There are many different ways to widen the audience of the people who read your writing. One way is to be involved in many different social networks, and cross post about similar interests. If you write articles on AC, Hub Pages, or other places this may give you opportunities to share you thoughts with a wider range of people. When making a post in a community about a topic you've written an article about, always include a link.
Regardless of where your work is seen, some articles or posts will get more interest than others. Some of that has to do with how your work shows up in a search engine, and many factors such as good use of keywords may play in. Other factors such as the popularity of a topic will play in.
Here's a good example. I wrote a couple of silly little articles about Halloween related topics a few weeks ago. I put some time into sharing good ideas, but I can't say that either piece was very weighty. Both received about five hundred page views within a day! One reason may be that it was the right time of year for people to be interested in articles about Halloween.
The first article was about "Fun Things to do for Halloween in Seattle" . I didn't expect it at first, but sometimes I get a lot of views when I write an article that is based on a certain locality. In the article I included more unique ideas as well as standard ones. For instance, Seattle has a number of great Ghost Tours- which would be a fun and spooky activity for a group of people at this time of year.
The second article I wrote had even more views than the first, and was about "Cool Ideas for Halloween Costumes with Thrift Store Finds" . If you have a look you'll note that I included lots of different types of costume ideas. Including an array of related topics that fit key words and concepts may draw more viewers. "Halloween", "Costume Ideas", "Pirate Costume", "Greek Goddess Costume", "Costumes for Kids", and "Costumes for Adults" could all apply as keywords. An underlying concept that may draw more attention is the opportunity to still have fun, but do it on the cheap. In this economy many people are struggling to take care of basic needs, and may not have much money for things like entertainment. Those people effected will all be looking for less expensive ways to celebrate than they may have in other years.
Paying attention to these simple things made the difference between 50 page views over time and 500 page views in a day.
Showing posts with label writing ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing ideas. Show all posts
Monday, November 1, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
More Toys for Writers... Type Trigger :-)
Ooh, this looks fun too. Type trigger posts a 'trigger' every few hours, encouraging you to write up to 300 words from the suggestion. It can be a story, an essay, poetry, or whatever you want. It's something like communal free writing. The same trigger is available to all the other creative folks using the site at the same time. You can see things that other people are posting on the current trigger as well as previous triggers. It's really entertaining to see how one person will take the word "vacuum" and write about space, and another person will write a poem about how the dog is scared of the vacuum cleaner. ;-)~
Go to the page, hit the join button and request an invite. You'll get a link by email probably later the same night, like I did. This could be fun, and could be a good place to check into whenever you need a little inspiration.
Typetrigger
Go to the page, hit the join button and request an invite. You'll get a link by email probably later the same night, like I did. This could be fun, and could be a good place to check into whenever you need a little inspiration.
Typetrigger
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Whats a Swipe File?
A swipe file is for days like today. I'm writing for six places, it's early, the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. I have to get my creative juices flowing. If I had a swipe file, it'd help me out while my mind is still in Zombie land.
You can create your own swipe file to help generate ideas and inspiration very easily. You can use your computer to do it on or offline, or you can create a physical swipe file, or both. Create it in Google notebook, an office document, or a shoebox under your bed. Whatever works for you.
A swipe file is a place to put all kinds of ideas you like, to look back at for further inspiration later. You should probably create different sections, to help organize the clippings you'll save. If you keep your eyes open through the course of your normal day, you'll find lots of things to put in it.
Possible sections might be.....
Amazing Titles
Article Topics
Interesting Quotes
Great Openings
Tips
Moving Closings
Appealing Offers and Deals
Images that made Me Look
Videos that Made Me Watch
Songs I listened to 100 times
Inspiring Poetry and Lyrics
Story Ideas
How to Outlines
Related to My Blog
You can also create different files for subjects that really interest you. Your own swipe file can have anything you want in it. It will become highly personal, and linked to the kinds of writing you do. A Steampunk fiction writer might have a file called "Inventions that Would be Cool", and a seamstress who blogs about costumes might have a file called "Costume Ideas" .
A swipe file is intended as a kick-start to your own writing. By collecting examples of what inspires or moves you, you may have examples of what draws peoples attention. You can learn a lot about what works and what doesn't by taking a look at a good idea, and figuring out what makes it interesting or useful.
A swipe file can also be very useful as a way to mix and match components of great ideas. Say you have a great article idea, and you don't know what you want to call it. You may be able to look at your page of title ideas that are totally unrelated to your subject, and find catchy elements you can reuse in a new way.
It should be noted that a swipe file is intended to help you get inspiration and ideas to do your own work from. Nothing you're copying to look at later should be plagiarized or used inappropriately. It's just a way to more deliberately try to learn from other people who are good at writing. It will also be useful to make note of where you found things you decided to clip into your file, in case you decide you want to use it as a direct credited resource.
If you work with other writers, it can also be interesting to set up swipe files that can be shared with one another. Different people will stumble across different things that may be useful to others as well as them. Since we all have different experiences and perspectives, each person will notice and save different kinds of things. Sharing swipe files may be a way for writers to share the components of effective writing with each other. Using Google Notebooks or Docs would be one easy way to do this and keep the information accessible to everyone online.
You can create your own swipe file to help generate ideas and inspiration very easily. You can use your computer to do it on or offline, or you can create a physical swipe file, or both. Create it in Google notebook, an office document, or a shoebox under your bed. Whatever works for you.
A swipe file is a place to put all kinds of ideas you like, to look back at for further inspiration later. You should probably create different sections, to help organize the clippings you'll save. If you keep your eyes open through the course of your normal day, you'll find lots of things to put in it.
Possible sections might be.....
Amazing Titles
Article Topics
Interesting Quotes
Great Openings
Tips
Moving Closings
Appealing Offers and Deals
Images that made Me Look
Videos that Made Me Watch
Songs I listened to 100 times
Inspiring Poetry and Lyrics
Story Ideas
How to Outlines
Related to My Blog
You can also create different files for subjects that really interest you. Your own swipe file can have anything you want in it. It will become highly personal, and linked to the kinds of writing you do. A Steampunk fiction writer might have a file called "Inventions that Would be Cool", and a seamstress who blogs about costumes might have a file called "Costume Ideas" .
A swipe file is intended as a kick-start to your own writing. By collecting examples of what inspires or moves you, you may have examples of what draws peoples attention. You can learn a lot about what works and what doesn't by taking a look at a good idea, and figuring out what makes it interesting or useful.
A swipe file can also be very useful as a way to mix and match components of great ideas. Say you have a great article idea, and you don't know what you want to call it. You may be able to look at your page of title ideas that are totally unrelated to your subject, and find catchy elements you can reuse in a new way.
It should be noted that a swipe file is intended to help you get inspiration and ideas to do your own work from. Nothing you're copying to look at later should be plagiarized or used inappropriately. It's just a way to more deliberately try to learn from other people who are good at writing. It will also be useful to make note of where you found things you decided to clip into your file, in case you decide you want to use it as a direct credited resource.
If you work with other writers, it can also be interesting to set up swipe files that can be shared with one another. Different people will stumble across different things that may be useful to others as well as them. Since we all have different experiences and perspectives, each person will notice and save different kinds of things. Sharing swipe files may be a way for writers to share the components of effective writing with each other. Using Google Notebooks or Docs would be one easy way to do this and keep the information accessible to everyone online.
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