How Important Are Biz Tips?

Hey, you're the first person I've seen who earned the Tipster badge! Congratulations Rachel.

Here's my thinking on Articles vs. Tips: Articles, because they are feature length, an article allows the author to really share (and reveal) their knowledge in a way that tips simply can't.

That doesn't mean that tips aren't valuable - they are. That's why we have them there. We can and will do a better job of pulling tips out and making them more visible on the site elsewhere, which will give them additional visibility.

I'm a fan of Tips as well - primarily because I find the information a bit more digestible, and being busy (not to mention an avid reader anyway), it's often easier for me to read a handful of tips than it is to read even 2-3 articles.

I'm also, like Rachel, a fan of more concise writing. I find it's more helpful to make a couple of quick points in multiple posts than it is to try to explore one topic at length.

Ditto, ditto.

(I'm not trying to be snide with my succinctness, but ... the "articles" I've started to write turn out to have word-counts that make them Tips. And since Tips seem minor on the Biznik scale of contributions to the community, my resources are better spent by attending an event than by publishing any Tips.)

I have to admit to being on the other side from Leila and Dani. Occasionally a tip will be helpful, but often it's so short that it's hard to get beyond the obvious advice. I read articles - I may scan a tip or two, but not many of them have drawn me to keep scanning them.

On the other hand, even a short tip can imbed a link that takes you elsewhere.

I agree with Rachel and would like to see tips get more exposure.

I just published my first article. At first it was under 500 words, so the system suggested I make it a tip. But I looked at the Tip section and saw it was under-utilized - hardly any ratings - so I didn't want my writing to flounder there. So I decided to expand my Tip and make it an article. I didn't add fluff though, I thought about it and added more useful info.

I do agree with Rachel in that "why have Tips if they are going to be barely seen?" - except that it might motivate people to write Articles. =)

One thought I have - responding to Mark - is that maybe Tips would be higher quality if they were more exposed. More people would write them - they would get rated so people would have incentive to write better ones - etc.

These are all good thoughts... Maybe the articles and tips should all be mixed in together, with the only difference between them being a color designation, or simply in the title: Article: Title or Tip: Title.

I've noticed that the more categories one has in online experiences, the more attention gets divided, and the more some things get ignored. The fewer the categories, the better, to focus attention.

Especially in building community, it's important, I've found, to not give too many nooks and crannies, because people then don't gather all together in one place- they spread out, and that dissipates the energy.

I know that in the beginning, Articles differed from Tips in that the articles were submitted, edited, reviewed and so on before publication, while Tips just appear when we submit them.

So, Articles had more Biznik endorsement behind them, while who-knows-what merit a Tip might have.

I haven't looked recently, but I'm suspect that's how it still is.

Maybe Tips could earn their cred by their ratings (I acknowledge that that which is unseen doesn't get rated ...)? hmmm. I dunno.