How to Become a Succesful AC Contributor

You are reading this article. Good. That means that you've found the AC website. You're reading this particular article. Even better. This means you're either writing articles yourself and want to find out how to improve your chances of becoming successful, or you're completely new to this and want to see what AC is about and read from experienced writers what the do's and don'ts of AC publishing are (it's also better because you're reading my article, but saying so would be downright arrogant).

Now there is one small 'but' in this whole set-up: I am neither experienced, nor successful. I just figured you don't have to be a top player to become a top coach. And I also think I might provide other people with some useful hints, even when I'm not following them myself. I've mentioned before that being coherent and consequent are two concepts completely wasted on me.

Before you start writing, you need to come up with a subject. The beauty of AC is that there are no limitations, so you can start out with writing about subjects you feel really comfortable with and once you've gained some confidence, move on to other subjects. Doing some creative thinking to come up with subjects often brings out the best in you. When you're writing, be very aware that you are writing for other people, and they're interests are not necessarily the same as yours. If you're a rather technically inclined person, you can probably get very excited about which type of screw was used in a particular type of wooden floor, but I doubt it a lot of people will continue reading to the end.

Stick to your own style. Even if it's not exactly Shakespearian, it's still better than forcing yourself to a style you're not comfortable with. Remember, this site is for amateurs (if not, how am I ever gonna get this published). There might be thousands of people who actually like your style. Hey, a lot of people still think Stallone and Schwarzenegger are good actors (can I be sued by a Senator, or just rely on the Freedom of Speech thing or even plead temporary insanity). If people like the way you write and you stick to it, the more likely it is they go looking for your other articles as well.

Something you'll read in every other article on how to do this, but which I'm absolutely, totally clueless about: advertise. Whether that means running around the streets like a madman telling everybody to visit your page or buying a half-page sized ad on the cover of the New York Times, I really, really don't know. I guess it has something to do with paying friends and family or putting links on blogs and stuff. If you find out, let me know.

There will probably come a time when you suffer from writer's block (it happened to me just before my first article). The good thing is that there are plenty of articles to read. You might get inspired by how other writers write, find subjects that didn't seem interesting at first but looking at it from another angle suddenly opens a whole new window, and so on. I'm not saying you should go and copy whatever you find interesting. It's not because I copied this entire article from another site that you should go and do the same. It's called plagi-something, remember? While you're reading other people's content, you can add a few comments to writers you like and suck up. Apparently the whole networking thing works pretty good too, and a little bit of 'I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine' never hurts..

Most importantly, believe in yourself. No matter what other people say, don't loose faith and keep writing, just as long as you yourself enjoy doing so (unless they break into your house and burn your PC down, that might be a hint that you should stop writing and look for something else, like changing light bulbs in streetlights or something). You won't get rich overnight. Even for the best of us it took some time to get where we are. But once you do reach that stardom and you get your first stalker, groupies start sleeping on your doorstep and your face starts appearing on t-shirts, you realize it was all worth it. Now if you please would excuse me, it's time for my medicine.