Write a headline that will draw people in. Don’t worry about being clever – search engines don’t recognize cleverness (cleverosity?) Try to use words you think people will click on. Examples:
-instead of “Dilemma,” try “What should I wear on a first post-divorce date?”
-instead of “Getting autographs,” try “Todd Helton is even cuter in person”
If you’re writing about something in the news, say it in the headline. Don’t bury it. Examples:
-“I got World Series tickets!”
-“Bill Ritter’s gas drilling plan is unfair”
-“American Idol voting is a sham”
2) WRITE A NEWSY STORY
What’s controversial? What are people interested in?
Technology, celebrities, sports, presidential candidates, diets, fitness, TV shows, and movies, just to name a few things. People on the Internet are interested in the same things you are
Google’s top search items of 2007: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/newsmakers.html
Fastest rising search terms of 2007: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/index.html
Some user-written newsy stories that have had success on YourHub.com:
Games for sale that promote alcohol abuse (4,300 views)http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/News/Activism/Story~138623.aspx
Who can save Denver’s Woodstream Falls? (2,300 views)http://denver.yourhub.com/DenverSoutheast/Stories/News/About-Town/Story~116406.aspx
Nintendo Wii beats Apple TV (42,000 views)http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Stories/Entertainment/Movies/Story~315618.aspx
Hey Paula, your career is over!(2,900 views)
http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Stories/Reviews/Other/Story~328082.aspx
Want to raise CSAP scores? (2,300 views)
http://denver.yourhub.com/DenverSoutheast/Blogs/Life/My-Life/Mixed-Bag/Blog~353081.aspx
3) SHARE YOUR STORY
-How many forwards do you get in your e-mail? Exactly. Why not forward your funny or newsy stories to all your friends and relatives? Just copy the link into an e-mail and send it.
4) DIGG IT
What is “Digg”?
Digg is a social content Web site. What’s a social content Web site? It’s a tool people use to show other web users what they’re reading on the Web. If you like a story, video, or photo, you can “Digg” it, which makes it show up on Digg, where other Digg users can check it out. If they like the story/video/photo, they “Digg” it. The more Diggs an item receives, the higher it moves up.
To Digg your stories, go to www.digg.com and register. Then click on the Digg symbol next to your YourHub.com posting. Del.icio.us, Reddit, and Newsvine are all similar sites – just pick the one you like the best (or use all of them). Make sure to find your friends on Digg too. Many YourHub.com users and staffers belong to Digg and similiar sites and can help raise the popularity of your postings. Help each other out.
5) PUT IT ON FORUMS AND MESSAGE BOARDS
Could your story be a starting point for a good discussion? If you can think of a topic, chances are, there’s an Internet forum for it: The Avs, the Broncos, the Rockies, the Nuggets, Denver, Broomfield, Boulder, CU, DU, hiking, skiing, restaurants, etc. Find a forum, register for it, and post your link. We love to agree and disagree on the World Wide Web.
6) E-MAIL FAIRLIGHT BAER-GUTIERREZ
Ever seen the section on the right on www.RockyMountainNews.com? YourHub.com editor Fairlight Baer controls what appears here. If you think you’ve got a story that’s Rocky.com front page worthy, e-mail the url to her at baerf@yourhub.com.
7) CREATE A FARK EXPLOSION
If you can get just one of your stories or blogs listed on
www.fark.com, you’ll be about a third as successful as the YourHub.com staff has been in the past couple of years. It’s tricky, but if you (or someone who likes your story) can write a Fark-worthy headline and the folks at Fark decide they like it, your story will get between 15,000 and 50,000 page views. You have to register at Fark and wait 24 hours before you can send your first submission.
8) DON'T POST IT MORE THAN ONCESearch engines, such as Google, tend to favor one single posting better than five postings of the same content. Postings repeating the same material could be interpreted as SPAM by search engines and penalized.