Edgewalker’s Journal: Xomba Numbers Game
posted October 6, 2009 - 8:43pm
Alerted to its existence by a small ad on Craigslist, two Bay Area writers open Xomba accounts the same week. Although they share a house, a kitchen and a bed, the two writers are really quite different. Each has his/her own style, history
and agenda.
HE wants to build a personal brand that encompasses his writerly expertise in food and sustainable agriculture and his emerging career as a woodworker and sculptor of dolls. Though his avatar defines his brand, he’s quite happy to join it to his real name and identity. His style is conversational, personable and trustworthy. He builds his own website and links to it from Xomba.
SHE wants to exercise her writer’s voice after a long haul in the corporate trenches, to experiment, to throw off the shackles of consistency and constraint, to say her piece. Her avatar gives her a welcome illusion of anonymity and license to write prose that pleases her. She decides to brand not herself but her journal, thinking it may eventually become one she edits rather than writes entirely by herself. She buys the domain name Edgewalker’s Journal but doesn’t build the site.
In almost 7 weeks, HE posts 22 bytes and 10 blurbs across 8 categories, receives 9 comments and as of this moment, 3237 reads. For the month of September, he earns AdSense revenue of $2.23. His avatar/brand claims first position on Google.
In almost 7 weeks, SHE posts 27 bytes and 2 blurbs, almost all in a single category, generates 19 comments and 2652 reads. For September, she posts AdSense revenue of $1.95. As a search term, Edgewalker’s Journal pretty much owns the first page of Google.
Are there lessons to learn from comparing the numbers? Maybe so.
HIS: SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS. BLURBS ROCK. FOOD IS LOVE.
The most dramatic is HIS use of social media. Starting August 26, he begins Twittering to Facebook every time he posts to Xomba. His reader numbers double almost instantly. In concert with his work on Xomba, he deliberately builds his Facebook presence, reaching out to colleagues in the food world and many old friends and colleagues, increasing linkbacks. Additionally, he links to Xomba from his Linked In profile.
His Recipe Road Tests and food pieces have legs. He also does a series of four pieces on Network Marketing, two of which hit the first page.
His blurbs are topical, helpful and well received. They’re also easy to produce and consume.
HERS: INTERVIEWS DRAW. FREEDOM HAS A PRICE. FOOD IS LOVE.
SHE foregoes topical focus in favor of creative freedom. Not using social media keeps numbers lower. She doesn’t do how to stuff. When she does write about food, numbers soar. Not switching categories and always putting Edgewalker’s Journal first in the title has some negative search engine impact.
While doing a two-part photo essay is a lot of fun, a Xomba bug means that for the better part of a week, the More by This Author column next to her posts is filled with jpgs, not links to stories. Oops.
By far her biggest hit of the month is an interview with an old friend who blows himself up. He’s rather famous and has a strong web presence, so the linkbacks abound. Note that interviews/profiles make compelling content. But they’re quite time consuming to do.
Both HE and SHE are delighted to have found Xomba.
Hint: If you do it with a friend, S/HE will always make sure your posts get at least one vote.
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Comments
Remembering why one writes is big, too
The freedom versus servitude dilemma is always a biggie. Too, we've recovered some of our youthish zeal for writing, while most of our professional writer friends do nothing but moan and groan about the loss of print venues, income and prestige.
Piffle, sez I.
There ARE Non-Monetary Measures for Success
It's sad that--in order to massively broadcast one's measures for success--one must either kneel in abject humiliation to the MONETARY measures for success or humiliatingly destroy one's body.
I started to do the latter (against my will), but--realizing that the destruction actually gets 'nothing' for anybody-and/or-everybody--I changed/kept-steady my mind and chose the former ... but that's not the point.
The point is that one must choose one's own standards of success; and then must allow that much success to come to one, because true success isn't worth as much if you earn it quantifiably (unit-of-work by unit-of-work).
That's right; Quid-pro-Quo will not make you rich by itself; Quid-pro-Quo many times exponentially will!
(It's passive income that makes you rich!... and no, I'm not trying to sell you anything in particular ... :-D)
Some possible non-monetary standards that are monitored here: votes by fellow Xombies who click the plus-sign next to articles they like, a few of the standards you mentioned above ... measured according to what you think is successful!
---when You Join Xomba, you can join this- and MythMan's other-hot discussions!
Keep the conversation coming!
My metrics are real but kind of silly, I admit.
Still, whenever you put out significant effort, it makes sense to look for lessons if not bona fide analytics, even if it's too soon to look for a check in the mailbox.
I appreciate the good-humored responses!
It might be a good idea to create a group of non-monetary measures for success. For someone used to the "old" ways of publishing, simply knowing that x number of people are actually grazing your work is pretty cool.
Interesting article
One month is too small a time to make a comparision - but nice points.
My Profile
Thank You; Recurring Lesson Learned
Of course, the an@lysis of that lesson runs something like 'EVERYBODY HAS TO EAT.'
I mean, Heck, that's what I do with the payments that come in; I use them (little-by-little) to 'feed' the restaurant business in my little corner of Oklahoma City.
I might also do that by sending Oklahoma City's restaurants' links to SheToldMe, where I 'blurb' links without so much comment and discussion (except for the restaurants that seem to deserve deeper discussion, which I will of course blurb here)
---when You Join Xomba, you can join this- and MythMan's other-hot discussions!
waiting for the check:-)
We've heard it takes about three months to achieve a monetary return. This is just a newbie's report to date. We've definitely experienced benefits that have nothing to do with the pennies per click we have or haven't earned.
You can find many more posts about the money game in the Xomba category. Someone was going to post Google's most searched terms per day so folks could choose to write to them. People really working it repurpose content across a bunch of sites.
Will keep you posted about the "passive income" angle.
It figures
Thanks for the comparison. Going a little further with the information you have here.
When you use social media and stick to maybe 8 categories, 1,452 views will earn one dollar.
Concentrating on one category, with only occasional use of social media, 1,360 views will earn one dollar.
So how many views do the people who are making $100 a month on Xomba get? What type of writing do they do?
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