Google

Saturday 19 January 2008

Marketing Your Work

Don't just let it sit there! Yes, it will earn but it could perform so much better. Use every tool you can think and get it out there. Digg it, stumble it, reddit, blog it, make it visible. Tell your family, tell your friends and tell your colleagues.

I'm going to make some suggestions and I would appreciate it if anyone else can contribute their own ideas. I'm also assuming that you will all be publishing on both Helium and Associated Content as some tips work better with one than the other.

Communities such as digg are an excellent way to promote your work. You cannot, however, just put it out there and hope for the best. Your work will attract little if any attention. Take time to formulate relationships. Support those that you hope will support yourself. Whenever possible, don't just digg someone for the sake of it. Visit their sites, contribute and comment. Make your support stand out from the crowd. It's a lot of work but will pay dividends.

It is important to note that visitors from digg do not produce a residual income therefore direct them to your articles at AC rather than Helium as AC payments are based solely on page views. Alternatively, set up a blog and divert them there and encourage them to click through to Helium articles.

Yahoo answers is another very useful but limited tool. You will get a penny per view at Helium for visitors originating there. It is important that they actually view before answering so pique the interest but don't give too much away. For my 'definition of cheating' article I posed the simple question, 'Is she cheating?' For the description I added, "please look at this and tell me what you think" plus a link to the article. Sit back and watch the meter tick. I say it is limited because if you send too many links you will get an error message. Restrict it to once or twice a day and answer a few questions as you go.

I shall be discussing social networking sites in tomorrows post. I hope you find this useful, please leave comments and add your own ideas for the benefit of others.
, , , , ,

2 comments:

Ashok said...

So far, Digg and Propeller have helped me reach what little audience I have, and they've been huge - esp. with Digg, I've watched feed subscriptions jump, and the relationships I've formed on Digg are worth way more. I wish I could keep up with everyone.

Stumbleupon isn't working at all for me - it used to send me a little traffic here and there, now nothing.

I'm actually gonna ask you for more tips, b/c the post I want promoted most is the Gettysburg Address post (thank you for the Digg, btw), and that honestly doesn't get anywhere near enough attention, I feel. Any ideas on how to promote one thing that I feel everyone should read?

Don Dousharm said...

One thing is for sure, it is a lot of work to get your articles out there for others to read and comment on. I am learning new ways every day. I must admit, the yahoo answers thing is one I would never have thought of.

I started using Blogging Zoom recently and find that they seem to be a very good community. I find that if your work is good reading it will do well there.

Keep up the good work Matt, your blog posts are very helpful to me.