  Noticing Newbies
This week: Edited by: Puditat  
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 Welcome to the Noticing Newbies Newsletter!
Our goal is to showcase some of our newest Writing.Com Authors and their items. From poetry and stories to creative polls and interactives, we'll bring you a wide variety of items to enjoy. We will also feature "how to" advice and items that will help to jump start the creation process on Writing.com
We hope all members of the site will take the time to read, rate, review and welcome our new authors. By introducing ourselves, reviewing items and reaching out, we will not only make them feel at home within our community, we just might make new friends!
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Expanding Your Visibility
I'm not sure how it is that I can submit my writing and let it be shown to all in a fairly short amount of time. Can you help me trying to figure that out, please?
boohat
This question is quite an interesting one to answer. There is simply no guaranteed way for anyones to be seen by everyone. As soon as an item is posted to a portfolio with correct content ratings, it is viewable to the Writing.com community at large. Viewing rates are good at first, as the item hits the top of search pages because it is a newly created (or edited) item. It is even better when you are new to Writing.com as there are people dedicated to giving newbies a read and a warm welcome.
However, after that flurry of activity, it is common for it to settle to some degree. Visitors to your port may be a matter of luck - did you have an item that person A was looking for on the day they were looking? This is something that is uncontrollable.
The things you can control include the appeal of the title, the brief description, the content rating and so on.
So you've given your piece a catchy title, and the brief description teases the reader with what they might expect from the item. Great! They come in, but you haven't hooked them yet. Your work is not finished.
The spelling, grammar and look of a piece should be as good as you know how to make it, to ensure a reader will stay till they've read your item in it's entirety, and then give you some feedback.
We are all learning, and we are all of different ages and abilities. So if spelling is not your best attribute, that's fine, but you can still grab a dictionary, and use a spell checker. The same applies to any aspect of writing, such as grammar, passive vs active phrasing, etc. If you love writing and want to be read, there is an onus on you to learn, and that learning should be a joy if you're passionate about the craft.
One of the most common faults I have seen in new items created is not making use of the item settings available for each and every piece created here.
The main one I see underutilised is the Genre. An author can assign up to three genres per item they create. So many times I have seen only one used, or perhaps two. This equates to lost traffic.
For example, and this is only an example, as I have no statistics or research about this:
Consider a story about two people: Julia and Eric. They meet on a backpacking tour, and thereafter keep running into each other as they travel. The way to love is spiked with misunderstood intentions, luggage mishaps and missed flights. By the end, they click, become a couple and join a camel trek across the outback of Australia.
If you choose just romance as the genre, you'll only get the people looking to sigh away an afternoon --mostly married women, I suspect.
If you choose two genres -- say romance and comedy, you'll increase the interest to those who like to be amused, you might pull in a higher number of males (and females) who are hoping for more laughs than 'fluff'.
However if you choose a third genre, say Action/adventure, to represent the world travel - then you'll also attract a younger readership, and a more balanced male/female mix.
The other thing I see misused is the Item Type.
'Other' is really non-specific. If you're not sure that the piece is a poem, why not choose "prose"? It is a little more of a clue for a potential reader than a nondescript 'other'. "Other" is the 'miscellaneous' option, the one for when a piece really will not fit into any other category. Always attempt to correctly categorise your item. Someone looking for a short story, poem, essay...or whatever...is not likely to search under 'other' to find a read...especially when there are so many other items competing for a reader's eyes.
Thanks for reading.
Puditat
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| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1075793 by Not Available. |
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This item number is not valid.
#1075953 by Not Available. |
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This item number is not valid.
#1075826 by Not Available. |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1075252 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for your tips on exposure within the site. I have gained a bit more from your collective advice and have read several other excllent works in the process. Thanks again!
rlwilkerson
I am always thrilled to hear that an editorial has provided assistance. Thank you so much for your feedback.
I want to express my thanks for my piece "Crimson Feathers" being noticed. This is a wonderful place-feels like home! There is so much to do here and the spirit of camaradie makes time spent here the best part of the day..:) Until today,I have not had the time to take advantage of this opportunity-but I am back to writing full time now and I SO look forward to the contests and interaction here.:))))
Sincerely
IndigoRoberts1717
You are most welcome for the feature. Once you sink your teeth into all this site has to offer, you won't want to leave. 
i kinda have a weird question. why is it that after about two weeks i stop getting reviews on my poems?
Devi
When items are newly posted, they appear at the top of a search page. Items are sorted by default with those showing the most recent activity at the top. Thus, a new item (or recently edited one) will receive first attention from readers. The heightened activity at the beginning can also be attributed to those reviewers who specifically target new works or new Writing.com authors to read. There is a natural drop-off after this. I suggest posting your poem to some review forums (look in your Drop-down menu "Item Jumps" for the link to "Review Forums"). Reading and reviewing other author';s work will also increase the readership of your own portfolio. For other tips on increasing your readership, see: "Invalid Entry" ,
As a newbie, I have been doing reviews to earn enough gps to upgrade my account before trying to put anything in my port of my own. I keep an excel list of what I have reviewed so I can quickly tell if I have reviewed a particular piece or not. My list says I have reviewed 23 items but my account info says I have reviewed 21 items. What happened to the other two reviews I did and how can I tell which pieces are missing so I can redo the review? Thanks for your help!
sweetbabe
Congratulations on being such an active member within the site already. 
Whenever you complete a review, the system will add it to your running tally. However the count is a dynamic one, so that when a person deletes an entry you reviewed, that review will be subtracted from your total. Essentially both your excel count and the Writing.com count are correct.
People may delete their items for a variety of reasons, but probably one of the common reasons is simply a matter of freeing portfolio space to show off their new writing.
I really need some help mastering bitem formation. I would like to enter some contests, but I just don't get this format. Please help.
kitkat24mp
as a newbie, i have a quick question about the contests. while reading the rules for a few of them, i noticed that it said, "must be submitted in BITE format" (or something like that). what does that mean, and how do i do it it?
stephanie
To answer both kitkat24mp and stephanie :
"bitem" is the most common and preferred way for a contest host to ask for entries to be submitted. Bitem simply refers to Writing.com's code for linking items on the site. All of the various ways to link, are found under "WritingML Help" in the "Author Tools" drop-down menu.
Simply to post your entry, "Post New Message" in the contest forum. Type in | | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
# by Not Available. |
where the #'s are replaced by the number of your item. Click on "Submit Post" and you're done. As a tip, go into your post and check that it's correct. It is so easy to type a wrong number and enter someone else's item by mistake!
Any queries, problems, praise, or advice?
Send it to one of the Editors via the feedback form on this newsletter,
or direct to their email by clicking the wee envelope after their handle. 
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Noticing Newbies: March 01, 2006 Issue [#906]
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