With the rapidly growing popularity of Xomba and the influx of writers, many of whom are new to writing articles, it may be useful for some of us who have been doing it for a while to offer some advice. Please read this article with the idea that all of us were new at this at one time, too.

When it comes time to write an article and you are staring at that blank screen, you may feel overwhelmed by the idea that you have to string together 150 words (that's the Xombyte minimum now) on some topic and optimize it for AdSense so people will find it in the search engines, read it, and hopefully click a relevant ad to generate revenue in your Google AdSense account.

There is always the lingering temptation, particularly in the beginning, to find an article that someone has already written, maybe change a couple of words and the title, and submit it as your own original work as a Xombyte. Let me be the second to say: bad idea. If you look at the official Xomba Posting Policy, Rule 25 explicitly states:

Ignorance of that rule in particular is no excuse because you have to check a box when you sign up indicating that you understand Rule 25 specifically.

Even if you think you changed enough of the content to sneak it in, it is not difficult for someone to Google your article content and find where it has been posted before.

There are lots of well-written articles on the Internet, including those written and featured here on Xomba. If you really like something you found and want to tell everyone about it, the better course action is to write it as a Xomblurb, which is a social bookmark, and include a link to where it can be found. (You just can't write a Xomblurb for anything written on Xomba already.) You even have a text box where you can tell the reader why you believe it is worth reading. If someone happens to click one of the ads in your Xomblurb, you still get the same 50/50 AdSense split with Xomba as if you wrote it yourself as a Xombyte.

The rules on Xomba are pretty liberal for writing and the administrator, Nick, and moderator, Jeremy, are very helpful with any questions you may have. As a writer here, speaking for myself, I would like to see you stick around a while. I enjoy the writing but what makes Xomba special is this is a true writing community where you can interact with and receive feedback from other writers in pretty much every time zone in the world. All from the comfort of your computer. What can be better than that?

My advice to you, as a fellow writer, is this:
"When in doubt, make it a Xomblurb."