Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

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In case it isn't obvious, I'm the author of the piece. Some of my writing about homelessness and similar does well here, like this piece from about a month ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22417487

I'm genuinely baffled that people on HN persist in asserting that Write Pay is content marketing for Textbroker or that I'm a shill for them. This isn't the first time someone here has said something like that.

I've been a member of HN more than a decade. My previous handle was briefly on the leader board. I know there are people here who recognize me.

I'm trying to bring solutions to the table in the face of a pandemic. They're solutions I've field tested, so to speak.

I don't know what I need to do to get this taken as seriously as some of my other writing. If anyone has suggestions, shoot me an email.

It might be because you use a bunch of different sites for your different writing, which means each one gets evaluated by first impressions and people's first impressions tend to be suspicious. If you had a single unified site/identity like some of the other writers on HN, people might be more likely to recognize you and realize that they know you already, but a site like this seems like a one-off. The name "write pay" probably brings up sketchy associations in people's minds too and there isn't necessarily any trusted association to offset that. Now that you've posted the above, that will probably change. If your main audience is people who need to get paid and didn't know that they can write to do it, that's a great name. But maybe not so much for the audience here.

Are you sure it's not taken seriously by those who need need the solution? Do you have any way of knowing how many people have investigated/signed up as a result of your suggestion?

If you want to be taken seriously don't make it so obvious.

I don't know what that means. Can you explain a little?

Don't make it so obvious = the best content marketing is subtle and indistinguishable...just offering some feedback for future efforts.

It's not content marketing. It's first-hand testimony that this worked for me under extremely difficult circumstances posted to an audience that best knows me for surviving those extremely difficult circumstances.

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