Finding all of the answers you need to succeed as a content creator can be hard. Hometalk and its family of sites want to help make it easier by ensuring that our creators have all of the tools and resources they need to succeed on Hometalk, Foodtalk, and Upstyle.
To do that, we’ve compiled a list of our most common questions from creators and provided the answers you need to keep creating new content and driving traffic to your posts on Hometalk, Foodtalk, and Upstyle.
Creator Rewards Program Questions
Question: “Is the Creator Rewards Program new?”
Answer: The Creator Rewards Program is the new name for the program formerly known as the Instagram Program. The operations and incentives remain the same.
Question: “Can I be in the Creator Rewards Program and the Blogger Traffic Program at the same time?”
Answer: At this time, you may only be in one program per site at a time.
Question: “I’m in the Creator Rewards Program and finished my posts, when do I get my gift card?”
Answer: We begin processing gift cards on the last day of the month. Your community manager will contact you the first few days the following month to let you know you’ve earned a gift card. If you don’t receive your incentive by the 15th of the next month contact your community manager.
Blogger Traffic Program - Quality Standards
Question: “I just shared a new post on Hometalk/Foodtalk/Upstyle and it was tagged as spam and I don’t know why.”
Answer: The “spam” tag on posts often means that you have shared the same post to your profile in the past. We do not allow for duplicate content to count towards a new traffic feature or as one of your monthly Creator Rewards posts. Be sure to double check your profile if you see this tag to make sure you haven’t posted the same tutorial or recipe in the past.
** Want to know more on the quality score guidelines or how to drive more traffic to your Hometalk, Foodtalk, or Upstyle posts? Review our program guidelines for Hometalk, Foodtalk, and Upstyle or check out these video tutorials for more information. **
Blog Traffic Program - Feature Status
Question: “My feature was scheduled for today, but I haven’t seen any traffic yet. Did my feature not get sent out?”
Answer: Don’t panic. We send out versions of the daily emails that go out at different times of the day, with the last emails going out at 6 PM EST. So, if you haven’t seen any traffic before you go to sleep that night, don’t worry!
Occasionally, glitches do happen. If you still haven’t seen any traffic after 24 hours from the day of your feature, please reach out to amanda@hometalk.com so we can find out what happened and create a solution.
Question: My feature was today, but I never saw it in the daily email. Why?
Answer: Because we send out several versions of the daily email, there is a chance that you may not see your specific feature in the email that shows up in your inbox. It happens and is totally normal that you may not actually see your feature in the email that day.
Question: It’s been 30 days since my last feature and I’m qualified for a new one. Why haven’t I been scheduled yet?
Answer: There is a 30 day waiting period between the date of your last feature and when you are eligible to be scheduled for a new feature. This does not mean that your next feature will be scheduled one the exact day after your waiting period has ended. It means that now you will be added back to the queue to be scheduled for your next feature. Depending on the influx in posts at that time may determine the amount of time it takes for you to be scheduled for your next feature.
For example, if the date of your last feature was on 1/30/2021, you would be added back to the scheduling queue 30 days from that date and your next feature should typically be scheduled within the next week or so.
Blogger Traffic Program - Blog Links
Question: “My blog links I added to my dashboard have said “pending review” for a while. Why is this taking so long?”
Answer: Your blog links are reviewed at the time that the editorial team schedules your next feature. So, if you are not currently qualified for a feature or in the process of being scheduled, your links may reflect a pending review status for longer periods of time.
Question: “The link being used for my next feature wasn’t listed as my #1 choice. Why was that one chosen?”
Answer: At the time of scheduling your feature, the editorial team reviews all of your listed blog links that have not yet been featured and chooses the link they believe will perform the best at the time of your scheduled feature by taking into account the current trends, seasonal relevance, and timeliness of the link being used.
If you do want to switch your featured link prior to your feature date, you are welcome to reach out to amanda@hometalk.com to make the request and we will do our best to have the links changed. Please attempt to request the change 48 hours in advance to your feature date and understand that a link change is not guaranteed once the feature has been scheduled.
** Need to know how to add or change your blog links for your direct features? Check out this tutorial! **
Mastering Media Podcast
Question: I can’t make it to the live Mastering Media webinar with KariAnne. Will there be a recording I can watch later?
If you've found yourself asking some of these same questions, we hope this has helped provide some new insight and answers.
Do you have any questions you don't see in the list above? Let us know in the comments below.
As always, please do hesitate to reach out to amanda@hometalk.com or christina@hometalk.com should you have any questions or feedback.
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