People love to look behind the scenes. As the Enquirer coyly says, Inquiring Minds Want to Know. Ever wonder how we manage to create more content every month than anyone else in Manufactured Housing? In fact, we create more content on most any WEEK than the rest of the ‘national’ publications, combined. How is that done?
Part of the secret is having a dedicated core of volunteers and/or paid writers/supporters. We can’t do this alone. No one person could.
Another part of the secret is we send out a reminder, an ‘invite to write’ for the month. Some of our writers are amazingly disciplined – Fair Housing attorney Nadeen Green, or management guru Tim Connor comes to mind. Others are a few times a year, and the rest fall somewhere in between.
Here is our monthly invite to write. Read this once, and you’ll see and consider things you may never have thought of before. Read it twice, and you’ll see why others see value in providing the best, broadest, deepest cross-section of industry information…ever in MH History.
There is also a special announcement/request below. Please participate in that request! Enjoy the insight, and see the closing comment, below…
— Oct Invite To Write – Emailed to our Periodic and Regular Writers —
Let me begin by thanking the newcomers to those who are or soon will be writing for MHProNews.com and/or MHLivingNews.com. Darren at DataComp, Chris at MHRE, Amy at NADAguides, Wayne at Grenade Marketing, John at Sunshine and Lance at 21st are all among the growing family of those who are contributing to the broadest content in the MH Industry’s trade journal history.
We’re proud of our writers and sponsors, because they make this adventure in 21st century communications possible for the Industry Pros, Public Officials, Non-Profits, Investors and Media that increasingly comes to both our Trade focused and Public focused websites.
As the industry’s runaway most popular publisher, it should be no surprise that the least popular featured article on our site would be a top or most-read featured article with any other print or online MH industry publication. That’s a fact.
We had the chance to compare the readership (hits or page views) of some of articles with giants like Forbes, that reach a much larger audience with many more readers. While total readers are naturally good, how many times an article gets read is clearly important too! So it is to tip of the hat to writers like YOU when I say that we have many articles that compete well with some big-to-huge websites on actual hits/page views on given articles.
That said, articles on:
- Current/Recent Events
- Legal
- Finance
- Communities
- Retailing
- Products, Services, Homes
- Marketing
- Sales
- Upcoming Events
- Politics (connected with the industry)
- Historical Perspectives
- Popular figures and leaders (our A Cup of Coffee with… Interviews routinely rock, but so do our Q&A’s like the current one with Frank Rolfe, or the interviews featuring Sam Zell or Marty Lavin)
- Video Interviews (like the current one on Matt Weaver, or recent ones with Sam Landy, Scott Roberts, etc, etc. etc.)
- Inspiration, Thought Pieces
- Specialized Interests
are all among very well read content in our monthly Featured Articles.
If you’d please have your article in by Sept 25th, that should make it into our BIG October issue. Earlier is always appreciated.
October will mark our 6th anniversary of publishing
It took less than 90 days for us to pass the then-published subscription levels of the largest remaining MH trade publication. It took about 6 months to surpass the national association in their then-published page views. Both of them (these are just facts, please don’t read any critique into this) have since stopped sharing their statistics in their respective media kits. Based on inside info or the last known info, we have about 6 times (+/-) the readership/page views of the next closest ‘similar’ website, print or e-Publication. Compared to some of the bloggers out there, we’ll have more traffic by noon on a slow day than they’ll have in a month.
There are larger sites in MH than ours! But none are bigger or more popular that are active in our MH news, tips and views space.
That means your articles are important.
Fueling MH Progress
There are those who want to see MH grow, adapt, mature or advance on some issue or in some fashion. Please keep in mind that experts and experience both agree that consistency in communications is a key. When you are dependable, you build an audience of your own.
Some think they’ll change the world with a single article. Think about your favorite commentator, in or out of MH. I’ll bet you’ve been following them for years, right? That’s the template. The discipline of writing routinely is a huge part of the success of the writer. That said, we value the periodic as well as the routine writers.
A Request
We will once more have anniversary comments (last year 5th Anniversary, this year the big 6th!) Some of the biggest names in the business wrote in, but those published were routinely well known and respected leaders. Mike Bowen of AMIG has thoughtfully shared a 6th Anniversary quotable quote early! Please take 5 and send one in too. My thanks.
October is in the middle of meeting season. People are going to or looking forward to industry events. They are looking for the Industry News, Tips and Wiews that Pros Can Use. © A slow day on MHProNews is busier than the attendance of the two largest 3 day industry trade events combined.
That means, your words matters. Thanks again for being a part of this adventure in Innovation, Inspiration and Information © for MH Industry Professionals. Please have your October articles and Quotable Quotes in by or before Sept 25th.
All the Best,
Tony
— End of October Invite to Write —
In our consulting, training, video, website, marketing and business development services with/for MH industry clients, we teach a very simple yet profound truth. All success is predicated on proven systems. Think about that in the context of what we do, because we are practicing what we preach, day by day. ##
PS: Our emailed Newsletters are a great way to stay current on industry events. We typically send these out about 8 times monthly, updated each time they are mailed with the latest news, tips and views.
