Well, this is the time of year when writers covering the Detroit Lions (and the NFL in general) truly prove their worth and earn their pay. The only time when there is less to write about is in the month prior to the start of training camp. We rely on these writers and their talents to create articles that are relevant and interesting to those who read our Morning Intel column on the regs. Its times like these when writers have to dig deep to create content for you, the information-hungry reader. There are many ways to write stories when news is scant, in today’s Morning Intel, we’ll take a peek behind the curtain while we link you to the day’s most important stories. Remember, we want to be sure that you get the most important and up-to-date news every morning so that you are fully prepared to speak to your colleagues or customers about our Detroit Lions.
One thing that is proven to drive traffic to a site is to create a list. The reason that you see so many stories titled, “The 10 key ways…”, or “8 reasons why…”, etc., is because people tend to click on them. When news is slow, you have to find something to write about, and creating lists is a sure way to ensure that your stories get eyeballs on them. Its in that spirit that we want to tell you about five lists of five things to know.
Something else writers can do is to take a quote or two from a notable person within an organization and write a story about those quotes. To do this on a regular basis is the bread and butter of a writer in these slow news seasons. The more notable the person quoted, the more hits you can pull. A good place to start is at the top of an organization, particularly if the top person is relatively new. People have an innate desire to get to know this person and be able to understand their thought process. Filling that need with a story and two quotes is media magic on display.
Another thing that a news-starved writer could do it write an article that is based right out of a press release. If you can utilize a press release for charitable work as the basis for your article, you have hit the jackpot. Its a long-proven strategy to let the news write itself (or be written by the news-makers) when good content is scarce.
Sometimes trying to mine news gold from long past subjects of discussion is a way to pass the slow days. If you have an instructor/teacher reviewing topics that have already been covered, it means one of two things:
- There’s a test coming
- They’re past the end of the material they are ready to teach
Learning to recognize this pattern can be valuable to you.
Lastly, there’s the clickbait and slideshow garbage that sites dump in a strict attempt to drive ad revenue. We’ve said it from the beginning, there will never be slideshows on this site, and we will never purposely drop clickbait headlines. Also, we won’t link to them.
We are not here to bash on the writers we’ve linked to in this edition of Morning Intel. They do great work and are suffering just as much as the fans are at the dearth of interesting, new information about the Detroit Lions. Their job is to find/create content that people view. Try doing that every day, you’ll quickly find out how difficult it can be. That being said, we thought it would help to “open the Kimono” for you in today’s Morning Intel and to help you see some strategies for bringing eyeballs to content.
