Prevent clients from making us victims of scope creep

Hi Kevin,

I'm thinking of how to protect ourselves for future jobs.  I believe we could become victims of scope creep... where the client keeps making changes.  I've been thinking a lot about what has been going on as far as the client have been doing to us.  We've been running around the maypole, so to speak as he keeps making changes as we go along.  An email is a legal contract until another email comes along and supersedes that one.  If you refuse the other emails and hold him to the first email.. that's one thing, but this client has been changing as he goes along, and you have accepted that, so the original email or contract can't really be enforced.

I have an idea that might change some of that.  Maybe you could put together a sort of template of things that you need to know before starting a job, and have the client fill it out.  Anything outside of that template would be outside of the original scope of the contract.  This template would serve as a binding contract, and would be less formal than a real legal contract. This would prevent the client from trying to wriggle out of an existing 'email contract' to make changes or get a discount or not pay at all due to some change he/she made in an email.

I was going to send this in an email, but then thought you would probably want it here instead.

Carol's power keeps going out

Hi Kevin,

Carol is having a time with her electricity going out on her at any moment of the day.  The electrician has come but needs to come again because the problem is not fixed.  She can't start anything new, or do anything until her electricity is stable... so if you have any new projects to go up, she can't start anything until she knows her electricity is stable. I think everything is done with the Billy's July Project, anyway... but I'm just telling you this because she needs you to know ... in case more stuff comes down the pike. 

Thanks,

Sally

Nested Spinning is not passing the robot

Hi Everyone,

I see some of you have tried your hand at nested spinning. It looks good, but it is not passing the robot for some reason.  The robot just sees something is wrong, but of course it doesn't show you how to fix it.  I worked for a while with one of Martha's and got it to pass the robot... but the others will give me 90% for 5 words and that is about it.. or 80% for 5 words... it just doesn't go past the first few words, for some reason.

I tried to find out if there is a way to get it to recognize nested spinning, but I don't see anything. I've checked with a forum on this, and it said that TBS doesn't recognize it... so if there is a way I don't know it.  I would suggest not doing anymore nested spinning until we can test it out... we need to get these articles through the robot, and those that are filled with spinnings within spinnings will not pass.

Thanks,

Sally

Kevin's email about client info on articles

Hi Everyone, Please acknowledge that you have read this by entering a comment... thanks! :)

I've been sending him articles (that still have the contact info in them)... he has been taking it out.. so if you spin an article and you see contact info, just take it out please. 

Kevin sent me an email and asked that I post it, so here it is:

The only "client information" you need to take out of the ones that focused on the client is phone numbers and web addresses and stuff. See, the idea is to post these articles out on the web, at a place like factoidz...with a link back to their client's website. These "backlinks" make the clients site more "valuable" according to Google bots. So, if Factoidz wouldn't let you post it because it was too "promotional" -similarly, EZ Articles wouldn't let you post it even, then this is not the type of content our client wants. Now, they have their sites where they know they will get even more backlink goodness out of posting there, so I'm sure that in the future, like the next round we get for this batch of clients (remember if we pull this off, this same job will come around every 2 months) that if we just change it up, they will be fine with that first batch being promotional.

I just took the client info out of a couple you sent, before I shipped them to Billy. If you see phone numbers or whatever, just take them out. Don't worry about the little bit of word count it takes away.

Kevin

P.S. Please post this on the BCS blog

Be extra careful when flat spinning outside of the docs

I just want to remind everyone to take one doc at a time when you are spinning.  We have to be extra careful when spinning outside of the docs and pasting them back into the docs.  I don't know when this mistake happened, but I compounded the mistake yesterday with assuming I was working on the right doc.

This is what happened:  Yesterday I opened a doc for Smith Printing, but Smith Printing wasn't in the doc. Cheap fares was in the Smith Printing Doc.  I went ahead and ran the article part through the robot and saw that it was okay.

I compounded the mistake by changing the title to match the content, thinking there must have been a mistake down the line.

This mistake caused me to find the article, because it was mine, and I had to do a flat spin on it which took time that I could have used elsewhere, since we are working hard to get these articles to Billy so everyone can get paid.

I can see now why Kevin would harp so much about taking one article at a time.  We tend to have more than one window open on the docs... I know I do when I'm working.  I think in the future it is best to close out other docs when we finish working on one before we take another to do.  It is possible to flat spin an article in a word processor and then paste it back into the wrong doc.

It doesn't matter how it happened, really... it happened.  I'm not blaming anyone.  I know we are all working as hard and fast as we can. We got past the issue, so there is no sense staying there talking about it.  We have to find solutions and move on to the next issue at hand, so that production continues. I think a mistake like that can be avoided if we only work on one doc at a time.

I should have questioned why the title didn't match the doc, but I didn't.  I assumed the content was correct.  That will teach me about assuming.  If you run across anything that doesn't seem right, let's not assume... let's investigate a little before we possibly destroy something.  

Today is another work day, so if anyone is working on flat spins and you are done, please send me a note telling me so I can run it through the robot.  So far, if my count is right, I got 13 through the robot yesterday and sent to Kevin where he could forward them to the client.  The sooner we get them sent to Billy, the sooner everyone will get paid. :)

Thanks for reading... your comments are welcomed.

We are getting the work across the finish line!

Hi Folks,

Kevin bought be a robot today to help him get these articles to pass The Best Spinner, so they could be emailed on to the client.  We are plugging along and getting them done.

I want to say a word about future articles that we write for this client.  It's okay to plug the company in the About Us.. because it is about them... but when it comes to the Unique Article part.. it must be unique... in that it is based only on the keywords and not focused on the company. I'm guilty of this too because none of us knew any better at the time.. but we are learning as we go. In the future there will be no contact information like email addresses, web addresses or phone numbers.  We are writing for robots, not for human eyes to read.  What we are doing is just for SEO purposes.  The clients will put back links on these, I believe, to drive traffic to their sites.  Even though we might want to rewrite their websites, that's not our job. Our job is to write articles based on the keywords.

Thanks for reading.  You all are a great crew, and I'm glad to be working with all of you.

Sally

I guess that's all I needed to say.

The Best Spinner Robot Masters Forum

OK, Kevin, here is the new post for Robot Master. Now, I am very lost on what they want for spin #3, and I saw on the Free Samples page that Petal is asking similar questions. So would you address that here, or some place else -- I'm so confused!

Also, I put BabyCompare in the spinner, and spun and spun and I got some great synonyms, but every spin says 31% unique, so I'm wondering if one single article can actually get to 60% uniqueness by spinning rather than rewriting? I'm not sure how percent of uniqueness is measured, but if it is measured by actual different information (as I suspect is needed) rather than the same info in different words, then there is no way to get to 60% just by spinning.

New Work

Hi Team!

Here are four articles that need hand spinning. Include some good titles and social bookmarking "blurbs" -which is just a "teaser" describing what the article is about, are asking the question that the article answers:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J_FswroE0qbBWtgo5v8Q29xJBNcJbzWBQzM4fPsYDoI/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Z-qSnyI8XASjBjr60XBgqPhZHXLWgyg1fTWJEhhzHw/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pI0tQMgN3BCbR886a00UecX-28EUdx2uv7In9eudZSg/edit?hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kvGG9yUUZATa21nZh4L63134NJoa2dRyuProb72YgAY/edit?hl=en_US




Everything below this line is done:

8/18/11 Trust accounting software (Note: I would like Steve, our new guy to claim this one -he knows accounting well. Please forgive me for breaking my "claim rule" :-) )

8/18/11 Atlanta real estate

8/18/11 Digital signs

8/18/11 Increase Height Cosmetic surgery Which begs the question: While one is under, being made surgically taller, can one be made longer as well?

8/18/11 Used Forklifts

Mick Jagger Shares Anti-aging Secrets With All Women

Mick Jagger Shares Anti-aging Secrets With All Women

Free Samples Article

Okay.. at first I didn't see where to start a new post... but I see it now... the color of the background was making it impossible for me to see how to start a new post.

The article on the docs titled "Free Samples" has been claimed by Teal on 8/12 and has not been done yet. So what is up with this?  Are you doing it Teal?  If you don't want to do it, someone else can do it.  I'm looking for something to do and can't find anything except this one that has been claimed by you and not done.

I don't see any keywords for that article either... I was thinking maybe that is why you haven't done it yet... that would be a problem.  If there is any work anywhere, I wish someone would point me to it. In the mean time I am still working on Carol's spin which will take up the next couple of hours.

~ Sally :)

Inspirational images

Hi
I wanted to add this to the inspirations page but obviously you can't add images to comments so here it is in a new post.
The bike rider with wings is a sculpture, photo taken on a cell phone at the beach in Hertzalia, Israel.
Petal

Article Spinning Terms and Definitions

Hi Kevin:

I just want to apologize for the very lengthy article I wrote. I guess I just got over-ambitious! It won't happen again.

All the Best,

Martha

No apologies necessary! It turned out to be what I call a "Happy Accident." Actually that term comes from William Alexander, the guy who could paint an entire landscape in 30 minutes, he was on Public Television...

Happy accident, because it caused me to discover this method of spinning:

Built in spin- Terminology is important in communication. As we gel as a group, we'll start getting our own verbal "short hand" to pass on and collaborate on work more efficiently. So, it's important to be inventive, and come up with terms like this. It's also important to adopt and use these terms when any of us come up with them. I'm defining this new term, more by example. Martha wrote 965 words in the article in this example. Our client's specs call for 575. However, these articles need to be flat spun to 60%-80% originality. I down spun (another term I'll define in the next paragraph) the article Martha wrote. Look at the example below. The different colored text is different paragraphs that Martha wrote, that I mashed together, using: { | | } ...I added the name of the company, which in this case was a keyword. So, there is a keyword in each different version. Get it? I'm proposing that a "built in spin" be done as the author is composing the article. Although, I think the flat spinning of single words and short phrases should be done later, and preferably, by another. This way, it can include a "proof read" with the flat spin. Make sense? Here is the example:


https://sites.google.com/site/bangaricontentstudios/built-in-spin-example

Down spin- This is when a writer makes up extra paragraphs, or sentences, that say pretty much the same thing, or like in this case (Martha's example) each paragraph describes a different applicable thing on a list: "Sites to see in Arizona" for instance... I've noticed that Martha has a way with "lists" and I think we should follow her example, approaching our "articles written for robots" like this. Which reminds me of another trick I've found, that I think should go with the built in spin.

List spin- comma separated lists should contain three items structured like this: She included melon, pears and blueberries in her fruit salad... Now as you write, another good built in spin would be to think of four more selections for that list, and type them in "flat spin style" like this: She included {melon, pears|pineapple, grapefruit|grapes, peaches} and blueberries in her fruit salad...I've noticed some comma separated lists that include five items or more. List spinning them from now on will get you paid for seven words, but will keep the overall word count for the article lower while it boosts the originality. I think it's better to do these while writing the article, rather than letting the next person do them. When the article is a "niche" topic, the things on the list, unlike fruit, can't come off the top of the flat spinners head. The author can take shortcuts as well by "googling" a list of 3-5 things. It's surprising how that will yield results of many other items belonging in that list.

That concludes this morning's lesson! Thanks for reading! Comments and suggestions welcome. 

-Kevin

Instructions for flat spin #3

Hi everyone!

Spin #3

Please go to the above link. Once you have read the page,(don't do any of the following until you have read the page!!) feel free to go into the "Billy's July Project" folder|collection. Claim docs...One at a time! (skip the ones on the list!) Do "spin three"... that will be very few words outside of parenthesis!! :-( It's unbelievable how difficult it is to get 60%-80% originality. However, it seems that if the original content contains 600 words (by the way, make sure the word count stays under 600 in the "original article" body of the work. I.e.; The "About us" and "Social bookmark titles" have been fine, but Billy requested that we keep the articles to 575 words preferably. We are doing great! As Billy said, we just need a few "tweaks" and that is expected when we are just starting out with a new client. I want to request that everyone learn whatever they can about flat-spinning. Let's share what we learn on the blog (blog, NOT the private site...) We need to master this, but more importantly, use it correctly. I'll post content about SEO and Keyword stratagy. I've written a lot about this topic. I'll post it daily on our blog, as I transfer these articles from Factoidz. If we can add this knowledge of Flat-spinning and SEO, as it applies to written content, to our God-given talent and superior intellectual capabilities...We could kick some serious ass in this biz! Remember, if we can get these clients whatever they need, in a week or two, without them having to send anything more than one "form email"...There could be as much as another .02 per word in it for us. Imagine .05 per word to write and spin? I did 500 spun words in less than 1 hour. I'm not even good at it, and that was about $15/hr. At .05 per word, that would have been $25/hr. As we figure out tricks to flat spinning and use technology to our advantage by maybe purchasing one of these, flat spinners, and using it ourselves. We'll discover other shortcuts, as we improve efficiency. Be sure to keep time on the things you do. This will give us the R&D we need to determine what works well, and what doesn't. Strength in numbers! We have a group of 10 right now. We can all play a part in helping the group with new info, and testing methods, etc. 

It sucks writing for robots, I know. But learning what you are trying to do with the content you are producing for this client, especially, will take the edge off that sucky-ness. It will help you to become more efficient at it too. Lastly, understanding the content+SEO=traffic=$$$ formula, will teach you the secrets that can help us promote our own services and intellectual property, and collect revenue on the traffic we generate on our own domanis, i.e.; Bangari Content Gallery and Bangari Content Studios Blog. 

Please leave a comment indicating that you have read this and the private site page "Spin #3" Before you claim any docs for spin #3.

Thanks!

Kevin

--

Shop at Amazon!

Payday on Billy's July Project!

Payday!

Billy’s July project is all done, and he liked our work. He hasn’t had time to review it as of yet, but because I whined and nagged the poor guy quite a bit, he is going let me submit the invoice for payment now. I hope to get everyone their money within 30 days of the time you completed the work. If my calculations are correct, we started this about 20 days ago. I’ll always try to get deposits when I can, and share the upfront money. Is everyone okay with 30 days or less for payment?

There were a couple minor issues. I’ll lay them out in another post. In this post, I just want to be sure that everyone has input their work. I got some compliments from some of you on the slickness of the form I made...Thanks! I done made myself proud of myself on that too! ;-) I remind myself that a pat on the back is only 20” away from a kick in the ass, so I’ll try not to get too full of myself! I also got a couple questions about viewing that doc...Answer: Yes, the form is connected to a Google Docs spread sheet. I will share that with all of you.

My next trick is to break out what each content producer is owed. After that, I will possibly need to upgrade my paypal account to receive payments bigger than $500. Lastly, I need all of you who is owed a payment for this, to email to me your paypal email address. That’s it! Thanks sooooo much all of you talented hard working people! I hope to bring in much more of this stuff. We actually have a few more (about 5?) to do right away. I’m going to post it on Bangari Content Studios’ private site. From now on, when new work is available, I’ll post the work requests and special instructions there. Then, Sally will create the Google docs, titling each. That’s where everyone will claim their article (one at a time) by renaming...you know the drill.

After they are done being written, mark them as done, again renaming. Someone else can claim them to spin, or the same person it doesn’t matter. Just make sure you allow them to be looked over. Let the claiming renaming look something like this:

Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Available to write
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Claimed to write by (Name)
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: (Name) Completed writing
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Proofed by (Name) Available to spin
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Claimed to flat-spin by (Name)
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: (Name) Completed flat spin
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Flat spin checked by (Name) Available to spin more
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Re-flatspin Claimed by (Name)
Fartjoy Room Deoderizer: Re-flatspin checked by (name) Available to spin more OR Done -ready to submit for payment.

I’m working on the “Management Hats” post...One of them will be for a flatspin manager/proofreader... This person is going to be in charge of hooking us up with a flat spinning robot, and knowing how to run it through for originality percentage.

I’m also working on an all inclusive flat spin post, to include everything I’ve learned about it over the last few weeks. Which, by no means is all you need to know. The “Proofing Manager” will need to take it from there, and onward!

Please, everyone leave a comment letting me know that their work is all input. The sooner everyone checks this the sooner I can submit this invoice and get us paid. Thanks! -Kevin

Would you like to know more about Carol Roach and the work I do?

Hi Gang,

I am a website content writer who works with SEO articles but apart from that I am a researcher.

My fields of expertise are mental health (psychology)

Medical/health

and women's issues.

Although I am eclectic and write poems, shorts stories, novels, stream of consciouness writing, editorial news releases, reviews and so much more.

Many people do not fully understand the women's movement and the struggles women have had to gain status and equality, I do article on the issues that women faced in the past and are facing today.

 I have a radio interview talking about my work that you guys can download if you would like to know more about women's issues, I also have an on going column at examiner.com

I was asked to interview a member of the UN for my work on Egyptian Women in the Mubarak demonstrations, unfortunately it didn't pan through as it happened in April when my computer went down.  I am sure though that other opportunities will arise due to my association with examiner.com.

I am very passionate about my work and believe I am making some difference in this world.  Though I am sure not all my critics would agree.  However, if I help in the understanding of just a few men and women I will have made a difference for which I would be happy. 

If anyone is interesting in hearing the interview, please contact me at: winterose@videotron.ca I have to admit there are two segments and I go on for an hour; summing up a 100 years of womens struggles and successes in that short period of time.

Thank you to anyone who is interesting in my work.

carol roach

Passive income proposal

I’m still holding my breath, waiting for Billy’s feedback, hoping that we wowed them, sweating getting paid (don’t worry, I got everyone covered even if the client, for some strange reason, doesn’t come through in a timely way) I don’t think that we will be disappointed! I’m proud of us.

I have some more work that pays by the word. It will be a bunch of articles about home schooling. I want to hold off on it for just a bit longer...at least until the money comes through from this last project. I don’t want to get in over my head.

In the meantime, I want to propose an idea that I think will get us some good income...Passively.


Let me start by explaining the purpose for the different domains I’ve got going. There really is rhyme and reason to this, but it can get confusing. Don’t get frustrated.

Bangari Content Studios: This is our private site. It’s private in order to protect our client’s intellectual property. It keeps the crawlers away so we aren’t inadvertently competing with them with the content they buy from us. It also keeps the client and others from seeing our work in progress, and as Petal put it: our inner squabbles.

Everything else belongs in the open and in the spotlight. We want to draw as much traffic as possible, to promote our business and generate revenue. Content draws traffic. It has to be quality content of course, but quantity gets the search-bots excited. All out dialog concerning writing, especially when we fill in labels, pushes us higher to the top of the search engine results. That’s a huge advantage to keeping these discussions out of email...not to mention, it’s more organized.

Bangari Content Studio Blog: Post all correspondence here...The inspirational are a great idea as well. All for the reasons I stated above.

Bangari Content Gallery: Here is where I want to post our content created for passive income, and displayed for sale. Our blog will link to it, and as the blog rises in rank the back link will do us good. Then BCG will link to our individual blogs helping them as well.

Now let’s get into some detail about what this content produced for passive income, and potential sale should be. Think about American Idol. How many times do the judges admonish the hopeful and talented amateurs about the importance of  “song selection”...So it goes with content. Success is hinged on choosing the right topics, and covering them in an original and all inclusive way.

To make out well, you need to come out above the fold for a search on the topic you are writing about. This takes good SEO (search engine optimization) work. If you choose a topic that is very popular, like “diabetes” ...it takes unbelievably good SEO work. That’s why if you are a one man show, you would be wise to go for “long tail” topics, aka “niche” topics. For an article that expands on long tail and associated SEO click here.

I want to tackle the competitive topics. I think with a talented group, working together to churn out a mass of relevant content, along with some original angles on these popular topics, we could make out really good. Sally wrote a plan for a content production package for diabetes, that was stellar. I think that would be a great topic to make the focus of our first effort. I have two others that I know we could shine on as well. One is physical fitness and steroids. The other is mortgage modification and stopping foreclosure.

I can’t guarantee success here. This would be a group gamble...But worse case scenario, we post the content on AC if it doesn’t generate the kind of passive income that surpasses Associated Content, and other content farms...Let me know what you all think in the comments.

Resource Articles

Hi Kevin,

Carol has written 3 resource articles so far.  One is the spin bot article, the next one was the new recruits article that you asked for, and the last one so far is the one about protecting precious documents.  I'm not sure how you are going to credit her with these articles.  Should they be entered into your money and time management site so she can get 3 cents per word for them?  Even though these articles don't get bought by a client, she is helping out with the resource material that you are asking for.

Please advise so that Carol and anyone else who is asked to put up articles on a blog can know whether they will be compensated for their efforts. Carol has never been told if she will be paid for any training or writing of resource material.  This would be a good time to address this issue for her own benefit and the benefit of anyone else who is asked to write resource blog material.

Thanks,

Sally

Inspirationals

Carol has a great idea here. She wants to have a place outside of email (praise the Lord) to post inspirationals. They will have something to do with creativity, writing, motivation...And even spiritual. Remember when Mike Quoc at Factoidz censored all "religious" content? We will have none of that here. If it inspires you, and you think it will inspire others...Post-away!

I guess we can put them either in comments, or as we all have authoring permission (we can have up to 100 authors) then we can just keep updating this post as well. On that note, we have to find out how to back up this blog, just in case the disgrutled employee of the month gets inspired to hit the delete button! Anyone who knows how to secure that, please advise. It could get you the "Security Manager" hat!

I have one that I heard recently that I find very inspirational by one of my favorite artists, who produced my all time favorite piece of art: The Pieta

Here it is:

"I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set it free"

-Michael Angelo

I'm back

Hi Folks!  I'm not sure if anyone is even seeing my posts... I'm not so sure we are still on the same page yet as far as where communications go.  I'm writing here, because that is where I was told to write...lol.

Anyway, I got my little net book computer to get back online with.  My other computer is still in the shop.  I am making sure that I have backup this time, so if anything goes wrong, I will have another computer to work from.

If there is any way I can help, just let me know.

Sally

I'm out for now but will be back soon

Hi everyone! My computer crashed last night and all I have now is my iPhone to use. I'll be online again soon. I've got my laptop in the shop and I purchased a new little notebook which will be my spare computer. It has a lot of memory for a tiny computer.

I said all that to say that I miss you all and will be back soon.

Love y'all

Sally

Transparent Communications Philosophy

Good morning everyone,

First I would like to address this and because it is an extremely busy day here today, I will be placing inserts in red in the text to save me time and not fall behind on correspondence.

Hi Trish:

I realized that I already know you from contact with you on the web. I just can't remember specifically how or where though. You know me from White Schooner Publishing, PAM publishing, and Authors Den, plus a few other writing communities that we have both participated in.

Anyway, if you would reconsider working with us, I would welcome you as a member of our team. I know that you are highly talented and skilled when it comes to these types of projects, so please rethink your decision. We could really use someone of your high calibre.  Your letter from yesterday had nothing to do with the decision I made.  In fact, I made my decision before receiving your letter and although you have sent this request, it does not reverse my decision in any way.  Please see my notes below to Kevin.

All the Best,  Thank you for sending this!

Martha

From: Kevin Leland [mailto:klleland@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 10:00 PM
To: trishmacqueen@gmail.com; Beverly Mucha; kevin leland; Martha Jette; petal mashraki; Phill Senters; Richard Wassem; Sally Collins; Stephanie Mayberry; Teal Blackwell; winterose
Subject: Fwd: Big Mistake! I am SO SORRY!

Trish,

Okay. I'm not above begging: Please reconsider! Sorry but at this stage of the game, I cannot reconsider this proposition, as there are too many issues to be worked out in your organization for me to consider tying my name to it.  This being said, I am not criticizing you or your group in any way, I am simply observing from the outsiders point of view, the comments, communication, organization, and content problems that have arisen since my involvement.  I feel that you need to better refine your position and how things will be handled. I've heard enough from you over the last few days to know that you are a class act! Thank you for this compliment, but if you understand this, you must honestly understand I am not willing to place my name on the line, at present, until I see some firm decisions made as to how things will be handled.  You are tenacious and honest, a stickler for detail who recognizes good performance, and you have a way about you that makes me think that you could promote my "no pyramid / group management" and "transparency" visions for this organization better than I can. You could do it with much more tact than I can anyway.  Your transparency vision.  Transparency I agree has its place, but I also understand that there are times when transparency can be a hindrance and not a help.  I have no problem with the theory myself, but I will take a minute to point out that in an open society where there are many people operating on equal footing, some people are not comfortable operating under this method, directly related to what happened yesterday. 

Although you urge this transparency, Martha obviously does not feel inclined to use it when it suits her needs not to (as will most others), or she would not have made the email to you personally (even though she accidentally send it to me) instead of voicing her true feelings publically. The problem with the transparency theory is it is all or nothing.  I have never found that to work simply because people who are pressured into it, although they may conform, they will never be happy with it and will continue to run behind others backs to make their point of view, which totally discredits the idea. (Martha – no offense intended)

I am a little bit different in my stance on this, as I believe if you have nothing nice to say about someone, don’t say it, and if you know you will hurt someone’s feelings when you don’t need to, then why voice it, while on the other hand, I have no qualms telling the person directly if I have a problem with them – but I tell them, not all their friends and peers, which is what will happen with your transparency theory…..that and before long, there will be so many hard feelings that the unit as a whole will no longer function as a team, due to the number of hard feelings built up between its members.

Open transparency, in my opinion, is only good if it is kept strictly geared to the work at hand and not to the people involved in it. I am not so sure your members can do that? In fact, my bet would be that the majority do not feel comfortable doing that???

I truly believe that you have the same intentions as I do, as far as making sure people get paid well, and getting the industry to cough up more money for our talents and efforts. I think you would be a "most valuable player" I don’t need to be a “most valuable player” on your team, I need to know your team can keep it together more than a few months, and to be perfectly “frank and honest”, I do not believe that will happen, as I am already seeing cracks in the mortar  on our team, and that is without even knowing what you bring to the table as far as clients and additional team members. You will find even if I do decide at some point to join your group of merry misfits (term of endearment, so don’t jump to conclusions) I will work with you to build a better place, but not offer to bring anything to the table, until I am sure as a group you can handle it without prejudice and problems.  You forget I have a well established name and I do not intend to have it dropped one notch by tying it to a group that so far has not pulled its act together.  I think you would balance me out, and help me win projects from clients that require a little more finesse than my sales style affords...Although you would be surprised that for certain clients, and certain situations, my way works better. Diversity is key!  This I have no doubt about at all.  Almost all people require different handling, depending on their personalities – something you might do well to learn – your own team is no different. 

Example:  Carol is a pain in the ass, but I have respect for her and tell her I love her.  Nice comment and although I too have found that to be true, on occasion, I am not so sure why other people in the group need to be made aware of this, or what it does to Carol’s credibility when new people to the group read this in your open communication.  I would think that it hurts the group as a whole, and will make new people not want to establish a working relationship with her because of the difficulty she is perceived to cause.  I have always found that although Carol and I have had our difficulties over the years, she also offers some intelligent choices and alternatives to solve the problems that have arisen.  (Carol, please excuse this, but I know you know this is meant to be helpful to the group, not mean or vindictive where you are concerned personally. You know I don’t believe airing dirty laundry in public is a good idea at any level).

We are still in the building stages here, and I see where you could be an important part of that as well. By your resume, it's obvious you have a ton of experience in this business, and from our conversations I can tell you have an ability to tell where things are going in this industry....nuff said.. I agree that you are building, but you are also operating in the public eye and right now from what I, personally, have seen – it needs some work.  You cannot build on the premise of bringing others in, if the ground rules are not established and that requires someone to lead, or a group to organize and set the parameters.  I don’t agree that there can be no leaders and all equals, and I defy you to show me an example where it has worked for any length of time.  Someone, a group of someone’s, has to take charge and lay the ground work and then continue to maintain it, if it is going to work.  You know the old adage…..”too many chiefs and not enough Indians” must have come from somewhere….

Pleeeeease join us! Sorry Kevin, but at the present time, I do not feel your group can live up to my expectations; therefore, I am not willing to jeopardize all that I have built, to date.  The price you are asking is too high!  Thank you and I wish your group the best with this huge undertaking. 

Sincerely, Trish

Recruit Policy Proposal

Hi Gang

We are in the process of expanding and we will at some future point in time need more people to write. Kevin has a proposal to put forth for all of us to vote upon. Here it is:

We hire new recruits who will be trained under senior members of the group. Since the new recruits will take some mentoring in the beginning stages, the senior members will share a part of their income from writing as a payment for their time and expertise.

The new recruits would get a cent and a half a word for their work and the senior members would get the other cent and a half. The work will be submitted to the senior members who will hand it in as a finished product, under their own name, and will be responsible for paying out the portion that is due to the new recruits.

Part of the mentoring will be to learn how to effectively use the blogs. We are striving towards a total transparent environment and the email forwarding system will be abolished.

The new recruit will not stay a new recruit forever; after 10 articles are successfully completed they will be receiving full pay. The senior members will have completed the mentoring process at that point.

New recruits will be used when the projects are so large that existing members cannot complete them in the time allotted by the client.

In other words, we will rely on the new recruits to help us get through very large projects, but when we can handle the projects by ourselves we will continue to do so.

This proposal is put forth on the floor for everyone to vote on.

If the idea is passed we encourage all of you to suggest anyone you may have in mind that you feel would be an asset to our excellent team.

Remember we value each and everyone one of you. We have a good team here and we know it!

You rock!

We are anxiously awaiting your vote and comments are appreciated.

carol

Content Production and Union Mentality

@ Stephanie: Great news!! I was praying for you. We are a lot alike Steph, neither of us have any tolerance for social injustice, and when it gets in our faces, we punch it in the mouth, knock it down and step over it to a better deal! 

It's great to have you back! I hope you enjoy the improvements. I think we are just days away from having all our dialog online and out of email. After this, it should be very smooth...Trish had a very legitimate complaint, that I think I finally rectified. 

I think Trish is going to be okay. I really feel like she has good intentions, she is just still holding on to a few bad ideas. I think with a little coaching from people like you and I, along with the rest of our team, she will be able to see how to get herself and her people out of the doldrums of slave wages. 

She doesn't strike me as stubborn, and she definitely has a thick enough skin to deal with my "directness" and doesn't vindictively counter-attack. So those three things have won  my respect. 

@ Trish: I can tell you are a stickler for organization. I am too. In this biz, organization in communication and work processes can work wonders in improving the dollars per hour for content producers. But there is another form of organizing that can set the standard for earning that living wage once peak performance is achieved...That is the "Jimmy Hoffa" kind of organizing. You need to get your head and heart around this if we are going to work together...and I really hope we can! You said:

I did make up a new rate chart and have bumped my rates up that I will be paying the writers.  Not as much as you suggested, as unlike you I have established clientele who will need some notice and gradual increases, but I will work towards your suggested rates, as I believe the same as you do.

This model is not going to work. There will be no pyramids in our organization. I don't even consider myself a "boss" ...I only want to be considered the founder and organizer. I've set this thing up where I can be cut loose from the team as easily as Sally or Carol could, and you all can carry on without me. We are content producers who can earn $25 per hour if we are as capable as Martha. I'm trying to spread out the "management" responsibilities among all the content producers, by giving everyone who writes a specific "hat" to wear. I charge our clients a flat, 25% over what we pay ourselves (.03 per word) this should cover our overhead (including paying our CPs for the time they spend wearing their respective management hats) 

I'm somewhat new to the online content production industry. However, I spent twenty years in the construction business, doing public work in Rhode Island. Read "Prince of Providence" if you have trouble believing what I'm about to say. I've worked for corrupt politicians who were convicted felons, I've gotten myself in and out of extortion and bribery scams leaving one scammer in the back of an ambulance with my footprint on the side of his face, while I collected the money I was owed from his corrupt boss...otherwise, he was next. I paid union wages to my crew even though I wasn't officially a union shop. Gangsters, guns, knives, death threats,  fistfights, jail time, and general violence were all part of my career...which earned me as much as $3000 per week, proving that street smarts can be more valuable than a college education -and much less expensive. 

This writing gig is like a form of semi-retirement for me. However, I'll be damned if any computer geeks are going to get over on me or my crew. After all, I didn't let the Mayor of Providence or the Mafia fuck with me or mine. So, this is what we need to do if you want to get your fair share of our pie:

Tell your clientele that you and your team has joined an organization that is determined to earn a living wage for producing content. The new rate is .04 per word. If they can't pay that rate they can go fuck themselves. If they try to recruit "scabs" to give them content at $1.25/ 500 words, then this organization that you just signed up with is going to throw a big monkey wrench into their works -after we smack 'em over the head with it. It will be a waste of time for them to continue to try to keep these slaves on their plantation, because sooner than later, they will be working for us at .03 per word. The sooner they adjust their "rate charts" the sooner we all can begin to enjoy a living wage for our work and steady profits for them. It's about time for a new concept: Trickle up economics.

Of course you can spin that to make it more polite...Or, just copy and paste it to them, and let the goosebumps on their scrotums motivate them to do the right thing for all parties concerned. 

Now I understand that there are different levels of talent and abilities. I can adjust my "no pyramid" policy in this way: If each content producer on our team wants to take on up to three "apprentices" or "ghosts" then I think that could open some doors of opportunity to those just starting out, and there could be a mutual benefit for the CP who trains them. We would need to adjust the parameters. There has to be a limit to how much less the apprentice earns, and the amount of time they stay in this role.

I'm going to take this discussion out of email, and post it on our new blog...Please, everyone respond with comments there. Thanks! 

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Stephanie Mayberry <fotojunkie67@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kevin. Sorry I dropped out for a bit. You may remember I was fighting discrimination and bullying in my workplace.

Well, my boss's boss's boss asked me to come work for him! I not only got out of that bad situation, I got a BETTER job!

I am writing SOPs for another part of FEMA right now. I am a technical writer, so this is right in my element.

I have company this weekend, but after that I should be able to help out with the writing. This has all been a whirlwind!

Oh, I don't know if I like Trish. Her letter has a several typos and her paragraphs are way too long. However, the thing that really disturbed me was her reference to her "disabled" writers in her second paragraph. She seemed to slam them. I hope I was reading it wrong, but it appeared to me that she was saying something bad about them. >:-(

It was kinda offensive. She won't be in a leadership position, will she? I just left a bunch of folks who slammed me for my disability.

Steph

(PS  If I missed a letter in this email it is because I have a new keyboard and I am not used to it. Sorry in advance.)

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Kevin Leland <klleland@gmail.com> wrote:

Check out this new post. Also check out the previous post, Money and Time Management, where all work will bill input by CPs for billing and payment. you will see the link on the side. 

Please follow this blog, and set it to alert you by email of new posts and comments if you are on the Bangari Team! I so want to get away from email. This is our primary communication platform. Our Content Producer platform. We can work out all the final details of setting this business up, and then we will all be on our way to earning a steady $25 per hour for producing content.

Thanks everyone! Your feedback and input will be greatly appreciated, as well as all your hard work on this latest and greatest project. If we can end this with a happy client, there will be a lot more of this work coming our way, without so much management hassle!

Kevin

--

Shop at Amazon!

We will be doing our own accounting and time managing

08/02

Good morning everyone!

This is where I will be communicating with everyone, from now on.  Kevin doesn't like emails, as you all know, by now.  It drives him bonkers to get so many emails.

This post is to inform you, if you don't already know, that you will be doing your own booking of your writing, spinning, and second spinning on the new Bangari Content Studios: Time and Money Management sheet.  

I did Phill's for him, because he can't get on there for some reason.  It could be that it isn't shared with him yet.  If any one can't get on this new site to clock your time and book your information, please let Kevin know so he can rectify that.  I wrote him in a blog post that Phill couldn't get on last night.

This is all so new to us that we are bound to have some problems until we get all the kinks worked out of this system.  When it is off and running, this system will sort of run itself.  All you will need to do is plug in your information. It will be a kind of self-serve writing and recording domain.

You can get your old information from the Bangari Books.  Open that page and look for all of your old work and plug it into the new Bangari Content Studios: Time and Money Management Record.

Here is the link to the old Bangari Books:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjbNfyKO5fYadEFMdWFCc1lvYjRRX1lOZC11T254VUE&hl=en_US#gid=5
Here is the link to the BCS: Time and Money sheet

http://bangaricontentstudios.blogspot.com/2011/08/time-and-money-management.html?showComment=1312202699290#c7612819071567189406

Please let Kevin know if you cannot get on the new Bangari Content Studios Time and Money Mangement Sheet.  He is the only one that can fix that.  Once you see the sheet it is self-explanatory. You shouldn't have any problems.. you enter the date in the manner that it says to, you enter your name, the project, the title you've been working on, and your word count, and if you were the writer of the article, the first spinner, or the second spinner.. it's all very easy to do.

It takes a lot of my time to do the bookwork for everyone, and it is getting expensive for Kevin, so we all have to learn to document for ourselves.  When we finish with whatever job we are doing, it is best to stop right then to record it, so we don't forget. If we were to forget, we might remember when we didn't get paid for something. So it is up to us to keep our records accurate. There are bound to be some slip ups, because this is a new thing. Let's just try to do the best we can at doing this recording.

Thanks so much for reading,

Sally

Everyone needs access to the new Bangari Time and Money sheet

This is an informal post to you Kevin.  I have a very unhappy camper (Phill) who cannot get on to this form to do his bookkeeping. He says he is ready to give up.  I'm on chat with him trying to help him just wait until you can share it.  Not only that, but make sure that Phill knows how to use this form.  He gets frustrated and gives up very easily. He is a good writer and a good spinner.. we don't want to lose Phill.  He is really confused over the changes.

He also is upset that he didn't know he could spin something that didn't have his name on it. He hasn't spun any today because there was nothing more with his name on it. I've told him to jump in and take something that hasn't got a name on it. He is more used to being told what to do or what to take.. he's rather timid, I think... we need to be careful that we don't make things too hard and we lose him. He may need a little help getting used to this.

To end this up.. just please share that site with him.. he clicked on it and got that he needs permission to enter. Carol may need to work with him on how to enter his data into the form. Maybe once he sees it it will be self-explanatory.

We need him. He's good.

We have another issue at hand.  We are all supposed to be doing our own bookkeeping now.  I assume that means to transfer all of our old work on this project over to the new place.  I'm meeting resistance with this.  Carol complains that she can't do it because she has dyslexia.  She said she would pay me if she had to to do this for her.  It's not that I mind doing it for her, it is that I am working hard just like everyone else is, and it makes me responsible for her pay.  What if I get a number wrong?  It will be me that gets blamed.  If we are going to go autonomous... and do our own bookkeeping, then what do we do with the exceptions.  Do you pay me for the time it takes me to do it, or do you dock it out of Carol's pay?  I am asking this in an open forum, because this is what you want.. if I am not comfortable saying it in front of everyone.. I shouldn't say it at all.  Well... I feel I need an answer, so I will ask it in an open forum.

We have people who are either reluctant to get on board with this.. or reluctant to try and use the new system.  If a person can't get access to the system, that is one thing.. but if you can do it and just are scared to, that's another thing.  I have dyslexia too, but I am very careful. Still I can make mistakes.. would you rather make the mistake yourself, or have me make it for you?  I'm only human too... and I would rather not be responsible for other people's earnings if I don't have to.

Sal

Bangari Content Studios: Time and money Management

Bangari Content Studios: Time and money Management

Link to spreadsheet where everything is totaled

Ask Questions When Needed

I'm sure Kevin realizes that his last post was quite inclusive and might be difficult for everyone to understand. Don't be afraid to ask questions, if you need to to clarify things. It is better to ask than to try to figure things out as we go along.

Martha Jette

Request for Bios & Pix

Also, would everyone please send me a short bio and a headshot of themselves please? You may also include links to your own web sites and/or blogs. Send everything to marthajette@gmail.com. Your information will be used to promote you and your work, so make it good!

Learning SEO

The best way to figure out search engine optimization is a lot like determining when to change your underwear: Throw them against the wall and if they stick – go put on another pair.

If you are “stuck” on SEO like the rest of us, just walk away. Don’t waste time that you could instead be spending actually producing something that a search engine will find. The best approach is no approach. You don’t have to admit this to anyone else but yourself; so look in the mirror and say “doggone it! I ain’t no where near as smart as those geniuses that work for Google.” And while you’re at it, if you are one of those snake oil salesmen trying to make a buck off the rest of us by selling us secrets that you don’t possess, then also say “I don’t get paid no where near as much as those geniuses at Google who get the big bucks to keep the secrets they invented from people like me.”

Phew! Now don’t we feel better? Good! Now, go produce your best content. Don’t sweat how you are going to title it. Pay no attention to keywords or keyword saturation. Just be creative, and informative, and interesting. Don’t let search engine optimization or keyword density bog you down or cramp your style. Just chill out, be cool and keep it real. Do you know why?

Because just as soon as you figure out just the right way to jump up and down and wave your arms up over your head while nagging like Horshack, “hooo hooo Mr. Kotteer” while wearing the proper brightly colored clothes and the right hat; all to get the robots’ attention…The geniuses at Google are going to have their robots better programmed to ignore you and follow after the cool people who don’t try to make foolish spectacles of themselves.

But still, here are some basics, simplified for your practical use. Check out these Factoidz on the topic. Also note, this type of linking together of articles on a popular site like Factoidz, is a great thing to do for SEO purposes.

How to link your content

6 Steps to improve SEO

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO Techniques

Time and energy investment in SEO campaign

The Future of SEO and how it will affect Internet Content

Progressive keyword targeting and long tail topics

Internet writing: Keyword use and Web 2.0

Targeting the Topic and Keyword use LSI and LSA

How to make keyword choices

Content Production Steps and Flat Spinning -The final word

Billy’s July Project introduced me to flat spinning. As an Internet writer, I am aware of the reasons for avoiding duplicate content. I’ve spun lots of content, without robotic assistance. At first Billy requested one flat spin per sentence, but almost simultaneously requested 10 out of 13 words be flat spun. This created some confusion because it doesn’t add up, especially if the words in the brackets are mostly synonyms, instead of phrases. Even at this point, now that we have gone in and “re-spun” I’m not confident that when the bot removes the brackets and breaks out multiple articles, that they will be 80% original.

Pricing: Of course cost is a factor. I’m trying to gather everyone’s “time studies” to determine what the charge should be for going into article and flat spinning them. I’d still like feedback. I think I had it backwards. I thought it took more time to come up with 150 flat spun words, with brackets and lines, that agreed with the words outside the brackets...and made sense. I figured we could get two or three times as much for the flat spun word count, especially seeing where our client was getting three original articles after it was run through the bot.

Example:

Original article 700 words @ .03 = $21.00
Flat spun word count (one spin per sentence) 150 words (less than ½ hr. to do) @ .07 = $10.50
After robot processing, client has 3 original articles, 700 words each -total of $31.50
2100 words of content for .015 per word...I though there may even be some room at these rates to provide more flat spinning to get closer to 10:13 ratio.


Now I’m thinking that this model isn’t going to work. Billy said he had to spend an hour on each article to increase the flat spin word count. Sally and I asked for the opportunity to send him a finished product...”ripe” apples, instead of green ones. Hence the “re-spin” project. With this extent of spinning, I think it’s getting kinda muddy. I feel like at one spin per sentence, flat spinning is a great tool...at a 10:13 ratio, it’s probably just a wash compared to just “hand spinning” the whole article, or doing it paragraph by paragraph. Please give feedback.

Here is what I think the most efficient process would be, again, your feedback is requested:

I really like how we are doing these “WIKI-style!” That should continue. So in this process, it should be where more that one person can grab any segment of the process, document their portion, and keep this wiki thing going! I also like the flat spin technique, as long as it is used correctly, and not over-used...So:

1) We get a project like this from Billy, and post his “work request” on BCS. His request should include good instructions, key words, web sites to use for reference, sample articles, etc.

2) Production manager sets up and titles all the Google docs for the project, puts them in a folder, and shares the folder with all content producers. PM also copies these docs to a folder that isn’t shared. Protecting our work from sabotage by some unhappy camper that may not be willing to play nice in the sandbox with the rest of us. The PM gets a flat fee for this portion of work.

3) CPs claim a doc by renaming the doc, adding “claimed by (name)” after the title. The CP will then:

• research and write the article in Google docs (backing up on personal hard drive recommended) A CP can do the editing on their own application if they must, but only use Google Docs for word count. Don’t copy/paste/delete/paste with spins.
• keep comments and questions pertaining to that piece in “discussions”
• tell the PM when it’s complete, so the PM can invite the client to look it over.
• PM will put editing notes in “discussions”
• CP will make edits if necessary, doing final proof.
• CP calculates word count, puts it at the top of the doc “orig article word count 700 by (name)”
• CP renames Doc to “completed by (name)” after the title.
• CP enters word count, title, time, etc in the form on the BCS Blog.

If spinning is required, in other words, our client is looking for three, 80% (or better) original articles, that will be called out in the work order. I want to get away from sending our content over with the flat spun brackets, etc, if they allow us to. I want to get our own robot to help us spin these. However, I’m aiming for the sweet spot between robotic and hand spinning to provide our clients with a complete product that they don’t have to tweak in the least. Someone, hopefully Trish, can give us some guidance here. She has experience with this, but also realizes that spin bots are becoming obsolete with recent changes in Google algorithms. I think we agree that their best purpose is to assist in a hand spin, like I’m about to describe.

1) CP claims a finished article to do a flat spin, by renaming the doc with “flat spin 1 in progress by (name)” after the title, replacing the “completed by (name)” after the title.

2) CP double checks starting word count, notifying PM of a discrepancy. PM will notify author so book keeping can be corrected.

3) CP does flat spin in accordance with some fool-proof instructions and powerful tips that will be forth coming. Also, proof and edit the doc while flat spinning if needed...just to be nice :-)

4) Do record keeping -change title to flat spin 1 complete by (name) record spun word count at top of doc and in form on BCS Blog.

5) If it needs more flat spin, PM will note that in the title, and it can be claimed again, renamed “flat spin 2 in progress by (name)” ...repeating these 5 steps.

Now is when the robot comes into play. We take this article, put it through the flat spinner -By “we” I mean whoever gets to wear the “robot master” hat. Trish? (She is considering it.) The robot spits out three original pieces...no brackets. The RM pastes all three of them in the doc, stacking them preferably...About us 1, About us 2, About us 3, social BM title 1, social BM title 2, social BM title 3, Original article 1, original article 2, etc. The RM will get a flat fee for this portion of work. Now it’s ready for final edit, and the RM will indicate that by renaming the doc to indicate that. The RM will also post the word count, which should be around 1500 at this point. If we want a final article to be 750 words, then the original article, befor flat spinning and everything should be about 500.

1) CP will claim the piece for final edit ..”final edit in process by (name)”

2) CP will shuffle around some sentences a bit,  if possible in each section, cutting and pasting, to make it more original.

3) CP will add to the word count in each section, adding phrases, sentences and/or bullet lists -bringing it up to the required final word count. Recording the amount of words they added to the doc...as per the drill: on top of doc, in the form, renaming title “final edit complete by (name)”, etc...always making sure to double check the starting word count, before they begin to add to it.

4) The PM will do a final proof and edit small mistakes, receiving a flat fee for that.

5) the PM will email it to the sales manager. The SM will look it over, check all the accounting, add a 25% mark up that will be used to pay CPs  their “flat fees” for the work they do when wearing their specific “management hat”

6) when it’s accepted, and paid for, the SM will distribute the funds to the CPs, according to the accounting, and will receive a flat fee for that.  

7) if it is “kicked back” for any reason the SM will negotiate a way to make it right, fix it for full payment, or accept a “kill fee” and/or find a use for it as “scrap” maybe, posting it somewhere for passive income and/or reference material.

That’s it! Pretty conclusive, huh? I welcome feedback, comments, suggestions and questions below in the comments.