Just A Simple Question That Could Be Important To YOU Too!

Talk to Rob Appell. He's experimented with this recently - I believe a series of flatulence posts? ;-)

One thing that might happen is people might burn out reading you, or would put off reading you: this is my reaction, unfortunately, when people post multiple times a day. (I only post about once a week but that's only because it takes me that long to come up with something to post!)

No idea. I posted a bunch of older work today...but usually I do maybe one or two. I don't think it really matters...but I only play around here, the GC are just a nice bonus for books or coffee (but next payout is all mine...there is a book I really want and can only find it on amazon)

My understanding is that it is all about page views. Yours, and the ones you view. Comments are just tangible proof of who read your article. That has been my understanding for some time.

I don't post for points. I don't know how the point system works. Some say the number of visits has more to do with points than the ratings or number of comments but who knows?

Hi Esther.

I can't imagine posting every hour. I have a hard enough time coming up with 1 quality post per week.

I think you would have more success post one article each day with 30-50 comments as opposed to 10-20 posts per day with only 5-10 comments.

I don't know the answer to your question, but please keep us informed if you decide to test it out.

I post maybe 2 times a week

It varies. Sometimes nothing for days - other days a couple posts and some photos.

On a good week you may find two posts from me, most times it is just once a week. Some weeks it is none. I like the idea of quality over quantity. I imagine at first posting with great frequency would prove beneficial but after a bit your readership would die down. I have people on my friends list that do post several times a day but I usually will only check out one or two of their posts.

Frankly, since page views matter, and they don' t have to be page veiws from members, I think that posting something that would interst a large audience makes more sense than posting several items that might draw a few people. Pam Johnston posted this about how to get page views: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?memberId=216706&articleId=281474977599904&nav=MyGather

I may post only once in a blue moon, or some times I get a wild hair and go crazy depends on my mood and how bad I want to push somebodies buttons.

I think that commenting and viewing other stuff increases the points much more than one's actual posting articles........I've noticed that a lot.....I do post quite often, but find that the points come faster by viewing and/or commenting......make sure to do them all....posts, videos, and photos!

I think I tend to post in spurts, can go for a month or two without posting anything and then I go and post everything that I have wanted to share in that time span in a day. Not really sure how the points rack up though as I never notice them till I am close to being able to cash out and then it seems like they take forever to get there.

I cash out for $25 paypal every two months or so though.

you could start saying good morning, good night, good after noon, etc :)

I think its silly to post over one article every few days and few photos every day not 40+ like some are doing :(

I agree with Nora I think its more about how many times you view others work and comment. This is what I noticed with me anyways.

Nooooo, es!!!! points be damned.....I loathe the ones who pose a question every 15 minutes...they fill up my mailbox and cause me NOT to see something that might have value, as all the inane posts take too much room on the "just posted"section. do just what you've been doing.......or a bit more,lol...but NOt taht far!!!! Ooohhh, Nooooooo....

I have a few people connected to me who post every time they blow their nose (well not really, but you get my drift) and I hardly read half their posts. I would much rather read one post about your whole day than 12 little ones.

Post every hour? Not sure you could keep that up long. Your articles, while very interesting would be flooding mailboxes. Mite annoy some. I don't post articles; very little. I mostly post photos. A few every day or every other day.

thanks for sharing

I post anywhere from 1 to 5 times a day, usually. Depends on how busy I am.

A few postings and photos a day is plenty.

hmmm, at some point the 'law of diminishing returns' will take effect and render any further posts null.

I usually post one, sometimes two articles a day...and I try and make them quality as opposed to saying anything just to rack up some points. I know that when I see multiple postings from one person, I rarely read all of their posts anyway because I feel like it is taking away from others on Gather who I need to be viewing as well. An exeption to this are those names I have come to recognize as always publishing quality work. I always try and hit those, regardless of how often they post. I've been here since 2005...and in the beginning it was a lot easier to make more money. I was easily making $75 to $100 a month, doing no more than I currently do on Gather...so something in regard to the point system must have changed. I now make around $50. I have found that the more active I am all around with commenting, viewing and posting...the more points I get. Page views seem to bring the most points.

Well if you start posting 10-20, I'll ignore a lot of your content like I do with other gather spammers, lol.

Counting photos, I usually post up to 5 items a day on average.

I too used to make about $100 per month here. It's now around $50 as well. The points have dropped considerably since the early Fall and continue to be less and less all the time.

Very interesting. Would be curious if there's any rhyme or reason to any of it, and if it fluctuates with the economy!

The way I see it, if someone writes more than one post a day, those posts are not all going to be interesting. As a matter of fact, they'll just be posts to write posts to get points. And doing that runs the risk of alienating readers. They see the name of someone who writes posts for no other reason than getting points, and they skip that post.

Some readers do what I do and remove people from their friends list if that person continuously writes posts for points that aren't interesting. In that case, the poster will get fewer rather than more points.

Basically, it's all about the views. I'm here as a relief zone from my regular stuff where I have to concentrate on SEO etc. The key is to get recognized by the search engines. Relevant keywords and the proper use of groups gets your content noticed outside of Gather. The more views, the more points, the more profits.

If you wrote one article but got 2,000 views, you made your money rather than writing 100 articles with 20 views. Plus, your content is more relevant so folks will want to come back for more.

Esther,
I found when trying to earn points for a friend who needed some treats (I can't use gift tokens in Britain) that searh engine optimistation to increase traffic is the best way to boost points. I could write a book on this topic but a simple way to get good benefits is by linking related articles to your own work.

The best way to do it without doubt is by making sure a word in the page title appears in your link text. Link text is the highlighted text you click on and the page title is what appears in the head section of your html code and shows up in the taskbar when you visit a page. So if I wanted to boost a page with the title Do The Illuminati Control Us conspiracy secrecy elite world-domination (note use of additional, unnecessary keywords in title) I would use as my link text something like Are The Illuminati a secret society hellbent on world-domination which would give my page a good boost in search listings. Doing that well is just not possible at gather so therefore you must look for articles where your most prominent keywords are also prominent. Thus my imaginary article on The Illuminati would benefit from being coss linked with a newspaper article published on Monday about The Bilderberg Group which mentioned The Illuminati, conspiracty theorists and records of Bilberberg meetings and discussions being kept secret.

Complex eh? Work on it though, less is more. You need keyword rich content and lots of incoming links. Outgoing links no longer dilute search engine scoresso on't boother about that.

BTW I only look in gather about once a week now, send any questions in a PM

Ian

but if that is successful and everybody strts doing it you will probably find gasther increase the number of hits you need to earn a point.

I post about 6 photos a day, a 2 posts. No idea if it helps. I love taking photos

Sophie posts in 'spurts'...LOL! I don't post daily...sometimes a couple times a week; other times, maybe 4 or 5 articles a week. It's more about quality; not quantity. I like to present articles that are interesting, humorous and intelligent, at least up to a point; not mindless, worthless crappolla. People have a tendency to skip articles that aren't worth looking at. Once you get a reputation of publishing things that aren't that good or putting up tons of piddly posts; people tend to distance themselves from even looking at your work. It totally defeats your purpose of picking up points. On top of that, you'll get more '1' ratings because others will consider you a 'spammer' and will consider a lot of what you do garbage.
As already mentioned, comments only validate the fact a person has been to your post. You get no points from making or receiving them. It's all about page views...people looking at your posts...and you looking at theirs. There are many days I don't post at all, yet pick up over 100 points simply by looking at other posts. To get others to look at your work; it's got to catch their attention so they'll want to view you. A catchy title and something of interest in the opening line or two draws others in to look from what they notice in the 'preview page'; what they see first.
Gather's points vary depending on the money they make from advertising. It seems that Gather isn't puling in as much income themselves lately, as is evident by the fact they've had to let go of staff members due to less money coming in. The amount they give out has decreased, too. I can still make over $100 a month...mostly from viewing other posts.
I'm not an expert, nor have I figured out the algorithms, but I've been able to get a good grasp on how to make a little cash. You won't make a living here or get rich quick, but you can pick up a little extra spending money...more than on other sites.
On top of that, it's difficult to come up with that many interesting topics with 10 - 20 posts a day. I skip looking at a lot of things because they're low-quality and the topics get less interesting. 'Good Morning', 'Good Night', 'How's you're weather', single 'questions', two-line 'articles' and the likes...forget 'em! They get skipped and/or receive low ratings and aren't worth looking at by most.
No one will ever figure out the exact system, but there are ways to participate and maximize your time for better results...and more points. Just do your very best at everything and you'll attain success. Any questions?

Sheesh, Esther! I'm lucky if I post once a week!! I do love to comment on other people's posts and look at all the great shots!! From my understanding, it's the views that do the trick.

I don't post articles very often, maybe once every couple of weeks.

I will normally post between three and five new articles a day, but I will comment on at least 50 articles by other people. This has allowed me to accumulate an average 100 points a day.

Rob's the man! =~D

I would think someone would make more publishing few articles that get more comments, than publishing several that get few comments. I don't post that often myself, 2-3 times a week would be the top for me. I don't know what I would post about to put something up everyday, and I don't want to just be constantly writing any old thing; I would think that would get old really quick.

I have not figured out the system at all. I don't even find a way to know what a point is worth or at least not found a clear statement on it. Maybe someone on here would write a clear statement and post it for us since Gather does not seem to want to do so.

I read where some of you "cash out" regularly and some get some kind of "credit" for books or such. It is a mystery to me. I have nearly 1000 points and not a clue of what to do with them.

Clifford, a point is worth appx 1.6&cent:
you need 625 points to redeem for a $10 GC
making 62.5 points equal to a dollar.
So there is no mystery to what a point is worth,
the mystery lies in how many points Gather
decides to allot to any particular activity on the site.
And supposedly gather changes the allotment
to suit their whims.

Clifford, on your gather home page click on your point total to go the redemption area and lot over the gift cards you can exchange points for. You already enough points to redeem for a gift card. The redemption starts at just 625 points.

I post about one a day. I seem to get a lot of points when I read articles as well as write them.

I don't know what I'm doing.

lmbo @ Peter~ I view and comment more than I post.

i agree with those who feel lots of little posts is aggravating

lol i guess i prefer quality over quantity!

I really dont know what makes you earn points either, but, from reading the comments here, it seems like if people read your articles, then you get the points... I always read your sexy question of the day, so, that is obviously a catchy title, as it always catches my attention and I look forward to reading you... I dont know how you could have the time to post 20 or more posts  a day---- I sometimes find myself just following my friends around and reading what they post, and then I see somthing they have commented on, and then I will go there, so, pretty much, I dont post a lot, I read a lot, and I dont have many points at all...... I am trying to write a book, yet, I posted the first chapter and it didnt post right when I submitted it for sharing, you know, my paragraphs werent right, and it looked like a sixth grader wrote it, so, I am having to redo that..... I guess my answer is, I usually just comment on things that my friends post, and I really havent worried about the points at all... I say, just keep doing what you are doing, because I know I look forward to reading you every day, and if you started putting a lot of "fluffy" posts on here, I probably wouldnt read alll of them... does that make sense? anyway, I am now going to the sexy question of the day:)

I don't think it is the quantity that matters but the quality instead. I post 1 to 2 a day and as long as I manage to attract my normal viewers/commenters I make a good bit of points. Well I also go through and comment a good many people throughout the day. You get what you give.

well, i don't think mine count anymore...hahaha  it's been soooooo long... 

good luck to you sweetie...

It will goes weeks and weeks and I will not post an article.......I do keep trying to post one once in a while and some photos!

No clue, but I've been real erratic about posting or even logging in for the past several months! "real life" has taken over my Gather time! :)

I delete people who post a lot every day - the content usually isn't good and it fills up my feed!

maybe 1 a week. maybe that's why my points aren't going up. i don't keep up with them anyhow.