the Market
• My Top 3 Freelancing Goals for 2016

I think of the Writers Hub as a writer hangout because there’s almost always an active discussion among writers in this area of the blog.

How do I get to Writers Hub?

The Crowd Content blog is divided into topic categories.

At the top of the blog, you’ll see a category selection. Click Writers Hub.

You’re now in the Writers Hub.

Here, you can join the discussion with hundreds of contributors in the comments section of blog posts and earn coins and status in the Community.

How do I become a featured author on the Crowd Content blog?

We’re actively recruiting contributors. If you have a unique and interesting topic that has not been covered on the Crowd Content blog, please pitch your idea.

Note: your pitch can be for any topic related to content marketing, social media, freelance writing, SEO, community, or marketing and branding.

Check out the Community FAQ for more information about the Community and how you can get involved.

The post [Community Talk] How to Get Featured and Find Articles Relevant to You appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You’re reading an article or a Facebook post only to get to the comments section and find it spammed with offensive or inappropriate comments taking over the thread.

I don’t like that and I like to think that the majority of readers are with me.

That’s why we’ve enabled you to report comments in the Crowd Content Community.

Here’s how.

If you’re reading through the comments and you see something that raises a red flag in your mind, go to the drop arrow on the top right of the comment. Click Report.

You’ll then be asked to provide a bit more detail about why you are reporting the comment.

Flags are a way to bring a comment to the attention of the moderators.

You also have the option of downvoting a comment to notify the moderator.

 Hide from Me means that you can simply hide the comment from showing on just your screen. You’re not reporting the author, but rather disappearing a comment from your sight.

Once you’ve provided some context, click Flag Comment.

Hint: make sure you’re signed into your Community account when you’re reporting a comment.

Why?

Soon we’ll be rewarding you for moderation activity (reporting inappropriate comments). All the activity you do now will count towards future rewards… as long as you’re signed in.

Be careful not to report comments just to earn coins. If your flag is dismissed by the moderator, it will count against you in the long run.

As Community continues to grow, so will your opportunity for advancement within Community.

We’ll be introducing moderation roles that you could be eligible for if you’ve been involved in previous moderation activity. Soon you could be the moderator, responsible for reviewing flagged comments and getting rewarded for it.

Let me know what you think about this feature in the comments section below.

The post [Community Talk] How to Report a Comment appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This post explains how you can customize your email preferences.

1. As with most community features, the first step is to login.

2. Once logged in, click on My Preferences in the drop down menu to the right of your display picture.

3. I’m now in My Preferences. If you prefer only one or two of these options, feel free to uncheck the notification(s) you no longer wish to receive.

You’ll notice that the default setting is for you to receive all three email notifications: immediate, daily, and weekly.

Immediate emails keep me informed about things I might want to act on right away, like this reply from Myra Michaels

Daily emails help me keep track of where I am at with my milestones, and who’s been voting on my comments.

Note: if I choose to disable the immediate notifications, those will show up in my daily update instead.

Feel free to drop a comment or question in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

The post [Community Talk] How to Set Your Email Preferences appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

• How to Login and Edit Your Profile
• How to Check Your Notifications
• How to Discover Your Coin Earnings
  

Today we’re going to dive into rankings. Where to find them, what they mean, and how to check your current rankings.

Here’s step by step instructions to get you on the right track.

1. Login

2. Once I’m logged in, I click on My Profile.

3. Once I get to my profile, I click the little trophy in the top right corner.

4. Instead of clicking the coin icon like last time, I’m going to click the crown icon.

Hint: Right off the bat I can tell that I’m at rank two and am about to move up. How?

You see the 2 with the crown in a rectangle the picture above? If you hover over this area in your account, you will see a short brief indicating how far you are from ranking up to your next level.

5.  You’re now in your points screen. Just like in all games, the more points you get, the more you rank up.

Like coin history, you can see the history of earning rank in the Community. Rank is a measure of your efforts and achievements.

While not every milestone reached will earn you coins, every milestone* will earn you some points towards your next rank.

6. The percentages you see to the left of the crowns indicate you’ve earned X percent towards your next rank. Each time you reach 100%, you rank up.

7. Similar to coin history, if you click the ‘i’ information button, you’re given more information about your rank.

As the performance grows, and new features are added, you can expect your rank to become even more valuable… but we’ll tell you more about that another time.

Now you’re familiar with where to find you points and how to understand your ranking.

Stay tuned for more weekly Community updates.

As always, I look forward to chatting with you in the comments section below.

The post [Community Talk] How to Check Your Points and Ranking appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This post, I’m going to go over how you can check your coin earning history.

1. Your first step is to login.

2. Once logged in, I’m going to click on My Profile in the drop menu to the right of my profile picture.

3. Once I get to my profile, I click the trophy icon in the top right hand corner.

4. I’m now in my awards screen. Click on the silver coin icon shown below.

5. You will now see your coin earning history. If you’re new you might not see anything yet. If you’ve been active in the Crowd Content Community for a while, all of your coin achievements are displayed here.

Milestones are achieved for various Community activities, including but not limited to:

• First comment
• First reply received
• First follow/follower
• First time someone likes your comment
• You earned medals
• You Starting conversations
• You keep the conversation going
• You’re so engaged in conversations that you level up

The number to the left of the coin represents the value of that coin.

Note: Milestones are subject to change as we measure performance metrics.

To get more information on the Milestone you achieved, simply click the ‘i’ information button.

You’ll notice that I’ve achieved 50 coins for reaching a new level. In a later post, I’ll explain how to reach a new level and Milestones in more detail.

Hint: Once you reach 100 coins, we add $25 to your writer account.

There you have it! You’re now equipped to discover how your Community interactions pay off.

See you in the conversation!

The post [Community Talk] How to Discover Your Coin Earnings appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Now I’m going give you a look at how you can check your notifications once you’ve immersed yourself in the Crowd Content Community.

1. First, I’m going to login.

2. Once logged in, I click the drop down to the right of my profile picture then click Notifications.

3. From there a sidebar will appear that displays all activity associated with my comments.

In my case, I have quite a few interactions.

Let me walk you through some of my recent activity.

3a. I can see that both Earl Dotson and Georgia Potts have upvoted recent comments of mine.

When your comment is upvoted, it takes you one step closer to being rewarded for your activity.

Why? If Community members are upvoting your comment, it means you’re adding value to the discussion.

That’s the whole goal here: to add value to the conversation.

Hint: You’ll notice the title of the article in italics underneath the notification. That’s indicates the thread where my comment was upvoted.

Simply click the Up arrow to the right of the title to be directed to the comment thread.

3b. Other recent activity includes a couple replies to my comments.

I’m anxious to see what he said so I’m going to click the little arrow to the right of the title.

Doing so will take me to the thread itself (shown below) so I can read his reply and continue the conversation.

Hint: When someone replies to your comments, you’re being rewarded points that are taking you even closer to your cash out.

3c. Someone followed me! Personally, it’s the same intrinsic reward feeling I get when someone adds me as a friend on Facebook or follows me on Twitter. As you can see below, Matt Martin followed me one week ago.

I should probably follow him back (he is my coworker after all). I can so by clicking on the profile picture to the right of his name.

This will take me to his profile where I click Follow.

3d. My comment is getting reactions.

What does that mean? 

It means that two or more people have either upvoted or downvoted a single one of my comments in a thread.

I’m curious as to whether this comment was upvoted or downvoted so I’m going to take a look by clicking the Up arrow to the right of the title (shown above).

Phew! As you can see in the image below, it turns out both of these reactions are upvotes.

That’s it! I’ve now checked all of my notifications.

I know that my comments are adding value to the conversation and because of that I’m well on my way to ranking up in the community and accomplishing a pay out for my thought leadership.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions in the comments section below.

The post [Community Talk] How to Check Your Notifications appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to get involved yet, here’s a quick tutorial to get you started.

1. Go to any article on the Crowd Content blog.
2. Scroll to the bottom where the comments start to appear.
3. Click ‘Login’ on the right-hand side.

Hint: use your regular Crowd Content login information. This way, when you earn enough coins to convert to cash, we can pay you directly in your writer account.

4. Next, you will be prompted to fill in basic profile information. Click Done when you are finished.
Hint: your display name can be changed later on. Your username remains permanent.

5. You’re now ready to be rewarded for your interactions with other community members. The Community is welcoming and I think you’ll find yourself getting pretty comfortable in the existing discussions.

Start a conversation, join an existing conversation, or simply beef up your profile and get acquainted with the Community interface.

Now it’s time to edit your display name and bio

Similar to other social networking platforms, you have the ability to change your profile whenever you want.

Personally, I want to add a little bio about myself and change my display name.

Here’s how I’m going to do it.

1. Once I’m logged in, I click the drop down arrow beside my profile picture and click My Profile.

2. Your screen will give you a glimpse of your current profile and dashboard. I’m not happy with display name and I want to add a bio so I’m going to click Edit to the right of my profile picture.

Note: If you want to change your profile picture, you can do so by emailing support@crowdcontent.com and we will update it for you. As Community graduates out of Beta, we will be adding options for you to use your Facebook, Twitter, or Gravatar profile pictures.

3. As you can see below, I’ve changed my display name from Laura Dohan to Laura Dee. I’ve also added a short bio about myself. Click save.

Anyone in the Crowd Content Community can now see my bio by clicking on my profile.

Now I’m done. I’ve logged in for the first time and updated my profile.

Next post I’m going to show you how to check your notifications (think Facebook notifications but with rewards).

The post [Community Talk] How to Login and Edit Your Profile appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We’re calling it Crowd Content Community, an easy-to-use commenting platform with built-in gaming elements that encourage and reward positive community-building behavior.

The first gaming elements were released this week in the form of Awards and Coins.

What Are Awards?

Awards are achievements you earn as you participate in the Community. We’ve introduced a collection of Awards representing various activities and outcomes that surface in a typical blog community. As you participate and make progress in these Award categories, you reach Milestones.

It’s a simple system, but there are some formulas working “under the hood” that help us reward high-quality contributions more heavily.

In other words, not all Awards are based on your activity alone. Some Awards represent positive outcomes that your activity has created.

For example, leave a comment, and you’ll move closer to your next “Comment Count” Milestone. Leave a comment that others Reply to or Vote on, and you’ll also progress in outcome-focused Milestones like “Reactions Received” or “Replies Received”.

These outcome-focused Awards represent the behaviors, or strings of behaviors, that are likely to grow a community and help it thrive. Because of this, outcome-focused Milestones and Awards tend to be weighted more heavily when it comes to the number of Coins you earn for progressing through them.

The more you can get others involved, the more you’ll be rewarded.

What Are Coins?

Virtual currency, “Coins” can be redeemed for real-world rewards, like cash in your Writer Account.

You earn Coins as you achieve Awards and Milestones. You also earn Coins as you increase your Rank (A.K.A. your overall status or “level”). You can view progress towards your next Rank by hovering over the gold crown.

In future updates, we plan to add a Rewards Store where you can redeem Coins for rewards other than cash. At this stage of beta, however, you can redeem Coins for cash in your Writer Account (view “How It Works” in the Community tab of your Writer Account to learn more about redeeming coins).

The way Coins are redeemed and valued is likely to change in the future. This is just a starting point. The platform is in beta, so you should expect it to grow and change as we learn what works and what doesn’t. Our goal is to create a balanced system that is rewarding and sustainable.

How Can I Maximize the Number of Coins I Earn?

As we’ve hinted at already, users who are able to create positive outcomes will be more heavily rewarded. These positive outcomes are results that indicate the community is growing and thriving.

Over the last year, we’ve researched community growth by interviewing community managers, surveying community members, and analyzing the results of our own prototype for this platform (early users will remember the Community version that used Social Points as a rewarding mechanism).

Through our research, we’ve identified several outcomes that add value to a community, helping it grow and become vibrant. Some of these outcomes include:

• Inspiring discussion (receiving replies to your comments)
• Breaking the ice (being the first commenter, leading to more discussion)
• Making meaningful conversation (receiving upvotes, or sometimes downvotes, on your comments)
• Developing relationships (working together to spark, or maintain, discussion around a topic)

By rewarding users who help produce these outcomes, we hope to create a positive environment where users can engage in fun, candid discussion about the content on our blog. The intended result is an added layer of user-generated content below each article that adds value for the reader and enhances their content experience.

Get Involved and Send Your Feedback

If you’re a writer at Crowd Content, you can get started right away by browsing content on our blog and leaving some comments (login with your Writer Account email and password). The best way for us to optimize the new platform is to get people using it and hear their feedback, so the more participation early on, the better.

We’re always open to hearing about what works, what doesn’t, what you like, and what you don’t like, so please don’t hesitate to voice your opinion. You can leave any comments or questions you have below this article, or email us at writers at crowdcontent dot com.

Now comment onward, have fun, and be rewarded!

The post Now Earn Coins with Crowd Content Community (BETA) appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Are you an eCommerce store? Check out the eCommerce How-To Guide.

We have put together a couple videos to help get you started.

Step 1: Create a Free Account
Step 2: Add Funds to Your Account
Step 3: Create a Content Order
Step 4: Sit Back and Relax while We Create Your Content
Step 5: Chat with Your Writer if Necessary
Step 6: Review and Accept Your Completed Content
Step 7: Easily Distribute Your Content
Step 8: Use Your Favorite Writers Going Forward
Step 9: Contact Your Account Manager to Say Hi!

Step 1: Create a Free Account

If you haven’t already, create your free client account here. Just enter your first name, email address, and create a password.

Don’t worry. You’re not obligated to purchase anything by creating an account. This is just our way of letting you explore the platform with no risk.

Step 2: Add Funds to Your Account

When you’re ready to start ordering content, click the green Add Funds button in the top right of your screen.

We’ll ask you to enter your full account information (if you haven’t already) and then allow you make a secure payment with PayPal or major credit cards.

After adding funds to your account, you will instantly be able to use those funds to place content orders.

NOTE: Alternatively, you can Add Funds immediately after creating your account. The system will automatically take you through the process.

Step 3: Create a Content Order

Click on the green Create Order button in the top right of your screen. You will be taken to our easy to use order form.

The order form guides you through the process of creating the perfect brief. It asks you questions you may not have thought of to ensure that your writer gets the information he or she needs to create your content.

Remember to select your Content Type (Custom, Tweets, or Facebook Posts) and to check out the Advanced Options, where you can add keywords and more specific instructions for your writer.

Step 4: Sit Back and Relax while We Create Your Content

After placing an order, Crowd Content will match your order with a group of qualified writers. An interested writer from the group will claim your order and start working on your content.

You can watch it all happen on the Dashboard or the My Content section of your account. We’ll show you which writer has claimed your job and when he or she claimed it.

Most orders are claimed by a qualified writer within a few minutes. If you see that your order has not been claimed within 12 – 24 hours, you may want to edit your order instructions or contact your Client Account Manager for help.

NOTE: Your order can be claimed by writers at or above the Quality Level you specified in the order form. This means that you could potentially get a 4 Star writer even if you choose 3 Star Quality Level. This doesn’t happen all the time, but can happen if a higher level writer is interested in your topic and willing to work at a lower pay rate.

Step 5: Chat with Your Writer if Necessary

While a job is in progress, you can chat with your writer by using the instant messaging system.

To access the instant messaging system, click on your order from the Dashboard or the My Content section and then look for the ‘Message Your Writer’ tab in the bottom right corner.

If your writer doesn’t respond right away, don’t worry. He or she may be working offline. We’ll send him or her an email notification about your message and you should get a response soon.

Step 6: Review and Accept Your Completed Content

When your writer has finished writing your content, we’ll send you an email notification. You can then view the completed content in your account.

If the content matches your requirements, you can Accept it and leave a rating for the writer.

If the content doesn’t meet your expectations, you can easily request a revision at no extra charge. The job will be sent back to the writer with your instructions.

If needed, you can keep requesting revisions until the content meets your needs for up to three days after the initial order is completed. There is no cost or limit to revision requests (except for requests to rewrite the content out of scope from the original order brief).

Step 7: Easily Distribute Your Content

Once your content is complete and you have accepted it, you can easily distribute your content to your preferred platform.

Upload your content directly to WordPress, HootSuite, Outbrain, Constant Contact, BigCommerce, Shopify, MailChimp, or Copy HTML.

Step 8: Use Your Favorite Writers Going Forward

After you have worked with a writer at Crowd Content, you have the ability to place a Direct Order with that writer.

This means that the order will go directly to the requested writer, not allowing any other writers to have access to it.

To place a Direct Order, click Create Order just like you would to create any other order. Under Order Type, click Direct Order. Then click the writer dropdown and choose the writer you want.

NOTE: When placing a Direct Order, you must pay the rate on the writer’s profile. This rate will match the Quality Level of the writer, which you can see by hovering over the writer’s image.

You have a couple options to manage your writers.

You can Add to Team or Favorite writers that you would like to work with in the future. Both options become available once you click the box to the left of the writer profile.

To Create a Team, you will find a blue ‘Create a Team’ in the left hand column.

Alternatively, if you aren’t happy with the work of a writer, you can easily blacklist the writer by hovering on his or her profile image and clicking the blacklist button (it looks like a no parking sign). By doing this, the writer will not have access to any of your future orders.

Step 9: Contact Your Account Manager to Say Hi!

Remember, every client at Crowd Content is assigned a dedicated Client Account Manager. This person is here to help you in any way he or she can.

We love hearing from clients, so please, don’t hesitate to get in touch! Whether you have questions about the platform or about your content strategy, your Client Account Manager can guide you in the right direction.

The post Quick-Start Guide for Crowd Content Clients appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.