Write About Your Favorite TV Shows and Earn Gather Points™!

This is a great tip, MaryAnne, thanks! I have been chatting about the MadMen season premier last night with several friends and would love to discuss it here on Gather.

Tom,
I did not reconize you with your new icon!

I keep hearing about MadMen but haven't watched it yet. You just might get me hooked on it, Tom.

Just started watching Madmen ... and I'm hooked! As a child of the 1950's, I can say that it's historically accurate (costume design and props) and that's one of the things I love about it!

... thanks for this info ... have put it to practice & YES it does help!

Thanks for the info MaryAnne! There should be a lot of TV chatter with all the upcoming season premiers.

My thought exactly, JK.

jeez I now find I've been doing it 'WRONG' for years!!!

;)

If you give these tips a try Doc, let me know how it goes for you.

MaryAnne,

The following statement is inaccurate and misleading:

"To be picked up by the Google Search Engine you must publish to Gather’s News Essential (http://news.gather.com) and appear on the group’s homepage."

This implies that member content will only be indexed under this circumstance, which is not true. Member content can be picked up by Google (and other search engines) whether it is published to the News Essential or not. It can be indexed faster this way, but there are other methods available to members which provide equal advantage.

I also have a question pertaining to a portion of the statement referenced in my comment above. Specifically, "...and appear on the group’s homepage."

Is this true for all groups, or only the News Essential?

If this statement is correct, then members using some of the tags listed would have a very narrow opportunity for being indexed in the News Essential group as AP content regularly flushes out member submitted posts from most of the group's home page modules (which is one of the major complaints following the redesign).

Anything on Gather can be picked up by search engines - whether it's on a group's homepage or not. These tips are ways to get your content quickly picked up while a topic is trending in search engines.

The News Essential is a unique group. If you want your content to hit the homepage of news.gather.com you need to include one of the following tags: Top Stories, Commentary, Entertainment, International, National, Sports.

Pick one or two of the tags that are appropriate for your content and you'll be all set.

Gather is an approved Google News source. To be picked up by Google News quickly (news.gather.com is spidered every couple of minutes by Google) you need to add in on of the home page tags - Top Stories, Commentary, Entertainment, International, National, Sports.

The need to add these tags in order to show up on the news.gather.com homepage went into effect with the last upgrade. This was announced in the upgrade post.

Thank you for responding MaryAnne.

Therefore, content that appears on the News Essential home page is picked up faster than group content that doesn't? ...even if the content uses one of the defined tags?

What I am trying to understand from my comment above is whether it is the TAG that is important, or the appearance of the content on the home page. For example, a post tagged "Top Stories", can appear on the News Essential home page for only a brief time (or not at all) due to the quantity of associated AP content published at the time. Thus, this post may miss the indexing cycle. In this circumstance, would it make any difference? - Thanks!

I also have another question pertaining to moderation for the News Essential. What is the average approval time members can expect when submitting content to the group?

Also, in my opinion, there would be very few articles relating to television episodes that would be appropriate under the "Top Stories", "National" or "International" news categories...especially as there are other tags/options available which would obviously be more fitting for this type of content. When scanning top stories, national or international news on any site I wouldn't expect, or want, to see an editorial about how funny (or not) last night's Conan O'Brien show was.

boy, are you in the dark or what?

Every blog out there that writes news, National or International also publishes the most popular topics, like TV, MUSIC, GOSSIP, and even comedy!

Go to the Huffington Post for just one good example of how it's being done.

I'm not in the dark at all. While the Huffington Post employs one method for displaying news-related content and other information, this is not how the Gather News Essential is currently formatted. Thus, comparing the two would not be accurate.

I also doubt that even the Huffington Post would categorize an article like "Hey guys...did you see the cute ferret on The Tonight Show?" as a "Top Story" or under "National" news...which was the point of my comment.

Gotta wait till the fall season starts again for me to be able to write about my shows like I used to. I don't watch anything in the summer.

I never watch tv, other than Legend of the Seeker, which is on hiatus right now.

I watched that last nite...Loved it

Great idea! I wish I had more time for TV and for Gather!

I don't suppose anyone is following "Antiques Roadshow" as it is my favorite TV program.

This would be a great show to write about! It has a solid following and although it may not make the top 100 list on any given day, it likely is searched on a regular basis. And if its something you really enjoy, others will as well.

We love watching Antiques Roadshow!!

Okay, am I stupid or what? I tried this: "To get the keywords another way go to Google and type in the name of the show. You’ll see some phrase search options appear under where you’re typing – any of those could be keywords to use so pick the one that applies best." and I didn't see any words under where I typed in the name of the show. What am I missing?

underneath the address bar on google after you search...
I typed in True Blood... this is what came up:

Related searches: true blood season 3 true blood episode 9

At the bottom of the page there are more search terms, on google the key words are in bold.

Searches related to: True Blood true blood season 3 true blood episode 9 true blood season 2 episode 10 preview true blood season 2 episode 10
watch true blood true blood review true blood spoilers true blood episodes

Okay, I think I figured it out. I was hitting return too fast.

Great tips! I wish I watched something on the list but I'm waiting for my shows to come back this Fall. I can't wait. It's going to be great. I'm already excited just thinking about how soon it will be.

Ok, now I sound like a freak. I'll stop.

Hahaha. You sound psyched. Hope you have fun and good luck with the tips, Aubrey.

I do a meaningless podcast on this subject with two or three other people. I don't even listen to it.

The only show on that list I watch is Army Wives and that's only when I go to bed early. I rarely watch TV, but do when I want to go to sleep...puts me to sleep! One thing on TV I rarely miss - NASCAR Sprint Cup races!

nascar is big news, ruth. lots of race junkies out there looking for stuff to read. :)

True, but from me it would have to be poetry...I'm a poet at heart & even tho' I occasionally try my hand at other writing, I speak best in poetic form. So maybe I'll write 'Mr. 99' a wee rhyme with a bit o' sunshine! :-)

Nascar is huge, Ruth! You could become the first poet-nascar-blogger-gather-member. Maybe that should be your new tag line? :-)

Gee, I didn't see "Forensic Files" on the list.....LOL! That's got to be one of the most fascinating/best t.v. shows around!!!! TRU TV rules!!!!!

That would be my problem with this too Nora. I don't watch ANY of the shows listed, lol. I'm always tuned into TRU TV, ID TV or some reruns on USA and TNT.
I'll just stick with my recipes as soon as I start cooking big time again, lol. It's what I know.

Thanks for the tips Maryanne & Kevin too

This all sounds rather confusing to me.

I never watch any of these shows-my fave is SCRUBS!

I'm beginning to think this group should change its name to "Point Whore With Our Blessings." Really, it's not difficult to share your opinion of a tv show. I'm out of here.

I have seen a few of these shows, but the only one I watc currently is AGT.

I could definitely write about my favorite TV shows, but none of those listed are ones I watch, unless I have nothing better to do. :(

I might just do this. However, I write so much on another site that's strictly about TV that I often don't have the energy to write no articles for any other site.

I only watch one show, and its not mainstream. I might try posting about Eureka soon, but I'd probably earn more points posting about my dog again.

I love Eureka and Wharehouse 13.

I might just write at least one this week as I got to attend this seasons premir of Dinner Impossible and that show was just on last week.
But I too can not find keywords all that came up when I did it was several Dinner impossible articles and a graph. It is popular but I do not findany key words any where.

I'm glad that Psych is one of the top shows being discussed. I just saw that the new season started and I'm very excited. Thanks for the tips. Maybe I should start writing some articles about my favorite shows since I enjoy discussing them so much.

really your tips will help me a lot

... all gets pretty passe' when it takes over 46 comments to try & understand ...

... but now i see the light!

Thanks for the tips, Mary Anne! I love Royal Pains and Burn Notice!
..and on occasion the real housewives of Atlanta:)

Royal Pains and Burn Notice are fun. I also like In Plain Sight and the Closer.

I will have to wait until Lost comes back on. Or take the time to learn the names of the Law and Order characters. Good tip !

i think smallville is really popular and everyone loves it

The list of popular shows updates all the time. You can check Google.com/trends on a regular basis to see what's popular that day. It will be fun to see what makes the top list with the new fall shows.

My favorite tv show is the legend of the seeker because it has action plus it keeps you hanging on your toes to see the next eposide.

You should try writing about that one. Follow the tips from the post above and see if you get a good amount of views and comments.

My favorite tv show is the Housewives of Atlanta and CSI- Las Vegas.

Cool to know! Thanks

I realize that content accruing a large number of comments can make it difficult to locate and respond to every question. Thus, I'll repost my questions from above:

1. What is the average approval time members can expect when submitting content to the moderated News Essential group?
    
   
2. In this post you have emphasized the need for content to appear on the home page of the News Essential group in order to be indexed by Google. However, due to the quantity of other content being published to the group (mostly AP), it is possible that member submissions may bypass some tag modules on the group home page and thus potentially also avoid being indexed.
   
   Hence my question: If my content is properly tagged, but did not appear on the home page for the News Essential group, does this reduce the reach of my content?

Thank You.

Kevin, thanks for reposting your questions. I'm going to try to clarify why we recommend publishing content to the Essentials, and the News Essential to increase reach first, then I'll address your 1st question in the following comment. I think it will make more sense that way.


Items do not have to be in the News Essentials group to be indexed by Google.

Items have to be shared to the News Essentials group to be picked up on Google News.

Google News will pick up all items in the News Essential group, but posts it finds on the News group homepage will get a higher rank because that page has a higher page rank than say the News Essential Posts page.

All of the Essential groups have the same page rank, so the regular Google search engine would treat anything on any of the Essential home pages the same. In general, content has more reach if it is published to one of the Essential groups.

To answer your 2nd question, content submitted to any of the Essential groups are indexed by Google but the reach would be increased for Google News if they are on the News Essential homepage at the time the page is indexed. Content that appears on any of the Essential homepages has more reach than content published to other groups because the homepages of the Essentials have higher page ranks than the home pages of other groups or the Posts pages of groups. So to maximize your content’s reach, it’s a good idea to submit content to the News Essential with the appropriate news tag AND to submit the content to another appropriate Essential.

Approval time for content submitted to the News Essential varies depending on the time of day and the day of the week. For instance, M-F business hours we moderate content all throughout the day. Evenings and weekends we moderate content less often. However, if there are more pieces of content in the moderation queue than could fit on the homepage, the content is accepted in smaller batches to give as much opportunity as possible for homepage placement. There is rarely more content in the moderation queue than would fit on the homepage.

I hope this helps. Let me know if there are further questions.

MaryAnne,

Thank you for the detailed response! - I had assumed that you were referring to page rank when mentioning the advantages of the home page, but the use of imperatives above inferred that there might be yet another factor involved...which led to my question. Hopefully you will continue to monitor and improve the moderation process for the Essentials groups, as some members have experienced an approval delay of several hours during the work day. In the time-sensitive arena of SEO, delays can have a dramatic impact on viewership if content appears on the downside of a search peak.

Thanks again for the info.

Hey thaks for the advice! i am new to gather and am a bit confused? I posted an article about R&D in India (check it out), The article is long and I worked hard on it. I didnt earn a gather point though. Are my points updated instantly? or updated later on?

Also how much do i have to do to earn a point?

thanks for the help everyone