So few votes...

[Altissimus]

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

 

[SecondCircle]

Hmm. It can seem demotivating.

Put yourself out there. Write. Then write some more. Write the stories you would want to read. Have a blast doing it. Keep doing what you're doing.

Don't be afraid to try new things. New styles, new categories, you know, experiment a little.

Take part in the themed contests here. Halloween is coming up real soon. Those contests are good for drawing attention to your stories. They bring eyeballs to your work. And you want this exposure. There are some tradeoffs, but that exposure is worth it.

If it's feedback you're seeking, or critiques or opinions or beta reads and the like, take a trip on over to the Story Feedback forum. (Mind you, that's a forum for stories already posted to the Lit story file.) Ask for some feedback in general, or if specific elements are working.

Note, too, that "views" doesn't necessarily mean "reads". All views can really tell you is how many folks clicked on that story.

If it's your style, engage with the reader. Thank them, or post a little note at the beginning or end of a story. (Many DON'T do this. It isn't necessary, and it may not be the way you'd like to do things. But it's there for consideration.)

Then? Write. Write some more. The more your name pops up, the better. I personally am not a very prolific writer, and I accept the downfall of that is that I don't garner as many views/votes/comments as many other writers. Fans get invested in your work. And there are people with large followings and fan bases here. Fans stay invested when they see you are offering more stories a lot.

It's a slow process. But it will get there. The most important thing a writer must do is to not get discouraged. To grind it out. Keep writing what you love because you love it. You can't go wrong that way.

The other stuff will follow if you stick to it.

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

 

[Hypoxia]

How to get more votes: Pander in popular categories.

How to get more views: Use enticing titles/subtitles in popular categories.

How to get more comments: Post almost anything in Loving Wives. Grow a thick skin.

How to get more satisfaction: Write what you like. Fuck the consequences.

How to get more money: Be a popular public asshole.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

Altissimus, if you're averaging 1 vote for every 60 reads, you're doing darn good compared to many! There's no requirement for anyone to vote (or comment) on ANY story. Perhaps you should re-read the other thread you started about voting: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1228668

Review what others reported about their view/vote ratio.

Suggestion #2: Start evaluating views as soft votes. Just as no one is required to vote/comment on a story, no one is required to pick YOUR story (or mine or anyone else's) as THE story to read. So what if only 1 out of 60 bother to vote. That doesn't lessen the reality that 59 other people took time out of their day to at least look at your story. Page views may not feel as warm and fuzzy as a vote or a comment, however, it does mean you're reaching someone.

 

[TxRad]

From what I've seen, 1 in 100 is about average. Of course it varies with category and following. So 1 in 60 ain't nothing to sneeze at, especially with a score over 4.5.

 

[redzinger]

Hahaha.

I wrote a blog article about the RWC. Over 500 people viewed it in 12 hours. I sold nothing from it.

Hahaha.

 

[lovecraft68]

Number of votes and comments and favs on stories have down big time with a few exceptions here and there as have average scores.

Someone will be along soon to deny that. But its funny that when I noticed the decrease lit was aplogizing for issues with search features

What ever the reason you can see ot for yourselves looking through the hubs

 

[sr71plt]

1 in 60 reads (as already been noted) is quite good. This site puts absolutely no requirement on readers to respond to what they've read. This isn't a critique site. If you can't live with that, you're the only one who will be hyperventilating, I'm afraid. How many readers of mainstream novels actively respond in some way to the book they've read, do you think? I can assure you that it isn't a 1 in 60 ratio. The "Views" stat tells you more about how broadly you're being read here (which I'll bet is more than any other story site you can find) than either the rating or comment stats do.

 

[DreamCloud]

If your goal is adulation, you've come to the wrong website.

Ignore votes and reads - just write and listen to the constructive critiques. Lit is a classroom with untrained teachers who have very long rulers and aren't afraid to use them.

Having a rate of 1/60 just gives you a ballpark feeling of how many people are actually reading your story to the end. 1/200 means that most don't even finish. So be satisfied you have kept their attention.

 

[SecondCircle]

So serious....

Keep doing what you're doing. It takes time to garner more numbers. As pointed out, the numbers now aren't particularly bad. But if you want more, just keep at it.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

Readers are afraid to vote and leave comments for fear that someone, their wife, their girlfriend, their mistress, or their wife, girlfriend, and mistress will read what they wrote.

As far as votes, Laurel needs to make a disclaimer about the voting stars.

"No one knows you're voting so vote for the damn story."

 

[Nathan_Brazil]

Ratio

I've got a multi-chapter story going, For the first couple of chapters, my ratio ran 30:1 to 35:1, but several chapters in, it's now closer to 15:1. I think your votes/view may rise as you find readership. My sample size is small, but I'm also assuming that serialized works tend to score better as those who hate you...stop reading.

 

[Handley_Page]

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

As has already been said, one in sixty ain't too bad.
You cannot twist the arms of the reader to make his proper feelings known and actually VOTE. Make it too easy and you'll invite a load of serious idiots to 1-bomb.

Just write the stories YOU want to write and stuff anything else.

 

[SamScribble]

This is a reading site, not a voting site.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I read on this site for years before I wrote anything. I paid zero attention to voting, scores, authors. I made a beeline for my favorite topic, looked around, hopefully found something great. I was clueless how the site worked. Had no idea I could vote. I thought "Hot" meant it was something the "editors" liked. No clue. The only reason I ever got an account was because I got really sick of looking up the same story every time. Figured a "Favorite" was a way to save time.

Occasionally I would see something about a "Contest" on the front page. Would never have clicked on it in a million years. Had zero interest in writing competitions. I only wanted to find my particular fetish. The writing aspect was completely wasted on me. (I'm still the same har har)

Honestly, I don't think I wanted to know who wrote it, beyond anything other than a bookmark for easy reference. TMI!

Just sayin'. Doesn't bother me because I know exactly how I was as a reader. Coming to lit is like a one night stand. Mostly blah, but occasionally you'd find a memorable one. People are looking for a hot story for the most part, in and out.

Its not that they don't appreciate it or care, but (hypothesizing) the average reader is much much less invested in authors votes and scores than authors are.

Really quite demotivated about the incredibly low percentage of people who actually vote on stories.

I appreciate that it's my choice to put stories on this site (or not), but a little recognition/appreciation/feedback wouldn't go amiss. And yet while my recent stories are averaging 4.5, the numbers of votes to numbers of reads ratio is 1:60. SIXTY reads for every one vote.

Which makes you really vulnerable to those damn 1-bombs too.

When I think I've written some pretty damn good stories and there's little attempt to recognise or feed back, then I begin to ask "why bother?". And if I'm asking that question, I'm sure others are too.

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

 

[lovecraft68]

This is a reading site, not a voting site.

True, which I'm fine with, until you see readers whining the stories don't come fast enough or so and so never finished a series that I'm reading FOR FREE- and etc...

If the general consensus is they don't 'owe' us a vote. Then in return I don't feel that the authors owe them anything more than what they want to put out there.

 

[SecondCircle]

But the original poster IS asking specifically how to achieve a higher vote total. No, the site isn't really a voting site. But I don't think that's what he's asking. It doesn't hurt, necessarily, to want more of that kind of exposure. Regardless if that is the main idea of the site. We come to Lit for many many reasons. I think our OP would just like to know how to see his stories flourish.

It's quite relevant that not all readers come here to vote/comment/etc. You won't win those votes no. But you can see more votes. The way to do that, I think, is write more and often. The more your stories are out there, the more your stories will be seen, the more they will be voted.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

How can we encourage more voting and feedback?

We can't. If you write a fantastic story, and wait a few years, you'll climb in ratings, people will tell their friends, and eventually you'll get a decent amount of feedback. But short of that, you get what you get. I once estimated 1 in 100-200 people left feedback on a really good story, and far lower if it's unpopular.

The reality is, most people come here to get off, and clicking on stars - let alone typing comments - is such a pain with sticky hands. I'm not sure what you were expecting; it's not a critique site.

Keep in mind that not all feedback is desirable. I've gotten a handful of really disturbing emails and a handful of comments so insulting I opted to delete them. The place has a few crazies, and I don't just mean the authors.

Write what you like and don't sweat the responses. Que sera, sera.

 

[sr71plt]

I've noticed a phenomenon here in giving approval. Your story can be too well liked. I notice readers thinking that favoriting a story or an author erases any need to either vote on the story or comment on it. Readers just don't see all of this the same way the authors do. That doesn't become a readers' problem.

 

[SecondCircle]

I've noticed a phenomenon here in giving approval. Your story can be too well liked. I notice readers thinking that favoriting a story or an author erases any need to either vote on the story or comment on it. Readers just don't see all of this the same way the authors do. That doesn't become a readers' problem.

This is true.

The issue doesn't have to be "get more of all readers to vote".

The issue can simply be "gain more exposure to attract the ones that do."

You are correct. We will never convince everyone that comes to the site they "need" to vote. The site is for their reading, their enjoyment.

But an author can increase how often his story is seen by the people who DO in fact vote.

 

[sr71plt]

But an author can increase how often his story is seen by the people who DO in fact vote.

This runs into the question, though, of what is most important to the writer--creating creative stories or collecting vanity strokes.

 

[SecondCircle]

This runs into the question, though, of what is most important to the writer--creating creative stories or collecting vanity strokes.

We've said for a while that entering a contest will gain exposure, no?

Not vanity strokes. Exposure.

Creating something awesome AND putting it out there don't have to have anything to do with vanity.

If mere exposure, on any level is a negative thing viewed as vanity, why post it at all?

Writers do wish to share their creations, and I thing the OP seeks a way to do this better. He does also seek to know that he's creating something the readers like.

Don't we all, to some level?

 

[sr71plt]

Obviously some are more (much, much more) obsessed with it than others are. I don't give it much sympathy. This is a minor league, to begin with.

 

[SecondCircle]

Obviously some are more (much, much more) obsessed with it than others are. I don't give it much sympathy. This is a minor league, to begin with.

I don't think it's any obsession the OP has. It's a simple desire to reach readers and see some form of acknowledgement. Not to stroke any ego. Just to do well as a writer. Something we all can relate to on some level.

Unless, of course, you actually reference something else. As usual. Again. Which has no relevance nor use here. And is plenty obsession on its own.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't think it's any obsession the OP has. It's a simple desire to reach readers and see some form of acknowledgement. Not to stroke any ego. Just to do well as a writer. Something we all can relate to on some level.

Unless, of course, you actually reference something else. As usual. Again. Which has no relevance nor use here. And is plenty obsession on its own.

I quoted your posts, not anything the OP posted. So, no, the reference wasn't to the OP. You seem to want to be snarky, though, so you can continue on your own.