My Plan:

  With all of the help from you my friends, instead of reading all the new posts we write, maybe we could start with the last post the writer wrote and read them forward. With everyone's help maybe this will help all of us get a few views of our earlier works that many didn't get read. I know a lot of my beginning posts never got read, and it is probably because I didn't have any friends. Now, so many articles come out daily it is hard to read them all.

  I also would like to recognize a few of your articles that I found very impressive. If you find some back there in the lost closet please leave comments about them so we all can go read!

  The first writer I would like to mention is R J Grant's The Grand Father. I love Grant's writes and this one never got a lot of views or comments. He has so many great articles posted. I have read all of his work but not necessarily commented on them all. He has a style of the bad boy image, which I love! He writes about life lessons which are sometimes hilarious.  He also wrote a poem that was inspired by me and my son going in the Navy. I Have Not Passed This Way Before . I cried when I read it! Grant was also a military man, thank God for all of them. Go check them out and let him and me know what you think.

  The next writer I would like to give tribute to is Will Gray's Mock Masque . This post was never read. I just read it myself. Will writes with lots of emotion. He is a very caring guy and has a special talent of bringing his feelings to the reader. Go check him out!

  The last writer I would like to take notice of is Drell's Beautiful Mural . Although she is on my friends list she never seems to stop by, but I love her work! She writes with such passion. I read her posts all the time. Go see what you can find and let me know.

  There are so many great writers here and its so hard to mention them all so I will stop at three. Lets see who you can find and read them forward. Lets think of this game as kind of a scavenger hunt. Lets go find the post we feel are worthy of some views.  Lets have a blast and see who we can dig out of the cob webs of the past and Read them Forward!

When you write and put up your articles in Triond or anywhere, you put them up to be read and commented on. At this point, you better put on your bullet proof west, as the comments may be quite low. With the new identification possibilities offered in the comments section, it has become easier to distinguish writers from anonymous readers. If you are soft skinned, make a habit of only reading the writers comments and ignore the others. The others are but grey mice spooking you.

At no time should you take any comment personally as it pertains to the article and not yourself. If it is communicated in such a way, then the shame is on the commenter and not on the author. Keep this in mind. I myself have the disposition of an elephant and read them all, and have a good laugh at them at the same time. But sometimes even Triond writers seem to slip into brainlessness, and I recently found a comment added to an article that was both racist and demeaning against an island population in the Indian Ocean.

I haven’t read that persons work yet, and I won’t in the future. Snobbishness is not a prerequisite to good writing, and that writer did not recommend either himself or his writing.

After having choked up on bad comments about your writing, you really start to see the advantages of the Triond family. Lauren Axelrod did a beautiful article on that just now: What’s Your Purpose of Being Here?. You can make friends in here, and you can ask them for help or advice. And if you see an article from a friend that really hits the dumps, you may mail your comment on it privately to that person. It is not necessary to humiliate your friends in the comments section.

But the family part of Triond is not restricted to taking or giving advice. It is also about reading and being interested in other’s work. I don’t read everything my friends publish, because it might cover themes I am currently not interested in, or because I don’t want to read a poem that day. Their work is in their profiles and can be go at later just as well. But I do read a lot, and when I have more to say than I Like, for which there is a button, then I leave a comment there. For me, these comments on my articles are worth more than the cents that come in from page views.

Family means to share your friends, too. I must say, I don’t understand writers who don’t want to show their friends in their profile. I like to show my friends there and hope that somebody will go to their profile and see what wonderful works they have written, or see their beautiful photographs or listen to their music. But this is a haphazard way to give your friends a helping hand.

I was therefore overjoyed when Glynis Smy started her Triond Bandwagon. If you haven’t seen it, go there. It’s all about how to share your friends; and then go and put in your amazing writing friends in the comments section, so everybody may have a look at their work. That’s what's, for me, the essence of the Triond family, sharing your friends with all family members.

The Growing Trends

I’d like everyone to take a moment and count the amount of friends you have in your friends sections, now I would like you to count how many of those friends actually read your work.

If you have a ratio of 10:120 then I’m sure you have the same types of concerns as many of the other writers.  However, it has come to my attention that many writers are leaving due to the lack of page views that they personally say was by no fault of their own.

Did they make the most of the platform that was presented to them? And if they did, did they personally market themselves outside of the realm of possibilities?

It may be time to update your friend’s area and start making it a bit easier to keep up with your most loyal readers in the community section. The answer I use is “delete, delete, delete” for the ones that have fallen off the radar or just don’t take the time to read others pieces.

Lets Link to Each Other: The Wrong way to do it

There are so many ways to grow your content besides the use of social bookmarking. Personally, I love linking to material that is both interesting and of course pertinent to my own.

It’s always nice to hyperlink one of your articles to a previous user or an older article with the same type or related content. Remember that linking to an article that has little to do with the article you are writing is a dreadful way to get more views.

If you look at the analytics of Google, when your page is indexed by search engines and the links are basically useless, the search engines see no reason to rank or crawl your pages.

Lets Link to Each Other: The Right Way

Recently, some of my best buddies on Triond and I started linking to each other based on our content.

Anytime Chris Stonecipher has a recipe or article that pertains to my material, he links it and I do the same for him in return. As far as I have seen, I have received more views and so has he.

Rummage through the lists of articles written by your Triond friends and see if you can’t do the same.

Do you want your voice Heard?

As writers, our main purpose is to educate and entertain however; my point goes back to the present state of Triond.  Are you trying to be recognized for your writing talents or the ability to write as many top 10 lists submitted in a day?

For the past month, I have stumbled upon some really amazing talents on Triond and my opinion is that their gifts are not being appreciated as they should be.

For that purpose, I set up a Blog called Friends Revolution to showcase the amazing talents of some of the best writers on Triond that may not be getting the recognition that they deserve.

A perfect example of one of these writers is Lost in Arizona who wrote a piece on the most memorable pictures taken of all time. How does this differ from the typical top ten lists you ask?

If you actually take the time to read the content instead of skimming over the pictures and leaving simple comments like “good post” or “good read”, you would realize that the emotional word painting conveyed in this article brought me to tears.

This was my exact comment at the time and my most honest opinion:

“All of these pictures really brought tears to my eyes. I was so enthralled with the photos and text that the music playing on my computer disappeared. I think this is one of your best and should be number one on the Hot List!”

Top Ten Writers Who Haven’t been Realized, Yet!

I have come to the realization that the best writers on Triond pay homage to other great writers and this is what I am trying to do.

I have chosen some writers on the basis of what they are exactly trying to convey with their pieces and should be receive more recognition:

James DeVere  
Enzo Silvestri
Bruce A Tucker
Chris Stonecipher
Papaleng
Robert Brian Garza
John Turner
Countrymom
Marjoram1234
Virginia Morgan

If you have any further questions for me or you would like to check out Friends Revolution, a blog that showcases some really wonderful talents on Triond and the online community feel free to shoot me a line.

Regards and Blessing

Lauren

I breathe a breath of fresh air when I read comments left for my own works.  I come away encouraged, hopeful, and wanting to write more.

Here are three tips on how to use the comments feature effectively.

Use the comments section to express yourself. 

Respond naturally to what you have read.  Be free and use natural expressions.  Writers want to know how their work is affecting their readers, so tell them.  Triond user Melody Arcamo Lagrimas is an expert in leaving meaningful, heartfelt remarks.

Use the comments section to inspire the author.

Writers write to inspire readers, but readers can also re-inspire the author.  I am encouraged at how Triond users go out of their way to leave positive comments to the author.  Liane Schmidt is among the best in re-inspiring an author.

Use the comments section to provide constructive criticism.

Criticism that is constructive will make the author a better writer while making the reader a better author.  Don't be afraid to offer gentle correction, a helpful tip, or a word of instruction.  Most authors can handle it and in the long run we will all be better off if we encourage one another constructively.  Nelson Doyle is someone I have observed who proffers constructive criticism.

One bonus tip:

Use the comments section to find like-minded new friends

I love finding new friends at the bottom of stranger's articles.  I suppose that most people make new Triond friends by reading their works, but for me it is reading the comments section.  Some comments ring true to my soul.  Other times I recognize a name over and over again making observations similar to mine.  I then look up the author's works and nine times out of ten, I like their works and add that author as a friend.

Conclusion

Okay people, use the comments section effectively by expressing yourself naturally and inspiring the authors who are sharing their souls.  Give relevant advice to help improve an author's writing.  And don't forget to look for new friends along the way as you read and leave comments.

One more item before you go.  Leave me a comment on my article!  Thank you beforehand.

Did their letter make the number one best sellers list?? Probably not but was just as powerful to it's reader as any book you'll ever read. Just like the "Love letters" there have also been many "Dear John letters" and unfortunately they may also be read over and over again. They are not just words any more but something that you can hold and be able to feel great emotion every time you read it and also allows you to say your thoughts without any interruptions. When someone loses a loved one... the one thing that they will cherish forever is on paper whether it is a card or a child's drawing... it will be handled with such care and heartache. When a child has had any kind of emotional or physical abuse they ask the child to put it on paper. One of the most famous of all was called "The Diary of Anne Frank" and has been read by many. Writing not only allows us to put our thoughts and emotions on paper but actually allows the reader to pick up on our emotions. Most of us when we speak it's a signal sent from the brain and sometimes we don't give it enough thought time before we actually throw it out there and it doesn't come out quite the way we wanted it to but if we write our thoughts down then we usually speak from the heart. Almost anyone who has had to speak in public has had their speech written out and will either use notes or have it memorized.

Everyone is a writer.... so if you are writing now... Great!! Keep it up and if you're not than sit down and start writing. I'm not asking you to write a book or a presidential speech but to just put your emotions into writing. It may feel a little awkward at first but you will soon love the freedom of speech... even if you are the only one to ever read it. Now.. just to be fair.. speaking is very important and can be done quite well I might add.. and we certainly don't want to read everything someone has to say. In fact we will do much more speaking than writing most days but it's knowing when and how we feel is the best way to express our feelings and thoughts. Picking up the phone to call someone you haven't seen in a long time is great and let them hear your voice and exchange small talk... than later send them a note to let them know how much you enjoyed the conversation and as they read it they will hear your voice in your words. Trust me.. they will cherish that note and keep it close and even pick it up from time to time to just read it again. Well... I've got to let you go so you can start writing..Have fun and enjoy!!

Just recently I have received messages such as ' Read my latest work' (you know who you are), there was no, how are you and I have read your poem/article and left a comment, just a cold call. It was followed by several beautiful messages from Triond friends, they enquired after my health and family, they left comments on my work in the correct box and generally lifted my spirits. I returned to their work and selected work that caught my eye and did likewise. I got messages from new fans and we became friends.

I then started to get more 'cold calls' and was ready to hit the block button ( I may still do so).

After a few weeks of this I made a decision, anyone who cold calls gets ignored, I do not return the friendship, anyone who is a true Triond friend, those who support my work will get it, as always, returned. Those of you who know me well enough, know I am a supporter, giver and never call upon you to read my work, I leave you to find it at your leisure.

I then took it a step further, I stopped writing on Triond, I have well over 100 pieces of work here and with various other writing projects and family wedding commitments I felt there was enough for folk to view.

My findings:

a) My friends never left me

b) My friends read  my original work and still took time out for me

c) My friends are the true back bone of Triond

d) The cold calling continued

e) I still gained fans but no message or introduction either through a comment or message

f) I gained fans through messages

g) I gained fans through comments

h) I had time to view more work of new writers

I) I had time to view more work of undiscovered writers and of my friends older works

j) some writers/ fans appear to only look at the new work that appears in the new feed, old work is ignored

k) My Triond earnings were the same!!!

Yes I earned no less than before.

The result of my findings:

a) I have loyal friends

b) I dislike cold callers and will remove them from my friends list very soon, unless I see their name in my message box or comments box...

Okay, you newbies will say, but I hit the 'I like' button as I whizzed by, please answer this, how do I know?

Old friends will do this and I have no worries about that, this is because at least once or twice along the way they remember me, or they take time for a selection of friends over a period of time or they introduced themselves at the very beginning of our supportive Triond relationship. Time as we know is precious, but just think, if you make an effort then you gain a friend and remember this, that friend has friends too, they could become fans if you take time and make the effort. Don't forget my friends have been writing on here for a long time, some of their older works are interesting and deserve a viewing, don't just rely on the daily news feed for your Triond fix. Happy Scribblings!

My number one article http://www.gomestic.com/Personal-Finance/Five-Ways-to-Reduce-the-Amount-of-Electricity-We-Use-in-Our-Home.231201 has 1,700 views in 2 months so far and growing everyday. It expresses the importance of how to save energy and what to use and buy.

What I found out on triond is to keep writing articles and show all the effort I can find from myself inside. More “juicy facts” can be more enjoyable to read. My goal is to have an impact on someone else as they read my article or give chills to my viewer has they see my photos. Think of writing has a long time investment. After months of your content being on the internet, you will get views. Think about years from now. Your articles will be seen for years to come. Have hope!

  I joined this site after I had been searching online on how to get paid to write. This site was at the top of the search list, I had never heard of this place before. At first I was just checking around and book marked the site to come back to later.I looked at a few other places, but none of them popped out at me.

  I did come back here a couple days later. I found it quite interesting from the other sites I had visited. So I figured why not, not much else was going good for me. At this point in my life I was low. I was going through a really bad time with my partner and that is still ongoing, and then you have the every day stuff that all of us go through. Life I guess.

  Until recently I never wrote my thoughts down on paper. I thought who in earth would want to read them. I am just an average girl. I decided to join and see what happened, at most no one would befriend me and no one would read. That was nothing new to me, but I figured why not give it a try.

  Well since then I have learned a lot from posting here. I had met a lot of really good people who also like to write, so right off we all have something in common. I also believe that after all the comments I have received that most that read like my posts. Their comments bring joy into my mostly sad life. I feel alive and fresh and happy. A smile crosses my face as I read what people think of my writings. Ya I make a penny here and a penny there, but most importantly I feel better about me!

  This site is very therapeutic for me. I can hardly wait in the morning to open my computer and see how many views I have got and how many of my friends have read my new posts. If Ive made any new friends or have any new fans. Who stopped by for a short visit. Then Iam off to see what my friends have written. I try my best to comment on them all, or at least read them all.

  The other thing is you never know who is reading. Who is just around the next post. So much fun this site is. How much it has helped me feel good about me. Opening up to complete strangers who now I know by name. What a wonderful gift Triond has been for me.

 Acceptence is something all of us want and crave from the bottom of our souls. I found that here with all of you. I want to thank each and every one of you here for accepting me and taking me under your wing. You were and are there when I feel no one else is....Thank YOU !

By Denny Lyon

photo by benimoto at Flickr

Thank you for befriending me at Triond! 

When I first arrived at Triond just two months ago I could hear the echoes of my own footsteps when entering this site and was quite puzzled and downright disoriented at the lack of ongoing conversations here.  Eventually, I found some of you and you found and befriended me.  Your kindness and consideration have gone a long way to helping me feel more comfortable, so thank you!  Hopefully, the feedback folks will consider my suggestion of a Welcome Center for new people to interact with the older members who can bring them up to speed as to the culture, how to link their writings, what those bookmarking sites’ cultures are like and more that I still don’t know about. 

OK, I’m a bit on information overload at the moment about all these bookmarking sites but things are beginning to fall into place and gel finally.  As the fall winds approach with crisper cool days they also visit an inner reflection.  

Photo by Ahmed Rabea of Bahrain at flickr

To those of you who are wondering, here is a bit of introduction about me.  Dad was from old family WASP Kentucky and Mom was from proper Spanish family New York City.  I grew up internationally from two conflicting regions of the country as well as Protestant Baptist and Catholic, who are battling denominations inside Christianity, to reconcile, OK, synthesize.  Call me a living paradox.

American Southerners have this thing about being polite and kind even to strangers which is why I’m writing this thank you in the first place.  Honest gratitude and good manners have served me well when traveling or living overseas and people often think I’m a local, quite surprised to find out I’m an American.  To me that is the ultimate compliment.  Even actor Sydney Poitier, the first African-American to make it big in Hollywood, attributed his success to his mother’s teachings about courtesy.  Now that’s “people skills” in today’s jargon!  As everyone knows from their life story, there is always more to tell.

Kentucky horse race - Photo by Velo Steve at flickr

I thought long and hard about making this a public write rather than only sending it in private email to my friends list - as that was the original intent.  Soon, I realized maybe people even newer and more perplexed than me might actually benefit from this write.

To me, it is additionally important to say thank you to those beyond my friends list who have supported me.  Many of you took time out of your day and away from your own writing to place comments on some of my writes as well as send me private email that was so appreciated.  (Truly, you have no idea!) Feedback from fellow writers of any stripe is so important if we want to grow! 

As I was clued in by my friends list, I now regularly go see what my newsfeed has of your writings, sometimes digging deeper into older writes (because I often prefer your reads to what is on the Hot Content List anyway), and make sure I return your courtesy commenting.  OK, out of curiosity I would have done it anyway.  Yet, because I was informed this is part of the culture, I diligently make sure I’ve commented on all my friends’ writes every week with the personal goal of at least four writes per person.  Haven’t figured out yet if that’s too much or too little but time will tell.  You know me I’m always up for suggestions, so suggest away if you have a better method! 

I have finally figured out how to give reviews on StumbleUpon which in that culture is supposed to be very important.  One of the people on my friends list actually put up my latest poem on StumbleUpon before I had a chance to link it on a Sunday and doggone if it didn’t get 200 hits in one day, my personal record for a poem.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact he was a day ahead of my time zone in America and it was Monday for him in the Philippines. 

It sure shocked me when I logged on later that day and saw so many views for just a poem!  Thank you, honey child, you are a love and it is much appreciated as you know who you are!  First I stopped to go to StumbleUpon and write some reviews for him now that I finally learned how. Then, I took his example of promoting someone else’s work and did the same for a friend on my list in the off chance he had not linked what should be an award-winning fabulous poem.  I was surprised to find he had not linked it to StumbleUpon, so, of course, I went ahead and did it in his stead.  I was so glad I could “pay if forward” as the saying goes.  From the Idea Woman:  Maybe we all ought to consider taking one write of everyone on our friends list every month and help them promote it?  That kind of cooperation could turn Triond into one hot prospect on the market.

Again, my friend from the Philippines clued me in when an article of mine made it to the Hot Content List that I never look at because I never expected to get on it anyway.  I thought for sure he had emailed the wrong person by mistake!  He must have thought I was a real loony tune for not believing him as his email blindsided me.  I went to go look at the Hot Content List and doggone if that article didn’t hit #9 and then later another one got to #11 and then the recent poem he bookmarked for me hit the top three on the poetry page on Authspot.  I had not paid attention to that list or the poetry front page and wouldn’t have unless he had taken the time to inform me.  Who expects poetry to do well?  The Hot Content List is still a mystery to me as I’ve had writes with far more views than what got on the list, so who knows how they compute it.  Anyone know the formula?

Originally, I came to Triond just to park some poems.  When I was leaving another site, I got a whole lot of static for leaving which was surprise number one.  Who ever notices who leaves and who stays on a large site?  Surprise number two was to find out I had a silent loyal following and many of them were quite angry with me.  When I inquired as to why they were upset they told me it was because they often started their day, every day for many of them, by going to my profile page and reading their favorite poems again and again as they found peace in them.  Who knew?  It floored me.

Since I wanted not to offend them further (it’s that Southern culture thing again) I found Triond as a place for them to go read the poems whenever they feel like.  No wonder Triond’s editors thought I was a bit odd when I first arrived as the first things I put up here were only poems back in August.  They usually tell people that the way to increase their portfolio is to write poems as filler.  They were probably asking themselves, “Why is this girl putting up filler as her only writes?”  I look at poetry as condensed thought in a small space and therefore the entrée not the appetizer or worse, fluff and filler.  Color me into the weird corner, I guess.  I’ll just about lay odds that I have a lot of company silently agreeing and nodding their heads, voting for the agreement on poetry as entrée - or maybe that I’m weird for placing poetry in such high esteem.  Boy! that sure was a tricky sentence…

Bluefin Bay, Lake Superior, Minnesota - Photo by clairity at flickr

I thought I’d introduce you to two of my fellow poets I asked to join me at Triond

Since there is no Welcome Center here yet and it is difficult for folks to easily know who is here beyond a popular list on the front page - or doing an exhausting search through the database not knowing if they are friendlies or hostiles - I thought I’d take the time to introduce you to two of my fellow poets I got to know well at another site:  Kevin R. Carr and C. J. Beige.  These guys are damn good!  I know you will enjoy their writes. 

Kevin, who is from the Midwest region, Minnesota, land of well over 10,000 lakes, writes a lot of wonderful nature descriptions that are intensely beautiful and written with a most thoughtful and careful precision.  C. J., Casper is his handle as the guy is a trucker who composes in his head as he’s driving, writes the best love poetry to his wife, lucky her!  How many women would not love to be immortalized like that?!  I’ve certainly learned a lot from interacting with both of them and value their friendship! 

Please take a few minutes out of your day to discover and help encourage two terrific guys who are wonderful poets.  They are both starting to branch out into short stories as well.  I’m a big fan of theirs and hope you will come to be as well!

Thanks for your visit and happy writing!