I’ve Made Enough Money to Buy TWO Cheeseburgers. Here’s My Advice.
Hint: you’ve got to interact with people
I have four days left of my free trial, yet I’ve made enough money here to purchase two cheeseburgers! Woohoo!!!!
I may not have made $10k or have millions of followers, but I’m staring down Mr. Success in between his two double-stacked, bacony, cheesburgery eyes.
Quick note: the cheeseburgers used in the above photo are not the actual burgers I’m referring to in this article. No. Those are expensive-looking burgers. I’m talking about McDonald’s value menu, okay?
The regurgitated advice
We’ve all been feeding on the patties of yesterday’s advice-meat that’s been sitting under warmers for years:
- Write daily.
- Don’t stop.
- Seek curation.
- Git gud.
That’s all excellent advice, that if eaten and digested, will eventually tide you over. It’s a happy meal. It does the job.
But what else? I’m not entirely satisfied with that meal and end up wanting a sugary desert of sex advice articles or pop culture throwdowns.
A challenger approaches
There’s a new food joint in town, and it’s offering its own specialty sauce.
Good news — I’ve got the ingredients of the secret sauce.
This quick selling formula’s main ingredient is 100% organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, social engagement.
For the non-scientific community, this is commonly known as “commenting on other people’s articles.”
Two things surprised me this past week.
First, a writer said they don’t comment on other people’s articles because it counts as stories. They limit their comments to one every-other-day.
Second, in a writing group on Facebook, people post links to their articles. I was dumbfounded to see the comments. All the comments were of other people posting links to their own pieces.
There’s no engagement. There are no relations. It’s just everyone standing shoulder-to-shoulder over the edge of a cliff, throwing out their leftovers. All the meat is tossed into the wasteland, and everyone is left starving.
Feed the world
How about this? You eat my burger, and I’ll eat yours? Or, better yet, we do a bit of pot luck? We put all our food out and take turns taking proportional bites of each other’s prepared dishes.
No, I’m not talking about:
- Clapping the burger’s wrapper and walking away.
- Coming to my establishment and handing out coupons for your restaurant.
What I’m talking about:
- Take a bite of my food; let me know how it tastes.
- I’ll take a bit of your food and let you know how it tastes.
We each feel like we created something for someone else. We each walk away feeling satisfied, both physically and mentally.
Is the food not hot enough?
Okay, maybe what I’m serving is room temperature. Let me heat it up for you:
The reason you aren’t gaining followers is that you aren’t engaging with people.
What can I say? Some people like it spicy.
If you have been writing regularly and don’t have many followers or aren’t getting any views, it is because you aren’t engaging with other people’s writing.
Please, for the love of Hemmingway, don’t go to another article and tell us how great your article is. Read what the author wrote, and write a comment about THEIR article.
Writing for the public, like cooking for others, is often scary. It is usually a personal experience that you hope other people appreciate. You don’t want teased or downplayed. You want validated and supported.
Billions of customers served
Do something nice to support your fellow writers. Support their establishment without any motive of them supporting yours. Trust me. There’s enough of that secret sauce to feed the whole world. It’ll keep multiplying, and you’ll have plenty left over to feast upon.
Ryan DeJonghe is the owner of YourEnergyHealers.Org, an online collaborative of Reiki energy healers offering services over video. He also likes to write stuff people enjoy reading. You never know what he’ll say next.
Connect with Ryan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LifeisPresence.
