Short Descriptions - Winners and Losers

[Lifestyle66]

In my quest to find an audience, I've considered things like the day of the week my stories post, the position on pages 1 versus 3 of the New category, the category I selected, and an attention-grabbing title. (I believe my subsequent shortcomings as an author in the text doesn't necessarily stop someone from at least selecting my story.).

With my last two posts, I've noticed the difference between blatant sex description and a more subtle description as the first attracting more views.

My Lifestyle Ch 8/9 description was: "8: Swingers check out sex club. 9: Wife expands interests." It received over 4,300 views so far.

Posted ten days later on Christmas Day, my Lifestyle Ch 10 description was: "More people make for more misunderstandings and experiences." has received 1,600 views and is unlikely to achieve the same number as the previous story.

One says "SEX" and the other says "misunderstandings."

So, my latest theory is the title and description screaming SEX (with a hint of what type) might be the better advice.

 

[MelissaBaby]

In my quest to find an audience, I've considered things like the day of the week my stories post, the position on pages 1 versus 3 of the New category, the category I selected, and an attention-grabbing title. (I believe my subsequent shortcomings as an author in the text doesn't necessarily stop someone from at least selecting my story.).

With my last two posts, I've noticed the difference between blatant sex description and a more subtle description as the first attracting more views.

My Lifestyle Ch 8/9 description was: "8: Swingers check out sex club. 9: Wife expands interests." It received over 4,300 views so far.

Posted ten days later on Christmas Day, my Lifestyle Ch 10 description was: "More people make for more misunderstandings and experiences." has received 1,600 views and is unlikely to achieve the same number as the previous story.

One says "SEX" and the other says "misunderstandings."

So, my latest theory is the title and description screaming SEX (with a hint of what type) might be the better advice.

You should also take into consideration that each succeeding chapter in a series will most likely get fewer views, regardless of other factors.

 

[MrPixel]

Easy:

1. Sex sells.

2. This is an erotica site. Readers expect sex, and don't want to dig 1,000+ words into a story to find out if there is going to be any.

 

[Djmac1031]

You should also take into consideration that each succeeding chapter in a series will most likely get fewer views, regardless of other factors.

Definitely true. My Jenna series is at 16 chapters now, and has developed a small but loyal audience.

But it's certainly dropped in views from the original few chapters, and I totally understand why.

Still, I'll occasionally see chapter 1 added to Favorites and a follow shortly after which tells me occasionally someone gets curious enough to go back to the beginning and give it a shot.

 

[Djmac1031]

I've never worried too much about making sure SEX is in the title or description of my stories, although many of them certainly at least hint at it.

That said, some of my most popular stories don't mention sex or specific sex acts in either.

Go figure.

 

[oggbashan]

I think the main title has more impact, I have two in Incest: Virgin's Sister, and Virgin's Sister again.

Virgin and Sister really attract views. (Incest helps!)

 

[Lifestyle66]

You should also take into consideration that each succeeding chapter in a series will most likely get fewer views, regardless of other factors.

There's more to it than just dropping off.

My Lifestyle series Ch1 has 4220 views. Ch4 has 3922. Ch5 is 3925. Ch8/9 has 4382.

It's the intervening chapters which dropped to between low of 1566 to 2004.

The only significant title which would be an attention grabber is "Lifestyle Ch8/9: Clubs/Parties." with a description: "8: Swingers check out sex club. 9: Wife expands interests."

Ch4 had a description including "swinger newbies", and 5 had "new sex partners". The other titles and descriptions were more subtle and didn't include catch words like sex.

 

[SimonDoom]

Virgin and Sister really attract views. (Incest helps!)

I believe this absolutely is true. If you add certain kinds of words to the title of your story, especially titillating words that relate in some way to the subject matter the readers are looking for, you will get more readers. I'm convinced of that.

I wrote a story with the word "Bikini" in the title. And I'm convinced it made a big difference, because the story has done well in terms of views and favorites, though its score is nothing great, and it's not on any toplists. If the title of the story had been "Erin's Day Under The Sun" I don't think it would have done nearly as well. The word "bikini" is a great word that is highly suggestive of the content of a story that an Exhibitionist & Voyeur reader would be looking for.

Other examples of words that would boost the popularity of an E&V story would be words like "public," "embarrassed," "exposed," "exhibitionist," "outdoors," because these words convey and suggest content that readers of E&V stories are looking for.

 

[NotWise]

I'm notoriously bad at titles and short descriptions, but "Old traditions, broken vows, and dirty little thrills" seems to have been a pretty successful short description to go with the title, "My Sister's Wedding." For titles, I thought "Sex Under Studio Lights" would pull in more attention than it has.

A successful title and short description are good advertising. If you don't have a good product, or if your successful ad pulls in the wrong crowd, then you might not be doing yourself much good.

 

[MrPixel]

Aside from appearing on "new" lists, I would like to know how readers are getting to the stories to then be influenced by the title or description. I'm a systems-oriented kind of guy and use the search, but does the general reader do that as well? And what about keywords?

I had a new one go up this morning with "sex" in the title and "randy" in the description. While three votes and 1K reads so far hardly defines a trend, there are two fives and a one-bomb. I obviously can't know how the bomber got to the story - new list, or habitual search.

... if your successful ad pulls in the wrong crowd, then you might not be doing yourself much good.

I think you're right. Just got another one-bomb. Those guys are brutal; they're looking outside of LW to screw with us now.