You are not alone. One of the most common challenges of content creation is coming up with fresh topics day after day, week after week.

 

Prose makes it easy. Let us come up with topic ideas for you—for free.

 

Topic pitching is completely optional and available for blog posts, bylined articles, and white papers.

 

Here's how it works.

 

1. REQUEST TOPICS

 

When ordering new content, you’ll be offered two options for “Topics”:

 

1) Specify the topic(s) yourself

2) Let Prose suggest topics to you

 

 

If you choose the latter option (“No; I want Prose to pitch topics”), just give us a general idea of the kind of topics you're looking for, and we’ll do the rest.

 

2. RECEIVE AND REVIEW TOPICS

 

Within two (2) business days, you’ll be notified via email that your topics are ready. At this point, a green alert will also show up at the top of your dashboard:  

 

 

The alert will contain a button, Pick a Topic. Click on it to go to the Topics page, where you'll see three (3) or more topic suggestions to choose from:

 

 

Each topic will include a potential title and a brief description. Review these options and decide which topic you like best.

 

If you like more than one, don’t worry. You can choose one for the current project, and save the other topics for later.

 

3. SELECT YOUR FAVORITE TOPIC

 

Note: To keep the process moving forward, be sure to select your preferred topic within three (3) business days. (You’ll be reminded of this deadline in an email notification and on your dashboard.)

 

Pick your favorite topic and click the Approve button to approve that topic for the current content project.

 

 

Then click OK to confirm.

 

Note: If you take no action at all on a given topic, it will be moved to the “Topics to Review” section. Think of this as a “waiting room” for topics that have been neither accepted nor rejected.

 

What do the other buttons do?

 

Edit: You may like the topic but want to make a few small changes. Click this blue button to edit the topic’s title and/or description. (Be sure to do this before you click Approve.)

 

Add to Queue: Like more than one of the topics pitched? Choose your favorite and click Approve. Then select any others you like and click Add to Queue. These ideas will move to the “Queue of Approved Topics (To Be Assigned)” section of the page for future project selection.

 

Reject: Not crazy about one of the topics we pitched? Just click this button to send the topic to the “Archived Topics” section.

 

4. SIT BACK AND RELAX WHILE WE WRITE YOUR CONTENT

 

Once you’ve chosen a topic for the current project, Prose will create the content and notify you when the draft is ready — just as we would with any other assignment.

 

Note: If you request topic pitches from Prose, the turnaround window for the project does not begin until you have chosen a topic. For example, if you placed an order requesting topic pitches on Monday, but did not approve a topic until Thursday, the turnaround period (e.g., five business days) would begin on Friday (at 9 am ET).

Yes. Topic pitching can add up to two (2) business days for us to develop the pitches and up to three (3) additional business days, depending on the time you need to review and select.

 

Considering these delays, requests for topic pitches are not a good idea if you:

• are concerned about timely turnaround
• will not have time to review and select a topic
• require review, input, and/or approval from multiple team members

 

Note: The turnaround period for the content does not begin until you have selected a topic. For example, if you order a blog post with a turnaround time of five (5) business days, the turnaround period does not start until you have either selected a topic, created a topic yourself, or assigned a topic stored in your topic queue.

If you order a project for which you request topic pitches, Prose has two (2) business days to pitch topics, starting at 9 am ET on the business day after you place the order. We deliver the topics by 6 pm ET on the second business day. 

 

Upon receiving topics, you have up to three (3) business days to choose a topic, starting at 9 am ET on the business day after you receive the topics. For the convenience of everyone involved, if you don’t make a selection by 6 pm ET on the third business day, we will remove the writer from the project and the order will be cancelled.

You have up to three (3) business days to review the suggested topics for a project and make a selection. When you receive the topics, we will remind you of this deadline (via email), and it will also be displayed on your dashboard:

 

Note: Your review period begins at 9 am on the first business day after you have received the topics (e.g., if you received them on a Tuesday, your review period starts on Wednesday).

 

Your project will not kick off until you approve a topic — the sooner you make your selection, the sooner we can begin.

If you do not select a topic within three (3) business days, for everyone's convenience, we will remove the writer from your project and your project will be automatically canceled.

 

Note: If you feel that three business days will not be enough time to review and approve topic(s), please do not request topic pitches.

We do our best to come up with compelling topics, but we realize that occasionally they might miss the mark.

 

If you do not like any of our topics, we make it easy for you to propose your own. Click the Edit button next to any of our suggested topics and simply write a new title and description. When it reads to your satisfaction, be sure to click Save.

 

Now, back on the Topics page, click the Assign button next to your newly written topic.

 

Note: You can also propose your own topic by clicking the Create a New Topic button and following the steps.

 

Alternatively, you can also make a selection from any of the topics that you’ve saved in your Queue for later use. You can find these in the “Approved Topics (To Be Assigned)” section.

From the information in your content brief, Prose identifies the best writer for your needs based on a number of criteria, including relevant industry expertise. This writer will often be the one to pitch topics. In other cases, your Prose editor may come up with topics.

Prose relies on a range of best practices for topic selection. We carefully consider your content brief, website, and other any materials you’ve supplied, and tailor the topics around your brand and objectives. We also rely heavily on online research — from targeted searches to social media tracking to industry blogs and websites. In short, we do everything we can to pitch topics that are timely, substantive, and valuable to your target audience.

The Topics page is a “waiting room” or queue for topics suggested by you or by Prose that have not yet been assigned to a specific project.

 

To view the Topics page, sign in to Prose and click the Topics tab on the left-hand navigation bar.

 

 

On this page, topics are organized in up to three sections (which remain visible as long as they contain at least one item):

 

• Topics to Review
• Queue of Approved Topics (To Be Assigned)
• Archived Topics

 

Note: Use of the Topics page is completely optional. If you prefer to supply your own topic(s) in the content brief, you will not need to use this section.

The “Topics to Review” section is a sort of “waiting room” for topics that haven’t yet been accepted or rejected. If, after receiving topic pitches for a project, you take no action at all on a given topic, the topic will be moved to “Topics to Review."

 

To clarify, here is how the flow works...

 

If you have placed a content order requesting topics, we will pitch you at least three topics for that order:

 

 

Once you choose one of these topics by clicking Approve, the other topics are preserved in case you want to use them for the future. In particular, these topics are listed in the “Topics to Review” section:

 

From here, you can edit them, reject them, or add them to the official queue for future use.

 

Here’s what the four buttons do:

 

• Edit: You may like the topic but want to make a few small changes. Click this button to edit the topic’s title and/or description. 

 

• Add to Queue: These topics will move to the “Approved Topics (To Be Assigned)” section for future project selection.

 

• Reject: Not crazy about a topic? Just click this button to send the topic to the “Archived Topics” section.

 

In this section, you'll find topics that are waiting in the queue to be assigned to a new piece of content (e.g., blog post) that you order.

 

 

• Example scenario: You liked several of our topic pitches. You could only pick one, so you clicked Add to Queue for one or more of the others. They now appear in the “Queue of Approved Topics (To Be Assigned)" section.

 

Feel free to assign any of the topics in this queue to an existing content order that needs a topic.

 

For each topic in the queue, you have three options:

 

 

• Edit: You may like the topic but want to make a few small changes. Click this button to edit the topic’s title and/or description. (Be sure to do this before you click Assign to a Project.)

 

• Assign to a Project: Ready to use one of the topics you’ve saved? Click Assign to a Project.

 

• Reject: Changed your mind about a topic? Decided you don’t like it so much after all? Just click this button to send the topic to the “Archived Topics” section.

“Archived Topics” is a reference section that contains topics that have either been rejected or used in a previous order (clearly labeled “Rejected” or “Already Applied”).

 

 

Never want to see the topic again? Click the Delete button to permanently remove.

 

Like it more than you remember and want to put it back in circulation? Click Revive to move it to the "Topics to Review" section.

When inspiration strikes, Prose is ready. Simply log in to the Prose platform and add the new idea to your topic queue. Whenever the time is right, the new topic will be waiting for assignment.

 

Here's how to create a topic:

 

1. Click Topics (on the left-hand navigation bar).

 

 

2. Click Create a New Topic at the top right-hand side of the screen.

 

 

3. Fill out a topic title and description, then click the “Add New” button.

 

 

The topic you’ve proposed will now appear in the section of the Topics page called “Approved Topics (To Be Assigned).”

 

1. Click “Topics” (on the left-hand navigation bar) to visit the Topics page.

 

2. In the section of the page called “Queue of Approved Topics (To Be Assigned),” locate one of the topics you want to use and click the Assign to a Project button beside it.

Yes. Sometimes you may want to assign several approved topics to several projects — for example, selecting topics for 12 blog posts for the upcoming month. If approved topics are waiting in your queue, you can assign them all from the Topics page. Here’s how:

 

1. Click “Topics” (on the left-hand navigation bar) to visit the Topics page.

 

2. In the section of the page called “Queue of Approved Topics (To Be Assigned),” locate one of the topics you want to use and click the Assign to a Project button beside it.

 

 

3. Using the “Topic Name” drop-down menu for each project, make your topic selection, being careful to avoid any duplicate assignments. Each project must have a unique topic.  

 

 

4. Click the Submit button.

 

 

Your topic(s) are now assigned to the indicated project(s).