102,348 Page Views!

As of the update last night, I have over 100,000 page views, reaching my goal three months ahead of schedule.  Here, take a look!

Now that I've made it, what am I to do now?  Well, I'm not in a hurry to start anything new with AC right now as my plate is full with other projects.  I will continue to write on the same topics and such but right now, I have an Examiner project going on focusing on the topic of short stories, I'm putting together a short story and photography contest for my website at DeKalbRamblings.com, and I'm on a creative writing marathon, trying to get some credits built back up before I start submitting my newly written novel.  Whew!  All in a day's work, I suppose.

So while I'll be steadily writing for AC, I'm afraid I won't have time for any new experiments or projects.  However, items of interest I find around AC, I will pass along here on my blog.

Keep writing and thank you for reading!

How Much Time Should You Spend Promoting?

How much time should you pour into posting links in various social networks? Is it really worth the time and effort? I'm not talking about autopost. Autopost is wonderful but only covers WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter. And what about those days when you don't write? Is it worth setting links up in Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and the zillion other social networking sites so you can get clicks on your off days? And watch out! If you constantly post links, then you might be in danger of spamming.

These are all very tough questions and everyone has their own opinion about this. I can get extra page views by retweeting and reposting links to content that hasn't been posted in awhile but personally, I don't think that the payoff is worth a half hour of my time setting up links. And how many social networks are too many?

I've been thinking about this topic for quite some time now and it just so happens that I came across this article by Lyn Lomasi yesterday while searching for answers to these questions.

But really, if you're spending more time posting links then you are writing, that's not a good sign. If you're still not pulling in the page views after posting all those links then it can be frustrating, I know. Time to rethink the topics you are writing on.

But take a look at the article above and find your own balance.

Tripling My Highest Page View Earnings

When I started this page view experiment, I thought it was a lofty goal to reach for 100,000 views within a six month time. Now, after the first month, it seems easier.

I've been writing on hot topics and let me tell you, I'm completely astonished at the staggering number of page views I've been getting. In December, my page view average was 140 views per day. In January, (drumroll please) I averaged 858 page views per day. Talk about a HUGE difference. I finally have a page view bonus coming that I'm freakin' excited about!

I started this with a meager 56,000 page views. Now I have over 81,000. I published 19 articles this month. Eighteen of them were Arts and Entertainment articles, seventeen of those being hot topic items. One was a humor piece and I published a poem. None of them received upfront but the page views were so high that I really don't mind.

The only reason I published a poem is because when the Short Story and Poetry Featured Contributor Categories become available, I'd like to apply for those as well, which is something I didn't know I could do with a Featured A&E title before. Why? Because creative writing is a topic that I am very passionate about. So that was the only deviation from my plan. And otherwise, that plan has worked.

If I continue to keep it up, I will have 100,000 views in just a few weeks. Thank you for keeping up with this experiment and my own race for page views. I'd also like to thank AC for allowing me to be a Featured Arts and Entertainment Contributor. It certainly helps!

New to AC? Incomplete, Submitted, Offer, Pending, Removed and Other Status Terminology

Another one by Lyn Lomasi... if you are new to AC then head over to her contributor page (click on her name) and subscribe to her.  You'll get a lot of helpful tips!

New to AC? Incomplete, Submitted, Offer, Pending, Removed and Other Status Terminology
You found Associated Content and have just started submitting content. Incomplete, Submitted, Offer, Pending, Removed, and more are submission statuses. Read on to find out what the status of your AC submission means and what to do in each situation.
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Learning How to Choose Images for Articles

Again, I'm postponing the social networking lesson in favor of something else that seems to be a hard job for new contributors... and it's not always easy for experienced contributors either.

While I'm not an expert, I have learned a couple of things here and there about choosing and placing images with Associated Content articles.  And certainly, if anyone would like to share something they've learned about posting images with AC articles, then please leave a comment below so others can benefit from your experience.  That's what this blog is here for.

Statistically, articles with pics average a little better page view wise then one without.  This is because people are visually inclined.  If you see a nice picture, you're more likely to take notice of the headline and then click to read the article.  

First thing you need to do is read the Image Submission Guidelines.  Yes, they can be a little confusing to use and understand at first but as you go along, you learn what works and what doesn't.  Listen, I occasionally still have problems getting images up the way AC wants them.  I've had perfectly good images removed from my articles with no straight forward explanation of why.  So, having said that, this post isn't about how to post the right images that AC won't take down but instead of finding images for tougher subject matters; thinking outside the box in terms of what images to place.

Last week, I had a contributor ask me for help concerning an image.  She was writing on the subject of teen pregnancy.  She had it in her head that she had to find a picture of a pregnant teenager.  Her search was coming up empty.  "Then look for something else to put with the article," I told her.  What else screams that this is an article about pregnancy?  Let the headline say that it is an article on teen pregnancy.  Let the picture say that it is an article on pregnancy.  So what images would work with that?  A close up of a pregnant belly for one.  Maybe an ultrasound picture.  Ultimately, I found a picture on Wikimedia Commons of a positive pregnancy test that she did end up using on her article.  I remembered having used that same picture on a previous article of mine.

Finding images that work with the topic you are writing is difficult when it's something that doesn't necessarily have a concrete object that can serve as a picture.  In those cases, you should take a step back from your topic and look at your article from a different angel.  For example, when I'm writing a television review, there's little chance that I'm gonna find an approved image of the show's cast, which is an obvious first choice as an image.  And using the image of a remote control (to indicate the article is television related) is a good choice but since I crank out the articles three or more times a week, if I didn't change up the image, my contributor page would be blah with nothing but remote images down the article catalog.  If you'll look at my catalog here, you'll see that I have a variety of images, yet all the articles are related to television in one way or another.  Some of them are no nonsense, like the picture of George Clooney with my Haiti article, or the picture of Ellen with my American Idol article.  (If you search on Wikimedia Commons and sxc.hu, you can sometimes find usable pics of celebrities.)   Then there are those which require a little more creativity.  For my Survivor preview, I found a picture of a totem (because, well, you know Survivor) and for my Kate Gosselin article, I found a picture of a briefcase as the show she was about to star in involved her learning her way around the work force.

The point is that you don't always have to have a picture that screams the exact measurements of your article.  If you can extract one element of your article and find a picture that represents that, you can use that, too.  It does take a bit of creative thinking to do this so flex those creative muscles!

It also bears saying, even though these points are on the guidelines, that blurry images ARE NOT OKAY.  I've seen a lot of blurry photos, usually it is a photo the author has taken him/herself.  Even if it is a little bit blurry, don't think that people won't notice.  We do.  Not only does it make your work look amateur-ish, it will affect your page views.  It is completely okay to use your own photos, but make sure they are not blurry and are relevant to your article.

Which brings me to my next point.  There are very few instances where your own portrait is relevant to put on an article (notice I said very few, not necessarily all instances).  You already have a place on your profile where you can post your own smiling mug and it will show up at the end of your article.  You can upload it from your "Edit Your Profile" page.  I typically see self portraits on poetry more then anything else (not sure why) and it is not okay.  Please don't do it.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more on my AC page view experiment as well as a post about social networking promotion.  Have a great week!

The Start (and Stats) of My Experiment

Before I dive into the social networking topic I promised earlier, I'd like to post an update of my page view experiment. Remember that I started this experiment after the first of the year.

To see how much of a difference this has already made, I calculated my average page views per day in December. I averaged 140 views a day. December was one of my worst months but I also didn't write as much in December with what being busy with Christmas and all. But all year, my page views have just kinda trickled along and I can certainly see how there are contributors who get frustrated at this trickle, coupled with declines of upfront offers and then just give up. I've often thought of just giving up myself sometimes. But hell. I've made it this far. Might as well keep going.

So as I dug into my reports this morning, I saw figures that astonished me. One article that I published yesterday got over 3800 views. In. One. Day. I was ecstatic. That, combined with page views from other articles, pushed my page views over 4200 in one day (see the graph at the top which resembles a heart monitor FINALLY springing to life). It helped that AC featured my articles on the Arts and Entertainment page (see the screen shot above) but most of those views I'm sure came from search engines.

It just goes to show that some articles will take off and some won't and you don't always know which ones will hit it.

My daily page view average stands at 610 right now. I'm already within a dollar of my highest page view performance payment ever and it's not even half way through the month. This is a dramatic increase and I hope to continue the rise.

I will keep everyone updated!

Newbie Tip: How to Use the Social Features

Lyn Lomasi is a prominent name around AC.  She rests on clout 10, is a community guide, has over a million page views, and has won a Best of AC award.  And having played with her on Twitter and Facebook, I can say that she is a great woman and one of the sweetest people you could meet.  She also spends much of her time promoting other people's work without asking or expecting anything in return.  With that being said, she also writes helpful articles for AC noobs.  The point?  If you come across a "how-to" from her, listen to what she has to say.  She knows what she's talking about.

Here is one that came across my inbox from her this morning.  Because my next post on here will focus on social networking, I thought this a good lead in.

New to AC? How to Use the Social Networking Features
If you're a new Contributor on Associated Content, you may not have given the social aspects of AC much thought. If you have, but you haven't done much social networking online, it may be slightly confusing at first. What does AC have to offer in this area?
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