OPEN LETTERS

An Open Letter to Writers Who Pin Articles

Pinning over one article is — well, read the article to find out what the issue is

Dear authors:

I know. You want people to see your best articles. Or the articles that you think didn’t receive enough love. Or maybe they’re indices into each of the different niches you write in.

Whatever the reason you do it is, just fucking stop it.

Why stop pinning articles? The reason is simple — it doesn’t do what you want it to do. If I have to scroll through a shit load of old articles that I have either read or ignored, it annoys the hell out of me. After the second old article getting pushed into my face, I tend to simply stop scrolling down. You want me to read your old articles? Fuck that. I’ll read something else.

So, why bother? You’ve lost the reader’s attention, anyway.

If you’ve pinned two articles, you may have pinned five. or ten. I don’t have the patience or the energy to scroll down to find the new article. Have your newest shit it at the top, or get ignored.

If you want to highlight your articles, put them in lists. I sometimes go look at lists, if I’m particularly interested in the author’s other works. But usually not.

Calls to action (CTAs) can be effective. In my experience, they get about a five per-cent hit rate, so put one (not two, not three, and definitely not 6) stories at the bottom of your latest story, with a brief biography to catch the readers’ interests.

Don’t pin a hundred stories to the top of your profile. It just annoys the hell out of me, you schmuck!

Sincerely,

Someone who wants to read your work, but just can’t get past the walls you’ve built.

Rocky Shores is an arrogant, opinionated SOB, as well as a hard drinkin’ and a hard lovin’ man, with a taste for the fast life. As he often quoted, “You only live once, so grab the bull by the horns and ride, baby, ride”. He is a teller of truths, even if it’s lies.

If you want to read more, check this tale out. It’d about when he took a walk in the woods to relax.