Step 1: Find Something that You Love to Do

Exactly!  I love to garden and take photos, as do many on Gather and have found quite a readership.  It's the content that counts....not the points....but in the end, points come flowing in.

Thanks Elizabeth!  This is a terrific example.  Gardening tips and tricks (and photos of your successes) are a great way to earn points on Gather.

Good post, Tom! I love to go to the flea market and started posting my "finds" every Sunday after I got home.......I now have quite a few members who wait for my weekly Sunday post to see what "treasures" I got!  I have discovered there are quite a few people who enjoy flea markets also.

I follow Sandra Religiuosly!

I'm always looking for your posts on Sunday. :)

You are right Sandra, I look forward to your Sunday post.

Great example as well, Sandra!  Do you give advice on how to sort out the good from the bad?  I find it fascinating to watch how people evaluate goods at flea markets.

Sorry Tom, can't give away my trade secrets! LOL It's taken me over 35 years of going to flea markets to finally learn what's good and what's not.  Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don't! 

 I love to read. I also like to post short stories of humor. if just one person laughs, then my day is made, Tom. just in case it might offend, if I think there might be a light curse word or body part mentioned, I flag it, which takes some readership away. Then today, I noticed a few articles, some really good, some mundane, but because of tags, view hits were as high as 470, with as few as 10 actual comments...WOW!! Tagging seems Important, yes?

Ugh, I vary rarely tag, but I guess I should probably start doing that more.

Great question, Penni, thanks.  Tags are important for several reasons.  First, members use tags to find content that is interesting to them.  You can go to gather.com/ANYWORD to find things written on that topic.  For example, gather.com/iran will show you all content tagged "Iran."   Gather.com/puppies will show you all content tagged "Puppies."

Tags also help search engines (both the one we use here on Gather and web search engines like Google or Bing) to index your content.  Tagging carefully (using 5-10 key phrases) helps your content be found more frequently.  Tag-spamming (using tons of unrelated words) actually decreases how often people find your content as most search engines filter out any content with lots of unrelated tags.

Tags are important especially for search engines on the web.  I noticed when I wrote stories about Victorian architecture, Dorchester neighborhoods, Walter Baker's Chocolate Co., and places in Maine I received many "outside" readers who signed up to Gather just for the sole purpose of leaving a comment or inviting me to "visit" and write a photo/essay about their town, their house, etc.

I like technology in general.  I like the look of the current small netbooks, but my current Toshiba Satelite U305-S2808 is still good enough, and arguably more capable than any of the netbooks currently out there.

Technology is a great thing to write about Marty.  General technology blogs and specific ones (related to Apple/Google/other innovators) have proven very popular.

I think the RIGHT tags are important also, Tom, as you metioned in the upper comment. Doing a bit of looking around, I was Amazed to see some who had perhaps 10/15 comments and almost 500, but also noticed  some used many tags on the mucho views, some of which had Nothing to do with the article!! wow!

This is so true, Tom!  For whatever interest a person has, there are many other who have the same interest.

Great post Tom. I love to garden & cook and of course posting my Silly Lil Games. I never seem to find it hard to think of something to say or do on Gather. On my way to join now. Thanks

Thanks Janet!  One of the important things that you do really well is provide consistency in your work.  People that follow you know what topics/experiences to expect (and on what schedule they might find it).  If they find and like an experience, they will want to come back for more.  Having consistency helps make those visitors happy.

A good idea.

We've tried that, then you tell us its no good to have friends and socialize and visit our content ..... that 'outsiders' are more welcome to view. Just trying to learn and understand the new game plan here.

I don't think Tom has said it's not good to socialize, merely that they will try to reward more points for original content creation.

You make friends here. You "socialize" with them and they comment on your content. Although content is original, friends have less incentive to socialize with you because of fewer rewards.

THE FOLLOWING IS A CUT & PASTE FROM GATHER:

Gather is social networking grown up -- the site where you can keep up with the people, conversations, and moments that matter. Share what you want with who you want, explore new interests, and have smart discussions about the world around you. What matters to you?

__________________________

Share what you want with who you want?? Getting 500 views from Google searches would be nice, but there is no socializing involved there. Increasing Gather traffic means they can charge more for advertising. This is my original content and opinion.

R B does raise a valid point.

How members earn rewards in the community is now in some ways in direct conflict with how Gather markets itself.

I feel penalized for having original content, moderating a group AND taking the time to view and/or comment on content that comes thru by feed.   My views and comments are down since this change because  it it is turning into a "me" site, not a social site. 

Just my two cents.

I have to agree with you. My views and comments are way down since the last upgrade. And now they are really bad. I fell in love with photography because of gather. Then because of groups here like PhotoArt I started with editing. I loved that people commented and encouraged me to continue and get better at it. But, if I am posting here just for myself I might as well just keep it on my computer and not try and slow post it to gather. BTW, Tom I commented on your other post and have not seen an answer from you for my comment. If you have time on Monday to go back and answer the members comments from where you left off we would appreciate it. Thanks and I hope things get better here again soon.

Gather is no longer the fun place that it was.  I used to enjoy viewing and commenting because it was a way to keep up with the lives of my connections.  I am feeling guilt because I have been trying to research ways to increase my readership which means my time to visit friends posts is limited.  I am no longer viewing poetry, with the exception of one of two people, or original stories and have to skip many photos that I know I would have enjoyed.  I am trying to plan posts revolving around creative content that will appeal to a wider audience.  I am most happy writing about my family and our experiences but I can't market that to a wider audience.  It is not of interest to anyone but the people who have gotten to know me.  I suffer from Depression and Gather was my place to escape to.  If I post an article and get only a few views this will effect my moods.

R B - I haven't done a good job explaining this to the community, so I am glad you raise the question here. Thanks.

We found that most people come to Gather to make friends that share their interests.  This was an important finding for us for a few reasons. First, it helped us realize that the experiences on Gather attract people to the site.  Today's "new visitors" are tomorrow's members.

Second, we learned that members tend to want to connect and stay in touch with other people that share common interests.  That meant that content and conversation (experiences, generally) were the real "glue" that brings and keeps people together.  They provide an excuse for us to socialize together and often something interesting or fun to do together.  So these experiences are key to keeping members engaged.

When we discovered this, we realized that the experience side of the equation is what grows and engages our community.  We wanted to encourage people to create increasingly diverse and interesting experiences for one another.  And that's what drove our decision making around points.

I like eating good foods.  I also like sharing progress of my own personal struggle with weight.

Part of the problem though Marty is that your personal weight loss journey is really only of interest to your family & friends (and connections you have on Gather).

Therefore, some content relating to this subject will not have a broad appeal outside of your personal network. The same is true for members that like to write about their family or share their creative writing, among other topics.

 that last sentence is a Downer, kevin... wah!!!

Kevin, Irespect that you may not have a compelling interest in following the details of some of my personal weight loss story.  Part of the beauty of Gather is that not all content needs to appeal to everybody.  Can you imagine any particular content that would be universally appealable?  Even your "tips and tricks for maximizing the Gather experience" has limited appeal.  Some people are not interested in Global Events that could affect international relations (think Iran, North Korea).  Some people aren't interested in photos of Disney World (EPCOT).

At the same time, seeing other people's progress can be encouraging.  Some people are also trying to loose weight.  Some people are thinking about lap-band surgery.  If I can share my own experiences, some may find value in reading the content.

Marty,

I intended no offense in my words above, and my view of your content was general/objective in nature. Your personal progress is very important to you and it can serve as a great support tool for others. My content on the other hand is a very poor example as it, admittedly, caters to an extremely narrow band of readers.

The point I was attempting to make is that the majority of your regular readers will come from people that have a personal connection to you in some way.

Kevin, I'd contend that each of us has groups of regular readers.  I applaud your Yeoman's job of serving as a Gather guide.  I know that my niche is smaller than many, but all voices are important.

Not many of those successful weight loss companies or those writing books or selling pills, are personally connected to anyone eager to find something that works for them regarding weight loss. Even the ridiculous "fat a$$es" TV show was a hit.

Hey, Marty, have you joined my group Better Health Blog?  I'm looking for people to get together on that group and share their personal daily victories in the effort to lose weight or become healthier in any way. I would love to have you join us there. 

Marty- I think this is actually a great topic.  I use new iPhone software called "Lose It" to make myself more aware of the food choices I make every day. I had no idea what I was consuming until I started to track it.  Your personal experience may broadly appeal to others working toward better weight management.

Very true Tom.

When attempting to acquire and grow a large audience of readers/visitors, there are 3 primary types of content providers that can be successful online. Visitors are drawn to you because of:

1. Who you are. People read what you write because of your celebrity. You don't have to be good, just be someone recognizable. This doesn't really fit anyone on Gather currently though.
2. How you write. You have such an entertaining or captivating writing style that even writing about opening a jar of pickles reads like a masterpiece. You can write on anything and people will flock to you. There are only a few writers on Gather that fit this category however.
3. What you write on. You are an expert on a particular subject, or focus your writing on a specific range of topics...especially a niche that others don't fill. Your focus and expertise will draw readers. You don't have to be a great writer, just keep your writing scope narrow.

Unfortunately, this strategy also excludes a huge segment of the Gather community.

this whole idea of points or profit shering has long been an issue with Gather. as i mentioned in a previos comment the corprat side of Gather has been dihonist with the community. all the changes are marketing decisions. its disingenuous to continue to  claim otherwise. its not difficult to see way Gather has been in the tank. you would do better to tell the truth and ask the community to help as opposed to running flim-flam on us. the key word is {community} i and others already volunteer in an unorganized fashion just as a general practice. putting Gather on solid financial ground would not be so difficult.

this is the problem bounce rates. its not just here all the sites are facing the same  trouble. the answer to everyone of these tactics is (R&D in the community)

Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits

1. Do not use Traffic Exchange Networks that encourage visitors to stay for 3 seconds just to drop a card or click a link.
2. Encourage more comments by responding as often as possible to existing comments.  Readers will see that their comment is meaningful to the author.
3. Use a plugin to encourage first time visitors to subscribe to my RSS feed.   I’m using the included module with Headspace.
4. Targeting my keywords more carefully.  Use the same keywords that I use for tags.
5. Put more effort into writing each post.  Try not to turn visitors away with spelling mistakes and bad punctuation.  Break up monotonous blocks of text.
6. Be opinionated and let readers know how I feel.  Agree or disagree, people will be more likely to respond if you can invoke an emotional response.
7. Making careful use of the <!–more–> tag.  Let the reader get all the way to the good stuff, then hit them with the tag.  This only works on those who have bookmarked my front page.

Hi Kevin- No doubt celebrity or extradordinary writing help.  But remember, thousands of specialty magazines were created in the last decade by people that were unknown brands before creating them.  They were typically formed by people who loved something (skiing, fishing, country homes) and started to publish about it.  Then large publishers got into the game.

The same opportunity exists here, we believe.  By following that model, people can build sufficiently large audiences to do well with points on Gather.  Where magazines or large blogs need audiences of a million or more to sell advertising, one of the keys to our points system is that members can earn points with audiences of just a few hundred people.  We will scale our system as Gather grows, ensuring our most successful members continue to earn increasing amounts as their readership grows.

Thanks for the response Tom. However, I believe that you may have misinterpreted my comment above. I did not state that content providers need to achieve all three critical success factors listed above...but instead they must possess at least one.

A specialty magazine, as in your example, would obviously qualify under item #3.

"I just shoot, let the bullet decide".

Robert Heinlein, PAST THROUGH TOMORROW

Great quote, Doc!  And Heinlein was one of my favorite authors growing up...

Tom , thanks for each tip and chat you have to help us enjoy our gather experience better. I love to talk and my other half loves to talk non stop. So we started a little hometown cafe on gather, kinda like cheers, where everyone comes in talking to each other and telling about their day, kids, grandkids vacations and most everything just like a smalltown cafe. I have a really great time publishing this almost daily.

I do post other things or experiences in my real life. I have made a lot of friends on gather  and some real friends that intend to meet someday. I love Gather, You should come and visit one day . I may even show you the washroom that gather and I built.

"The Washroom That Gather Built"

Sounds like a title from a novel ;)

I am chilling out and taking Toms suggestion. I started a Reality Tv whats your fix group and I have 18 members! Not bad for a few days. I am on Twitter also and update twitter with my sites url in my tweet!

I try to inspire people with my Just A Thought.

I love your Jast A Thought Elaine, I look forward to your words of inspiration every day and the cute little graphics are a real joy to see.

I thought the new point system wasn't giving any points for viewing.  This is getting confusing.

Dorothy, there are not points rewarded per say for viewing but if the content is not of value meaning no views that means no points for your invaluable content.  But how that  value is decided is a mystery to me too. So if you post 100 pieces of content that is 1 or two sentence 'original' posts and you only had them viewed 1 time or not at all then it has no value and you get no points for that content, but if you post content that is viewed lots of time that adds value to gather.

At least that is my take on it.

Great suggestions for where to start, Tom.  I tend to share what I like anyway, I think most of us do.  It surprised me when I noticed the views on some little article I wrote to share a videogame a few months before was into numbers that had to be from search engine traffic.  I'd stumbled into an excellent niche for me.

I have to disagree with the idea in the comments that someone has to be some sort of elite to do well writing online.  Many people respond to others just like them and to similar experiences more these days than so-called experts.  Everyone's passionate about something, and while that might not get the same attention as Ms. Spears latest escapade, it's still worthwhile and, if written & promoted well, can still be a valuable topic for that person..

I'd love to know the keywords people are using that find my content, any chance Gather will eventually give us a stats page letting us know what terms are bringing people to our articles?  And perhaps where that traffic comes from as far as what search engines, whether people are coming back directly through bookmarks, or coming in through referring links?

I have 4 groups on Gather each one a little different.  One is for coupons from the newspaper, as I enjoy seeing how low I can get my grocery bill no internet printed, another is for ways to save money including coupon use, reuse a product, cooking and more, another is for stress, as a Type A Personality I have trouble reducing stress and my television group, which I need to post more articles now.  Actually, I should post more to each of them.

My favorite things to share in Gather are food and cooking, gardening and herbs and photography...........

Thanks for the prodding, Tom

And you do a great job, Sonia.  I love going to your articles.

Thank you, Bob!  I'm amazed you found my comment among all the others!

I love reading your articles and your photos are great!

Have done this since I've been here... Geocaching.

I have an accordion group. It plainly states that only content that includes accordions in the topic are accepted but I get submissions for everything but! DENIED!

Plus there are not many accordion lovers here.

I can only do what I can do, if I don't get the points I need to then I will try to find another group that works better.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I share what I enjoy, and of course viewership/readership/comments are way down right now.

I enjoy photography, flowers, travel, geocaching, reading....

I enjoy writing and writing on gather these past two years have really honed my skills. Having an audiance with feedback has been wonderful. I have written more poetry in the past few years than I had written in the decades before.

I had never written much in the way of articles until I came here. I enjoy uplifting others and I enjoy gather so much.  I miss being able to work and being on gather for part of my day, gives me some of the much needed feeling that I make a positive impact on someone.

There is certainly many things to read here and many things to learn. One person posted a link to a good way make potatoes for potato salad and I could see before my own eyes how it does work. I thought that was a fantastic thing to share. It makes peeling the potatoes so much easier.

The other fantastic thing is that if you need an answer or some help understanding something, many people have good hearts and will take the time to help you. So many good people with good hearts are on gather and it makes it such a wonderful place to be.

Tom, it makes sense to write about what you love and develop a readership that way, most of us do that already. One look at the page views can show you surprising results - a good gauge as to which topics do well on the web.

I read with interest what you said about the gatherite who found her niche in crocheting. An unlikely success story at first glance, but I think this could be doable for many of us, if we have the interest and incentive to pursue this on another level of promotion and links.

I like the idea of gather moving away from a click and read, too much cut and paste social site to another level. It may all be due to business decisions, but I somehow get the feeling that perhaps this new gather is closer to your original vision of what gather can be.

My hope is it will all work out for gather as intended, that my friends stay on - those who put together beautiful photo essays and write interesting posts on who cares what subject, I have a broad range of interests. 

I'll be writing more about travel in Florida, nature parks, botanical gardens and I'll continue to share an occasional recipe and my garden. My friends look forward to my nature, events and garden photo essays.

BTW it's gather and the wonderful photographers here which have been responsible for greatly improving my photo skills.

So I really hope all the wonderful photo groups will survive this change and blossom and grow. Like Kat said above, she feels penalized for having a group and spending time commenting on the photos submitted.

Many group owners put in a lot of extra work, photo or writing challenges are posted and they keep it interesting and alive. It drew me in and it will others who have never heard of gather.

So perhaps along the way you could consider doing something for successful groups and their hardworking, dedicated owners.

Sorry, I got off topic, Tom, but aren't you interested in knowing about our gather experience?:)

Rose, loved your comment to Tom.  Like you, I feel "that perhaps this new gather is closer to your original vision of what gather can be".  Again like you, I have a broad range of interests, from gardening to teaching, photography to travel.  I have learned so much from various Gather friends, poetry, writing, how to frame a picture, and methods of getting rid of slugs in the garden.

And yes, I do look forward to your posts and I don't look at your images to gain points but to learn technique.  We have some fabulous teachers here on Gather and guess what...we don't pay for tuition, board or room, or books.  Besides, we get to meet some really fine folks.

Now that everyone is announcing their medical problems on this thread, and I do have years of medical record experience, I have a brilliant idea for Tom's new "find your thing" program. My 'thing' will be Director of Gather's Medical Record Department. As a sideline, I will fake diagnose people and remove diagnoses that I don't like.

Other likely possibilities for me are: (since Em Jay took the accordion group) director of sh*t stirring group, a character development group, and a Gather Media Matters group.

I have a job, Tom. To be honest, if I'm going to have to work as hard at my job to earn my a small gift card every month, it's not going to be worth it. I also think by removing the points for commenting and viewing, you're really shifting the focus from community to individual.

BTW, I love my Mac, too. And i wish Steve all the best with his new liver.

I guess this change in Gather, which I like by the way, will really shake out who is interested in what and writers will find out who their true friends are. I started my book group not for the points, but to get all those reviews coming directly to me, so I don't miss reading about great new books.

Don't get me wrong. I love the points, and I see value in genuine interactions within an article (like what you have going on with this topic, which I realize is skewed because of your position).

It's nice to have friends follow your posts and comment on your material. I think people have to trust if they share their passions and find like-minded individuals on Gather, eventually they will build a community around their interests, which is what this place is all about...right?

Well, I always write about only things I know, things going on in my life, and my family, I often wonder why anyone reads it, but then discover other's have the same problems and joys too, and read what I write, I don't know how to change what I do, so points or not, I will just be me.  this was interesting to read, thanks Tom

well I stooped far low down to posting a potatoe and asked what they thought it looked like..alot of responses however.....that is low for me....

Right now, I am having a blast writing and posting about my little bluebird babies. When they fly away, I am sure I will find something else. :)

Thanks, everyone, for giving this first "Earn More Points" post a read.  The second installment in the series is now live if you are interested.

thanks, I am printing this one out now to read and refer to later.

thanks for posting this

I look forward to reading more of these "steps".  My problem is I have an interest in a lot of topics and I like taking pics of a lot of things....so, I will have to just see how I can narrow this down.

I like to read and spread God's word. That is not a subject that makes people come running. I do have some faithful friend that likes to join me, with comments, and their own beliefs, which is great. I would like more but that is their right to believe or not to believe. It is not a subject that makes gather spot light. May God bless all that reads this.

Yes, many people have found specific niches here.

Thank you Tom

Thank you very much for sharing these ideas