Page View Races - April-June 2010

The page view races are a quarterly race to see which writers at AC can earn the most page views in a set amount of time. You compete on two levels - your own individual page views, and as part of a team. To keep new writers like me from getting crushed by Clout 10 juggernauts, writers are separated into leagues based on their total starting page views. The races were dreamed up by Han Van Meegerin - check out his article "Page View Races: Everything You Need to Know" for more information.

I first heard about the page view races a few weeks ago when I read an article of R.C. Johnson's about it. They sounded like a lot of fun, so I quickly sent a message to Han letting him know I'd like to be involved. The lists were published as of yesterday, showing everyone's page view totals as of March 31^st and detailing how the teams are split up. Here are the lists: Individual Races and Team Races. If you're participating in the page view races, you'll want to know where you stand (and who the competition is!).

For individual page views, I fall into the 0-9,999 category. For this quarter's race, there are 27 writers with under 10,000 views competing. Thankfully it's not about how many page views you started with, or I'd have already lost out - 2 of the writers in my category (Sandy James and Bonnie Doss-Knight) already have over 9,000 views. Even without this distinction, I may have my work cut out for me. Most of the other writers in my category have more starting views than I do, and at least one is a Featured Contributor. Not to mention, a few of the other writers on the same tier as me are people I consider my AC friends. These are among the network of people who have supported my work so far, and whose work I read often. As much as I'd like to be able to say "I won!", I think these people are wholly deserving too.

Page view races aren't necessarily about the winning though. It seems like a great way to meet with other writers who are in the same boat with you, learning from each other and networking. For every one of the writers in my category that I'd heard of, there's another that I hadn't. It'll be nice reading the work of the others in my tier, as well as getting to know those on my team in the league races.

For the team competition, I'm in league #8. League 8 is made up of the same 27 writers with 0-9,999 views, split up into 3 teams of 9 each. I wound up on team Turn the Page. I was happy to see two of my AC friends - Trine Feuerborn and Leroy Coffie - are also on this team. Unfortunately, my other buddies in this tier wound up on rival team The Write Source. To Darren Koobs, Pammila Allen and Emma Larkins - good luck! Honestly, I wish good luck to all the participants, but it's just human nature to want to see your friends succeed most.

Beyond the friendships you stand to make and the page views you earn, there's no real "prize" offered for participating in the page view races. The races are not officially sponsored by AC like other contests such as the "Best of AC" awards or the PMAs. I'm really looking forward to seeing where these next two months take me. It would be nice to break into the next tier when June's races begin, but I think going from the 1,480 views I had on March 31^st to over 10,000 in just two months is a pretty lofty goal. Regardless of where I wind up by June 1^st, and whether I win or not, I appreciate the opportunity for friendly competition with my fellow AC writers. Thanks Han for running the races, and good luck everyone!