How To Get Viewed

The StoryMaster has written an item that has a few basic suggestions, but these will get you new viewers and reviews by the handful! A few of them are hard and complex, while others are simple. You must remember to keep trying!


1: You Must Have A Few Items
-Goes without saying.

2: Variety
-There are over 99,700 static items out there as of October 13th, 2005. So try making interactives, polls, journals and more!

3: Upgraded Membership
-Like above, more things to do and show off a bold text and have more then 5 items over 50 kilobytes! The upgraded membership allows you to post surveys, images and have 250 items. An excellent buy.

4: Journals/Blogs
-Try keeping a journal and tell of upcoming projects, rants, feelings and your Writing.com friends. It also helps you reflect on how you were in the early days and you'll get some practice in.

5: Edit
-Your items may not always be perfect when you launch them, so you may have to spell check it, add WritingML tags and add other things that could help it. This is where your reviewers help you (See number 11). Also everyone seems to view most modified first, so try to spice up the story with a new ending, or if you learn how to do something better, then add it to the story. Or just press the edit button when you want it to be viewed.

6: Titles
-Try to be creative in your names and descriptions! Who wants to read something with a simple name? ! Example: "The Dog" . Unless it has a twist. Example: "Max Smith: Family Super Dog!"

7: Search Words
-Add different words, such as your handle name, country, type of story, how long it is,character names, and other words that relate to the item.

8: Links
-In your journal make links out to your newest and most changed items. Also make links to your friends and ask if they can make a link to your portfolio. Also if you had help from a friend for an item, add a link to their portfolio. Very easy. Also having stories and images or polls to go along with the story will generate some views to see how it's used. Most importantly, if you have a series, then offer links to the next and previous chapters.

9: Genres
-This is a big problem for many users, new and old. When you're creating items place them under 3 genres, no matter what! This will get you more views and people know what your item has in it.

10: Get Your Name Out There!
-If you can get your name out there and get known for something positive, then it'll help you get viewers. The easiest way to do it is by reviewing and taking surveys and posting on forums and In and Outs. Just get out there and do something that will attract others.

11: Review, Rate and Answer
-!BIG ONE! Rate items, review items. Also try to tell them what you like in the story (such as atmosphere, a joke, the characters, the mood..), and which you didn't like (bad grammar, spelling errors, confusion..), then offer to change the star rating if they fix the mistake(s). I personally love it when I get reviews in the mail. I’ve reviewed over 13,000 (due to people leaving the site and deleting their items it's dropped a bit) items!
When you're reviewing someone else items, ask if they could review something of yours or mention how it relates to one of your items (if it does). If someone has fewer than 5 ratings on an item, then rate and review it and it'll mostlikey make them feel good.

>Quick Tips:
-Don't lower the rating for small spelling mistakes.
-Read the entire story before you review it.
-Don't review a story based on the images.
-You can be rewarded for reviewing. If you review a new person that you've never reviewed before you'll make 50 gift points (or more) in the Review Mixer (See #36).
-100 Reviews = 1 Community Recognition Details (See #21).


12: Answers
-If someone reviews something of yours, then go to their portfolio and review some of their work and hopes of making a new friend. If someone reviews you low, don't go and return a low review, this is called Revenge Reviewing and it's frowned upon. It's also good to reply to someone when the thank you for a review, I send a "You're welcome for the review." whenever someone thanks me for reviewing them.

13: Dig Deep
-When looking for items to review, dig deep into the list of Most Modified and find old stories, these can be Rare Gems. Also try to add to deep interactives to bring hope to people. Also read the newest items so people know their work is being seen; it’s the worse feeling to see your newest work have no reviews a few days after it's launched.

14: Forums
-Forums are a great way to post links to your items and discuss things. Contests, Review Forums and more are designed to get your work read. Review Forums go to your port and review your work. Be careful with Review forums, go for ones that send you the reviews in the mail instead of on the forum.
My review forum does private reviews, "Invalid Item" . Please post if you want something reviewed!
Remember to revisit and post again on forums, it's best to wait a week to post again on the review forums. Also very important to remember how to make a link to your item you want to be reviewed. If you have a review forum, make sure to review the request ASAP. I personally give review forums that don't answer a request within a month a 1 star rating.

15: Interactives
-This is how I got started and met several friends. This also shows a bit of your talent. I add wings (story lines) to interactives to create the story to make it from my own angle. Remember to end your wing with a great ending or two and maybe try to make another wing. Many users have their own favorite interactive(s). If you have your own interactive then add a chapter a day to it to keep the story growing. Also by adding to interactives you also get writing practice. It's a good way to end Writer's Block too. By adding to an interactive the interactives you've added to get suggest to the reader in the suggested interactive list in each and every chapter, so if you have an interactive then add to as many interactives as you can so people can see links to your interactive. Make sure to add to interactives that your interactives share a genre of. So don't add to shrinking interactives if you have a romantic interactive.

16: Enter Contests
-This is great if you need ideas or you have a story lying around. Always return to your story and check for errors and see how you could improve on it before you enter the contest! Also be sure your item has the correct Content Rating(see #26).

17: Be Friendly
-If someone has a huge problem with spelling mistakes, or something looks like big time problem, then drop him or her an e-mail and offer to help. This also works with small interactives, add to them and you'll make a new friend. You could also use C-Notes.

18: Make Friends!
- I've made several friends who I review their latest work and they review my stuff.

19: Tell Friends and Family
-Tell people about your portfolio and work you're doing, even if you have another website add a link(s) to your portfolio.

20: Friends and Family Usefulness
-Add links from your portfolio to your friend’s portfolio and ask them to do the same.

21: Referrals and Community Recognition Details/Points
-Theday As you can see the little number next to my name is the number of people who have joined Writing.com when looking through my port, also, they're all my Merit Badges added up and 100 reviews = 1 point. People are magnetized by the numbers. The highier the number the more experance you have around Writing.com.

22: Chat rooms/e-mails on and off Writing.com
-If you’re in a chat room, Writing.com or others, tell them of your work and leave your portfolio address and tell what you're working on and what new ideas you have.

23: Images
-You must have an Upgraded Membership to post images. Images often bring a new breath into a story and can help interest a viewer or even keep them happy. Images can also be used as logos and sigs. It is extremely important to note that the images you post must be your own. So no scanning in your picture of a dragon and using it for your own uses. I personally give people who use other people's works (like those silly cat pictures you see online all the time) extremely low ratings.

24:Groups
-This can be a great item to help you with. If you enter a group, then visit the group forum and say Hi and tell about yourself, then go off and see other group member's works and drop them a line. If you're unsure of an item then leave a link to your item and ask for help with it. Sometimes groups work, but not for me.

25: Get Help
-You can't do it all by yourself, often you'll get a great idea from a friend. So mention them at the end of the story if they have a portfolio here at Writing.com. Also try to make adventures that have both of you in it; these kind of stories are becoming popular. Most of the cross over stories do well and are sometimes silly (in a fun way!). Also, a Review Forum may help you with mistakes in your items.

26: Content Ratings
-The rating of your item is key, even if it's rated E (G) or even XGC (X). Once you've decided your rating, you can go get your views. There are plenty of forums that showcase a certain genre at a certain rating. So keep your eyes open for them. Remember to place your item with the correct rating, I've been caught doing it myself. Even if you fix the mistake they won't let you lower the rating, you must go ask for the rating to change. Such is the case for Nehpets and Hardcore Kick ***, which was renamed to Nehpets and Hardcore Mission 1. The item should be rated PG-13, or even R, but is rated GC (NC-17) due to the title. One thing that could happen is Writing.com welcoming in 14A. 14A sits in between PG-13(+13) and R(+18), the kind half way point.

27: In and Outs
-Much like the Forums, In and Outs are very popular stops. There are many different In and Outs to plug your work and even learn more about fellow Writing.com authors. I often add to many In and Outs.

For Skilled Users, These can be hard to pull off

28: Story Posting
-Post your stories other then Writing.com and add links to your portfolio from there. One example is to write a movie review for one site and link to Writing.com at the end of it. This can work well and can create a group of fans for your work and help boost your refereal number (see #21). But becareful with other sites and their copywrite info and posting rules, they could clash with Writing.com's.

29: Hype It Up
-In your e-mails tell people of up coming projects and stories. This works well when the item you are reviewing can be tied together with your item. Also tell about it in your journal. This also works well when you have a flood of new titles coming out.

30: Title Wave
-This one is highly untested but has worked for me. For this to happen, you must have an Upgraded Membership. What you do is make anything you want to edit, change or other, for Your Eyes Only. When you do that add new scenes, check grammar and more. At the same time create new items and tell others about it. Go review other people and tell them to wait for the big day when you'll release all of your new titles. I, Theday, did this on May 22, 2002 and February 1, 2003 and gained a bunch of reviews within a small time!

31: Join A Cause
-There are several groups on Writing.com that are trying many things, such as protesting, helping people get viewed, raising awareness and many other things. Join in the group and say what you feel about the subject and you'll get some feed back.

32: Our Eyes Only
-So you have the views, but you need the ratings. One way to gain Reviews is to make items for Registered Users and Higher if you want more users to view than guests. This is currently in testing. This item itself is for users only, why would guest need to know this stuff?

33: Join/Hold A Contest
-The newest Newsletter to Writing.com is the Contest Newsletter. A contest can get you a lot of views and you can even get it to work for you. If you're holding a contest make sure you tell people and make the rules clear. Don't be afraid of deleting people's entry if they don't follow the contest rules. One popular rule for entering is that the person entering must review an item for you, another idea(which I frown upon) is to pay Gift Points. Another way to get views is to sponsor a contest by donating gift points to them, or being a judge for the contest, if the contest holder will allow it.

34: Premium Membership
-I personally don't recommend it myself, but the service is just like an Upgraded Membership(See Number 12), but you can hold up to 1,000 items, you also get a customicon all the time. But this service comes with a high price, money.

35: The Reviewing Page
-The Reviewing Page is the section of the site where public reviews are displayed. I for one, don't go looking for stuff to review on the Reviewing Page. I admit that reviewing is good for the site, but posting a public review about an item that says that the item is "weak and needs help" will scare away other readers. Also the most reviews given doesn't add up either. If you're a newbie on the site, it's best just to skip it.

36: Auto-Award Items
- The author of the item offers gift points to review an item. It's kinda like a bribe. If you have the gift points then you could. But only if you need the reviews.




Remember these are just small ways of what you could do and remember to try them and keep trying!



Theday