Game 19: #1 Seed Daily Writing Tips Versus #4 Seed Grow Your Writing Business

The Matchup

Top-seeded Daily Writing Tips has great traffic and an excellent focus. That allowed the site to take down a better-than expected first round opponent. Fourth-seeded  Grow Your Writing Business skated through one of the easier first-round matchups based on its community approach. Community is a key component of this round, so this should be a good match.

Community

Daily Writing Tips

Perhaps because of the nature of its articles (relatively short tips about writing and language), the community at DWT is a bit smaller than you would expect for a site with a substantial subscriber base (8500+). DWT averaged 7 comments per post over its 10 most recent posts. About five posts per article were substantive, which is a higher percentage than I have seen in other blogs so far. In many cases, the comments ask for clarification of a word definition or criticize a perceived writing error (one of the site’s focuses is on proper usage of words).

Result: DWT puts a basket in from the paint. Two points.

Grow Your Writing Business

Community is one of the linchpins of GYWB. The blog averages about 9 comments per post and about five comments per post are substantive. Blog author Yvonne Russell encourages community through her “Writers Café” feature, in which she briefly discusses a topic and then encourages her community to comment on the topic. This leads to a back and forth between the community and Russell, who tends to respond to every comment.

Result: GYWB shoots a three pointer.

GYWB gets the lead starting out, 3-2.

Value

Daily Writing Tips

DWT gets into the nuts and bolts of writing. Six of the last ten articles are about language or usage. Two more are about the writing business. Of the remaining two, one discusses domain names and the other discusses the idea of creating a forum for the site. There is no doubt that this is a site that will help you become a better writer. More importantly, this is the only site I know of that provides this sort of information on a daily basis

Result: DWT hits a three point shot.

Grow Your Writing Business

GYWB addresses several writing business topics such as book writing and blogging for networks. Some of the other posts, about Twitter and whether or not blogging is good for your health aren’t particularly about writing and are being discussed at many other blogs as well. Those sorts of articles do work well in a community format.

Result: GYWB scores a two-pointer from the top of the key.

DWT pulls even. The score is now 5-5.

Top Commented Article #1

Daily Writing Tips

Should We Add an Open Forum to Daily Writing Tips?

One of the grand old rules of generating comments is to ask a question, in this case though, this is one of the few posts in which the topic isn’t writing. Instead, the discussion is about whether or not the site should add a forum. This is an interesting question though because it goes to the point of community. Judging by the comments, the community at DWT overwhelmingly wants a forum (I didn’t see a single no vote).  Unfortunately, this isn’t a post about writing, so I can’t give it full credit.

Result: DWT gets a point from the free-throw line.

Grow Your Writing Business

Weekend Writers Cafe - Who Wants To Write A Book?

Once again, a post that asks a question in the title gets the best response. The title is a bit of a red herring though. The real question in the post is: “What’s the best way to get a book published?” Several options are given. There isn’t much real information in the posting though. This is the sort of article that relies on the community to give it value. In this case, the community does come through. Some of the comments are longer than the post itself.

Result: GYWB scores a point from the free throw line, and with the support of its community, puts in the second free throw. Two points.

GTWB takes back the lead, 7-6.

Top Commented Article #2

Daily Writing Tips

How and Where to Publish Your Short Stories

This is a 900+ word posting in response to a reader question. It guides unpublished short story writers through the process of evaluating their work and then identifying publishing markets or alternatively self-publishing their pieces. In the comments, one reader discusses the possibility of podcasting your stories, which is something that I had not thought of. There are also proofreading comments about a minor mistake in the post as well as several thank you notes.

Result: DWT nails a three point shot.

Grow Your Writing Business

Weekend Writers Cafe - Let’s Share Our Swipe File Idea & Word Sparks & Happy Easter

This is another short article that actually links to one of GYWB’s past articles. The discussion is about the use of “swipe files”. A swipe file is a folder (real or virtual) that contains ideas and words you have gleaned from other writers. The idea isn’t plagiarism so much as inspiration. The community response is as focused on Easter as they are in swipe files, but they do discuss the topic.

Result: Once again, the barebones article relies on an assist by the community to score two-points.

DWT pulls even once again, with the score tied at 9-9.

Top Commented Article #3

Daily Writing Tips

Poring over “Pore” and “Pour”

This is a classic DWT post. It discusses the difference between the words pore and pour and even provides a memory device for keeping the two words straight. As a man who has been through graduate level grammar and linguistics classes but still gets these things wrong regularly (though in this case I would have been fine), I appreciate having these posts there as a reference. The comments are fun and informative as the community discusses both usage and pronunciation by giving their own examples.

Result: DWT steps back behind the line and hits another three-pointer.

Grow Your Writing Business

Weekend Writers Cafe - Is Blogging Good Or Bad For Your Health?

This post is bringing up a recent meme started by a New York Times article about three bloggers who each had heart attacks recently. To me this is a silly story. Are there bloggers who work too hard? Probably, but I doubt there are any more workaholic bloggers than there are workaholic technical writers or workaholic copywriters. Some people overwork themselves. It doesn’t matter what the profession is. If the story were about 25-year-olds having heart attacks, I might have given it some credence, but the youngest of the three was in his forties and the oldest was sixty. There are plenty of people in those age ranges having heart attacks. Some of them don’t even work hard. My opinions on the issue aside, Russell does go into a little more detail on this Café item than she did on the others and provides several links but I would still like to see more substance to these posts. The community finds some common ground discussing their own work schedules and commiserating.

Result: With an assist from her community, Russell scores another two points.

DWT pulls ahead to win it 12-11.

Post Game Analysis

Once again we have a very close contest. This time the top-seed managed to survive — just barely. The community approach is great at Grow Your Writing Business, but I feel as if there needs to be more content in the blog entries. I don’t want to feel obliged to read the comments just to learn something. I want to learn from the articles as well. DWT stumbled slightly because their most commented article was about the site and not about writing, but their content-driven approach allowed the other two articles to make up the difference.