8 Million Pageviews ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog

Ten years ago, my children told me to start a blog. "What's a blog?" I asked innocently. They exchanged one of those looks that makes a parent think, "Just wait until they're my age and they have smart-aleck kids." A decade later, I am still asking the existential question, "What is a blog?"

I didn't know why I needed to start a blog a decade ago. After all, I had a purpose in life, one which did not involve splattering myself across the Internet. (My children also advised me to start a Facebook page and get on Twitter - neither of which they did themselves.) (Hmm...maybe they are smarter than I thought.) At the time, I didn't really know what a blog would be good for. 

I rapidly found out.

A blog is whatever you make of it, because, after all, a blog is writing. In some cases, it's a way to organize your thoughts. Some people like to organize other people's thoughts as well. (Avoid "thought leaders." They think too much of themselves.) Others need a way to keep track of where they are going, or what they are eating, or what their cats are doing. (Inexplicably, people on Facebook want to know where other people are going, or what they are eating, or what their cats are doing. If you are a writer, you can make all those things interesting, although that will be a worthless endeavor on Facebook. Just post photos.) In my case, this blog has proven to be an excellent method for having easy access to nicely organized publishing resources. It was completely serendipitous that a lot of other people found those resources useful as well.

             (Darnit! I missed it again! No matter how closely I watch that pageview count, I never can quite catch it.)

One important perk of keeping constant track of venues for short stories and personal essays is that my work gets published. I also occasionally win one of the contests that I post on my monthly lists and on my Free Contests page. (My personal essay, "They Will Try to Kill You" won first prize in the Tell Your Story Contest, and my short stories and personal essays have gotten several honorable mentions.) The fact is, had I not been so compulsive about listing every single publishing opportunity, I wouldn't have been nearly as diligent about submitting my work, which I tend to forget about once I get my next "must-write" idea.

The same holds true for my novels. I have, at this point, probably submitted my YA fantasy to every agent for my genre (well over 500). And I have gotten three offers of publication. (One of these days, I will write a blog on "Contracts You Shouldn't Sign.") I am nothing if not persistent. And in publishing, persistence pays. No matter how many times you are rejected, it only takes one agent or editor to say "Yes!" (Give yourself a boost right now and look at the list of famous authors who were repeatedly rejected here: Never Give Up! Never Surrender!)

The moral to my blog story is that sometimes what starts as self-interest can morph into a benefit for others. In fact, that may be the best path to altruism. After all, if you know what you need, you also have a handle on what others may need. In this case, I hope every writer reading this blog has benefitted from my (mildly OCD) need to organize absolutely everything. Keep writing!

7 Million Pageviews ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog

I blame my children. Nine years ago, they said, "Mom, you need to start a blog." And I listened to them. Those innocent eyes, those sweet little faces ...  no, wait. They weren't kids anymore. They were adults, and they knew exactly what they were doing. 

Now, nearly a decade later, I've caught a tiger by its tail. And if I let go, it will eat me. 

My goals were humble when I began Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity. I simply wished to share some of my insights about the publishing process with the world or, more specifically, with writers. But I had to admit that the brave new world of the Internet was beyond me. So, I simply began by shedding light on all the mistakes I was making. 

Lord, there were so many of them.

Eventually, I realized that humorous as they were (and continue to be), my mistakes were not only limited in scope, they didn't get at what my blog was actually for, which was to impose order on the disorganized mess I affectionately call "my files." What the Internet is for, I realized somewhat belatedly, is not to watch cute ducklings with arms chase a cat around (although it's really very funny), nor is it for being outraged on Twitter (which is not nearly as entertaining as those ducklings or - even more amusing - watching a teenager try to figure out how to work a rotary phone). No, dear distracted readers, the Internet is for organizing and storing things which are more useful once they are not in a file drawer gathering dust. 

In particular, this blog which my spawnlings roped me into is useful for assembling places to submit writing, keeping track of agents who are looking for precisely what I have written, along with publishers that don't require those feckless agents who have so heartlessly rejected my queries, even though I really did write precisely what they were looking for. 

(Oh, shoot, I missed it again! No matter how closely I watch that pageview count, I never quite catch it.)

So now I am bravely going where I have repeatedly gone before, and like Mickey Mouse with those brooms that kept multiplying in Fantasia, I keep finding more calls for submissions every month (even though you'd think that the caveat of having to pay writers would diminish their numbers), and more fee-free writing contests (same as above, more or less), and more agents (so many of them ... how do they find enough publishers to keep themselves busy?) and more godawful news about the latest mergers, buy-outs, and increasing monopolization in the publishing industry (oh, it's enough to make you want to self-publish). 

My hope is that in my quest to keep my file cabinet relatively uncrowded (that's a blatant lie), this blog has been useful to you, beloved writers. Don't stop writing!

5 Million Page Views ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog

Seven years ago, one of my spawnlings told me I needed to write a blog. I forget which one ... I often get them confused, but it was probably the same spawnling who said I needed to have a Twitter account (whatever that was) and a Facebook page.

I have since regretted both of those decisions, because prior to joining the world of social media I was pleasantly removed from humanity, lost in a haze of thinking that all was right with the world. (It wasn't.)

But I digress.

The blog experience is somewhat like the publishing experience: If you don't promote your writing, it may as well not exist. Whatever you write, whether it's a book or a blog, the only way people will know it exists is to advertise. Granted, you may not want anyone to know what you've written, but if that was the case, you wouldn't be reading this. So, read on.


Promotion, promotion, promotion

In the real world of writing, promotion is everything. Writers would like to think that polished prose and fascinating ideas move a story into the public eye. Sadly, that is not the case. More often than not a brilliant writer's work remains unknown while some piece of utter trash makes it onto the best-seller list. Is this fair? Not a bit. But it is reality. The same holds true for your blog. You may put a lot of effort into getting your ideas into written form, but you are only talking to yourself unless someone reads them.

Having spent the better part of my life talking to myself, I can tell you no good will come of it. You will either be diagnosed and thrown into a psych ward or end up teaching in a junior Ivy League college. (Trust me, you don't want to end up teaching in a junior Ivy League school. It's hell.)

But, once again, I digress.

So, how do you get your blog into the jaded public eye? First, you have to write it. People mainly read blogs for two reasons: 1) They are fun to read, and/or 2) They are informative. People like to be entertained, which, being a writer, you can easily pull off. They also like information that will help them reach their goals. You can pull that off, because there is lots of information about how to do everything on the net, and because there must be something you can do other than write The Great American Novel. Write about cat sitting if you have to. Someone will want to know how to sit on a cat.

What was I saying? Oh, yes. Promotion.

Once you have produced a blog with a theme, your next step is to tell the world about it. Do these things:

1) Tweet. I hate to say it, but Spawnling number 2 (or was it number 1?) was right. Build a Twitter following. Normally I would throw cold water all over the idea of building a social media following, but in this case it will be useful. Tweet about anything you like, follow cool people like mad, and get people to follow you. The reason you need Twitter followers is not because Twitter is a good promotional tool for your book (it really isn't), but because of Medium.

2) Post on Medium. Medium is a great platform for writers of any ilk. But unlike most other platforms, you don't have to start from scratch. Your Twitter followers can be imported. (There is nothing like an instant base of followers to warm the cockles of your writer's heart.) Your next step is to find a publication within Medium that caters to whatever you are blogging about. Ask to be accepted, and then submit your blog posts. Conveniently, these can be imported directly onto Medium.

3) Post on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is a little capitalist twat, but now that Google+ has bitten the proverbial dust, Facebook is the best place to promote your blogs. Join groups! You can easily find them by typing a word or two into a Facebook search. Then post links to your blog posts.

4) Hunt around for any other platform you can find. There are too many to list here, and many of them are topic specific, so the platforms you choose will depend on what you are writing. If your blog host includes analytics, check to see where your traffic is coming from. Sometimes these can lead to new venues.

It was by doing all of the above that my humble blog ended up with five million page views.

Lessons Learned

I am going to repeat myself: If you want people to read what you have written, you have to promote your work every day. Whether it's your blog, your short story, your poetry, or anything you've put into words - you have to let people know it's there. In the age of the Internet, online writing has a short lifespan. You can't count on it being seen for more than a day or two at most.

I will now quote myself. "The most important lesson, and this applies to writing a blog, a book, a short story, poetry, or a personal essay - is write for yourself. The fact that you have an audience can be a little daunting, and it can tempt you to write for them. But the minute you lose track of what's in your heart, what you are compelled to say, your writing will become hollow."

Here are some posts with good information for promoting your blog (and other writing):

10 Simple Ways to Promote Your Blog (For Writers)

Flogging your Blog

How to Get 40,000 Readers Without Guest Blogging

3 Million Page Views ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog

Six years ago (has it really been six years?), someone told me to start a blog. Apparently, I "needed" one. I had no idea why. But I did it, figuring it might be fun.

Then, stuff happened. To my surprise, people began reading my blog. And then quite a few more started to visit, people who weren't directly related to me. (Some of whom, mysteriously, wanted to escort me to Bangladesh.)

After four years, a million people had visited my blog. I published a post somewhat facetiously titled "A Million Page Views ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog." (I could afford to be a little snarky back then. After all, it had taken four years to reach a million.)

I had no idea what lay ahead.

A year later this blog hit another million - a four-fold increase in traffic. This was not an accident. I had written a post in which I had waxed enthusiastic about blog promotion. And for once - really, literally for once - I followed my own advice. I promoted my blog.

And now, eight months later, this blog has accumulated another million. What's more, the most popular posts this year fetched four times the number of views of last year's most popular posts.

Should I be frightened?

In a way, it is a little frightening when all at once a lot of people are looking at what I post. It means I'm probably doing something right. And that thought is a little disconcerting. Since when have I done anything right?

Promotion Strategies

After I got over my initial confusion about what a blog was supposed to be (Cynical Observations of Society? Pearls of Wisdom? What My Cat Did Today?), I realized it might be useful as a means of organizing information that I had been storing in files - actual paper files. But the real revelation came when it dawned on me that there were these things called links and that I could put them in my blog, That meant I could use my blog as a tool! I could simply include links to all those sites in convenient blog posts. So, I started to organize all my resources: agents accepting sci-fi and fantasy, magazines that would actually pay me for my short stories, freelance publications, submission calls, everything I had laboriously accumulated. And because I actually needed those posts for my own nefarious purposes, I really put my back into them. Then three million other people found my blog.

If that sounds like a just-so story, it is. It took more than simply posting on my blog to get all that traffic. Just like writing, I had to promote, I had to be "discoverable." After all, there are a couple million blog posts written every day. How was anyone going to find mine?

Stage 1: SEO and guest blogging. Stage 2: Facebook. Stage 3: What is that? I really don't know.

At first I promoted by writing guest blogs, with modest results. Then, I promoted by posting my blog articles on other sites, like LinkedIn and Medium. Also, modest results. I fooled around with SEO meta tags, and found common search terms on Google to include in my titles. None of that had any profound effect.

And then came Facebook.

Facebook is my greatest single source of traffic, with people coming straight off Google coming in second. It terms of marketing platforms, nothing else comes close to Facebook. And the more you use it, the more word gets around.

Lessons Learned

If there is one thing I have learned from this blog, it's that if you want people to read what you have written, you have to promote your work every day. Promotion is like breathing. When you stop doing it, you're in trouble. Whether it's your blog, your short story, your poetry, anything you've put into words and posted - you have to let people know it's there. In the age of the Internet, the online written word has a short lifespan. You can't count on it being seen for more than a day or two at most.

The other lesson learned, and this applies to writing a blog, a book, a short story, poetry, or a personal essay is write for yourself. The fact that you have an audience can be a little daunting, and it can tempt you to write for them. But the minute you lose track of what's in your heart, and what you are compelled to say, your writing will become hollow.

So, will I become corrupted, now that over a hundred thousand people are visiting each month? Probably not. My blog is just a tool, and one that I still use on a daily basis. And anyone else who wants to use it is more than welcome.


Here are some posts with good information for promoting your blog (and other writing):

10 Simple Ways to Promote Your Blog (For Writers)

Flogging your Blog

How to Get 40,000 Readers Without Guest Blogging

Top 10 Publishing Posts of 2017

In January, I usually take a look at my posts from the previous year, just to see what struck a chord with my readers. As usual, the most popular posts were free writing contests and calls for submissions. These often made it into the tens of thousands of views. (I didn't include them here. It would have made for a repetitive list.)

Some posts were a lot more popular than I had anticipated. The post about writers who published their first novels after the age of 40, for example, got over 4,000 views. (I didn't expect that, but it seems there are a lot of older writers out there. I, of course, am one of them. Hence the post.)

What was also interesting was the fact that for all of these posts, the number of views topped my most popular posts from last year by 400%. In spite of the self-publishing boom, lots of people are interested in getting traditionally published.

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TOP 10 POSTS OF 2017

#10 Getting Your Self-Published Book Into Libraries (4013 views)

#9 15 Famous Authors Who Were Published After 40 (4118 views)

#8 12 Agents Representing Short Story Collections (4282 views)

#7 An Insider's View of the Publishing Business (4338 views)

#6 4 New Literary Agencies Seeking Clients (4628 views)

#5 2 New Literary Agents Actively Seeking Fiction, Memoir, Pop Culture & more (4707 views)

#4 13 Paying Markets for Flash Fiction (5136 views)

#3 27 Great Websites for Writers (6531 views)

#2 17 Publishers Accepting Unagented Short Story Collections (8385 views)

And my top post was (drum roll) ...

#1 11 Agents Seeking Literary Fiction NOW (11,277 views)

2 Million Page Views ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog

Exactly a year ago, I published a post somewhat facetiously titled "A Million Page Views ... and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog."

I could afford to be a little snarky back then. After all, it had taken four years to reach a million. I had no idea what lay ahead.

A little less than a year later this blog hit another million - a four-fold increase in traffic. This was not an accident. I had written a post in which I had waxed enthusiastic about blog promotion. And for once - literally, for once - I followed my own advice. I promoted my blog.

Promoting a blog is exactly the same as promoting a book. And why should it be any different? It's all writing! You simply need to find your audience. Marketing is just that simple. (Of course, the trick is figuring out where your audience is, and how to reach it.)

What makes a successful blog?

Before getting to the nitty gritty, perhaps we should take a step back and ponder the nature of blogs.

Essentially, there is no difference between writing a blog and writing anything else. If you are writing nonfiction (i.e. imparting information), you need to be clear and concise. If you are simply writing to entertain, let your muse shine through! Basically, those are your only two choices. (Of course, combining the two is always a good idea!)

Being of practical bent, I conceived this blog as a means to organize information. Initially, this was not because I intended to provide a service to the writing community. I was simply using my blog as an online tool to store and categorize information. It was much more convenient for me to write a blog listing agents accepting sci-fi and fantasy, for example, or build a table of magazines that would actually pay me for my short stories, than keep cumbersome notes on my desk. And because I needed to utilize those posts, I really put my back into them. It turns out those posts were also useful to quite a few other people. Two million of them to be precise.

First wave of views

Now, let's talk about how this blog managed to get viewed by so many people. When I first started writing, I had no idea how anyone was going to find my humble blog. So, I did everything a blogger is supposed to do: I got my blog onto various directories, tried to "optimize SEO" (still don't know what that is), guest posted, and did ALL THE THINGS. Box 1 shows how that worked out.

Stage 1: ALL THE THINGS. Stage 2: Posting on Google+. Stage 3: Posting on Facebook.

Doing ALL THE THINGS, while logical, didn't help me to reach people. If you were to apply that method to publishing, it would be the equivalent of putting your book up on Amazon and a few other places, notifying some reviewers, and calling it a day. (That doesn't work either.)

The sharp increase after the first red box is the result of finding an audience. In my case, my audience is other writers. (We share a goal - getting published!) Writers tend to hang out in the same places I do, i.e. writing groups on Google+ (sadly, now defunct) and Facebook. Between those two, my views went from 6,000 to 60,000 a month.

Some of my posts, notably the ones with lists of publishers accepting unagented submissions, got tens of thousands of hits, which launched them into the top positions on Google searches. As a result 2,000+ daily page views come from Google. An additional daily 2,000+ page views come from Facebook groups. (Facebook traffic tends to be intense, but short-lived.) With the addition of Facebook, traffic has now crept up to 100,000 page views a month.

In short, social media (notably Facebook) is what pushed my page views over the top, but it was not a scattershot approach. I placed my posts only on groups that would be interested in what I had to say. Conveniently, these were also groups that had a lot of posts I found interesting. So, to answer the previous question, the trick to finding your readers is to pursue your own interests.

The bottom line

The bottom line for a blog, or any other form of writing, is whether you have fun doing it. But the second consideration, the one we should always ask ourselves as writers, is how many people can I reach? The only way to increase readers is through daily promotion.

The most efficient way to find those readers is by advertising your writing, whether it be blog or book, in the places you like to go. Chances are pretty good that you will find like-minded people there, that is, people who will appreciate what you have to say.

You can't just promote occasionally. It has to be constant. That is true of your blog, of your stories, of your book, and of anything else you write. The day that you stop promoting is the day your creative endeavor dies.

Here are some posts with good information for promoting your blog (and other writing):

10 Simple Ways to Promote Your Blog (For Writers)

Flogging your Blog

How to Get 40,000 Readers Without Guest Blogging

Top 10 Publishing Posts of 2016

Last year I decided to review my posts to see which ones had attracted the most readers. (I posted them here: Top 10 Publishing Posts of 2015.)

Not surprisingly, the posts which garnered the most readers were about major publishers (notably HarperCollins) opening their doors to unagented writers. (HarperCollins' brief excursion into democratic operations has since been abandoned.)

This year, I encountered a problem when I simply looked at numbers of views per post. My Free Contests posts, and Calls for Submissions posts, had gotten so many views that they encompassed all of my Top 10. So, I moved down to the next category, which was Agents Seeking Clients. These also had gathered many thousands of views. (You can see all the agents looking for writers by clicking on the link.) 8 Literary Agents Seeking Horror NOW, for example, had gotten 5,060 views.

In all fairness, I had to discount all of those posts as well, and move on to my next category, which had to do with marketing and promotion. Without further ado, here are those top ten posts, in descending order. I hope you will find them useful.

#10 8 Ways to Use Goodreads to Promote Your Book (1310 views)

#9 How to Use Pinterest to Build an Audience (For Writers) (1370 views)

#8 15 Magazines That Pay $500 or More (1740 views)

#7 13 Paying Markets for Personal Essays (1897 views)

#6 6 Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts from Writers (2074 views)

#5 Promoting Your Scifi or Fantasy Novel on Social Media (2084 views)

#4 Top 10 Sites for Indie Authors (2189 views)

#3 82 UK Literary Agencies Seeking Clients (3249 views)

#2 175 Literary Magazines Accepting Reprints (5294 views)

And my top post was (drum roll) ...

#1 272 Paying Markets for Short Stories, Poetry, Nonfiction (7326 views)

Runners-up

Mega-List of Agents Looking for Memoirs (and other Nonfiction)

What a Trump Presidency Means for Writers 

18 Paying Markets for Humor 

7 Simple Ways to Promote Your Blog (For Writers)

Updated 2/5/25

If you are a writer, you absolutely must keep a blog. Why? Because blogs are a great way for agents and/or editors to see how you write informally and, of course, your fans will enjoy reading your blog posts.

The problem faced by bloggers is the same faced by up-and-coming writers. How will people find you? If you have not yet published a book (and even if you have) it is difficult to make yourself known in the vast Blogosphere.

Fortunately, there are many ways to promote your posts. You can precycle by publishing your posts on other well-trafficked sites first, you can guest post, you can also post links to your posts on various platforms.

A few sites also allow you to recycle your posts. That is, you can re-publish your posts on another, larger, platform. (See LinkedIn and Medium below.)

When you re-post, remember to include a call to action at the end. The call to action is a simple statement of who you are and what your blog is about, along with a link. It should inspire people to check out your blog.

As a case in point, here is my call to action:

Erica Verrillo has published five books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on how to get an agent, lists agents who are looking for clients as well as publishers accepting manuscripts directly from writers, explains how to market and promote your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews, how to self-publish, and where to find markets for your work on Publishing and Other Forms of Insanity.

The following are the sites I have found to be the most productive in terms of generating traffic to my blog.
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LinkedIn - LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, allows members to publish blog posts. You can either compose a post, or simply copy and paste your blog posts onto your LinkedIn blog. There is no predicting how many people will see your post. Most of my LinkedIn posts have gotten a less than impressive response, but a few have gotten over 10,000 views, so don't forget your call to action on these posts!

Because LinkedIn is aimed primarily at professionals, the discussions tend to focus on practical aspects of writing. This is an ideal place to share experience, advice, and tips.

Medium - Medium was developed by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. The idea was to create a platform for both amateurs and professionals featuring publications that operated as a form of social journalism. Since its inception, the platform has changed, and bloggers can no longer simply add their posts to publications. (Adding posts to publications is now by invitation.) Even though the new restriction cuts down on traffic, it is possible to generate tens of thousands of views on Medium because it is directly connected to Twitter. All of your Twitter followers who are also on Medium will automatically become your Medium followers.

Medium does not have a lot of bells and whistles. You can easily upload images and do basic formatting, but not much else. On the plus side, you can import blog posts, which eliminates tedious copying and pasting. In general, Medium has a nice clean look, which makes posts easy to read. Medium followers are also more apt to look at your profile. While, like LinkedIn, most of my posts on Medium have only generated a modest number of views, occasionally one will take off, generating tens of thousands of views. For that reason alone, it's worth it to post on Medium.

Reddit - Reddit advertises itself as "the front page of the Internet." Its demographic is young men who have some college education. You can post links to your blog posts on various subreddits, provided that you join first. Subreddits are moderated. Here is a list of subreddits for writers: Reddit for Writers.

Facebook - With well over a billion active users, Facebook is the undisputed king of social media. Posts that go "viral" often do so because of Facebook. (One of my Medium posts got 25,000 views in 48 hours because of Facebook.) If you don't already have a Facebook page, open one, gather up some "friends" and start posting your blog.

In addition to your own Facebook page, there are dozens of public Facebook groups for writers where you can post anything related to writing. If you don't have a lot of "friends" on Facebook, this is a marvelous opportunity! Some of these groups have tens of thousands of members. Start with this list: 39 Facebook Groups for Authors.

#MondayBlogs on Twitter and Bluesky - Author Rachel Thompson started #MondayBlogs as a convenient vehicle for bloggers to share their posts. Every Monday, bloggers tweet their most recent (and/or most interesting) blog posts using the hashtag #MondayBlogs (don't forget the s). #MondayBlogs is wildly popular, with tens of thousands of tweets. (You can tweet anything EXCEPT your book. No ads or photos are allowed.) 

In contrast to tweeting randomly, I've seen a significant bump in my blog traffic on Mondays due to #MondayBlogs, especially when people with lots of followers re-tweet my tweets. Here are additional hashtags for writers: 246 Hashtags for Writers.

Pinterest - Founder Ben Silbermann describes Pinterest as a "catalog of ideas," rather than a social network. It is a convenient and elegant means of storing information using images. So, make sure you have a great image on every single one of your blog posts to encourage your visitors to pin.

You can make a board specifically for your blog. Give it a title that matches what your blog is about to make it easier to find in a search. Describe it as "The Best of ____ (name of your blog goes in the blank)" and make sure to use plenty of popular search terms in your description. (You can find these by typing the first few letters of any term into the search bar. Watch what pops up.)

Forums - There are numerous forums for writers - Writing Forums, Litopia, Writer's Beat,  Absolute Write, to name a few. Most forums discourage posting links to blogs until you have introduced yourself and participated in a few discussions, so make sure you check the forum rules before posting.

For more ideas on how to promote your blog see David Hartshorne's How To Promote Your Blog: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

Also see:

Precycling: A Great Way to Get the Most Mileage Out of Your Blogs

Flogging your Blog

A million page views ... and all I got was this lousy blog

When I started this blog, Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity, nearly four years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Everyone said "You need a blog," so I blogged. (I always listen to Everyone.)

The purported rewards were enticing: fame, fortune, and followers. And it was free, so I was willing to give it a whirl.

In some respects, my blog venture was a lot like my publishing experience. Nobody read what I'd written. So, I did some research on how to drive more traffic to my blog, and I did ALL THE THINGS.

I got my blog onto various lists, I guest blogged on bigger platforms, I contributed to blog carnivals. I tweeted.

There were only modest returns on ALL THE THINGS. Significant numbers of people still weren't reading my posts.

Then, I had an epiphany. Instead of keeping all my publishing information in separate files on my increasingly chaotic desktop, why not transfer all that information to my blog? The advantages were self-evident. I could organize all the paying markets on handy tables (with links!), so when I wanted to submit a story, all I had to do was look at my blog posts on that topic. Plus, whenever new markets sprang up, I could just add them.

This strategy turned out to be so convenient that I did the same thing for reviewers (I figured I would need them some day), and for agents (I hoped I would get one some day). The blog posts expanded to include calls for submissions, which I like to keep tabs on, and contests, even though I seriously doubted I would ever win one. (But, you never know!)

I branched into publishers accepting unagented manuscripts, because after sending dozens of query letters, I was beginning to get discouraged. Once I started organizing those, I realized there were a surprising number of publishers with open doors, so I had devote a whole section of the blog to them.

The dramatic increase in monthly page views occurred after I began posting on Google+ in June 2014. Sadly, Google+ no longer exists. The two major dips coincide with the December holidays. Currently, the blog gets over 60,000 views a month. It started at 600.

After that, more pages needed to be added: agents looking for clients, speculative fiction resources (all of which were originally files on my desktop), self-publishing (which I have done, and may do again, so those posts will come in handy). There was a wealth of information in my files, just begging to be organized in blog posts. And, there was even more information on the Internet that I could add to my burgeoning tables and lists! (Seriously, take a look at the tabs.)

Call me OCD, but being thorough has its advantages.

Lo, and behold! Not only were those posts and pages convenient for me, they were convenient for other people. I began sharing my posts. I shared them on Amazon, on Goodreads, and on LinkedIn. I re-posted them on Medium. I posted links on forums (whose administrators promptly kicked me off). And I posted them on Facebook (which promptly threw me in jail). As it turned out, there were lots of writers who appreciated my OCDness.

Bloggers and regular websites began to post links to my posts, and as a consequence some of those posts got tens of thousands of hits, which launched them into the top positions on Google searches. And that is currently where most of my traffic comes from - straight off the net.

Dang! I really wanted to see 999,999 turn into a million, but I was too busy writing this post.

I'd like to say that the million page views is due to my prowess as a writer, but it would be a lie. It is strictly due to the fact that in my own quest to get published - combined with what might be considered an unhealthy tendency to cover all bases - I've managed to address a question that a lot of other people are asking: "How do I get published?"

I have every intention of continuing to answer that question, and of sharing all the information I accumulate along the way. And when my book finally does get published, I will tell all of you how I did it. In detail.

A big "Thank you!" to Everyone.

Top 10 Publishing Posts of 2015

This is the first year I have looked back at my posts. (Normally, once they are up I simply move on to the next exciting idea.)

But, stats are important for various reasons. They tell us what people like to read. They also tell us what people need. Blog posts that provide answers to questions, that inform, and that explain are bound to be popular.

And for writers, anything that answers the question, "How do I get published?" will be warmly received.

(I promise that in 2016 I will continue to provide answers to that question.)

So, without further ado, here are my top ten posts - in reverse order.



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#10 10 Awards for Self-Published Books (1569 views)

#9 Should You Hire a Professional Book Cover Designer? (1948)

#8 Publisher Pan Macmillan Accepting Unsolicited Manuscripts - No Agent Needed (2129 views)

#7 Fantasy and Sci-fi Reviewers  Accepting Self-Published Authors (2616 views)

#6 2 New Agents Seeking Writers (2630 views)

#5 23 Poetry Publishers Accepting Unagented Manuscripts (2729 views)

#4 Speculative Fiction Magazines Accepting Submissions (4127 views)

#3 2 New Agents Seeking Writers: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Nonfiction, Thrillers and more (4727 views)

#2 234 Hashtags for Writers (5759 views)

And my top post was (drum roll)...

#1 HarperCollins Seeking Submissions - No Agent Required (15,973 views)

Precycling: A Great Way to Get the Most Mileage Out of Your Blog

Updated 7/16/26

If you are new to the blogging scene, you probably don’t have a lot of followers (yet). For aspiring authors, this is a calamity. There you are, pouring your heart and soul into your posts, and nobody is reading them! How will anybody know that you are a gifted writer if your blog is languishing, unhonored and unsung, in cyberspace?

The standard advice to unsung bloggers is to guest post, preferably on a high-profile blog that gets a lot of daily traffic. While this is a good way to build visibility, it can often take months before your blog is posted. (The more popular the blog, the longer the wait.)

A more traditional approach to increase your visibility is write for ezines (online magazines). Again, this is a time-consuming process. First you have to pitch your idea, then have it approved, and then wait for a slot. For those who need to build a platform now, all that waiting, often followed by the inevitable heartbreak of rejection, can be a strain. A third option is to precycle.

Let’s say you have written an informative, humorous, moving or any well-written piece that simply screams, "People need to read this!"  In order to get these gems the immediate attention they deserve, you can post them on sites that get a lot of traffic, but don’t involve a long wait. It seems almost too good to be true.

The only catch is that all of these sites require that your work be 1) original (it is, it is!), and 2) that you post on their site first (it boosts their SEO to have first shot at original pieces). Because these sites are concerned about the quality of submissions, they will want to see examples of your writing before approving you. (This is easy if you’ve been devoting yourself to your writing.) After a short wait, you are good to go.

Where you precycle depends a lot on what you write. Some sites cater to people with a literary bent, others to the contemporary scene, and still others to more practical information and advice. If you do a Google search on “article submission websites” you will find lots of places to precycle.

In the meantime, here are some suggestions:

Blogcritics. "A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Everybody who’s anybody reads Blogcritics. The audience tends to be young, so Blogcritics is far and away the best place to post reviews of anything contemporary (music, books, articles, TV shows, movies, culture, politics). But do not despair if you are an old codger. You can post other pieces as well. I’ve posted everything from medical articles to opinion pieces without a hitch. (Take a look at their “features” to get an idea of the range of topics.) The best thing about Blogcritics is that they syndicate their articles. That means your post could end up in an online newspaper. In Seattle. Make sure to read their guidelines carefully.

Huffington Post
Huffington Post is a popular news and opinion website and blog, but they also publish personal essays. Their topics are broad ranging, from plant-based diets to the best way to get rid of hiccups. For writers, there is always something to write about, and HuffPost is a great place to get published. Pitch your idea HERE.

And you can even get paid for blog posts! 

13 Paying Markets for Blog Posts

For long lists of places to guest post see:

List of top quality blogs that accept guest posts (450+)

List of Guest Blogging Sites (140+ best sites)

30 Websites that Pay Up to $700 For a Blog Post

30 Sites Where You Can Get Fabulous Free Photos

Fantasy - Pixabay

Updated 7/19/26

Whether you are blogging, writing articles, or designing a cover for your book, there is nothing that attracts readers more than a fetching image. Eye-catching images not only draw the reader’s attention, they establish a mood, set a tone, and express what you can’t say in words. A great image will also inspire a reader to linger, and to want to learn more about you and what you have written.

Fortunately, finding beautiful images has never been easier – or cheaper. You can, of course, purchase stock photos from any number of services. However, if you are on a limited budget, you can now get great photos for free. These are some of my favorite sites for finding fantastic free images.

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1. Morguefile

With 400,000 images, Morguefile used to be my first stop when I was hunting for a photo. (Now it’s Pixabay.) You don’t need to jump through hoops to download, and no registration is required.

You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt images. Attribution is not required. Like most other sources for free photos, Morguefile prohibits use of any photo in a stand alone manner. However, unlike some other sites, you are free to use photos for commercial purposes (e.g. the cover of your book).

© Jamie Wilson | Dreamstime Stock Photos

2. Dreamstime

Dreamstime has over a million images. It’s a little harder to search than either Pixabay or Pexels, and registration is required. But once you figure out how to use this site, there are riches to be had. 

Attribution and a link back are required. The maximum number of copies allowed for free images is 10,000. Note: Not everything on this site is free.

3. Freerange

Freerange has an eclectic mix of photos, from abstract paint spatters to squirrels. They post their newest photos on the first page, which makes for an interesting introduction to the site. You can search by category, and by most popular and newest. You must register to download. Commercial use is not allowed.

Freerange shares revenue from ads on its site with photographers who submit their photos, which is a nice gesture.

Alien Worlds by micromoth

4. RGB Free Stock Photos

All images on RGB Stock Photos are free for personal and commercial use. (The terms of use for commercial purposes are that you need to contact the artist for written permission.)

Some of these photos are truly captivating. RGB also ranks its photographers, so you can search images by their most popular artists.

Image credit: pixabay

5. Pixabay

Pixabay is a German-based service with over 150,000 creative commons photos.

You will find some truly spectacular, professional looking photos on this site, in several different sizes.

From the site: "To the extent possible under law, uploaders of Pixabay have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to these Images. You are free to adapt and use the Images for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. Although absolutely not required, a link back to Pixabay would be nice."

(Many thanks to Thora York for suggesting this great site.)

6. U.S. Government

Did you know that all federal government images are freely available for reprinting? (That is because your tax dollars pay for them.) To be honest, the majority of these images are about as interesting as a tree stump, but among the dull, uninspiring images that are the hallmark of government publications, there is an occasional gem.

It all depends on what you are looking for.

7. Public Domain Pictures

This site has thousands of free photos, many of which are truly spectacular. Not all are available for commercial use, but you can use any of them on your blog. At the bottom of every page there is a section for paid stock photos, so make sure to check.

8. Google

If you want to find an image quickly, you can take the google shortcut.

Go to google images. Search for the image you want (e.g. burger and fries, football, etc.). When the images pop up, click on "search tools" on the nav bar at the top of the page. On the nav bar that pops up, click "usage rights." Then click on the "reuse" category that applies to you. (The top category, "Not filtered by license," means the image may be protected by copyright.)

Make sure you check on the source before you use the image. Some of the images that appear on a "reuse" search have watermarks, which means they are protected by copyright.

9. Pexels

All photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose. The pictures are free for personal and even for commercial use.

You can modify, copy and distribute the photos without asking for permission or setting a link to the source.

Attribution is not required.

10. Every Stock Photo

Everystockphoto.com is a search engine for stock photos - 29,368,214 of them. You can search by category, by top photos, and by popular photographers. You have to sign up, but it's free.

This site is not as easy to use as pixabay, and the search function is a little cumbersome. But if you are looking for something very specific, chances are you will find it here.

Photo: NASA

11. Stock Vault

This site is a grab bag. Some of the images are unusual, artistic even. Others are mundane to the extreme. They have a wide selection, so it is worth hunting around as you will not find most of these images elsewhere. They also feature vector images.

12. Flickr

Millions of flickr photos are available under Creative Common licensing. Under Creative Commons you can use, alter, or reproduce work online. Some flickr users require attribution, some only allow non-commercial use.

There is a convenient key on the right side bar that explains the various restrictions. Photos are organized according to the key, which makes it easy to find the category that best suits your needs.

13. Unsplash

This site gives you access to high-resolution photos. You have to register, but it's free. In addition to site downloads, you can also request to have photos delivered to your inbox.


The advantage of using a high-resolution image is that a graphic designer can easily modify it to make a clean, professional-looking final product.

All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Unsplash.

14. New York Public Library

NYPL has a collection of more than 672,000 images in the public domain.

This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more. Collections are organized according to theme. You can also search for a specific image, or theme.

Click HERE to enter the NYPL collection.

15. Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met has released more than 375,000 images that you can use for free. These are high-resolution images that can be used for any purpose. There are no copyright restrictions. (Creative Commons Zero designation.) The museum will partner with Creative Commons, the Wikimedia community, Artstor, the Digital Public Library of America, and Pinterest, which will allow the museum to promote its collection around the world.

16. J. Paul Getty Open Content Program

Getty’s Open Content Program is an initiative to make available, without restrictions, as many of the Getty’s digital resources as possible. The Getty Trust and its operating programs — the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation — as well as their departments, including Getty Publications and the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, are not affiliated with Getty Images. The Open Content Program is an initiative of the Getty Trust and is not connected in any way with Getty Images.

You can search or browse the Getty’s open content images on Getty Search Gateway.

17. Pikwizard

Pikwizard offers thousands of high quality photos in many searchable categories. They have a generous licensing agreement, allowing users the right to utilize Pikwizard photos on blogs, cover art, business cards and brochures, textbooks, and more. You can even edit the photos online, right from their site. (That's Machu Picchu in the photo. I've been there twice. It's almost as impressive in real life.)

More sites

Startup Stock Photos

Jay Mantri

Travel Coffee Book

Foodies Feed

Picography

New Old Stock

Picjumbo

Life of Pix

Public Domain Archive

ISO Republic

Kaboompics

Little Visuals

Gratisography
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Aggregation sites - These sites feature several free photo sites.

The Stocks

All The Free Stock

Stock Up

Using Alexa to Boost Your Platform

Of the many ranking systems used to evaluate websites, Alexa, an analytics service owned by Amazon, is one of the most popular. In a nutshell, Alexa measures traffic to a website – the more visitors, the higher the rank. (Low numbers indicate a high rank. #1, the highest position, is occupied by Google.) Alexa provides data on 30 million websites, and has over 7 million visitors monthly.

How can you make Alexa work for you?

If you have just launched a website, don't even think of trying to improve your Alexa ranking. No matter what you do, your rank is going to be abysmally low (your number will be in the multi-millions), and there is no amount of backlinking, blogging, or giveaways that will get you under 100,000, which is the cut-off point for viewing demographic statistics.

Instead of trying to improve your own ranking, you can use Alexa much in the same way other businesses do. (If you have published a book, in any form, you are a business.) Let's say you would like to increase your visibility as a writer (i.e. build your platform). If your blog isn't getting a lot of traffic, it makes sense to either guest blog or write articles for sites that get significantly more visitors than yours. The easiest way to research the most-trafficked sites for posting guest blogs and articles is by looking at their Alexa ranking. 

I have used Alexa ranking to help decide where I guest blog. Whenever someone publishes an article on the top sites for books, articles or blogs on my topic, I immediately look up their Alexa ranking. If the rank is high (i.e. the number is under 100,000), I check to see who visits the site. If the site appeals to my demographic, I submit a guest blog or article. Chances are, the article will be accepted, because I'm submitting an article geared towards the needs of their market. I also use Alexa to decide where to submit my short stories and poems. (If nobody visits the journal's website, that means nobody will read my story. And if a lot of people visit a site, I will submit, even if there is minimal or no pay.)

Writing requires time and effort. Make sure you get the most out of your labor by placing your work where it will work for you.

Resources:

Alexa - This is where you go to search Alexa rankings. 

This article explains some of the misconceptions about Alexa ranking:

Top 6 Myths about the Alexa Traffic Rank