Managing our contributors in the long run
I’ve been looking at alternative systems that are a bit leaner and could save us some budget. What we have now works but it feels like we’re overpaying for features we don’t use.
One option is Camayak: it’s a well known system for assigning things to contributors and receiving their submissions. It also automates notifications to writers, inboxes for editors and deadlines for our whole team.
Their cheapest plan is $699/month for the basic package that organizes all our production. That includes editorial calendars, smart deadlines, revision histories, assignment templates, pitches, comments and instant chat with anyone in the account.
With this plan we can also pay our writers directly (+9% in fees, or 5% if we upgrade to the next package). We also get automated workflow steps (like content scoring), staff performance reports and direct publishing to our CMS.
What’s the point in us switching systems?
One of their customers says "We switched from content marketing software and never looked back" and perhaps we could also benefit from their simplified approach to managing submissions. Camayak really focuses on the writer/editor dynamic so as we keep growing it would be important to keep everyone engaged enough in what we’re trying to do.
Do they have a marketplace for freelancers as well?
They’re mostly a workflow/productivity tool (they have ‘smart deadlines’ that figure out what we should be setting for writers based on their past performance) but yes, they also can connect us with freelancers. They work with a ton of universities so a lot of their contributors are in training programs or available for photo assignments all over the country, too.
What about editorial services?
Yep, they offer those too. They'll go over our style guide and objectives and hand pick crack teams of editors to handle copy, media, assignment approval: anything we need. Their pricing is competitive and comes down to how much assignment volume we need each month. It's much cheaper than hiring directly and a better deal than our current platform.
How long will it take to get us up and running?
We get up to six hours of free training and workflow auditing to set the account up, then everyone we invite can ask their support team for webinar training (they recommend doing it in groups). We’re looking at a three week implementation to move our operations into their system, including moving everyone over. After that, they offer unlimited email support and had 99.8% uptime last year.
We built Camayak after we asked ourselves:
How much time do we lose each week, chasing incomplete information about assignments?
How easy is our process for new writers and editors to understand in less than 5 minutes?
How visible is our collaboration to the rest of the team, so they remain motivated?
Since we launched in 2010, we've helped thousands of editors, advisors and contributors get more from their workflows.
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