"Niquemarshall" (dominiquemarshall)
10/31/2013 at 20:30 • Filed to: None
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"Niquemarshall" (dominiquemarshall)
10/31/2013 at 20:30 • Filed to: None | 0
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Is it possible? Or should step my writing/blogging/knowing people skills?
Tom McParland
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 20:32 |
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Write a good post...tweet to @Jalopnik. Hope for best. :)
Ravey Mayvey Slurpee Surprise
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 20:32 |
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It's definitely possible. You just have to write something that is interesting and in-depth. Or, at least it seems this way.
Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 20:40 |
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Not that hard at all really, I wrote a piece about Gilbern (Gilbern Sports Cars (Components) Ltd) a few months back, Raph wanted to put it on the FP, I did not tip him or tweet him, he found it by himself. I did however say no though, so it never got shared with the FP. But it's not that hard.
Just write a good post, be sure to use somewhat coherent language and proper punctuation. Oh, and it helps if you write about something that has not been done a thousand times before.
If you REALLY want to be on the FP, I'd suggest a lenghty post about Gordon-Keeble. I've been thinking about doing that myself, but don't know if I'll ever get around to do it.
Gamecat235
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 20:45 |
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Be somewhere interesting, write about something interesting...
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/tucson-amarg-3…
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/sebastien-loeb…
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
http://photography.kinja.com/sr-71-stitched…
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
nobody
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 20:45 |
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It seems like you're more likely to get shared on the weekend when Ballaban runs the shop. He was hired from Oppo, so he tends to share more from here.
orcim
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 21:09 |
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In order to make front page, I think the main thing (without being paid to do it) is to understand what engages another person and in my experience, it always comes down to the hard DNA in every person: story telling.
Create an arc to your post, have a beginning middle and end, mask the end if you can or make the story interesting in it's own right. Present "character" in the writing, a "voice" that is unique and comes from a particular point of view. Keep the pace constant - don't slow, then speed, then slow.. constancy keeps people reading (assuming it's not too slow or fast.)
My 2 bits.
Dunnik
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 21:54 |
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I've had a couple articles featured on the FP, here are some pro tips.
Write What You Know. Classic writing advice, I'm sure you've heard it before. So is there a particular model or type of car which you know backwards and forwards? Do you have insights that other Jalops/Oppos may lack? My 10 Worst Cars of the 1980's made the FP and received 33,560 views and prompted 260 comments. It's has the #1 page rank on Google when you search for "worst cars of the 1980's". I chalk this up in part to the fact that I'm an 80's kid - I grew up around these cars, and then, in the 90's when I got my license, I drove many of them.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Be a local news reporter. Canadian Jalops/Oppos are, of course, in the minority around here: I put this to good advantage by keeping an eye out for interesting and/or WTF car-related stories in the local news, such as my recent FP article, " Woman driving SUV hits 16 cars, utility pole ". It garnered 22,397 hits and 193 comments.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Polish, Polish, Polish . Don't submit something until you've read it, like, 12 times and checked it for spelling and grammatical errors. Have a friend or family member read it to check for same. I hate to be a grammar nazi, but you missed an "I" in your post above, "Or should step up..." Don't let mistakes like that get through.
Attention Grabbing Headline and Lede. You need to lure your readers in with a headline that gets their attention. Headline writing is a tricky art: your article could be brilliant but if you don't craft a good headline, nobody will read it. The "lede" is your first paragraph. It should answer the question every reader will have on their mind: why should I read this article? Like the headline, it has to lure them in, and provide just enough info to keep them interested but not so much that it robs material from the body of the article.
Source your material. This can be tedious, but if you are featuring photos that you didn't take yourself, you MUST credit them. Don't put Jalopnik in the position where they may get a call from some newspaper going, "Yo, wai u steel mai pics?!?" Same applies to quotes: don't just say "So and so said such and such," say, "So and so told the BBC such and such", unless, of course, you were the one they told.
Hope this helps, good luck!
f86sabre
> Gamecat235
10/31/2013 at 22:02 |
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That is what has worked for me. Write about something that interests you. Take some time to edit it and follow the kinja style guide. Don't feel you need to be the king of witty remarks either.
Double whammy with FP and io9 (17k views. Holy crap apple!)
http://f86sabre.kinja.com/building-it-th…
Le Mans
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/impressions-of…
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/a-jalops-guide…
SonorousSpeedJoe
> Niquemarshall
10/31/2013 at 22:02 |
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Of the five posts that I've had shared to the FP, four were news-related bits that were relatively recent (a few hours old to a few days old). They get their news from the same sources that we do, but they might be so busy writing about something else that some tidbits slip right past them until another one of their sources picks it up.
If you search "FP" on my personal blog, you'll see that most of the results are shared posts. The format I stick to is writing an introductory blurb that's short enough to fit within the 310-320ish character limit, then following that up with some (if any) additional more pictures and information after the jump. I try to make sure that my grammar is good, though one guy did try to call me out for my use of "reveal" as a noun (which ended up completely correct as per the online dictionary that he cited).
As others have said, Ballaban runs things during the weekend and shares a lot of content from across Gawker Media as well as Oppo, though there's not as much traffic during the weekends as compared to weekdays.
I would like to write something based on an experience that gets shared to the FP, as opposed to news, but I still like finding new info that I haven't seen on Jalopnik yet.
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Niquemarshall
> Dunnik
11/01/2013 at 01:46 |
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Thanks man! That Auto-Correct gets me every time. I should've caught that though.