Let’s talk about clickbait
I think of clickbait as manipulative and forcing your hand (ie “This bride got left at the altar — YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT SHE DID NEXT”), but the truth of publishing is that a huge portion of a publisher’s job is what’s known as content marketing.
How do you make sure that people who are interested in your content A) see it and B) are interested enough in it to click through to read it? People do NOT want to leave Facebook, so it’s a significant challenge.
How Offbeat Empire comment moderation has changed
Over the last couple years, however, things have shifted DRAMATICALLY with our comments. The shifts felt so natural to us behind the scenes that they felt kind of gradual, but when I look back I realized that it’s been a huge change over a relatively short period of time, all leading up to a dramatic shift that readers may not be fully aware of. Here are a few of the things that have changed…
Facebook’s great attentional party
Weeks ago, The Atlantic published an article called What Blogging Has Become. Theoretically the article was about Medium.com, but really… it was just about the reality that digital publishers are dealing with these days. The reality called Facebook.
How to tell a publisher you’re unhappy with their website (and actually get them to consider making changes)
Over the past eight years, I’ve dealt with thousands of complaints from readers… ranging from the completely baffling the to the hugely helpful. I’ve noticed a few patterns in what makes the difference between constructive and helpful feedback vs extremely frustrating feedback. The next time you’re unhappy with a publisher, here are my suggestions for how to make sure your feedback is heard and acted upon: