Belunn Se: Why not writing?
Why not writing?
Belunn Se | Senior Industry Observer
I have been writing for several years; well, let's take a look at my article performance.
Compared with some of hot articles with 10K+, 100K+ readings, my articles usually 2,000+, 3,000+ readings, which is really small quantity, no mention "success"!
But, actually this doesn't bother me at all, because I just follow my interests in watching and thinking about the technology industries; I take writing as my hobby as Industry Observe in my spare time. And I was aware that the most frequent readers usually are from industry relevant sectors: Industry Insider, Research Organization, Industry Exhibiter, Institutional Investor etc., since what leads to the continuous attention is the mutual interests.
_Conclude to 1st question: _
Intended reader basis, depends on segmentation of 2B professional topics or 2C personal topics
Well, look further into what I "wrote", to say it more accurately, may say that I was not writing, rather than saying I am just summarizing and refining some of the facts and EVENTS based on my watching, therefore, I guess this would save time for some of professionals in the same interests segment by just reading my organized summarizes.
_Conclude to 2nd question: _
_Value to 2B professional readers, thinking about bring them convenience and brainstorming _
Moreover, since 2013, We-Media startup business has been emerging and developing rapidly, many Personal and Team joined this round of content entrepreneurship; except some percent of original articles and some of edited translation news that imported from overseas, high percentage of others could not be called "writing" either, better to say "news generator" or "news duplicator" by catching the hot news in season catering for readers interests. Even, there are news writing software to help them quickly create "similar" news with several modifications than original one.
Following is the statistics of reading behaviors, among top 100 We-Media, mass life type accounts including Humor, Culture and Emotional types counted over 50%, minority is military and political news!
_Conclude to 3rd question: _
Attractive to 2C personal readers, thinking about the focuses on human attention natures such as: Curious, Desire etc.
Of course, we hope our readers happy spending their precious time in reading our articles. Hence, usually, length of common 2C topic news article better to be around 1,000 words with likely 5 minutes reading time, which would be properly efficient for the readers in this fast paving society.
Certainly, just like my 2B articles that low publishing frequency of just several posting per monthly about the Industry Observation and Comment mostly will exceed 1,000 words. And for such boring technology articles, series of monthly IoT and IIoT industry dynamics, their feedbacks vary as well; I was noticed that the articles with nice pictures and accurate briefing usually attract fast and relatively large amount readings. (Not sure how many was attracted by the cover photoes^.^)
_Conclude to 4th questions: _
First impression attraction sequencing: expression by photos, titles, briefing
For information distribution and follower accumulation, not only the content itself is essential, but also the distribution channels with large reader basis is critical.
I mainly post my articles in English on my LinkedIn that has over 19,000 connections, each article usually got 2,000~3,000 readings worldwide; post on WeChat Moment with around 3,000 friends(mostly English speaking), usually just hundred readings.
As I stated before, 2B topics and professional article, it is dedicated difficult to reach and no necessary to be compared with 2C topics articles of thousands of or 100K+ readings; and it is reasonable taking longer time to gather more scattered business reader followers as I'm an Industry Observer instead of "We-Media".
Once, I also took part in the columnist project on New Republic platform, the News aggregator APP with millions of active readers, which was acquired by Cheetah Mobile on August 2016 and sold to Toutiao on November 2017. By its system AI intelligent promotion to America market, some general technology news article could reach 20K~30K readings easily.
Moreover, Wechat Official Account article, certainly written in Chinese, hot topic and widely forwarded spread in Wechat eco-system could reach 100K+ readings or more.
_Conclude to 5th question: _
_Reader Approaching, distribution channel platform eco-system matters mostly _
Some friends may be curious how much I benefited from writing?
As addressed previously, I write because I like. Continuous watching into the industry dynamics helps me to approach to their operations regular and principles, which would really be intangible assets since it brings me insight on better understand the industry and even foresee its tendency!
And, besides the occasional lecture invitations and consultant requests, which brought opportunity meeting more of friends in the industry; on the other hand, for direct economic benefits, yes, I received some contribution fees for my articles published likely on CCTV.COM etc., which could afford celebration with friends for several nice meals^.^
However, frankly speaking, my Wechat Official Account still didn't reach the standard to insert advertisement to generate and share the advertisement income, which needs 10K+ followers for original article writer, 20K+ followers without original certification according to its regulation. This is a big challenge on follower accumulation for personal account especially on professional topics with not-intensive posting as hobby at spare time. But, I don't care much about the reading and follower figures, as stated previously, I was not planned to be a "We-Media" at all.
Furthermore, as regards the tipping to my articles, frankly speaking, I just received 2 tips, one is from my sister, another is from my dear classmate^.^
Comparatively, a typical case in WeChat Public Account eco-system last year, the widely spread article that a father calls for saving his daughter suffering from leukemia under the title "Luoyixiao, please stop leaving from me" gained 2.5 million CNY "tipping" (may better to say "Donation"), which was questioned by the internet community later as found the father has 3 apartments in Shenzhen, then the tips were returned to the donators finally.
_Conclude to 6th question: _
Tipping driving momentum sequencing: Sympathy, Mercy, Resonation, Supportive...
[caption id="attachment_583" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
Fat Luo(Luo Zhenyu), who runs "Luojisiwei" (Personal Knowledge Talkshow) and "Dedao" (Knowledge Service APP) at his 2017 Cross Year Speech / Photo from Internet[/caption]
At 20:30 on December 31, 2017, Luo Zhenyu's "Friends of Time" Cross Year Speech was conduct in time; the topic of this year that Fat Luo focused is "Chinese Style Opportunity". As a famous influencer, big personal IP, Fat Luo is good at sparking middle class' anxiety and is good at cooking Chicken Soup for the Soul as well, which could be reflected from audiences' enthusiasm: the first "Friends of Time" Cross Year Speech 2016, tickets income more than 10 million, audience on the spot more than 4,000; audience for this year Cross Year Speech more than 10,000 on the spot, estimated millions of on-line!
Conclude to 7th question:
Media trend, paid knowledge is emerging with much potentials
Lastly, why do you want to write??
Perhaps, you would like to be a freelance or "We-Media", original expectation is that could arrange your time freely and no need watching your boss zombie face, which means you chose a life style as well, your reader is your boss; while the reality is that if would like to earn a life as "content generator" in Chinese "We-Media" eco-system, even some of "writers" obtained the help from writing software to track and cater for the hot topics, they may still feel working 12 hours a day is still not enough, which is actually depends on how efficient you do want to use the time and life by take your advantages and resources.
Hardworking might be able to give a relatively decent life for content generators, but difficult to make them rich. Following is the incoming statistics of Chinese "We-Media" writers:
Disregarding the low-technique content generator, you may wish to be an original writer. By taking your talent, only to get started and be patient to hold on consistently and persistently, you may be the next influencer as popular columnist and novelist, just like J. K. Rowling, before Harry Potter she was nothing, after Harry Potter she is the pop star...
Well, if you are still with me so far...
And, certainly if you like writing and have a dream on it, why not?
Just go for it and good luck, my friend!
By Belunn SE
IoT|IIoT|Industry4.0
Senior Industry Observer
Based in Shenzhen, China
LinkedIn:belunn@gmail.com
Wechat: Belunn