Constant Content

What does everyone use the short summary portion of the submission form for? Do you actually write a short summary or do you use it to 'sell' your article? Has anyone noticed one or the other approach affecting their sales?

From the Extended Writer Guidelines:

Short Summaries

Please keep the following in mind when you are composing your short summaries:
•Short summaries must be free of the first-person POV and all autobiographical information. This section of the submission form must describe only the article being submitted. Please use your author profile, not the short summary, to share information about yourself.
•Short summaries must be free of errors and follow all writing rules and standards. Please proofread your short summaries for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar before you submit your article.
•Short summaries must be free of promotional language. In addition, do not include information about how your article is “original,” or “unique.” Our checks determine if an article is original. If your article isn’t original, then we don’t want it.
•Short summaries must describe the article being submitted in a manner that is useful to the potential customer and must be at least 30 words in length. This is the first thing after your title that the customer sees. Make it count.

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Depending on the editor reviewing your submission, you can get an article rejected for being too effusive in your summary, e.g. This article spotlights five awesome ways to.... (awesome being too promotional). I try to describe what the article is about and offer insights on the topic at the same time. I've considered adding information about who the article is targeted at, what it might be appropriate for (newsletter, blog post, etc.), but question whether doing so would be considered too promotional by some of the new editors. I know some writers are able to include target audience info and get it past the editors. Maybe look at the short summaries of the most prolific writers in your preferred categories (https://www.constant-content.com/freela ... nt-writers - click on the 'by category' tab) to see what they're doing or check out the top-selling writers' short summaries (https://www.constant-content.com/authors.php) for insights on what's working for them. Let us know if you end up changing your short summaries and what your results are.

Thanks, HiredGun, effusive isn't something I usually suffer from so I haven't had to worry about that. I've not had a rejection from a summary yet.

I have seen people use target audience labels in their summaries, as well as the format 'This 534 word article will help you...' but I haven't tried either. I've instead been mixing between a literal short summary with a topic sentence, a descriptive sentence and a conclusive and a more salesy summary. Can't say I'm selling one over the other but then I probably don't make enough sales for a truly informative experiment! I still have yet to find my topic niche!