How I Made the Associated Content Top 1000 Without Promoting My Content

So I was checking out my Associated Content CP profile the other day and noticed a "Top 1000" badge there. While I was flattered, I had no idea what this designation was or how I got it, so I figured that it had to do with my number of page views. Although 260,000 page views isn't exactly staggering, I thought it might be enough to place me among the Associated Content elite.

Then, a few days later I did a little searching and found that the Top 1000 designation was given out as part of the 2008 AC People's Media Awards, and that while the honor was given out ostensibly based on the number of page views, in actuality the selection was a little more complicated, since many CPs with page views in the millions did not receive the award, and those with far less did.

So I thought about why I might have received the award.

The main factor in my corner is probably number of page views per article, and the fact that in the past year, my page views have increased exponentially.

Currently I have about 260,000 page views for about 55 articles, which breaks down to approximately 4,700 page views per article. While this is hardly mind-blowing, I would say it's impressive. I've seen other CPs with many more articles and not nearly the amount of page views I have. And I've seen other CPs with similar page view amounts but far more articles.

The irony is that, I NEVER promote my content. Consider these facts:

I never post in AC forums, or any online forums for that matter.

I don't post bulletins or notes announcing new content on MySpace or Facebook, I don't send out emails to friends and family, and I don't have a blog that links to my articles. I have used social bookmarking on possibly three articles total.

I am only favorited by 5 CPs.

I never focus on writing for keyword density. I write as I naturally would, and while I make sure to include important words or phrases (for example, in this article "Associated Content") I never compromise the way I would normally write to include them.

As far as I know, I've never been featured on AC in any section, for any reason, and the Top 1000 designation is the only attention or accolade I've received from the AC community.

And yet, I have a fairly impressive number of page views for the number of articles I've written. Some of my articles are consistently popular on a low-scale, steadily drawing 1,500 to 2,500 views per month for over a year. Others have been very popular, like the one I wrote last November that has earned about 65,000 views so far.

But again, I have no idea how this is happening. I basically write my AC content and leave it alone.

My only theory is that the majority of my page views aren't coming from other CPs on Associated Content, but from web users who are finding the content from search engines, links on popular blogs or websites, or perhaps social bookmarking sites. I wish there was a way to track where my visitors were coming from, but currently I don't think there is, so I'm left to theorize.

The other factor in my corner is hopefully quality. I am a professional writer and have been for about six years, and I try to bring the same style and flair that I use for newspapers and magazines to AC. I try to write about things that interest me and that I'm knowledgable in, and try to make my work grammatically correct, free of errors whenever possible and well-written. Perhaps this has been noticed and perhaps not.

Bottom line, I think the lesson here is that quality and well-chosen topics will outweigh avid promotion any day of the week. Not to say that promotion isn't important, but I think that if you choose a popular topic, write a specific, discoverable headline and write as you naturally would, being aware to include important keywords but not changing your writing style to do so, your content will promote itself.

And you might even end up one of Associated Content's Top 1000 CP's to your surprise.