Tips and Tricks After 600 Pages on Wizzley

As you will know, if you've read enough of these tips and tricks articles, I'm forever setting myself targets. Playing games within the infrastructure of the site. It motivates me. It gives me something to aim for that's not merely writing.

I'm passionate about writing too. But even more so when I'm quietly leveling up in my own private gaming world.

Like, for example, making mosaics out of the pictures on the front page of my profile. Surely nobody with the right mentality thought this was an accident?

I sat on that raven article for two weeks in order to get it to align with the Death from Sandman image.

Unfortunately, the sunset was the wrong color to fully match the middle bit. I was insanely impressed with the way that the middle image's orange hues seemed to bleed into the graffiti on the wall of Death's subway.

Sometimes the mosaic 'art' isn't entirely of my making. Like the one created by the posting of this article, in which the art is in its representation of success.

The first article signifies my accomplishment in writing 600 articles for Wizzley. The second and third articles BOTH received Editor's Choice Awards.

That's the first time I've had an alignment that looks anything like this! Color me proud.

Anyway, Grid Art was just a side game. The main event was much, much bigger than that!

I wonder how many people noticed that I've been jumping around between topics much more than usual?

My articles have appeared all over Wizzley, in loads of different categories. It must have been difficult to predict what you'd be reading about next.

There's a reason for this. I've been playing a very long game with everything I've written over the past few weeks. My profile page has pretty much been a game board, with every article a counter carefully placed. Each subject was planned in advance. I knew precisely where it would feature on the page.

The game has been not to have any category visited twice within the same line, nor those above and below. In effect, every nine square grid had at least nine different Wizzley categories represented.

It's still in effect as I post this article. If you rush to my profile page now, you'll see it in action. It'll look like this:

The first column is the next six articles to be written. Yes, I switched Mother's Day for another St Patrick's Day one in reality, but that didn't matter, as they were both destined for the same subcategory.

The second and third columns tell me what categories would be represented in the neighboring squares. The fourth doesn't matter so much, as that will disappear down into the mash of articles below, when the new ones are written.

That was in the planning stage for these last six articles. Here is how that looks, now this one is published.

As you can see, the planned articles from the first image have now become real ones in the second, and the whole thing moved up.

Guess what I'm writing about next?

The rationale behind this was to amuse myself. The secondary goal was to provide more fodder for Twitterfeed. That sends links to Twitter, which helps promote my work. It'll post up to ten from each category. But I hadn't written ten in most.

I was promoting other Wizzley authors' work, when I could have been gaining publicity for my own. The only way to fix that was to write more articles in more categories. So I did. Then I turned it into a game.

The pros have been manifold. Because I'd planned what to write, I'd not waste time faffing around choosing a subject each morning.

Moreover, as I had glanced each time at the topic coming, it was bubbling in my mind. I generally had a good idea about what to write before I ever clicked on 'create page'.

It also boosted my output considerably. If I had to write x, y and z article, before I could get to the one that I wanted to write about, then I'd go for it.

That's why you suddenly saw me working all hours to get articles about ASL baby gifts and raven statues out. I was itching to write about the Halifax Explosion, which had only just piqued my fascination.

I was challenged in what I chose to write about. I couldn't just huddle in the safety of history topics, because it turned out that I'd greatly over-subscribed to the Culture and Society category. The vast majority of my articles fall into one of its sub-categories.

I had to ration them out like candy. Little treats or level up bonuses within the gaming structure. While every instinct in me wanted to tell a legendary story, or report on some activism, or else bring the past to life in prose, I was actually writing about shoes.

You can tell. The whole thing reads like something that should be in Culture and Society, but it ticked a box labelled 'Beauty' on my grid. That hadn't been visited in the neighboring nine spaces.

Occasionally, real gems could be found in this way. I opted to write about Siegfrid Sassoon, as that article would be in Literature. I saw it coming up, so made the page ready for penning an article the next day.

Then I read about him. This was eleven o'clock at night. The more I read, the greater my fascination grew. His story is unreal in places, heart-breaking and intriguing too. I only meant to write a few paragraphs here and there, just so I'd remember what I was reading in the morning.

Next thing I knew, it was half past four am, and the Wizzle was posted. I went to bed exhausted, but with my mind buzzing over the amazing story I'd just been told, and told again in turn.

Things like that wouldn't have happened, if I hadn't been playing the Grid Game on Wizzley.

It's my belief that the best articles are written in passion and wonder. If you're interested in the subject, then that will shine through in your writing.

The trouble with pre-planning your topics is that you aren't necessarily writing about a subject at the moment that you're engrossed in it.

Last week a Canadian friend linked me to a history of the Halifax Explosion. I've been reading reams of stuff about it, watching dramatizations and hunting down documentaries ever since.

But I couldn't tap into that passion for the subject, because it fell into the 'wrong' sub-category. By waiting, I risked writing when my interest was waning.

Planning what to write, and not deviating from your precision grid, also means not being able to react very quickly to unforeseen events.

Last week, I checked my stats and discovered something quite wonderful. There was a massive spike on one of my articles!

This is usually the cue to quickly write something else on the same subject. It gives your increased readership another avenue to follow, and brings down your bounce rate accordingly.

One glance at the article in question informed me that this was an even more urgent reaction than normal. Not only was that my sole contribution to the subject, I'd not written another thing in the whole sub-category. There was no way that I could currently benefit from the knock-on effect of that surge in internet traffic.

But I was playing my Grid Game. I might not be able to write in that category for days, if it fell in the wrong spot.

It was a struggle. I had to make some serious adjustments in what was coming up, and even shift a recently written Wizzle into another category. But I was able to write my companion article to the one gaining all of the attention.

It turned out that Mrs Brown's Boys is currently on tour in Australia, in addition to announcements made that it could be on its way to the USA and Russia. That's why so many people were looking for articles about it.

Overall though the pros out-weighed the cons. I think I will continue playing the Wizzley Grid Game, but I'll cut myself some slack on certain categories.  Culture and Society is the biggie, with Entertainment and Media close behind.

They'll probably act as blank runes, wherein I can write about them - even if they appear in a neighboring square - as long as I mix and match their sub-categories.

It would be the more workable solution for me, and may help me achieve a higher page rank, as I would be writing while my passion was still piqued.

There was a time when every article that I wrote for Wizzley was guaranteed to hit the front page. Not any more.

The influx of new and returning writers here has raised the bar ever higher. We all need to up our game, if we hope to enjoy the same amount of coverage that used to be so easy to achieve.

Our 'competition' is beginning to hit critical mass.

How do I know? Well look at your statistics under the 'My Pages' tab. Under the heading 'Rank', you will see your current Wizzley Page Rank for each article.

Until recently, every one of mine began at the usual 47%, then rose by ten points each day, until it made it to 97%. The full 100% would follow immediately afterwards.

But not anymore. For the first time in my Wizzley writing career, I've begun to witness Wizzles fizzle before they hit the topmost mark. As you can see in the screenshot above, there are articles penned by me over the past few weeks, which languished at 75%, 82% and 97%. 

That's my cue to do better.

For Wizzley as a whole, this is good news. It means that there is more choice for readers browsing our categories. I'm not dominating the views quite so much as I was before. The increased input of others is taking traffic from me.

Page Rank is dependent upon a few factors. Likes and comments are the biggies for the first week, then traffic grows in prominence thereon. You still need likes and comments though. The more, the better, dotted at intervals throughout its life.

If you've written a good Wizzle, then this will happen naturally. No need to force a thing.

But for likes, comments and traffic, you need readers, and this is why it's beginning to get harder to achieve 100% Page Rank on Wizzley. We've attracted more writers to lure those readers away. Go Wizzley!

For every article I write, Christian Doerr gets ten percent.  He's only written five articles on Wizzley, but his earnings are boosted by another 600 authored by me.

Why? Because Christian is the person who introduced me to Wizzley. I clicked on his referral link to come in.

Right now, for every ten people reading my articles, six are potential customers of mine. Three could possibly provide commission for Wizzley's owners. One is there for Christian.

He doesn't have to do anything now. Just thirty seconds posting a referral link in a forum post, and he'd hooked me. Now he only has to sit back and let me do all of the work. I'm the one writing, publishing, promoting, answering comments and everything else. He could well be reclining on a tropical island sipping pina coladas, yet he'd still be getting his ten percent.

Anyone looking in Christian's direction with mingled jealousy and respect? Are you wishing that you'd been the one to bring Jo Harrington to Wizzley?

The fact is that you could be. Obviously not with me, as Christian already has that covered. But you could be the one to bring in the next prolific Wizzley author. Moreover, you would be doing a favor to both them and Wizzley as a whole.

Currently, I've recruited fifty-five people to be Wizzley writers. Among them are big names like Rupert Taylor, Brenda Reeves, Steve Rogerson, Wisefool and Fargy.

You know that my commission is earned through 600 articles that I've written for Wizzley. What you can't see is that I've got a ten percent stake in another 542 that I didn't write. Their authors all came to Wizzley via my referral link.

The benefit for those you're bringing in is obvious. They get everything that you have - a lovely site to write upon; a great community to join; earnings from their pages - and they lose nothing by having come here by referral. 

ChefKeem and the Wizzley team count those costs. If a writer isn't referred, then Wizzley gets the full forty percent commission. It's their cut that's quartered, not yours nor that of the new writer.

But what about the boon to Wizzley as a whole?

At the very least, more articles mean more opportunities for readers to find our site. More authors mean more people promoting Wizzley on social networking, other websites and by pure word of mouth.

Then look at the sort of authors we could be bringing in:

You could refer people who don't consider themselves to be writers. They may only write one or two articles, but the quality of their knowledge is very worth the sharing.

Their contributions help raise the quota of fabulous pages to be found on Wizzley. Those valuable articles are much more likely to be consulted than those penned by non-expert writers rehashing information lifted from Wikipedia.

I know from my days as a student that I'd spent weeks, months (sometimes years), researching a certain topic. I'd write my essay, give my presentation or submit my dissertation. Then that would be it.

Ok, I'd gain a mark and graduate in the fullness of time. But that piece of work is now gathering dust, apparently worthless. No-one except my tutor, and perhaps an examination official, ever read it. They already knew all that I had to tell them.

If a student follows your referral link and writes for Wizzley, then the whole internet benefits from their knowledge. All of those essays can be the basis of their articles - informed and intelligently written - with no extra research required.

It stops that hard work going to waste in a tutor's in-tray, and it will earn them pennies towards paying off their tuition fees and student loans.  Or, at least, beer money.

Why stop at the students? You could bring in the tutors too!

The greatest Wizzley articles, in my humble opinion, aren't necessarily written by experts in their field. They are by authors passionate about their subject.

Have you got a friend who is intensely interested in a particular topic? They might not consider themselves natural born writers, but they are definitely folk who want to discuss their subject.

Where better to do that than Wizzley?

Then you get those who are entrenched in fighting the good fight. They are well-known names in specific fields, usually for being the ones with their finger on the pulse regarding specific issues.

Fargy earned a certain amount of fame amongst Runescape players, when Jagex banned both his account, and that of his wife, for comments left on the game's forum.

As the player Fargrist, he'd discerned early on that Jagex planned to change the whole focus of Runescape, from an enjoyable game into an addictive arena for aggressive monetization. The company didn't take kindly to him explaining this to less aware players ahead of time.

They kicked him off their public platform. I invited him onto ours.

So what have all of these people got in common?  They're making money for me on Wizzley!

For every article that they write (and all of the other authors on my referral list), I have a 10% opportunity of earning some commission. They are all earning for themselves too, plus Wizzley gains from their contributions in increased general traffic and great writing.

Who do you know who might like to write here?  And once again, here's my own referral link, if you'd like to help me earn too!

I'd not specifically added it as a product to one of my articles. But that doesn't matter. A cookie allows all sales to be credited to you within a 24 hour period, regardless of whether it's the one that brought the customer to Amazon.

A reader could well have been perusing one of my history articles and clicked on a book for more information. Then, while they were there, went to check out hair irons. Perhaps their old one had broken, or they'd heard great things about this particular brand.

They bought the iron and I got the commission.

In addition to the pennies, I also benefited from the insider information that this ceramic hairstyling iron is a good marketable item. Half the time, we stick those product modules in more out of hope than expectation. We can't know what does and does not sell, until someone buys something.

Here, I received that information in advance. Someone bought it, ergo it sells.

Now all I have to do is write an article around that fact and wait for the money to pile in. Unfortunately, everything I know about ionic hairstyling equipment has just been written here. People buy them, and they're something to do with hair.

You can have this one for free. Go write!

But for things that I do know about, I have squirreled that information away. They become the inspiration for great earning articles in the future.

I've heard it said on the forum before that the Wizzley administration team are fine with multiple people covering the same subject, as long as each writer has something new to say.

What value does your article have for our readers? What does it bring new to the table?

When I saw that a Roomba had been bought via my affiliate link, I was so excited! I knew all about these devices. My friend owns Floor-ance, her pet vacuum cleaner, and I'd long since devoured every cat video.

Unfortunately, fellow Wizzley author ExploreDecor had already written an article about them.

Yes, I was disappointed. Until I read their Wizzle and realized there was absolutely no mention of cats riding on them. Absolute oversight. My new angle was found and I was in!

I had a similar moment when I saw St Patrick's Day looming on the horizon and wanted to add to the category on its history. But my mind went blank. I couldn't think of anything else to say on the subject.

I'd covered St Patrick's life-story, and the origins of the day celebrated as a holiday. What on Earth was there more to write?  Ah! Earth...

I'd penned those Wizzles twelve months before, in the full knowledge that we're writing for this time next year. Now that it WAS 'this time next year', I was smugly anticipating that I could sit back and just let the proceeds trickle in.

In some regards, I could. After all, the URL had a full year's maturity and that was good for search engine, and other sites linking in. But once people were here, they'd not find much to purchase. They'd hot-foot it out of there, with a bad impression associated with my name, and their shopping requirements unfulfilled.

A disaster in anybody's book. Not least Wizzley's.  Too much of that, and the whole site's ranking could decrease in certain search engines.

I fixed my Christmas articles in timely fashion, then moved on to others. Yep. This is going to be a growing problem, as time goes by.

But the alternative is the soul-destroying prospect of going through 600 articles, checking nearly 3000 product modules, and finding replacements for any that are gone. Otherwise your work really is wasted, and all that time has been for nothing.

So I'm not doing that. At least not all at once. But I am doing it in manageable, bite-sized pieces.

I'm going to tantrum like Scarlett O'Hara if you asked me to go through my entire Wizzley portfolio, in order to check every article.

But I'm quite prepared to check two in the Animal Hats subcategory. Then another three in Body Painting. I'll even stretch as far as nine in PC Troubleshooting in a single session.

You can get on a roll and do several sub-categories in one go, as I did on March 9th (in no way in order to have a solid chunk next to each other for the purpose of illustrating this article...).

It's not like every article will need fixing. The majority will have nothing wrong with them, hence you can whizz through them.

The best times to resolve to sort through a sub-category is when you've just written another article for it. Publish it, promote it, then ensure that all of its neighbors look perfect. Mark that sub-category as done on your list (I use an Excel spreadsheet for that), and forget about it for a few months to a year.

Alternatively, you could be systematic about it. Start with the first sub-category in your profile and work through to the end, doing one or two a day until the whole portfolio is cleared for public consumption.

Only don't try to do them all at once. In that way lies madness and the destruction of souls. We wouldn't want that, would we?

It's not easy to find your most read Wizzley article from the statistics on 'My Pages'. You can sort by readership during the past week, month and 90 days, but then the ether follows all data.

We've whined to the Wizzley team about it to no avail. Largely because it doesn't really help you beyond the confidence boost. All time traffic might include a sudden spike, as the content was momentarily newsworthy, or it could describe something valuable in the past, but well out of date now.

The recent statistics, which are available, are much better guides in that respect.

However, the curious can still determine their most popular Wizzley articles by copying their data into Excel. Simply highlight the entire grid on 'My Pages', then paste them into a spreadsheet. Highlight column G, then click 'A-Z sort' by the largest to smallest figures.

Hey presto! Your Wizzley articles sorted in order of all time traffic.

I've been really impressed with my internet traffic on Wizzley just recently.

I'm attracting more readers right now, than I even was over Christmas. I would expect those figures to be dropping now that spring is on the way, but nope, they keep on rising.

I know that this isn't just me either. Alexa is recording the same boost site-wide, while other authors are also mentioning it on the Wizzley forum. And yes, this increased exposure is translating into higher earnings too.

Previously, my affiliate commission tumbled after the Halloween and Christmas bonanza. For the first time this year, that has not been the case. In fact, I made nearly as much in February, as I did in December.

It's certainly encouraging me to carry on!

I've broken the 1 million mark on page impressions!  That's the main thing that I'm bouncing around about over here.

The other is that, after a period when the internet appeared to be losing interest in my Wizzley pages, it's suddenly very much back. Those dips and rises may be indicative of trends across the site, but I'd beware reading them as such.

That high point around the 250 page mark includes a massive spike I had, after one of my articles hit the front page of Reddit. Those low points could equally be read as times when I wasn't writing quite so much here, as my time was taken up on other internet properties.

Either way, I'm definitely here for the duration. It's quite exciting to see where all of this is going!