Page Views

Those writers submitting articles for Associated Content and other paid to write websites are faced with the task of generating page views. How do you go about promoting your stuff to keep your page views up to snuff?

Personally, I email my articles to friends, friends of friends, and family; I get a fair amount of page views from that. Another tactic I have been utilizing is bookmarking sites. I think in the beginning that helped a lot but it seems to have fallen off a bit. I have hit a clout of 4 and have seemed to stalemate there.

I've also been reading other writer's submissions. This is actually what I want to talk about most here. I have subscribed to several great authors and have been reading everything they submit.

I try to comment where and when I can but if I comment on every article I'll be using up my writing commenting and possibly develop carpel tunnel syndrome. I see others that show they were there by putting a !, *, ., :), or some sort of symbol. I don't particularly like that. I prefer to read up and make a comment on the last article I read. Sometimes I mention the other articles if I think about it before I hit the post button.

What do other's think about this? We are essentially trading page views. Is it offensive to just leave some sort of punctuation mark and move on?

Another author I read wrote in her profile that she does not always comment but does read everything. Perhaps that's the way to go. Then again, how do we know she read?

I think my subscribers have caught on to my methods--that I read and only comment on the top article--at least I hope they have. Those that I subscribe to should know that I get those publishing messages and usually three times a week I read their articles. I am only human. I comment as I feel urged to do so. If I have nothing to add or say I say something like "nice article!" Know that I am reading because you guys have some great stuff and it helps me to generate ideas for future articles.

Today I find myself inspired by writers wearing their hearts on their sleeves. This is something that you will have to interpret for yourself.