I beat the averages

My article on the state budget cuts attracted more traffic than usual, just as I expected it to. Yesterday I got 79 hits while the average Phoenix examiner got 37 and the average Family & Parenting got 75. I was a bit reluctant to post it since I don't like controversy and there was enough in there to annoy both liberals and conservatives (the voice of reason usually angers extremists) but no obnoxious comments yet.

If I were brave I'd go bait the conservative and liberal examiners hoping to drive their traffic over to my site, but nah. I really hate arguing politics.

My channel manager has sent a number of emails on how to generate hits, like one about good keywords for Earth Day. Yesterday she let us know about an article done by the Seattle Xbox Examiner on a website that educates parents on game ratings, suggesting we F&P examiners do stories on it and get some good crosslinks.

I'm still hitting my stride so I'm not doing as much of the marketing as I should be, which is the story of my professional life. That's the lesson for today, kids: be a better marketer than Uncle Andy. I plan to post another entry on this blog later today about sharing articles using sites like Digg.

ETA Oh and I should mention the surge in traffic brought me to my second dollar with about 2.5 hours of additional work. I'm getting there!