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Anyone who has published on line, and pays attention to what their peers put out, has had a “Wish I woulda thought of that” moment.   My first one was an article by Cutest Princess….The Six Worst Killer Plagues in History.  It was a well written article, but not one you would guess would be a huge commercial success.  And yet it sat atop the hot content list for months. 

I, like everyone else, have spent hours upon hours trying to find that one brilliant idea that will go viral and generate views for a long period of time.  It’s one thing to promote an article well, have it spew off a few thousand hits, and fade off.  Others will never do more than a few dozen views in a day, but they will do those few dozen views consistently.  I have an article I published in May that has never seen more than 100 views in a day yet has 8,000 views.

But to have that one…. an article that goes up several hundred hits if you look twice in 10 minutes;  that’s the the one we dream about.  I have all the pointers in the world for promoting, but on this I have nothing, because it’s like a scratch off lotto card… sometimes you win a buck, most times you leave empty handed, but every once in a while…

I have had five articles do this, out of the 90 or so articles I have written here.  I have hit on nearly every major subject you can imagine;  Abortion, gay marriage, AIDS, sports, polotics, money, family, fiction, poetry, current events, beer, music, religion.  The list goes on.  The bottom line is, the time you spend agonizing over a topic, the less time you spend writing.  Just write what you do, promote it well, and if lightning strikes, it does.  If you see something that seems to be getting a great deal of coverage, take a shot at it.  Three of the five I’ve had go nuts were current events pieces.

The Easiest way to ruin your appetite for writing is to over analyze it.  Just enjoy what we do.  The rest will come.

For help and advice on promoting your articles online, check these out:

How to Market Your Articles in Forums and Chat Rooms

How to Best Use Twitter

Writing for Money: Selling Our Souls?

My “Secrets” to Making Money and Publishing in Forums