Fit Write In

Write for the community

Whether you’re at Squidoo, HubPages, AssociatedContent, Gather, wherever!… think about the emotion and atmosphere of the community.

For instance, recently I was researching “farriery”. A farrier is someone who shoes horses.

I got to see this up close and personal not far from where I live, a neighbor gets his horses done regularly.

Now I can write an article about farriery in half a dozen ways. In fact, I did.

At HubPages I’ve published one called Pimp My Clyde. Which, for those in the know (and young at heart) is a parody of the title of the hit MTV show Pimp My Ride.

Now honestly, I could have got away at HubPages with either Farrier or Farriery, because they like being serious there. They want to be an authority site, rather than a place for personal blogs. But I didn’t think too far ahead at the time. Still though, the community does have a sense of humor and I’m not going to be whipped for it.

I could have perhaps used such a title at Squidoo. Or even Gather. I was going to do a more serious piece of farriery at Squidoo but both the lens names “farrier” and “farriery” are taken. And nothing published. What a shame. I’m sure I could claim the lens name allaboutfarriery or something similar, but instead I went for a different angle, a close look at Horses Hooves.

I’ve published an article at Gather called “Equine Pedicure”. Which I think will get a lot of attention there. That and the fact that I uploaded a LOT of photos. I’ve come to the conclusion that Gather people LOVE a lot of photos. That and the witty yet appropriate title should work well.

At AssociatedContent I’ve published a more serious piece on farriery titled Farriery: The Art of Shoeing Horses. Something you must remember when writing for AssociatedContent is that you you can’t edit the articles after you’ve submitted them. So be sure to put your best foot forward. But don’t go overboard with the outside linking either.

I’ve got a feeling that an affiliate link will get cut (or maybe the whole article rejected) but a link to a quality article (and restricting oneself to one or two) will be fine.

Be aware of the rules for each site, both written and unwritten. Don’t be afraid of publishing at a few different sites. It gives you extra bites at the apple when it comes to Search Engine Indexing, not to mention the benefit of backlinking AND also dipping into a fresh stream of traffic for your linked articles.

And of course be mindful of the quality of your articles. In the very least don’t crosslink duplicate articles, as it doesn’t benefit anyone. Especially your reader who has just finished reading it. You won’t get any respect if they click through and find the exact same thing, even if its been slightly reheated.

And get a feel for the dynamics of the community. Either by reading others articles or perusing through the forum (if they have one). Once you have some hindsight it really focuses your foresight.

Tags: featured

Category: Non Squidoo, Tips