Thursday, June 24, 2010

Online writers have to be willing to experiment

Let's say you write online for Triond. But you're not happy with the money you're making there. So you go over to a similar site, Bukisa, and you try publishing some articles there. Still not happy with the money. What do you do next?

It seems a lot of writers throw up their arms and give up at this point. No, you're not going to get rich writing for online content publishing sites, but there is money to be made. And quitting won't get it done.

First, you could try even more online writing sites. Do a search. There are plenty of them available. Try some of them out. Perhaps you'll like what they have to offer.

Still, if you're not going as many readers and as much money as you would like, there are still things to be done.

Try using social networking sites to promote your writing. Facebook and Twitter are obvious choices.

Another helpful option is to use online linking sites such as Reddit and StumbleUpon where you can place links to your favorite websites, including your own articles, in hopes of drawing in viewers. The key on these sites is to take an active role in the sites and not just spamming your own work. Join some groups on the sites. Leave comments on others' links and articles. Make friends. That will slowly begin to draw readers to your articles.

And you don't have to change writing sites if you don't want. If you like Triond, stick with Triond. But even here you can experiment with different ways to draw in viewers.

Another option is to write for more than one site. Try writing for three or four, or possibly more if you have the time. This will allow you to judge the benefits of each site, and eventually you might settle for one of them over the others or perhaps you'll figure out which one is best for you to place most of your focus upon.

Online writing isn't easy. You have to be willing to take chances. Some of those chances will fail big time for you, but others will pay off. It's all about experimentation.

So get out there and get to experimenting! Don't be afraid to try something new.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Triond allows profile pics to be short videos

In case you are a writer for the Triond online content publishing site and you haven't caught the latest news on the site, you can now turn your profile image into a short, 17 second, video of yourself. How do you do this? Hopefully you've got a camera. That's a good place to start. What's next? For the lowdown, check out the Triond blog.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The greatest of God's gifts: The Dog

DogA dog is a fine thing. Treated well, it will be your best friend. In fact, a dog can be better than a best friend. It will never empty your bank account nor steal from you. It will not try to sleep with your significant other. A dog will not become angry with you and speak words that are hurtful.

A dog can keep you warm on a cold winter's night. But it will give you your space on a warm night.

A dog can be your companion through thick and thin. When times are good, a dog can be there to wag its tail and share in your enjoyment. When times are tough, a dog can be there to give you a lick on the hand as a way to offer comfort, or it will simply curl up at your feet while staring up to you show someone cares.

Depending upon the breed, a dog might or might not take your last morsel of food, but that is within a dog's nature. You can't blame the animal for not being able to ignore its nose and its nature. Besides, it would only take your last bite of food if freely given or if left out in the open. And if your last bite of food is left out in the open, it must not have been that important to you.

All a dog asks for is a little food and water and some attention from time to time. A gentle pat or a good scratching will be enough to begin building trust, and that followed with a snack or two can increase that trust to true friendship.

Dogs can even be good workers. They can hunt for food. They can offer security as protectors.

Yes, some dogs are mean and can be dangerous even to the point of deadliness. Almost always these are dogs that have been cruelly mistreated by humans to the point of making the animal a monster. A monster created a monster.

And wolves are not dogs. They're just distant relatives. They don't count.

A dog might be the animal most like a human, or at least the animal which has the most good qualities alike with a human. Monkeys and apes might share more DNA with humans, and dolphins might be far more intelligent than your average dog, but neither approaches the levels of care and friendship and loyalty a dog can contain.

There's nothing wrong with cats, nor rabbits, either. Some people are cat people. Some dog people. Some rabbit people, or people for some other kind of animal. But no other animal, perhaps not even the horse, can share the same levels of love as the dog.

And it's true a dog can be dirty and stinky and wallow in some of the nastiest filth there is to find. But that is one of the reason's I say they are more like humans than any other animal.

Also, dogs are better than children. Dogs don't talk back. You don't have to pay for their college. You don't have to worry about them moving back home. A dog won't bring home friends who will eat everything in the refrigerator.

Thank you, Lord, for dogs. They make our lives that much more tolerable by their very simplicity and their love.

Related links

Beagles make great pets

Is a Weimaraner the right dog for you?

10 Dog Walking Tips

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lessons learned from a year writing on Triond

I first signed up with Triond in May of 2009 after researching many different online content publishing sites. Like many others who had come before me, I was hoping to be able to make money with Triond through my online writing. Initially I had hoped my 20 years of experience as a newspaper journalist would help me jump to the top of the pack of Triond writers, but while I've done okay, I wouldn't claim to be the best or even the most prolific writer on Triond.

My first lesson

 

What did I learn first on Triond? That getting views for one's articles is no easy task (and views are important because that's how you make money). Sure, I've signed up for plenty of social and linking networking sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit, SheToldMe and others. Those sites do help, sometimes tremendously, but there's more work involved in gaining viewers than just adding a link to some site. For one thing, you have to spend time on those sites commenting on others' links, making friends, being social and hanging out; if you don't, you're not likely to get very many views.

It also doesn't hurt to utilize other writing sites, such as Bukisa or Gather or RedGage or other sites, because on most sites you can link back and forth between articles which can help drive traffic from one site to another. The key though is not to put a bunch of links in your articles, especially ones that are not appropriate, because this will look like spamming and will drive readers away. Two or three article links at the end of, or throughout, one of your articles is generally appropriate.

Quality isn't everything

 

When it comes to Triond, quality writing is not the key to success. I learned that very early. So what is the key to success? Quantity can help, but it's not a given having a bunch of articles on Triond will necessarily bring you a bunch of readers.

What draws readers are articles that are interesting to them. Sometimes such an article can be a simple how-to article, or a health article. Other times it can be an article that's tantalizing, the practically screams weirdness or unorthodoxy. It takes some experimentation here to find what works best for any given Triond writer; health articles and articles about writing tend to work pretty well for me, but I've also had good luck writing about movies, firearms and sometimes goofball stuff that just popped into my head one day.

Sorry, but I've seen no evidence that fiction or poetry does well at all on Triond. If you are using Triond in hopes of making money on your poems or short stories, it's probably not going to happen. Still, Triond can be a good place for beginning writers to get feedback on their writing.

AdSense

 

Thank all that's holy for AdSense. I have used Google's AdSense for my blogs, but my online earnings really took off a few months ago when Triond began allowing its writer to earn from AdSense in their Triond articles. I easily make three times more money using AdSense with Triond than I do with Triond alone.

I know some who report having bad experiences with AdSense or who don't like some of Google's rules, but so far I have no complaints. Each month my earnings on AdSense have been double what they were the month before. I hope that trend continues.

Focus

 

Since making money through Triond was and remains one of my goals, I've also learned that publishing steadily on Triond helps to increase my readership (and thus my money intake). While I said above that quantity isn't so important, I will backtrack a little and suggest publishing at least one article a day does help to increase viewership.

I've noticed that if I go several days without publishing on Triond, overall my general number of views will wilt. But every day when I publish at least one article, the viewership of my other articles tend to go up some. I'm not sure if this is because readers are checking out my other articles or if those who publish often on Triond are given some kind of deference. Either way, writing and publishing every day does seem to help.
But what doesn't help much, at least in my experience, is publishing ten articles a day. Yes, it helped early on when I was starting at Triond, but over time it seemed if I published a bunch of articles in one day, I would end up getting fewer viewers overall.

A goal, then, should be to keep focus, to try to write and publish at least one article every single day.

Writing for money

 

I want to add here that while I do write for money, I don't write ONLY for money. I write because I like to. And because I'm decent at it. I'm also experienced at writing and editing. As I've said elsewhere, my professional experience as a writing might not always shine through on Triond, but that's because I allow myself a huge amount of leeway on Triond that I wouldn't in other, more professional venues. Why? Because quality isn't everything on Triond. Remember?

In closing

 

These are just a few of things I've learned on Triond during the last year. I've learned plenty of other lessons, such as that the Triond forums are pretty much a waste of time unless you're just wanting to hang out and shoot the breeze with some folks; the forums will help you to make friends on Triond, but they're not usually going to net you a whole bunch of readers to your articles.

But as I said, I've learned other lessons. To go into detail about them all would triple the length of this article, and I don't want to put you, the reader, through that. But if you are another Triond writer who has a question, please feel free to send me an e-mail or private message and I'll answer the best I can. I don't consider myself a Triond expert, but I don't mind helping other writers, so much so I've even created this blog for online content writers.