Halx

If you've ever tried to create something and wanted a lot of people to pay attention to it, you're probably thinking about HOW you can get that audience. Marketing is one way to get an audience, but marketing only gets people to look. Your content is what gets people to really pay attention and enjoy. No matter what you want to create, it has to be worthwhile for people to give their attention to. I'd like to help you understand how to do that.

Let's begin by looking at what works: Digg and Reddit. If you pay attention to the content posted to these two sites, you will notice a few things.

First, the content is geared to the audience. The majority of links are focused on a specific range of topics, with only a handful of outliers that focus on major events in their own worlds. Example: You'll never strain to find a tech link or a link praising Obama, no matter how frivolous, but you will only find stories about sports if they are huge stories. What can we learn from this? We have to pay attention to our audience. We have to play to its ear. Even if what we want to talk about isn't popular, we have to find a way to link it to the mentalities of the readers. If we can't introduce field hockey to a tech site without finding some way that a techie would relate to it. From there, they might be grateful for the wildly original take on something they previously dismissed as boring.

Second, the content is generally easy to assimilate. Many links are posted simply for their headlines or images, while others are formatted mash-up lists of interesting things. You'll occasionally find long articles, but these are rare and usually have exceptional messages or subjects. Example: You'll always see a "10 hottest fully clothed scenes" or "50 examples of amazing CSS design" link. What can we learn from this? People want to get the message quickly so that they can either invest their time in reading it or move on to the next link. When we create content, we have to make our case for someone reading past the first two sentences or else nobody will care. Give a hook, or a striking image, or a biting headline.

Third, the content is unique, current, or at least opportune. Whether it is about a current event or some spin-off of popular culture, 99% of the links you'll find on social bookmarking sites have something to do with a recent event. Whether it is on the news, or it is a new product launch, or a new movie that is coming out, or a trend in nerdom, everything you read is in some way tied/linked/packaged with a current idea. Examples: Even when you read a story about "7 figures in history who..." it is only because someone recently had the same experience. What can we learn from this? No matter what your subject is, you have to make sure that it is relevant to the time that it is posted. If I were to write an article about art galleries, I wont get any interest if I can't find some way to make it relevant on a modern tilt.

If you take these ideas into consideration when you create your content, it will greatly increase your chances of getting read. Make sure that you submit your work to places that will view it as relevant. On sites like Digg and Reddit, the community rarely gives validity to content submitted by its own creator, so to be recognized, you must be exceptional on your own or vouched for by a popular member. Other sites have their own quirks, but one way I suggest is to get in touch with bloggers who write about the same subjects. Ask them for a write-up and many will be glad to give you a mention if your piece is good for their agenda. By getting your work mentioned on a more popular blog, you're multiplying your chances of being picked up by a social bookmarking power user.

Keep creating, too. Nobody is going to have a perfect record, but if you keep at it, your successful works will bring splash popularity to your forgotten pieces when you hit the front pages.

Good luck.

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[Don't Feed The Animals]