Webupon

Granted, there are many sub categories beneath… some don’t make money because they aren’t here to do so.  (although 95% of those who claim this stance are utterly full of crap.)  Others may make money, but do this for the viewers.  I, for example, love the fact that a large number of people read my work, and work rather hard to ensure that they do.  I am as upper middle class as can be, and make a comfortable living.  So I don’t write for the money.  But you know what?  I’m not sending the checks back, either.  Who among us (writers) doesn’t wish we could make a living just writing?

Bottom line is that I am not above promoting myself.  I do so frequently.  It’s the reason that you will more often than not find a little ‘mnofdichotomy’ or two perched on the hot list.  Google one of my more successful articles, and you will find that in most cases, I have splashed it all over the internet.  And here’s a bit of a secret;  those of you who claim to want to be like (fill in the hot content frequenter here), yet complain endlessly about spam simply don’t get it.  Sure, there will be articles that rip off a few hits and show up for a bit, but it doesn’t mean much.  I’ve had articles with 30 views get there. 

But the writers who appear there consistantly- the ones who’s articles get tens of thousands of views, do it, for the most part, with SPAM.  It’s a dirty little secret, but successful writers are the ones that are able to get their writing in front of as many eyes as possible.  I don’t care if you’re Stephen King;  without promotion, no one will read your work.

The morons that do their little drive by spammings are simply not adept in the marketing aspect of what we do.  They don’t realize that you can’t just drop it off and assume the views will pour in.  Like anything else in life, it requires skill and savvy. (a little luck helps, too.)  But when I first started, I made that mistake as well.  The secret is to direct your spam at people who won’t mind reading it; you don’t put a football article in a cooking forum.   

Let us not forget that we are nearly all here for the same purpose… to whore our writing out.  You can call it whatever you like, paint it pretty colors, but it is what it is.  Internet users can also be grouped (in most cases) into 2 groups; those looking for something and those looking to give something.  Most of us fall into the latter category.  I have spent a good deal of time trying to destroy the notion that this isn’t the case.  I have done three anthologies in which a large number of us got together and whored ourselves out collectively.  I have published virtually every whoring trick I have learned, and shared every bit of knowledge I had. There are  a fairly large number of writers who have used my tips (I say ‘my’ rather loosely, for most of them I learned from other writers) and found success… and one of the biggest tools, if not the biggest, is spamming.

We all complain about it;  it seems to be a rather chic thing to do.  But let’s not get too high on our soapbox… We are writers.  If we want to be successful writers, we also will be spammers.  Numbers don’t lie.  Before I learned the art, I published appx. 30 articles.  Average views, 50 or so.  Hot Content… once.  Since… 60 or so articles.  Average views: comfortably into the thousands.  Hot Content:  almost every time.

We’re already full of crap;  most writers are.  The good stuff is usually the crap we let out, and we can take pride in that.  Let’s not be hypocrites; no honor there.

With that out of the way, the real problem here is that we don’t appreciate when someone poops in our living room.  If our dog poops in a neighbor’s yard, we don’t lose any sleep.  And this is, figuratively, our living room.  But we shouldn’t lose any sleep over it, either.  When the neighbor dog does poop, we just clean it up. Does it really take that long to delete a pm or a comment?  Is it really that much of a hassle to ignore a thread in the forum?  It’s a writer’s forum!  Nature of the beast, people.  I have a series of articles on football that have done amazingly well; all three have perched on the list for nice long runs.  One individual decided to post a url for his article (same concept) in my comments, to try and piggyback my views.  Hell, it was a good idea!  I sent him a pm saying as long as he didn’t try to directly compete, I’d leave it there.  A+ for thinking.  When I see spam in the forum or my inbox…. I read it!  You never know… it might be something amazing, or might hold a helpful hint.  If it’s crap, I let them have it.  But to lose our minds over this is insane.  We’re fish.  Don’t get mad because the water is wet.

And for those who do it here… learn the politics of a forum before you poop in it.  In this one, we like to be coddled before the poop.  Read someone else’s articles, and they will more often than not reciprocate.  Stop being so damn lazy.  That’s what the drive by spammings are; laziness or ignorance.  There is no easy way.  Those on top work to get there.  But plain arrogance isn’t necessary, either.  We aren’t any better that the newbies looking for readers because we know better; perhaps we should just take a moment to tell them how to do it right.  Someone did that for most of us.