Just a general update

Well, let's see. Dragonfly didn't win, and didn't make the top 25 finalists list either. I showed it around to a local writing group I joined a few weeks ago, called The Matchbox Society, which is sort of like a critique circle. Every week we (supposedly) meet at the local coffeehouse (the same one we used during Nanowrimo, which is how these people found us) (and by "us" I mean me and one other diehard; there were four of us back in November but two of them disappeared over the break), and take turns sharing material for critique. The idea is to read stuff out loud - but, most of the group is poets, so it makes sense they'd come up with that rule; I'm not sure it works so well for longer prose. And I didn't read Dragonfly out loud to them, just handed out copies on paper.

The other thing I dislike about the group is their habit of posting up work for review on a public website. Low traffic perhaps, but even so, first publication rights can come into play. Which is why I printed out Dragonfly on paper for them. I should probably say something to them about this at the next meeting.

Anyhoo. So overall they liked it. One wanted me to go more into detail about the elephants. One pointed out that dragonflies don't have proboscises, they have mandibles. Several said that some of my extra phrases were repetitive and could be removed. So, all in all, I get to revise it some more before sending it out again. I haven't picked out the next place it's going yet - have to look around on Duotrope.

My next idea is to start showing them Edward in installments, one at a time. This would motivate me to actually work on it in advance of showing it to them. But, I haven't gotten back into fiction lately because nonfiction (aka Brighthub) has been eating up all my time and brainpower.

Ahh, Brighthub. Lots and lots of new bureaucratic hoops. Like only being allowed to write 5 articles per month as a newbie. In January I didn't manage to write anything at all for them due to all the snafus they were having. This month I've written three so far, two of which are published, one of which is still stuck in editor committee. I'm committed to a fourth and haven't figured out what to do for the fifth yet - ideally, something in genetics will grab my attention if the editor ever puts up the second list. If not, I'll probably end up doing a third gaming article, since that's where I'm most likely to get high views.

I joined gaming so that I could write some high-view articles to carry my low-view science articles, so that I'll continue to be allowed to write articles past April. So far it looks like it might actually work - especially if this month's science articles carry themselves. The new editors for those channels have both gone with "here's a list of keywords, pick two at a time." So, less freedom for me to write whatever I want. However, it makes sense to write articles that people are actually searching for, and in Environmental Science at least, they're still fairly interesting topics.

Gaming, meanwhile, is all about having people suggest what they want to write. It's a very large community, and the main editor doesn't actually pay much attention to individual articles. There's not a whole lot of editting going on. He just approves the topic idea, then when I submit it, he publishes it. I assume he must at least glance over it first, but he doesn't notice typos so it isn't a very close read. I'm also supposed to figure out all of my own keywords. Which means that a few days ago I got to playing around with SEO Book.

Basically, it tells me what people are searching on. It doesn't tell me how many good results they get, however, so I'm still out of luck on that one (though I suppose I could just google them all myself to see what comes up). On the other hand, I can use it for more than just Brighthub gaming articles, and thus, I have new plans...

1. Check and tweak the SEO of every eHow article, starting with the oldest.

I've already fixed up my earwax article; if it got as many views as the electric toothbrush one, it would actually be my top earner. I still need to tweak the toothbrush one too. Also did one of the two Dragon Cave articles (since my 4th Brighthub is also going to be about Dragon Cave, that's how I got to looking at the eHow articles...). After that, oldest first.

2. Once they're all tweaked, make blog posts that list all articles to date, both eHow and Brighthub.

Evilkate tells me that blog links are excellent for search engine rankings, and since I have two that get indexed (my main blog, also here on Blogger, and my LJ), why not use them? I might start posting monthly summaries of my articles if I really get prolific at this. Plus I've been putting the science ones at SFFMuse too, so I'll continue to do that. And tweet them of course.

3. It turns out that a lot of the eHow articles would've made more money at Associated Content after all. They pay $1.50 per 1,000 views. Basically what it boils down to is that high view, low earnings eHow articles would earn more at that flat rate. Which is, sadly, most of them.

a. Such as gaming articles. Those still work best at Brighthub rather than AC, because not only do we get paid by number of views, we also get the $10 advance. However, gaming articles rejected from Brighthub (if any) will just go there.

b. Also, new plan for the Bloons series. How to win for Bloons 1 and 4 are already at eHow and might as well stay there. Bloons 2 and 3 articles can go over to AC. The three-part guide I want to do for Brighthub will still go there if they ever let me into PC Gaming, and then my overall index to everything will be at AC as well.

c. The main Dragon Cave article is going to get copied over to AC under their nonexclusive display-only policy. That article gets a ridiculous number of views, like twice what the electric toothbrush article gets, and yet earns very little (like a third of what electric toothbrush gets). Having it in both places will mean that it competes with itself - but I've already linked everyone at Dragonspam LJ to eHow, and that's where all the links point, so I don't want to remove it. I did tweak up the SEO on it some though.

And speaking of Dragon Cave - there's a lot of search for guides about what egg hatches into what, so I'll be pitching to write a guide at Brighthub next month too. (Right after I pitch my Restaurant City ingredients guide that I'd also like to write; unless I write that this month if genetics falls through).

4. The other big thing I want to do for gaming is a series about Emperor: RotMK. The main con is that it's an older game, out since 2003. I'll probably have to prove that people search about it. However, I've been playing it a LOT lately, and want to write "how to set up housing right at the start", "how to set up trade", and "how to take care of menagerie animals." I could also do a review article, or an overall intro to the game kind of guide article (or several).

My first choice would be to put this up at Brighthub, if I get into PC Gaming. Failing that, Associated Content.

5. Any science article rejects are still planned for Google Knol so far. Though I've also looked at HubPages, which Robert likes. I'm kind of on the fence so far, and probably won't decide until/unless Brighthub actually rejects something. They haven't so far.

6. And speaking of Knol. I really, really should get around to Mandarin Teaching Alphabet to start myself off there. (Then again, there are a couple eHows I've had on my list for over a year - grid method on Robert's Celtic bird, and "how to eat healthy" which should do well at a place like eHow). (Plus I need to update my "how to make money online" article, even though it doesn't make any actual money.)

So, lots to do. And it's good to have a plan. Of course, so far I'm just doing the procrastination part of the proceedings. But I'll get going eventually...