Is Literotica still the place to get maximum views on your erotica?

[StillStunned]

I really appreciate the wisdom and experience that has been shared on this thread.

There are some very wise writers here. You might almost call them wise-artists.

 

[SimonDoom]

I’d still very much like to see something like average views per story per category over time. And average number of stories posted by category over time.

You can do some of this research on your own by reviewing the new story lists by category. These will show you all the stories published in a category in the last 7 days. That will give you a pretty good idea of both the number of stories that are being posted per day in each category, and the average views they are getting in the first week.

For older stories, there is no average. Views per day are dependent on many, many factors, such as the category, the number of favorites, the catchiness of the name, etc. Older stories are likely to be found in one of several ways: 1) by being on long-term toplists, 2) by showing up on "similar story" lists at the end of every story, and 3) by being found through reader searches. That last factor is why having a good catchy descriptive title, and using appropriate tags, is important long-term.

I haven't published anything for six months, so my data has pretty well "settled" and does not reflect attention to new stories. I have an incest story that gets over 800 views per day and I have other stories in more obscure categories that get 2 or 3 views per day.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I write almost exclusively in IR, and just started last October. Usually, it takes less than a day for a story to hit 1k views, which as far as I am concerned is a considerable amount. I don't see any kind of statistics on any other site to compare, but for me, 1k views is probably at least 700-800 actual people clicking the story, and that's just in the first day. Over time, things tend to increase.

My expectations were extremely low coming into this, to be frank - I was writing simply to prove to myself I could do it, so the fact that I've got an audience and people who are waiting for my stuff is enough to keep me satisfied.

 

[NotWise]

I really appreciate the wisdom and experience that has been shared on this thread.

I’d still very much like to see something like average views per story per category over time. And average number of stories posted by category over time. But I guess that’s not avaialble, or would require programming / site-scraping skills to compile that I don’t possess.

@8letters has compiled quite a few statistics and posted them on the forum. You can use the search facility and look through the threads he started. There are also some posted on other threads.

The "over time" aspect is difficult because it requires that you monitor the site repeatedly. People do that. I did it, but my numbers were pre-pandemic and they might be misleading now. You can get a pretty good sense of the traffic in each category by looking at the Categories page. The number after the description of each category is the number of stories posted to the category. The category hubs will contain stories in that category from the last week or more, but large categories may be limited by the number of stories.

One thing I did when I was monitoring stats was rank the categories by the number of stories in the category and the number of posts per day in the category, then compare those rankings. Most of the rankings were the same by both measures; that the current trends were about the same as the historic trends.

There were two notable exceptions. Stories/day rank for the Cross Dressers/Transgender category and the Romance category were not consistent with the size of the category. The differences were such that the Cross Dressers/Transgender category is growing in popularity, and Romance is losing popularity.

Why? That's a different topic.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

That’s in Loving Wives, I was talking about non-honeypot categories. I know that publishing I/T and LW stories are the way to get views; both on those stories and your whole portfolio. But I have no desire to write in either. I’m talking about other categories, in which the views seem very low, and the number of new stories every day very high.

I can share my experience from my last stats download yesterday:

My stories in Novels/Novellas average 32.51 views per day. All 11 have red H's.

In comparison, my stories in I/T average 85.79 views per day. Three out of four with red H's. (This category is also the source for the majority of my followers.)

Romance stories I have published average 15.36 views per day. Two out of three with red H's.

Celebrity stories average 6.67 views per day. All with scores above 4.47, with half having red H's.

I don't write a lot of erotic content. Most of my stuff is teasing and "fade-to-black" scenes, so my expectations for views on a predominantly erotic website aren't that high. After 11 years here, I have just over 930,000 total views.

I focus more on other metrics to gauge the success of a story. I've used my story "1990" as an example before. It was published 894 days ago and as of yesterday, it has had 924 views (1.05 per day). However, with those 894 views, it has 639 votes and remains one of my highest scoring stories at 4.83.

 

[Carnevil9]

I publish stories here, and at one other site which shall remain nameless. On the other site, my stories get far fewer views, but far more comments. I find the comments much more rewarding than the views, especially since a view doesn't mean they read more than the first sentence, if that.

 

[8letters]

@8letters has compiled quite a few statistics and posted them on the forum. You can use the search facility and look through the threads he started. There are also some posted on other threads.

Thanks for the call out.

Hopefully this is what @FrancesScott wants. I pulled story statistics in 2018 and in 2023, and this is for all stories:

Looking at the statistics for all stories is both informative and not very informative. Chapters have much lower views than stand-alone stories. When looking at all stories, Incest/Taboo doesn't have average all that much more than Loving Wives. But I/T has far percentage of its stories that are chapter stories than LW. If you look at just stand-alone stories, I/T averages far more views than any other category. This is 2018 data:

 

[FrancesScott]

Thanks for the call out.

Hopefully this is what @FrancesScott wants. I pulled story statistics in 2018 and in 2023, and this is for all stories:
View attachment 2548074
Looking at the statistics for all stories is both informative and not very informative. Chapters have much lower views than stand-alone stories. When looking at all stories, Incest/Taboo doesn't have average all that much more than Loving Wives. But I/T has far percentage of its stories that are chapter stories than LW. If you look at just stand-alone stories, I/T averages far more views than any other category. This is 2018 data:
View attachment 2548075

Thank you for that. It looks like a lot of work. It was really 2025 vs prior years that I was interested in. Sorry if that sounds demanding / churlish. My only experience is now. And now seems less than what I had been led to believe by the person who suggested I try here. But I’m only one data point I realize, and I’m making little or no effort to write to an audience (as has been pointed out, probably the opposite).

 

[GrantBricksly]

This is all very helpful. I’m trying to summarize:

1. Use clickbaity titles / sub-titles
2. Publish in the big categories
3. Align your content precisely to category expectations
4. Avoid Fetish as a category
5. Don’t do anything that has the slightest chance of upsetting or challenging readers
6. Enter site competitions - less so the unofficial comp things
7. Put a link in your profile signature
8. Write longer stories
9. Write stand-alone stories
10. Wait a year

Did I miss anything? Anything else?

This is honestly not a bad list.

That being said:
Write what you know/like. Because that is where your best work will come from. It's not about "don't do anything that has the slightest chance of upsetting or challenging readers" It's about not going out of your way to purposely do it. Because that comes across as pretentious and dickish.

Also, responding to comments, in a very confrontational way....not the best way to get views. That is going to drive people away from you. I looked at "Ice Cream" You commented on it several times, and not very kindly. I'm not going to comment on the story itself, if you'd like my opinion on that, I will do so privately. But the responding comments is just not a good idea..I've responded in the comments maybe twice...and only when a question was asked, and my responce was something like "Yes, that is the plan" or "Glad you enjoyed it" short and simple.

 

[FrancesScott]

Also, responding to comments, in a very confrontational

I totally get what you are saying, but - as I mention in one comment, I take my lead from Professor Carpenter about my give a fucks being on vacation. If someone patronizes me, or mansplains me, or goes ad hominem in a comment, I’m going back at them. I don’t need readers like that. It’s not like I’m looking to make money at this.

 

[StillStunned]

Also, responding to comments, in a very confrontational way....not the best way to get views. That is going to drive people away from you. I looked at "Ice Cream" You commented on it several times, and not very kindly. I'm not going to comment on the story itself, if you'd like my opinion on that, I will do so privately. But the responding comments is just not a good idea..I've responded in the comments maybe twice...and only when a question was asked, and my responce was something like "Yes, that is the plan" or "Glad you enjoyed it" short and simple.

I read those comments about a week ago, and I understand @FrancesScott's response. She was trying to achieve a particular effect with the high-brow diction, and one that was actually clearly stated early on in the story.

Leaving aside the question of whether or not she succeeded, the comments were condescending. They seemed to want to put her in her place for using "big words", while at the same time going out of their way to show off their own vocabulary. A lot of those comments come across as "While of course I understood all those big words, a newbie writer such as yourself shouldn't use more than two syllables at a time." I'd be annoyed too if I got comment after comment like that, despite repeated my repeated explanation of what I was trying to do.

Also, lately I've been replying to every comment I get, and I find that it increases reader engagement. At the very least, it means that my story shows up twice as often in the "recent comments" list.

 

[iwatchus]

Also, lately I've been replying to every comment I get, and I find that it increases reader engagement. At the very least, it means that my story shows up twice as often in the "recent comments" list.

Do you just put a comment in replying to each comment or do you message the commenter?

 

[StillStunned]

Do you just put a comment in replying to each comment or do you message the commenter?

I just reply with an @. I also try to give some substance to the reply beyond just "thanks for reading and commenting". I think it shows other potential commenters that their feedback is seen and appreciated, and hopefully they appreciate the nuggets of background information and author's thoughts that I provide.

 

[8letters]

* Use clickbaity titles / sub-titles

Primarily no. What you want to do with your title and description is to provide to the readers a mini-summary of your story. Every category has sub-kinks. Readers want to know if your story includes a kink that they are looking for. If your story is about foot fetish, "foot fetish" needs to be in the title or description. "The CP - Gravid Games" doesn't give me any idea as to the fetish in the story (but that could be because I'm not a Fetish reader).

* Publish in the big categories

Depends on your goals. I view my publishing as I've joined the Incest/Taboo community on Literotica. I read I/T stories, and I publish I/T stories. I got into erotica writing because I wanted to give back to the community from which I was drawing so much. So, if you're reading primarily from one category, I'd advise you to support that community by publishing there.

If OTOH your goal is to get your stories in front of as many people as possible, then publishing in the big categories makes the most sense.

* Align your content precisely to category expectations

Hmmmm. This doesn't sound right to me. My advice is "Publish what you want, but have an idea of how your story will do." For example, I/T readers hate MM sex. They'll give low ratings and harsh comments to any story published in I/T that has MM sex, regardless of the tags or upfront warnings. If you want to publish a story in I/T with MM sex, go ahead, but don't be surprised by the low rating and harsh comments.

I have a number of I/T stories that have elements that are counter to category expectations, and they're doing fine. For example, I'd say that a category expectation for I/T is that, at the end, the couple walks off into the sunset. I have two stories where they break up.

* Avoid Fetish as a category

Fetish has a relatively low readership, but it's not at the bottom of the list. Erotic Couplings doesn't do much better.

* Don’t do anything that has the slightest chance of upsetting or challenging readers

I'd prefer to say, "Respect the category readers". You can challenge readers while still respecting them.

* Enter site competitions - less so the unofficial comp things

Depends on the category. A competition doesn't do that much for an I/T story as the readership is already so big and people who are open to reading I/T stories are already reading them. I'm down on unofficial competitions.

* Put a link in your profile signature

Good idea.

* Write longer stories
* Write stand-alone stories

Great ideas. On average, every additional page increases your rating, views, and number of comments, though the increase tapers as the story gets longer, plateauing around six pages. If you write a series, your first chapter will get about a third less reads than a stand-alone story, and the number of views will drop dramatically from there.

* Wait a year

No. Depends on the category, but usually a week will give you an idea of how the story is doing. With Loving Wives, that vast majority of votes happen in the first two days after a story is published.

 

[FrancesScott]

"The CP - Gravid Games" doesn't give me any idea as to the fetish in the story

I’m going to be accused of casting shade of being bitchy, I just know, but:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravid

 

[8letters]

I’m going to be accused of casting shade of being bitchy, I just know, but:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravid

I think I have a big vocabulary, and "Gravid" meant nothing to me.

 

[FrancesScott]

If OTOH your goal is to get your stories in front of as many people as possible, then publishing in the big categories makes the most sense.

My aim is to challenge myself (aka stop my goldfish like attention span from being exceeded) by writing in a number of categories (I/T isn’t one, just a personal choice, it’s a free country - for now at least). I can’t see myself churning out a never ending chain of - say - Lesbian Sex - stories.

As I say above, my latest couldn’t be much more removed from my own kinks / lived experience.

 

[FrancesScott]

I think I have a big vocabulary, and "Gravid" meant nothing to me.

It’s a medical / scientific term. YMMV.

 

[NotWise]

Thank you for that. It looks like a lot of work. It was really 2025 vs prior years that I was interested in. Sorry if that sounds demanding / churlish. My only experience is now. And now seems less than what I had been led to believe by the person who suggested I try here. But I’m only one data point I realize, and I’m making little or no effort to write to an audience (as has been pointed out, probably the opposite).

Can't give you site-wide information, but this is views over time for a story published about two years ago (6/26/2023) in Mature. It was a contest story.

This is a very typical pattern. 2025 starts at 44000 views or 550 days. After the startup period the viewing rate fell to a constant of about 20 views per day and stayed there. There is no reason to believe that views now are coming at any lower rate than they have in the past.

This is a fairly typical pattern. There are also some stories that have a very gradual curve toward declining views. I think this is a normal effect from increasing competition (more stories for readers to pick from) and possibly depleting the pool or readers with an interest in the subject, and not from a decline in readership on the site.

 

[yowser]

Hmmmm. This doesn't sound right to me. My advice is "Publish what you want, but have an idea of how your story will do." For example, I/T readers hate MM sex. They'll give low ratings and harsh comments to any story published in I/T that has MM sex, regardless of the tags or upfront warnings. If you want to publish a story in I/T with MM sex, go ahead, but don't be surprised by the low rating and harsh comments.

Maybe generally true, but hardly absolute. In all this business of writing on Lit, I think it's best to write your tale and then make the category choice.

I have only four IT stories, not an interest particularly, and the first was done purely as an experiment. It had brotherly sexual content (Laurel ended up posting a 'warning' upfront, not I) and it rated respectably enough, hardly my lowest IT tale (all but one are in the mid-fours) and no negative comments.

My focus is quality and uniqueness in the storytelling and I think a lot of good tales get warped when folks start worrying over scores and other reception metrics. I believe in going for moon shots, even if the rocket barely clears the ionosphere.

 

[FrancesScott]

This is a very typical pattern. 2025 starts at 44000 views

Your world is not my world!

 

[filthytrancendence]

I’m going to be accused of casting shade of being bitchy, I just know, but:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravid

I got UK vibes from the title and tagline, I dunno if that's off base or not. But I've never heard the word gravid uttered or written among my own (admittedly woefully under-educated) countrymen.

 

[FrancesScott]

I got UK vibes from the title and tagline

It’s Latin, not Anglo-Saxon.

 

[FrancesScott]

I got UK vibes from the title and tagline

It’s funny. The pool is actually based on a real life one that I know well. You will forgive me if I don’t divulge the state or city.

 

[NotWise]

Your world is not my world!

Ah, but it could be. Enter contests, love your readers, pick your titles and short descriptions carefully.

And for what it's worth, that story was something of a failure. Given the results from that and the previous two stories, I didn't publish again for nearly a year and a half.