MYLOTTERS, Choose The Wrong Topic And Your Post Will Bomb
By M.-L.
@MALUSE (69373)
Germany
November 22, 2017 1:13pm CST
Everyone who's been on a writing site for some time knows the puzzling occurrence that posts for which the member has done a lot of research and into which they have poured their hearts and souls may attract only a number of readers - if any at all.
On the other hand, a discussion written on the fly and in passing in order to reach the payout limit may be the great hit and lead to unexpected riches.
The minds of the community members are fickle.
Yet, there seems to be one constant, namely: book reviews bomb. The number of reads I get for my posts is usually a double digit. My record is 90 reads. The next most successful post has got 63 reads. Both deal with myLot, of course. I call posts dealing with the site proper "navel gazing". From what one can see when skimming through the lists this is the fave pastime of myLot members.
My 11 book reviews have got 9.6 reads on average. Well.
In contrast to some members who delete their posts after some weeks (WHY? I'll never understand it.) I've saved all my posts from all the sites I've been on over the seventeen years I've been online. All my old book reviews are long, some have between 1.500 to 2.000 words. The comments they've got show that people read them.
I would be crazy to post them here (I could do it because the sites have all disappeared) for a community in which many members have the attention span of ephemera = one day flies. I would send them into a coma. I've just read a comment accusing the writer of the post that it was too long. It wasn't.
So, what do I do? I take a hatchet and prune my book reviews. Have you ever tried to hack away 1.000 words and keep the information understandable? I find this as difficult as writing a new one.
The last word of the paragraph above is ‘one‘. It‘s the 330th word of the post. I hope I haven‘t tired you out too much.
32 people like this
30 responses
@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
22 Nov 17
I found that “dude that’s too long” comment very disturbing. If I am not attracted to a long post I would just leave it and not make unnecessary discouraging comments.
Perhaps tagging users whom you know are interested in book reviews might help?
6 people like this
@Madshadi (8840)
• Brussels, Belgium
22 Nov 17
@JolietJake nor is the “suggestion” of any help as far as I understand. If one wants to share a post with few users who might like it he can’t, right?
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (79687)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22 Nov 17
I am passionate about my writing. I write what I want and if no one likes it then so be it. I never consider if I will get readers or not but I always put my whole being into what I am writing about. I write on many sites and yes, like this site I also have to consider the amount of words and then I do rewrite some posts. I have four blogs and they all look like doctor health graphs with lines going up and down constantly depending how many are interested. I love it all and I just keep going. Sort of like the Energizer Bunny 
6 people like this
@RasmaSandra (79687)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22 Nov 17
@MALUSE I have learned to organize and save all my works and keep notebooks of what I post and when and on what site. I also have several emails all divided up with mail from different places and all of my blogs are theme blogs so I manage to keep up. 
4 people like this
@m_audrey6788 (58472)
• Germany
22 Nov 17
I got the chance to read a few of your posts and participates which I found it interesting to read as it gives all the informations I needed to know about the topic which I admires most with writers 
6 people like this
@JudyEv (339496)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Nov 17
I find it really strange too how articles I'm excited about fall by the wayside and others about next to nothing seem to develop a momentum of their own and take off. My discussion about aprons - APRONS of all things - got 75 responses. It's just crazy sometimes.
6 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
22 Nov 17
You echo my sentiments quite a bit. The few book reviews I have posted have received little attraction and I knew that going in. I follow a course of writing what I feel like or interests me rather than trying to figure out what is going to be a "hit." I learned that lesson many years and sites ago. Like you, I have a backlog of articles and reviews from previous defunct sites and know it would be folly to post them here. Plus I have all my articles that appeared in print from pre-online days. I guess I hope a new article (content) site will appear where you post and the articles can keep earning and earning based on views but that seems to be wishful thinking at this point. The first time somebody complained about the length of an article took me aback. It wasn't all that long in my opinion. The content sites that I used to be on all had minimum word requirements usually starting at 500.
5 people like this
@maezee (41988)
• United States
23 Nov 17
Haha you are right. Often the most simple discussions are the most popular. I do some book reviews and I only attract a small number of responses for them also. I have found that MyLot related discussions seem to do the best , I guess since its something we all can relate to. I agree it is frustrating when people do not.read your discussion in its entirety.
3 people like this
I am not a writer actually so I don't care for the views I get in my posts.
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
22 Nov 17
Life's too short to be serious all the time. If you can pick a topic, have fun writing (a little!) about it, and bring a smile or two to anyone who encounters it, well - your job on a site such as this is done.
Interesting point of view, 330+ words or not
4 people like this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
22 Nov 17
I just write. If people read it, good. If they don't, never mind. It is strange how some posts do well and others not so well.
3 people like this
@andriaperry (116936)
• Anniston, Alabama
23 Nov 17
Since I have had my own blogs, now attempting to make my own money, I have learned the same thing. While something known more than another food, it flopped. But I wrote about pork and rice and bam! 300 views.
A strange world we live in.
3 people like this
@cherriefic (10399)
• Philippines
23 Nov 17
It's hard to reach a thousand word for me. It will take a lot of effort to do that.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (471294)
• Switzerland
23 Nov 17
I agree with @JolietJake about the fact that myLot is not a writing site, this is a "discussion" site, it's different. Most members dislike long posts, they are here to have fun and to interact without too much thinking and spending very little time. I have also saved everything I posted online, even for defunct sites. I never understood why people delete their posts, but I can imagine that the "recycle" the same content on different sites.
2 people like this
@Fleura (30346)
• United Kingdom
23 Nov 17
As others have said, people like short posts, generally about light subjects, it's just a sort of light-hearted chat. people see what their contacts have posted, maybe they pop in to catch up on their coffee break and see what others have said, they don't want to spend a long time reading one article.
I usually just write about something that has happened to me or occurred to me recently, if it is a complicated subject I break it up into smaller instalments. I'm not here to attract hundreds of followers though, it's just a place to chat to 'friends'
2 people like this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
23 Nov 17
That just lets you know how many 'book-readers' there actually are here @MALUSE . I know I feel the same way about some of the 'informational' posts that I do. Sometimes I think, "Why bother!"
2 people like this
@ilocosboy (45156)
• Philippines
23 Nov 17
Yeah I had observe it, simply because discussions about mylot and personal things can relate to the readers and subject about research and reviews cannot connect to their taste.
2 people like this
