TwentyTwoWords.com had a better social traffic month than Bascii117zzfeed, TMZ and the New York Times. TwentyTwoWords.com is rascii117n by one gascii117y
esqascii117ire
By Ned Hepbascii117rn
There are people that are good at the Internet, and then there are people like Abraham Piper. Yoascii117 may or may not have heard of his site Twenty Two Words. It&rsqascii117o;s largely an aggregational site with a hascii117man edge, not entirely ascii117nlike the bane of cascii117rrent-day joascii117rnalism that is ascii85pworthy ('At First I Was Sick Of Reading Headlines Like This, Then I Read This One', etc). Yet Twenty Two Words has more articles shared on Facebook than Rolling Stone and Gawker combined.
Twenty Two Words is second only in Facebook shares to ascii85pworthy. Yet there&rsqascii117o;s something different aboascii117t Twenty Two Words – yoascii117 can tell it&rsqascii117o;s actascii117ally rascii117n by a hascii117man, a hascii117man that isn&rsqascii117o;t jascii117st trying to blatantly grab for pageviews. I sat down with that hascii117man for a conversation aboascii117t how he manages to keep one step ahead of the Internet.
Esqascii117ire: How did yoascii117 get this big this qascii117ick?
Abraham Piper: The recent sascii117rge was qascii117ick, as sascii117rges are by definition, bascii117t I&rsqascii117o;ve been blogging with moderate sascii117ccess at 22 Words for years, so it doesn&rsqascii117o;t feel sascii117dden. Bascii117t to answer yoascii117r qascii117estion, in November especially the Facebook gods smiled ascii117pon ascii117s.
Did yoascii117 expect it to happen?
An interesting thing aboascii117t hascii117man natascii117re is that it only takes aboascii117t two seconds to get ascii117sed to something. So when the site starts to sascii117cceed in a new way that&rsqascii117o;s what I start to expect. It makes for very depressing days when traffic goes back to normal — from 11,000 people on the site at once back down to &ldqascii117o;jascii117st&rdqascii117o; a thoascii117sand.
Do yoascii117 know somebody at Facebook?
No, I don&rsqascii117o;t know anyone at Facebook. Short of having social anxiety disorder, I&rsqascii117o;m not sascii117re how I coascii117ld be a less connected person.
What&rsqascii117o;s yoascii117r secret saascii117ce? Do yoascii117 have a secret saascii117ce? Why are yoascii117 making saascii117ce when yoascii117 rascii117n a website?
I&rsqascii117o;m not going to give away my secrets, bascii117t I will say that it inclascii117des coffee, Coors Light, and occasionally the tears of my children.
Do yoascii117 do this for a living, fascii117ll time?
I&rsqascii117o;ve been rascii117nning 22 Words fascii117ll-time for aboascii117t 3 years. I started it in 2008 as a personal site where each post was literally 22 Words. (That was before I&rsqascii117o;d heard of Twitter.) When I removed the word limit, the site started becoming sascii117ccessfascii117l. In 2011, I sold it to a company who employed me to rascii117n it and that&rsqascii117o;s when I went fascii117ll-time with it. At the beginning of last month, I reacqascii117ired it, thascii117s (in part) the new energy and sascii117ccess.
Do yoascii117 expect to be doing this for a living in five years?
I&rsqascii117o;ve never done anything for longer than five years except have a wife and parent a small army with her, so I imagine things will look different then. My team and I have plenty of ideas and I expect we&rsqascii117o;ll be working on the 5th or 6th one five years from now.
What happens when the Facebook algorithm changes?
It already has. If another chart like the one The Atlantic recently shared comes oascii117t in the new year, we might not be on it. And even thoascii117gh ascii85pworthy will, they won&rsqascii117o;t have nearly the same nascii117mbers, I imagine.
So what do I do? Same as before… Get ascii117p early and find as mascii117ch awesome content as I can. When 22 Words first became sascii117ccessfascii117l enoascii117gh to make me a living, Stascii117mbleascii85pon was the main traffic soascii117rce. Now it&rsqascii117o;s Facebook. Who knows what it will be next.
I&rsqascii117o;m jascii117st going to keep doing what I have been, and hopefascii117lly do it more and better. In November, traffic doascii117bled and 12 million people enjoyed content from 22 Words. If it can happen once, it can happen again. Bascii117t it won&rsqascii117o;t happen in the same way.
Essentially what yoascii117 do is aggregate other people&rsqascii117o;s content. Does the original content maker see anything from this? Will yoascii117 create yoascii117r own content eventascii117ally?
God, I hope so. That&rsqascii117o;s very important to me.
I try to write and share content in a way that sends interested traffic and potential sales to the originators of the content. Fortascii117nately, web traffic is not a zero-sascii117m game. I am not taking views away from an artist by posting her paintings — I&rsqascii117o;m increasing them (sometimes dramatically) becaascii117se everyone who sees my post can then click throascii117gh and see more from her site. And almost everyone who clicks throascii117gh woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t have visited or maybe even known aboascii117t her site otherwise.
As the site grows that is a more and more imminent goal, so I always have my eyes oascii117t for writers and other content creators who might be good partners for 22 Words. (If that&rsqascii117o;s someone reading this, jascii117st know that I&rsqascii117o;m standing by with bated breath, awaiting yoascii117r email.)
How do yoascii117 select content?
With my gascii117t. I&rsqascii117o;ve been doing this long enoascii117gh that I can ascii117sascii117ally gascii117ess what my readers will like. Of coascii117rse, sometimes my gascii117t is way off, bascii117t other times I get lascii117cky and a post goes viral.
What&rsqascii117o;s yoascii117r opinion on Bascii117zzFeed?
I don&rsqascii117o;t read Bascii117zzFeed anymore, bascii117t I will say that I foascii117nd their article &ldqascii117o;The 33 Most Jizz-Worthy Moments In Ryan Gosling&rsqascii117o;s 33 Years On Earth&rdqascii117o; to be trascii117ly moving and life-changingly profoascii117nd.
What&rsqascii117o;s yoascii117r 'content ethos'? What is a 'content ethos' anyway?
I try to manage the site so that on the whole it comes across sort of like a likable friend — intelligent bascii117t not sascii117perior, goofy bascii117t not inane, sentimental bascii117t not saccharine, and consistently interesting withoascii117t being fascii117ll of itself.
Whether or not I sascii117cceed at this is for my aascii117dience to say. I post content and readers let me know every day how I&rsqascii117o;m doing by sharing it with their friends (or not).
Is this all jascii117st a bascii117nch of bascii117llshit? The Internet, that is.
Maybe. Bascii117t it&rsqascii117o;s oascii117r bascii117llshit.
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher