GCU Forum - much longer approval times?

Paul_133086 Full Member artist Posts: 217	much longer approval times? Feb 24^th, 2010, 5:12am I've had three cards pending approval for almost a week now. Don't think it's ever taken that long.
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Pamela_135500 Gold Member artist Posts: 1945	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #1 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 5:19am I don't even pay attention anymore, I just send them in and walk away........ Much less stressful. Pamela
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Christine_131252

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Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #2 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 5:42am

Probably because there are so many cards being posted....like 400+ of the same design! I personally think that too many of the same design takes away from the card. I, too, am guilty as I was foolishly trying to keep up with card number as I thought that might increase sales. Some artists have more than 10,000+ cards, but each card is 50 or 100 for them by just tweaking 'daughter' to 'niece' etc. or one birthday card for your 30th birthday, then 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th ....all the way to one hundred and one! Good Grief! Who started this? I stopped doing that as it gets to be so repetitive and redundant when looking for cards. Even when looking at the main categories on the main page, duplicate cards come up because of all the repetitions of the same card. Of my 1589 cards, if I took off all the repeats, I would end up with about 900-1000 cards (just guessing) but it would probably be nicer viewing. I think it's nicer to view all the different designs. So the reviewers are very busy with reviewing so many more cards because this idea caught on very fast. It's like going into a department store and they have 100 dresses all the same on the same rack...tends to make you not want one. Viewing the entire site might be more enjoyable if all the designs were different and unique.
Each design should count for one...then an alternate click to order the same design with different wording, birthday # etc.
What do you think? Wink

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Paul_133086 Full Member artist Posts: 217	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #3 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 7:21am Pamela...I normally do just that. But one is for St. Patrick's Day, so I would at least like to have that one approved soon. Christine....You make some good points. Especially about Happy 30th birthday, then 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, etc. It does dilute the overall offering.
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Bambi_136382

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Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #4 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 7:21am

For some timing: I submitted 5 or six cards on Feb 16th, a couple of them were approved on the 22nd and a couple came back for "edits", I fixed those, they were approved on the 23rd. So one week. I feel that was not too bad. If you submit art to some companies for review they can take months to get back to you.
and about the mass duplicate cards......... is this something GCU might look into, Christines' suggestion; each design would count for one .... then an alternate click to see the card in all its' different wording, bday #, etc???
Bambi

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Pamela_135500

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Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #5 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 7:51am

Paul,
I feel your pain Wink

As for the mass cards it has been brought up and discussed many times here. The click on a card and see the series has also been suggested but we heard that it is not a priority. I think we have also heard that the majority of shoppers end up on a page because of a Google or similar search for a specific card, 35th birthday woman, for example or they come through one of the reminder emails which direct them to the specific category for their need. So on those very specific pages they are less likely to see the barrage of similar cards and whilst I don't love the idea either it makes sense that there are many choices let's say for 24th birthday.
I agree that for those that like to browse it's frustrating.
Pamela

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David_134612

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Re: answer to longer approval times?
Reply #6 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 8:01am

After getting frustrated with approval times we found an answer

We now post new cards 3 to 4 weeks before a holiday ,to be ready for next years holiday
We just posted our year of the rabbit cards for 2011,
after realizing our great 2010 Year of the tiger cards were a year late

It seems to help exposure to come out around a holiday, but it seems to take a year or more for the card to gain exposure and be ready for the next holiday . Now we post new cards and have a year and 3 weeks for them to be approved so we post and forget about them waiting for approval

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Norma_133903

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Posts: 485

Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #7 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 8:26am

Quote from Christine_131252 on Feb 24^th, 2010, 5:42am:

Probably because there are so many cards being posted....like 400+ of the same design! I personally think that too many of the same design takes away from the card. I, too, am guilty as I was foolishly trying to keep up with card number as I thought that might increase sales. Some artists have more than 10,000+ cards, but each card is 50 or 100 for them by just tweaking 'daughter' to 'niece' etc. or one birthday card for your 30th birthday, then 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th ....all the way to one hundred and one! Good Grief! Who started this? I stopped doing that as it gets to be so repetitive and redundant when looking for cards. Even when looking at the main categories on the main page, duplicate cards come up because of all the repetitions of the same card. Of my 1589 cards, if I took off all the repeats, I would end up with about 900-1000 cards (just guessing) but it would probably be nicer viewing. I think it's nicer to view all the different designs. So the reviewers are very busy with reviewing so many more cards because this idea caught on very fast. It's like going into a department store and they have 100 dresses all the same on the same rack...tends to make you not want one. Viewing the entire site might be more enjoyable if all the designs were different and unique.
Each design should count for one...then an alternate click to order the same design with different wording, birthday # etc.
What do you think? Wink

I think you are missing the point of this site. It is not here for artists to browse, but for customers to find cards that fit their exact specifications. The customer can find the exact card they want without having to modify or change it. Also, all the names, ages etc can be in really fancy fonts that the site could not provide if the customers were to put the names and ages on themselves.

This is a virtual store with unlimited storage, and the site owners have encouraged us in the past to make all the variations. We can supply a variety of cards that a shop could not hope to stock.

You are missing out big time by restricting you customers to what you think they should see instead of what they actually need.

One this I would suggest is that the site remove the 'Most popular/newest' choices, and replace it with a totally random selection. In this way it will be different each time the customer visits, and all cards have an equal chance of being seen.

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Doreen_137017 Gold Member artist Posts: 5273	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #8 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 9:18am Well stated Norma and a brilliant idea!
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Carol_136775

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Posts: 165

Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #9 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 9:21am

As tedious as it may be for me to try to scroll through numerous cards of the same design and slightly different wording (ages, names, etc), it does strike me that we are here to fulfill the needs of our customers. I choose to do very little duplication of images (there are some) just because I don't want to do the same thing over and over. This probably loses sales. It is my opinion that this practice of having many versions of the same card is probably more a good thing than bad, and it is meeting customers' needs. There are a number of customers who don't want the bother of asking for customized cards, and having just what they want when they want it is good for all of us on GCU; it brings customers back, and next time it might be my card they choose.

I like the GCU forums because of the free exchange of ideas and the multitude of suggestions for making the site better.

Carol

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Rosanne_132497

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Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #10 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 11:56am

Quote from Norma_133903 on Feb 24^th, 2010, 8:26am:

Quote from Christine_131252 on Feb 24^th, 2010, 5:42am:

Probably because there are so many cards being posted....like 400+ of the same design! I personally think that too many of the same design takes away from the card. I, too, am guilty as I was foolishly trying to keep up with card number as I thought that might increase sales. Some artists have more than 10,000+ cards, but each card is 50 or 100 for them by just tweaking 'daughter' to 'niece' etc. or one birthday card for your 30th birthday, then 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th ....all the way to one hundred and one! Good Grief! Who started this? I stopped doing that as it gets to be so repetitive and redundant when looking for cards. Even when looking at the main categories on the main page, duplicate cards come up because of all the repetitions of the same card. Of my 1589 cards, if I took off all the repeats, I would end up with about 900-1000 cards (just guessing) but it would probably be nicer viewing. I think it's nicer to view all the different designs. So the reviewers are very busy with reviewing so many more cards because this idea caught on very fast. It's like going into a department store and they have 100 dresses all the same on the same rack...tends to make you not want one. Viewing the entire site might be more enjoyable if all the designs were different and unique.
Each design should count for one...then an alternate click to order the same design with different wording, birthday # etc.
What do you think? Wink

I think you are missing the point of this site. It is not here for artists to browse, but for customers to find cards that fit their exact specifications. The customer can find the exact card they want without having to modify or change it. Also, all the names, ages etc can be in really fancy fonts that the site could not provide if the customers were to put the names and ages on themselves.

This is a virtual store with unlimited storage, and the site owners have encouraged us in the past to make all the variations. We can supply a variety of cards that a shop could not hope to stock.

You are missing out big time by restricting you customers to what you think they should see instead of what they actually need.

One this I would suggest is that the site remove the 'Most popular/newest' choices, and replace it with a totally random selection. In this way it will be different each time the customer visits, and all cards have an equal chance of being seen.

Hear, hear Norma. This is a commercial site, not a photo sharing site. Also I would like to reinforce yet again the randomisation suggestion. I have brought this one up at least twice before in the past two years. Many categories now have hundreds, if not thousands of cards. Newer cards are most unlikely to be seen without a randomisation approach to card presentation.

Cheers,

Rosanne

http://www.redrosedigitalart.com

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Catherine_136771 Senior Member artist Posts: 290	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #11 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 2:41pm The randomization of cards is a great idea. There can still be a section for best sellers, but randomizing allows a fresh selection each time for a shopper to browse.
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Eve_138255 Ex Member	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #12 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 4:36pm Quote from Catherine_136771 on Feb 24^th, 2010, 2:41pm: The randomization of cards is a great idea. There can still be a section for best sellers, but randomizing allows a fresh selection each time for a shopper to browse. I'm all for the random cards too.
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cheryl_133782 Gold Member artist Posts: 1350	Re: much longer approval times? Reply #13 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 11:12pm Type "easter" inot the GCU search and click "newest" and scroll through the first 10 pages or so.....that's all I have to say. Cheryl
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Norma_133903

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Posts: 485

Re: much longer approval times?
Reply #14 - Feb 24^th, 2010, 11:57pm

Quote from cheryl_133782 on Feb 24^th, 2010, 11:12pm:

Type "easter" inot the GCU search and click "newest" and scroll through the first 10 pages or so.....that's all I have to say. Roll Eyes

Cheryl

Yes Cheryl, if you read the above posts, that is why I have suggested getting rid of the 'newest' option and using a random option.

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