Ten Thousand Views

[RandallKinds]

I have a story that in a few short weeks is approaching ten thousand views according to my View Submissions page. While I realize that it's probably fairly typical, I find it absolutely amazing that thousands of folks have actually read (or at least glanced) at my story. Amazing to the point of skepticism: how accurate IS that number anyhow?

 

[Darkniciad]

I have a story that in a few short weeks is approaching ten thousand views according to my View Submissions page. While I realize that it's probably fairly typical, I find it absolutely amazing that thousands of folks have actually read (or at least glanced) at my story. Amazing to the point of skepticism: how accurate IS that number anyhow?

Nobody really knows. The general opinion is that the number is high -- maybe even quite high -- in relation to the number of actual people who have opened the story.

If you really want to sit there with your mouth hanging wide open and your eyes bugged out like a cartoon character, write an incest story *laugh*

You'll have 10k views in 15 minutes. Won't take that long if the title and tagline are catchy.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

What I find amazing is one of my stories has 120,423 views yet is one of the lowest rated of my stories @ 3.62...of course it is in the LW category.

And my highest rated story @ 4.91 only has 4,408 views...in the Sci-Fi category.

But that's the nature of Lit.

 

[sr71plt]

Nobody really knows. The general opinion is that the number is high -- maybe even quite high -- in relation to the number of actual people who have opened the story.

Don't you mean "in relation to the number of actual people who have read the story."

It does represent the story being opened, doesn't it?

 

[oggbashan]

The category, particularly "Incest" and the pull of the title will generate views. How many of those views reach the bottom of the first page?

No one knows.

My most viewed stories are in "Incest". Each has six figures of views but the titles probably helped: Virgin's Sister and Virgin's Sister Again (how original!).

Og

 

[scouries]

QUOTE ace Don't you mean "in relation to the number of actual people who have read the story." It does represent the story being opened, doesn't it?

Not Exactly!!!

Actually it's a mystery - the PALACE has never defined the term. And it has been asked. Repeatdly. By many different LITEROTICANS.

L+M's unwillingness to answer such a simple question has put doubt in many minds. There is a belief that the numbers are inflated (my guess is 5 to 10 times). Their thinking is thought to be that by reporting huge readership numbers that authors (like everyone we're eager to accept all good news) will be much more likely to support the site.

That it's simply a smart marketing trick.​

jrs esq

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not sure that any story site has a way of measuring what is READ as opposed to what is just LOOKED AT.

If there is a vote? It still doesn't mean that the person voting has READ the story.

Og

 

[sr71plt]

The category, particularly "Incest" and the pull of the title will generate views. How many of those views reach the bottom of the first page?

No one knows.

My most viewed stories are in "Incest". Each has six figures of views but the titles probably helped: Virgin's Sister and Virgin's Sister Again (how original!).

Og

I wonder how "Virgin" and "Virgin Again" would do?

(Rather amusing as the title of my next story to post is "Virgins")

 

[TxRad]

No scouries, i don't think it's a simple marketing trick. To your twisted ways of doing things yes but not to everyone elses.

Ogg there is a way of determining if the story is read or not or at least a reasonable case can be made for it being read. Sorry but I'm not letting that cat out of the bag as it is also part of the sweep process.

For now, views are just that, views. On other sites that i post they do break out the reads from the views. Are they accurate? I have no idea.

 

[Darkniciad]

Don't you mean "in relation to the number of actual people who have read the story."

It does represent the story being opened, doesn't it?

Well, we know for sure that there's some sort of glitch going on lately where up to 60-some-odd views are registering during the approval process. Stories that have been rejected ( but still have intact Lit ID#s ) likewise continue to receive hits, even if there's no way to reach them.

I've long suspected that, under certain conditions, search engine spiders and such will trip the counter, as will certain processes on the back-side of Lit.

So, we know that at least some hits ( although the confirmed number is small ) aren't generated by a person opening the story. The question is, what percentage of the total is it?

 

[Weird Harold]

It does represent the story being opened, doesn't it?

Depends on what you mean by "opened."

AFAIK, Views represent the number of times a request for the page is made, but it doesn't distinguish between a search engine caching the page and a person taking a look to see if it is worth reading.

 

[RandallKinds]

I've long suspected that, under certain conditions, search engine spiders and such will trip the counter, as will certain processes on the back-side of Lit.

That makes more sense to me than anything else: not some nefarious marketing scheme but just mindless webcrawlers. And the idea that folks searching for 'virgins' might also contribute - I gather one can find porn on the internet, so it follows that some enthusiasts would find themselves clicking a link for a 'Virgins' title.

Still, that does not answer the high counts achieved BEFORE publication.

 

[RandallKinds]

I'm not sure that any story site has a way of measuring what is READ as opposed to what is just LOOKED AT.

If there is a vote? It still doesn't mean that the person voting has READ the story.

Og

My title in question has a whopping eight comments. And about 80 votes. If we knew what the ratio was (folks who have read and voted versus folks who read and did not) then you could probably drive a more accurate number.

What do you think? Can we apply the 80/20 rule and say that 80% of readers do not vote? If that holds true, then I have really 500 folks who have actually read the story - which seems more plausible.

 

[RandallKinds]

If you really want to sit there with your mouth hanging wide open and your eyes bugged out like a cartoon character, write an incest story *laugh*

You know, I'm not sure I could write that kind of story - at least not straight up, anyhow.

 

[Weird Harold]

My title in question has a whopping eight comments. And about 80 votes. If we knew what the ratio was (folks who have read and voted versus folks who read and did not) then you could probably drive a more accurate number.

What do you think? Can we apply the 80/20 rule and say that 80% of readers do not vote? If that holds true, then I have really 500 folks who have actually read the story - which seems more plausible.

The ratios of comments, votes and views is highly variable. Different categories will have different ratios, and very good stories and very bad stories have different ratios than mediocre stories within each category.

 

[scouries]

Is it a marketing strategy?

I will say this that if it is it's a good one. Even I, who believes the numbers are artificially inflated, am more impressed by seeing 50,000 views for a story here than I am with seeing 5,000 on SOL for example.

We're authors - we have big egos - we want to believe our stories have been read by all these people.

Two things hint very strongly at inflated figures: One, the unwillingness of the PALACE to simply state how a VIEW is defined on the site. This in spite of repeated requests. There doesn't seem to be any reason why they wouldn't tell us unless they want us to think it's something that its not. The QUEEN, though devious, hates being caught in a lie! But she isn't prepared to define terms that are basic to understanding the numbers she provides. So she just leaves it hanging out there, hoping we'll believe that each view represents an individual reader.

The second clue is the huge difference in the votes to view figures between LITEROTICA and other sites. SOL for example seems to deliver votes from 5-8% of its reported readers whiile LITEROTICA delivers only a tenth as many percentage wise. It a difference difficult to explain...​

jrs esq

 

[TxRad]

Scouries, the answer to your question of what a view is is so simple it doesn't need an answer. But since you seem to be so simple, I'll give it to you anyway. A view is when someone or something clicks on the button to open a story. No more no less. It's not a sale, it's not a read. It is a view, plain and simple.

Now where is the marketing strategy in that? All in your head as usual.

I've been here a little longer than you and the vote to view has usually been 1 vote per hundred views unless it's a contest story. But lately that number has been on the increase and varies widely with the category. But you only write in the incest category so how would you know that.

 

[Darkniciad]

SOL is a members only site. If someone can be assed to sign up for an account to read stories, it would stand to reason that they might also be more inclined to rate them.

Until recently, the only place views data was available to the public on Lit was the toplists. Only a little prior to that ( the creation of 30 day and 12 month toplists), a maximum of 500 ( I believe ) stories with listed views were available in the all time toplist.

Not much of a marketing campaign if it's hidden off in a corner, rarely seen. "But, I was talking about authors!" you say? Seems to me that when you publish a story and can actually see the views ( other than the previously mentioned hidden corners ) you're already sold.

Such simple logic is beyond some people

 

[Boxlicker101]

The category, particularly "Incest" and the pull of the title will generate views. How many of those views reach the bottom of the first page?

No one knows.

My most viewed stories are in "Incest". Each has six figures of views but the titles probably helped: Virgin's Sister and Virgin's Sister Again (how original!).

Og

I have a story that posted today, and now has 11,296 views. It is not a contest entry, but it is in the LW category, and is named "Sugar and Her Father-in-Law." That way, it gets views from those who want to read incest and those who want LW.

Incest might get more views than anything else, but I think Anal is a strong second. I used to have a story here titled "My Granddaughter's Ass." but I don't remember how many views it had. I deleted it because I was afraid my granddaughter might read it and recognize herself.