My articles published 200+ websites |
To all the young people out there...STAY IN SCHOOL! Jerry Aragon/The Humor Doctor humordoctormd@yahoo.com |
My Love for Creative Writing Celebrating My 1st Year Anniversary in Writing (August/06 to August/07) |
As a woodcarver for over 25 years, I'm out of the art and craft world, and I have no background in writing whatsoever. And, if I didn't have my hands full teaching myself to carve wood, I had to stick my nose into the difficult field of writing...I must be crazy! Over the years, I've carved over 200 individual cartoon-like characters in wood, and most of them were captioned. I wrote about how the idea for the piece came about, and then described the piece, and that's how my interest in writing began. Many years later, I was invited to join the Southwest Writers, by the then president of the organization. With over 600 members nation-wide, S.W. Writers has some of the most talented and accomplished writers anywhere, and I was flattered by the invitation! With the desire to write more in the future, and in my 40's, I completed two writing correspondence courses; the Witer's Digest and the National Writers Club course, along with a creative writing class at the University of New Mexico, which was one of the best things I've ever done for myself. It has given me the confidence in my writing to build a website, and to publish my writing pieces on article directories, etc. I knew nothing about article directories until August, 2006, when I posted my first articles on Ezine Articles.com. As a novice in writing, this is one of the best things I'v done, because if I'm going to be a good writer, I have to be tested! That is...at Ezine Articles.com, my articles have to be accepted by the editorial staff, before they are posted. I have to follow strict rules and guidelines in spelling, punctuation and grammar, etc. After a modification of an article is done, the piece has to be re-accepted by the editorial staff, etc. So, I have to edit...edit...and edit some more if I expect to show the world my articles. I hope the reader doesn't mind if I "toot my horn" just a little, as it has been an exciting and rewarding year for me! If somebody would have told me in August 06, that all 61 of my articles would be published on over 160 different websites on the Internet, I would have told that person to take their medication! If somebody would have told me that there would be over 600 publisher views/hits, meaning that website/ezine owners, MAY want to publish an article, I would have told that person to have his or her head examined! Amazingly, my three non-smoking articles led the way most of the year in getting publsihed on other websites; Smoking Sucks: How I Quit Smoking: Sabrina: Another Smoking Casualty; Have You Ever Kissed an Ashtray? This is a "free content" directory, and if I can't give my articles away, what makes me think I can sell an article to the paying markets...a newspaper/ezine or magazine? My articles and book are different, but the same, in the fact they they are of the same style, story-telling ability, etc., so if I can't give my articles away, what makes my think people will pay me money for my book? They won't...so placing my articles on this directory and getting all this feedback has been a good test for me! One of my biggest surprises, is the balance in the top twenty articles between humorous, the humor-related articles and the serious pieces. Eleven of my top twenty articles are humorous or humor-related, and nine are are of a serious nature. Another surprise for me, is how my article entitled, Here's the Skinny on How I Lost 40 Pounds, has run away with the field at both Ezine Articles. com and at my other writing site, Author's Den! I wish they could all perform this good! Only one of my articles, Diabetes On The Rise, debuted at number one in November, 2006, and remained there for over two months! I was looking for it at the bottom of the pile where most articles start out...and there it was sitting on top of the pile the next morning after I submitted it. The piece finished the year in the #5 spot. Another piece that brought me joy, was a silly piece I wrote entitled, The English Language is All "Greek" To Me! This piece is a spoof on the English language, and I turned in a similar article for my final paper in the Writer's Digest writing course, and my writing instructor, Dr. McCollister rejected it! I wanted to see what the public would think about it, so I re-wrote it, and as of 7/07 the article is a couple of hits from getting into my top ten on my articles list! (Yahoo!) There have been a few disappointments along the way as well, as I thought a few pieces would do better than they did including; How I Got Started in Humor; Are You Afraid of Failure?; The Hero's of 9/11 Will Never Be Forgotten; Do I Look Like a Rocket Scientist To You? are a few that have not done well, etc. But, every novice in writing should know...and every veteran as well...you're not going to win them all! But overall...the year has been a joy to see so many of my articles published on so many different websites on the Internet, and I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read my articles and given them a chance! I am also grateful to the website owners who hav published my articles on their websites, and I hope their visitor's enjoy them as well. It's now celebration time...as I begin Chapter Two...WRITE ON! Copyright: Jerry Aragon; 2007 |
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This is a family website |
My top 20 list follows... |
As a novice in writing, there were many surprises for me all year long, and I would like to share with the reader, how things turned out for my first year. The reader will see the variety of topics that I wrote, and the below listed articles appear in the order as they finished the year at EzineArticles.com. 1) Here's The Skinny On How I Lost 40 Pounds: By far, this is my most popular article, and it is running away with the field at both EzineArticles.com and at my other writing site, Author's Den. 2) Music: The Beginning of Rock and Roll For Me (1955) (humor) It took 50 years to write this piece, and it moved very quickly up the pop charts. I don't think it will ever be at number one, as it is over 350 hits/views behind the leader! 3) The Seriousness of Depression: I didn't know how serious depression was, until I started to research this piece. This piece got off to a good start, and then one day, it got about 250 hits over-night and took the top spot and remained there for about a month! 4) Discrimination Against Older Workers (Ageism); This is one of my surprise pieces and I never thought it would do this well. It broke into the top ten and has remained there for over 8 months. 5) Diabetes On The Rise: Of my 61 articles, this is the only piece, that debuted at number one, and stayed there for three months! 6) Halloween: The Two-Headed Monster: (humor) This was the first piece I wrote at EzineArticles.com, and it has been in the top ten from the beginning. 7) I'm Proud to be an American Veteran: This piece took giant steps to the top, and was probably my fastest moving article. Although this piece is in the 7th spot, it is more than 600 hits behind the leader. 8) Is Bald Beautiful? (humor) This is another surprise piece for me, and I thought it would find its way to the land-fill when I wrote, but it's doing pretty good! 9) Smoking Sucks: How I Quit Smoking; A few weeks ago, it was at the #25 spot, so it has begun to climb lately. 10) The Negative Side of Humor; If there is pushing and shoving going on, it is for the #10 spot. There are five articles competing for the 10th spot, and this piece is one of them. I love it! 11) Auto Racing: Ladies...Start Your Engines...(humor) Another fun piece to write, and it has slowly raced around the track and into the top ten passing all the other slower articles. 12) The English Language is all "Greek" To Me! (humor) As I said in the other piece, this article was rejected by my writing instructor at Writers Digest, and I wrote it again, to see what the public thought of it. As you can see, it has done very well, and I am very pleased! (Yahoo!) 13) Don't Golf My Way (humor) Amazingly, this piece held the #10 spot for most of the year, and then it had a bogey on hole #10, missed the cut, and fell out of the top ten. If you don't want to learn the game of golf...read this piece! 14) How Humor Helps Us All to Cope With the Aging Process: This piece, and Diabetes On The Rise, and the only two articles that I quoted from the original article, and then offered My Two-Cents on the subect matter. Both have done well. 15) My Personalized License Plate Reads: SLOWPOK (humor) Another fun piece to write, because creative writing is my cup of tea. If you want a test at being creative...try to do it in seven or less numbers or letters, etc. 16) Does Life Begin at 40? (humor) After about 8 months, the humor, humor-related and the serious articles were about the same in number. But, as time has gone by, the humor articles are starting to dominate. 17) Legacy: The Gift of Writing: (humor) This piece was written three times. Twice at about 800 words and both were bombs and were going nowhere! I cut the words in half, and made it into a humor piece and it took off into the top 20 and it is still moving up! 18) How I Saved My Dog Daniel: I'm so glad this piece is doing well, because it shows how people can save their pets if the need arises, etc. 19) Humor 101 For Dumbos! If you ever want to be funny...take my advice! (yeah, right!) 20) Just Say NO to Dirty Humor; Another pleasent surprise, as I thought this piece would be bringing up the rear someplace. |
Articles published on websites |
Listed below are the articles that have published the most on other websites. The reader will note, that my most popular article, Here's The Skinny On How I Lost 40 Pounds, in not on the list. (Final list for the first year/8/07) 1) Smoking Sucks: How I Quit Smoking (published on 16 websites) 2) Sabrina: Another Smoking Casualty: (15 websites) 3) Halloween Party: The Two-Headed Monster (14) 4) Discrimination Against Older Workers (Ageism); (11/tie) 5) Legacy: A Gift of Writing; (11/tie) 6) How I Saved My Dog Daniel (11/tie) 7) Music: The Beginning of Rock and Roll For Me (1955) (10) 8) Have You Ever Kissed an Ashtray? (9/tie) 9) The Negative Side of Humor; (9/tie) 10) How Humor Helps Me To Cope; (9tie) I hope this list encourages other writers to dig down into their imaginations and let those ideas pour out. Happy writing...Jer |
OBJECTIVE: To spread the word about my work...my website; book; display show; screenplay, etc., and what better way to do that, than to have my articles published all over the Internet! |
"A joy that isn't shared...dies young." Ann Sexton |
.Get inspired...get motivated...get going! |
Copyright; Jerry Aragon; 2007 All Rights Reserved |
My articles published 200+ websites |
