GCU Forum - Card Review Question

Norma_133903

Senior Member
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Posts: 485

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #15 - Mar 30^th, 2010, 12:22am

Quote from Patricia_132015 on Mar 29^th, 2010, 7:48am:

Mindy, that's so long winded and hard to understand. I still don't understand why I can't just drop my card off in the "Thank You" catagory! Why should I have to relist it in tons of words. First off, I don't know where it would fit, second, it's just a thank you card. And the other is a Halloween card. The sub listing gets to long to hunt down in. Can't you make it easier for me to point click on where to put it? I don't need to hunt down for 10 days of lists! Just drop it in the right catagory. Gods! This is getting hard to do.

Patricia,
I think Mindy's reply was fair, clear, and educational for us all. Please take the trouble to read it bit by bit and understand it. It may look a lot of text but it is really very simple. Sounding off about placing your cards in categories all over the forums does not help you or anybody else.

Try printing the list of categories from here:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/dir_map.asp?a=1
It is much easier to understand when you see the list on a page instead of in a little window. You an also see which categories need more cards.

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Tanya_131398 Senior Member artist Posts: 388	Re: Card Review Question Reply #16 - Mar 30^th, 2010, 8:26am Thanks for the link Norma! I forgot that was available to us and it really is helpful.
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Beverly_133630 Ex Member	Re: Card Review Question Reply #17 - Mar 31^st, 2010, 11:29am Hello Shaun and Mindy, I have three pending cards 593446 42 37, that I think were missed! 42 Cards have been approved after them. Is there a problem that I need to fix? Please take a look. bev
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Norval_132688

Gold Member
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Posts: 908

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #18 - Mar 31^st, 2010, 4:10pm

Hi, old grouch is here. I really appreciate the hard work of the reviewers and appreciate the nice comments. But I am seeing a tendency in the review team to overreach and not do the main job of a review process. Example, naming a painting, My opinion is I can name my paintings whatever I want as long as it is in good taste and not pornographic. Example, keywording, decisions on whether they are missleading should go up to corporate, or at least have an explanation other than one reviewers opinion. Why this makes me a little hot under the collar is that my notoriously bad spelling is slipping through. Proofreading I thought was the main job of the review not art direction?!

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Penny_134243

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Posts: 1337

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #19 - Mar 31^st, 2010, 4:33pm

Quote from Norval_132688 on Mar 31^st, 2010, 4:10pm:

Hi, old grouch is here. I really appreciate the hard work of the reviewers and appreciate the nice comments. But I am seeing a tendency in the review team to overreach and not do the main job of a review process. Example, naming a painting, My opinion is I can name my paintings whatever I want as long as it is in good taste and not pornographic. Example, keywording, decisions on whether they are missleading should go up to corporate, or at least have an explanation other than one reviewers opinion. Why this makes me a little hot under the collar is that my notoriously bad spelling is slipping through. Proofreading I thought was the main job of the review not art direction?!

Hi, Norval,

This is copied from the GCU Wiki page under 'Review Process:'

"A NOTE ABOUT APPROVALS

Nothing drives shoppers away quicker than cards with errors in them. We review every card as a final check before it is approved for sale. What must be emphasized is that this is not a check to find errors artists are smart enough not to make! These include:

1. BLEED AREA and CENTERING - use the template!
2. SPELLING/TYPOs - no excuses right? Check your typing and use the spellchecker for the inside verse!
3. GRAMMAR - if you are not sure, solicit help from family and friends. Reviewers are not here to correct your grammar.
4. PUNCTUATION - plenty of resources online to get it right before you submit.
5. CATEGORIES - select the ones you know are appropriate and that you can rightly use.
6. KEYWORDS - Add only accurate and descriptive keywords, do not include misleading or unrelated terms.
7. RIGHTS - don't submit cards that contain art and/or verses that you do not have the legal right to sell.

Cards with errors will be returned for edits if the errors are detected. Please double-check your work before you submit each and every card.

Do not submit your card until you are confident that it is a quality product and is 100% ready for sale."

I was a little surprised when I read this, because, I too, thought that the reviewers checked for spelling and grammar.

If you want to read more of the Wiki page, there's a link, at the top right of this page, but, you probably already know that.

Hope that this helps!

Penny

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Norval_132688 Gold Member artist Posts: 908	Re: Card Review Question Reply #20 - Mar 31^st, 2010, 8:03pm Thank You Penny, I'm putting your post in favorites, I guess I had never run across the wikke page.
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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6567
Gender: female

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #21 - Apr 1^st, 2010, 12:26pm

Quote from Penny_134243 on Mar 31^st, 2010, 4:33pm:

Quote from Norval_132688 on Mar 31^st, 2010, 4:10pm:

Hi, old grouch is here. I really appreciate the hard work of the reviewers and appreciate the nice comments. But I am seeing a tendency in the review team to overreach and not do the main job of a review process. Example, naming a painting, My opinion is I can name my paintings whatever I want as long as it is in good taste and not pornographic. Example, keywording, decisions on whether they are missleading should go up to corporate, or at least have an explanation other than one reviewers opinion. Why this makes me a little hot under the collar is that my notoriously bad spelling is slipping through. Proofreading I thought was the main job of the review not art direction?!

Hi, Norval,

This is copied from the GCU Wiki page under 'Review Process:'

"A NOTE ABOUT APPROVALS

Nothing drives shoppers away quicker than cards with errors in them. We review every card as a final check before it is approved for sale. What must be emphasized is that this is not a check to find errors artists are smart enough not to make! These include:

1. BLEED AREA and CENTERING - use the template!
2. SPELLING/TYPOs - no excuses right? Check your typing and use the spellchecker for the inside verse!
3. GRAMMAR - if you are not sure, solicit help from family and friends. Reviewers are not here to correct your grammar.
4. PUNCTUATION - plenty of resources online to get it right before you submit.
5. CATEGORIES - select the ones you know are appropriate and that you can rightly use.
6. KEYWORDS - Add only accurate and descriptive keywords, do not include misleading or unrelated terms.
7. RIGHTS - don't submit cards that contain art and/or verses that you do not have the legal right to sell.

Cards with errors will be returned for edits if the errors are detected. Please double-check your work before you submit each and every card.

Do not submit your card until you are confident that it is a quality product and is 100% ready for sale."

I was a little surprised when I read this, because, I too, thought that the reviewers checked for spelling and grammar.

If you want to read more of the Wiki page, there's a link, at the top right of this page, but, you probably already know that.

Hope that this helps!

Penny

Reviewers do check for grammar, typos and spelling however artists should not rely on them to catch 100% of these errors. It is the artists job to submit a quality product and do their due diligence. Some artists are getting careless and I hate to say it but I will, lazy expecting the reviewers to catch things that should be corrected before submission. Part of that is also taking the time to chose the right category. The result of this is more work for reviewers and longer review times for everyone.

The wiki is a great resource for new and seasoned GCU artists:
http://wiki.greetingcarduniverse.com

Please also see this post:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1234562095/20#20

NORVAL...
Reviewers are educated on the review process and charged with making the best decision on the spot to move cards through. When in doubt they do confer with other reviewers and/or supervisor. There is no "corporate" ... this is it, we're a relatively small team.

If you'd like to share specifics re: naming a painting or misleading keywords please share so I can respond specifically. In general card titles and keywords are VERY important to make sure shoppers find what they are searching for and are NOT presented with unrelated search results.

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Norval_132688

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 908

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #22 - Apr 1^st, 2010, 2:36pm

Thanks Mindy for your reply. My typo's and probably many other peoples too, is not laziness. It's a matter of one can check and check and not see a miss spelled word. It takes that second pair of eyes, this has always been known in any publishing venture.
Specific; I named a Negro Head 'Haitian' I could have named it Gana, Congo, many other names, but I chose Haitian, it doesn't have to do anything to do with nationality and shouldn't have. That has always been an artist perogative to choose a name for their paintings. And it says in many other places 'Digital Painting'.
Specific; In the introduction to my store I have 'NEW', then telling about our partnering with Facebook with the FlipEcards.
In my titles I have Paper Greeting Cards or FlipEcards, 'name or language of card'
In my keywords I have, paper greeting card,flipEcards,facebook,
In my artist notes at the end I have, paper greeting cards. FlipEcards are available only on facebook.

I do not consider this misleading but letting our customers know about this fantastic new venture.
I was asked by the review team to remove this as misleading.
I used your personal contact, and gave you the information above, which you never answered.
I also said in the contact I would remove them from all four pages if this is GCU policy.
Corporate is used as a term, 'is this company policy'?.

Personal opinion: this new venture should not be kept a secret but should be promoted by all at GCU if it is to succeed. But if that is not GCU's policy then of course I will follow GCU. But a decision like this should not be made at the review level without checking with bosses higher up on company polocy. You may not be corporate but I'm sure each of you has a boss???

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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6567
Gender: female

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #23 - Apr 1^st, 2010, 3:58pm

Quote from Norval_132688 on Apr 1^st, 2010, 2:36pm:

Thanks Mindy for your reply. My typo's and probably many other peoples too, is not laziness. It's a matter of one can check and check and not see a miss spelled word. It takes that second pair of eyes, this has always been known in any publishing venture.
Specific; I named a Negro Head 'Haitian' I could have named it Gana, Congo, many other names, but I chose Haitian, it doesn't have to do anything to do with nationality and shouldn't have. That has always been an artist perogative to choose a name for their paintings. And it says in many other places 'Digital Painting'.
Specific; In the introduction to my store I have 'NEW', then telling about our partnering with Facebook with the FlipEcards.
In my titles I have Paper Greeting Cards or FlipEcards, 'name or language of card'
In my keywords I have, paper greeting card,flipEcards,facebook,
In my artist notes at the end I have, paper greeting cards. FlipEcards are available only on facebook.

I do not consider this misleading but letting our customers know about this fantastic new venture.
I was asked by the review team to remove this as misleading.
I used your personal contact, and gave you the information above, which you never answered.
I also said in the contact I would remove them from all four pages if this is GCU policy.
Corporate is used as a term, 'is this company policy'?.

Personal opinion: this new venture should not be kept a secret but should be promoted by all at GCU if it is to succeed. But if that is not GCU's policy then of course I will follow GCU. But a decision like this should not be made at the review level without checking with bosses higher up on company polocy. You may not be corporate but I'm sure each of you has a boss???

We certainly are a second set of eyes but in some cases we see many cards where it is clear that our eyes are the first to look at the card critically. For many artists we are the third set of eyes as they resourcefully have someone else (a spouse, roommate, friend, partner in crime, etc.) give it a once over as well.

Card Titles:
Although keywords, verse and category are important elements in providing valuable data to search engines on GCU Card Title is king.

Please see this post re: the Importance of a Good Card Title:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1252015904

You certainly have the right to name your own paintings but sadly if the title does not contain leading and relevant terms that the shopper may use when searching for such a card they unfortunately will not find it or at least not easily.

This title for example:
Thank You Paper Greeting Card or FlipEcard, Italian Language, 'Bast' Egyptian Blue Stone Goddess Painting

Due to its length the title is truncated in the thumbnail view and ALL 108 or so of these similarly titled cards appear with IDENTICAL titles of:
Thank You Paper Greeting Card or FlipE

These cards would likely be best as this for example:
Italian Thank You 'Bast' Egyptian Blue Stone Goddess Painting

Noting:
1. Putting Italian first to differentiate it at a glance from your other similar cards if different languages
2. Removing Paper Greeting Card which is not necessary as we force this term in search data
3. Remove FlipEcard as it is misleading and likely wasted space as there are other elements of your card that are more important

Misleading Terms:
Facebook and FlipEcards are not relevant words to use in your card title nor keywords. They have nothing to do with your card and are misleading. Kudos to you on trying to promote this but the best place to do so is within your store and not on a card by card basis.

We're not as critical as to what you put in your Artist Notes field. We do not use that content as terms/data for search. One minor exposure you do have with a note like this is making additional work for yourself in the case if/when FlipEcards come to GCU and are not exclusive to Facebook anymore: "FlipEcards are available only on facebook". I'd hate to see you have to go back and edit all of your cards.

I'm sorry I did not receive the message you sent to me. The reviewer in this case did raise the issue with me and the decision I shared with them was that they (facebook and FlipEcards) were misleading and should be removed from the keywords.

Hope that helps Norval, please let me know if you have other questions. Our interest is certainly not to squelch your creative titling and marketing but to make sure your cards get the best and most appropriate exposure.

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Sally_131513 Senior Member artist Posts: 422	Re: Card Review Question Reply #24 - Apr 1^st, 2010, 4:30pm Just my 2 x 2 cents... so, 4 eyes is a good name to have? LOL!!! Me, Sal
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Tanya_131398 Senior Member artist Posts: 388	Re: Card Review Question Reply #25 - Apr 1^st, 2010, 8:05pm This thread has been a good eye opener for me to take another look at my titles in order to get the most keyword exposure I can from them. Thanks Mindy!
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Patricia_132015 Senior Member artist Posts: 407	Re: Card Review Question Reply #26 - Apr 2^nd, 2010, 2:03am Norma, sorry, but I didn't know where to turn to at the time. I'll try not to do that, though, if I can't find the right froum to post in, I can't make any guarantees on that. One, I'm old, and two, it used to be easier to do things on GCU, a lot has changed since the last time I uploaded cards. Forgive?
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Norma_133903

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 485

Re: Card Review Question
Reply #27 - Apr 2^nd, 2010, 2:16am

Patricia, there is nothing to forgive. I was hoping I could help you a little bit that's all.

I know how frustrating it is when cards are returned!
Sometimes emailing support may be the quickest way to get help.
Perhaps if you have a problem with a particular card you could post the card on the forum and we could all help?
I love your cards. They have a unique slant on life that is really endearing.

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Patricia_132015 Senior Member artist Posts: 407	Re: Card Review Question Reply #28 - Apr 2^nd, 2010, 2:26am I did do that Norma. So your not forgiving, O.K. I don't understand a lot of things and everyone is different. I can only try harder.
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Norval_132688 Gold Member artist Posts: 908	Re: Card Review Question Reply #29 - Apr 2^nd, 2010, 3:18am Thank you Mindy for a very clear and concise answer. By your one example [ the Italian card ] you have taught me more on how to title and keyword than any of these darn 'SEO' books I'm reading. I will go back and make the changes immediately as well as do a lot of revising of titles.
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